Though it is tucked into a plaza with a Safeway and a Starbuck’s not far from downtown, Glen Ellen Star and chef Octavio Diaz’s handmade signature mole negro de Oaxaca ($19) are worth seeking out. The dish offers an impossible one-two punch of bright chile heat and earthy spices layered with chocolate’s tempered sweetness. Or try the tlayuda ($16), an oversized, round tostada acts as a crispy underpinning for layers of black beans, tomato, and fresh cheese and an optional salsa verde. Pair it with a chile ancho margarita ($12) and refresh your palate after an afternoon of wine tasting.

Available in summer during Calistoga’s Concerts in the Park series is a fried chicken stunner of a dinner ($55). The 10-piece takeout bucket easily feeds four and includes three sides like cucumbers with espelette, beets, and burrata, or biscuits with cinnamon honey butter. If chicken isn’t your thing, the Creole-inflected bistro menu includes a wagyu burger ($21) and gumbo ya-ya ($25) with andouille sausage and holy trinity (that translates to onions, green bell pepper, and celery).

One of the beautiful things about having a culinary school in St. Helena is the student-chef-run fine dining restaurant, Gatehouse on campus. Local produce sourced from the school garden is featured in the three-course ($40) or four course ($50) lunch menu. (Dinner prices skew higher at $55 and $65.) Recent menus have included achiote mushroom nacatamal with pipian, prawn and kimchi okonomiyaki with chili honey, and pan-seared halibut with fennel soubise and meyer lemon beurre blanc. Sommelier-matched wine pairings are available.

Even though the price tips above $50 for a four-course meal (it clocks in at $58 to be exact), fans of Thomas Keller’s refined fare can delight in comfort food classics served family-style. The meal might start with a classic iceberg wedge salad with buttermilk ranch dressing before transitioning to smoked beef brisket with collard greens, baked beans, and apple cider vinegar BBQ sauce. The third course is cheese, such as Meadow Creek Dairy Appalachian cow’s milk served with rhubarb mostarda and caraway crackers. No meal could be complete without dessert – how about lemon posset with strawberry sauce and white chocolate mousse? 

Beloved in equal measure for his wood roasted whole cauliflower and brick chicken, chef Ari Weiswasser turns every Wednesday into a community celebration. It’s Neighborhood Night, y’all, when the nightly dinner menu is available but a special two-course, $39 meal attracts locals for seasonal salads or rigatoni cashew e pepe (get it?).  The menu changes every week according to the availability of seasonal produce but the complimentary corkage for every diner shifts the vibe from “mellow” to “party.”

The onsite restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America’s Napa extension in the Oxbow District is run by executive chef and CIA graduate Sayat Ozyilmaz. Shareable dishes are the norm here and the Sunday Night Supper where the three-course prix fixe ($49) recently celebrated Nowruz, the Persian New Year, included wood-fired lamb roast, fava bean and dill rice pilaf, beet borani, and semolina halva. A Lunchbox menu features midday meals (crab roll, garden wrap, hearty kale salad) all priced between $11 and $16 and a beautiful garden setting in which to enjoy your meal.

You already know 6 oysters ($21) and a glass of Champagne make a fine meal but for those days when you need a little something more, steamed Manila clams ($20) to the rescue. Though the preparation changes with the season, the current look is garlic ginger butter, chorizo, chicory greens, and green onion. Add a side of pasta ($2) and a briny repast at the Oxbow Market location of the famous Marin Oyster Company becomes something more.

As she has for some 27 years in the same downtown Sonoma location, the Girl & the Fig founder-proprietor Sondra Bernstein understands the power of a good tasting menu. Called Bistro Plats du Jour, the Provençal-inspired 3-course $48 menu changes frequently but steak tartare with caperberries and lavender sea salt, wild flounder meunière with lemon-caper brown butter, and salted fig caramel trifle with candied cocoa nibs and Italian meringue make regular appearances.