Honeymoon in Napa: The Food

Ohhh, what I would give to go back to Napa.

We stayed at a cottage in Calistoga (more on that later), and every minute of our time there was just blissful. Calistoga is an adorable town that's not overrun with tourists. We were only there for four days, but we were able to eat a few bites of delicious food in that timeframe. Here are some of my top picks from our trip:

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery: This restaurant and brewery reopened a week before our arrival, after being closed for a year due to a fire. Locals seemed to still know the staff, who they hadn't seen in 12 months. This was a great neighborhood spot that boasts brand new everything, plus their very own beer on tap - and the beer is good. The food is, too - Z and I split the Bruschetta ($13), which came with local heirloom tomatoes, basil, and creamy Burrata. For my entree, I had the Fungi pizza ($15), which was topped with wild mushrooms, fontina, roasted garlic, and truffle oil. Their pizza dough is also made with spent grain and wort reduction from the brewery.

Market, St. Helena: The couple we rented our cottage from recommended Market to us, so after visiting a few wineries in St. Helena, we decided to check it out. Market is a little more upscale, but ideal for a special evening out. Market doesn't have too many vegetarian options, but on this particular evening, they had two vegetarian soup specials (corn and pea) that we took advantage of. We also shared an order of their buttery Cheddar-Jalapeno Cornbread ($6) and Bowtie Vegetable Pasta ($21). The pasta was tossed with asparagus, tomatoes, fennel, peas, pickled cipolinis, mozzarella, and basil pesto butter.

Hydro Bar & Grill: This place is anything but fancy, but it came highly recommended from a few locals, as well as a slew of online review sites. Hydro also has a great beer list, so we decided to check it out one evening. I hadn't had a burger in quite some time at this point, so I went for the Veggie Burger. My burger was clearly homemade, which I always appreciate, and the accompanying sweet potato fries - which came with a bomb dot com aioli - were delightfully salty and crispy without being too greasy.

In addition to eating, we also did quite a bit of wine and beer sampling while in Napa - mostly at "hidden gem"-type places. More on that tomorrow!

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