Persephone — Restaurant in California

Wow! Persephone becomes only my second 10-out-of-10 restaurant in the region. The wonderfully delicious first nibbles had us smiling immediately and anticipating a great meal ahead: fresh, oily, salty focaccia, explosively robust olive oil, acidic balsamic (instead of the sweet syrupy indulgence), and garlicky white bean puree (or was it a delicate fresh hummus?). We opted to start with the cheese plate (from our favorite local cheese shop), which included dollops of a briny tapenade, a sweet onion chutney, and a complex not-sweet plum jam. For mains, we chose (i) chicken stuffed with lemon, ricotta, mustard and apricots, and (ii) braised artichokes with maitakes and confit leeks. I almost never order chicken, but this was an excellent roulade with tender meat and a lovely golden oven-crisped skin, offering balanced flavors and not drowning in sauce. The artichoke dish was a brilliant departure from the usual drab vegetarian options. It was slightly over-seasoned for us, but the beans and massive artichoke rounds invited a bold touch. The wine list was extensive, diverse, and adventurous. We sampled 5 wines, but only one was excellent, one was disappointing, and the rest somewhere in between. It looks like great fun to explore the bottle list. The venue is a cute, sophisticated cottage vibe, and mercifully quiet indoors where you enjoy grand views across an unspoiled forested ravine. Service was attentive, although our server seemed not to be confidently versed in the menu or wine; perhaps she is new. (For example: “What olive oil do you use?”…“I get asked that all the time. I don’t know”…well, if so, why not? Also unable to elaborate on “Spiced Yogurt Cod”). The above food plus 4 glasses of wine was $200 including tip, perhaps in the upper portion of the range to be expected by local standards but a fair value given the quality of the experience. Overall, the culinary team at Persephone demonstrates a creative, deft and delicate touch with local ingredients. We will...

We went for the first time ever yesterday and LOVED it!

I couldn’t take a picture of everything we ordered because I was too excited to eat but here’s the breakdown:

Overall Experience -Staff are sweet and friendly -Plenty of parking around the restaurant -We sat outdoors and had a beautiful view of the woods below but there’s also indoor seating

What we ordered (the menu changes!) -Budino with Roasted Grapes: excellent -Caesar Salad: great dressing -House Made Sourdough Focaccia: standard delicious focaccia but the hummus stole the show -Boneless Beef Shortrib: pictured below and it was amazing. I loved every bite and even the broccolini was addicting -Fogline Farm Stuffed Chicken with Spaetzle: my partner ordered this meal and I only got ONE, albeit delicious, bite since he ate it so fast and didn’t share -Brownie ala Mode: I don’t even like chocolate but loved this -Seasonal Sorbet Trio: Incredible. The kiwi flavor was outstanding as it had the perfect balance between the sweetness, and tangy tartness of an actual kiwi

We’ll be back,...

Delicious food, with a very pleasing aesthetic.

Update 4/5/18: On second visit the dinner was fairly bland. The menu was ambitious, but the dishes lacked flavor. I had a chicken stuffed with feta and sun-dried tomato, and my girlfriend had a beef pasta, both seemed like they were salt deficient and the pasta was overcooked.

Our appetizers were also fairly ambitious, hers was a bitter greens salad with prosciutto and a duck egg in which the flavors didn't quite mix. Mine was a mandarin and fennel salad that had good flavor but was very limp.

The wine selection was great, and the cider was quite delicious.

We did not have any desserts because they were out of the panna cotta at 7pm. The other desserts looked like they could be good, but just weren't appealing to us.

Overall, it was quite a let down tonight after being so great the first time as went in. However, the aesthetic is still nice and the sourdough focaccia they served upon seating us...