Rustic @ Francis Ford Coppola Winery | Geyserville - Sonoma County

We ate dinner at Rustic just over a year ago (May 2015), lured by the veal chop which is always on the menu. Too cold to sit out on the patio but it did look lovely. Not quite as spectacular as Auberge/Rutherford but certainly not as expensive either, LOL.

Stuffed mushroom caps had only breadcrumb filling, no cheese or cream but were nonetheless tasty. A good, very light starter. The chops were very beefy but nonetheless good. They are grilled and served with just a few grilled veggies – carrots, asparagus, and cipollini onions. There is a small amount of Romesco sauce on the plate. It's the genuine article, too; roasted sweet Italian red peppers ground with bread and almonds. However, Coppola's passion for food apparently extends to grilling times, and medium-rare doesn't exist in Europe. If you want that, order your chop medium.

Not the greatest veal chop in the world, but well above the disaster Monti's/SRosa served us May 2016, and only a half-level below Cole's Chop House/Napa. So a good deal for the price, we thought. Coffee is Illy, which we enjoy. The Italian cream puffs were certainly not up to Ca'Momi, who makes our fav, but the ricotta filling impressed us. We don't usually like this filling, but Rustic did an excellent job with it. The ricotta was fresh and unusually smooth; the orange flavor was very light, more a whisper than a shout. The chocolate was in very fine pieces but was not flaky shavings, so it didn't melt into the ricotta and turn it into sweet chocolate cheese.

Our summary:
Rustic is not a great restaurant; Coppola talks a better game than he cooks, LOL. But he's a passionate Italian, and that passion makes Rustic more appealing than we thought it would be. It isn't the elegant simplicity of Il Cortile/PRobles, nor the lively "we live in the neighborhood" feel of an old North Beach restaurants.

Rustic does have those little touches that remind Boomers like us of a time when it was gourmets, not 'foodies', who appreciated great food, wine and service; when it was more important that food taste good than it be Instagrammable-perfect. From the briskly efficient waiters who assume you really don't care what their name is – and we don't – to the red buttonhole embroidered in one corner of the country-casual (and large) napkin, which enables a man to fasten the napkin to a shirt button so it doesn't keep falling off (designed to protect those all-important expensive silk ties; remember those? but it works for polo/Henley tees, too :)), Rustic is a casual restaurant where the owner's passion drives attention to the smallest quirky details.

It was a good meal. Not a great meal, nor a memorable one in the way Bouchee or Il Cortile or Etoile have provided us. Yet it was charming, and because we weren't expecting that, Rustic scores more highly with us than its food normally would.

We liked it, and we'll return. It isn't a "must do" but instead, a "yes, that would be a good place to try again." Not many of these "B" restaurants make the cut with us, especially when we've got so many "A" list places, as well as new restaurants to visit.

Part of our enjoyment was also the museum. It was very enjoyable to go through it, and of course the highlight is that magnificent Tucker sedan! Although I'm the car lover and my DH is not, he was wowed by the sheer beauty of its lines.

Details:
Rustic: Francis's Favorites, @Coppola Winery
300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, CA
https://ffcp.s3.amazonaws.com/fcw/din...

Yesterday was the start of Sonoma County Restaurant Week. With blue skies and temperatures above 70-degrees, I decided to return to Rustic for an outdoor table to enjoy the view. And to order the $15 lunch offering.

After this visit, I'm still all about the Caesar salad. It is my favorite version. The pettole were not warm when served. The piadina filled with spinach, mortadella and pickled onions on chewy flatbread spread with hummus was good enough. The spinach was stringy and slices of mortadella should have been separated instead of being served in a stuck-together stack.

Not crazy about the Paper Plane cocktail, $14. Too bland and not much character, so I'll try to remember to not order cocktails here.

Service was better this time, so that's an improvement. With tax and tip, my lunch tab was $37. Not enough value for me, even with the vineyard and mountain vistas.

We visited Rustic in 2015 and again in 2017, solely because they are the only restaurant we know in the SFBA that keeps a veal chop on the menu. It's not great quality - more to the baby beef side - but is decently handled to European-style doneness; i.e., "medium" is what we know as "medium rare".

In 2015 the chop was good, but in 2017 it was bland and uninteresting. A shame because the 2017 chop came with beautifully roasted veggies and a knock-out romesco sauce.

My spouse adored the Mamarella hot sauce made in house and bought a couple of bottles to bring home.

A summary of our two visits:
"....Spouse found the menu at Rustic very odd, which is how most view it. Coppola has put in what he likes, and with his world travels it is mostly but not exclusively Italian-American. Bastilla jostles with pizza, Marrakesh lamb snarls at soppressata, and an Asian dressing salad perches oddly next to a Caesar. This globe-trotting doesn't seem to allow the kitchen to focus well, although the criticisms since opening have apparently been shrugged off since nothing has ever changed. FFC has been part of Hollywood for too long not to have developed a suitably thick skin about what other people think.

Coppola talks a better game than he cooks, LOL. But he's a passionate Italian, and so Rustic has odd little touches that remind Boomers like us of a time when it was gourmets, not 'foodies', who appreciated great food, wine and service. From the brisk old-style waiters who assume you really don't care what their name is – and we don't – to the red buttonhole embroidered in one corner of the country-casual (and large) napkins, which enables a man to fasten the napkin to a shirt button so it doesn't keep falling off (designed to protect those all-important expensive silk ties; remember those?), Rustic is a casual restaurant where the owner's passion drives attention to the smallest quirky details.

It’s just a shame that great view doesn’t have the food to match. "