Cantinetta Piero Yountville, Napa Valley, California, USA We have learned that this restaurant has been closed after just 18 months or so when the Hotel Luca was sold. Hotel Luca is still very much alive but Cantinetta Piero, we have heard, is being reopened under a new and very fine chef. We will update this story as soon as we have information.

Linda and Peter D'Aprix 2010-2011

Cantinetta Piero is located in part of the brand new Hotel Luca which is itself styled after the architecture of Tuscany. In the tradition of Tuscany, the 90-seat restaurant makes use of the outdoor dining terrace afforded by the hotel courtyard as well as providing a range of seating in the dining room is comfortable. The open kitchens are viewable from most of the seating and the cooking aromas that waft from the ranges and the wood pizza oven set your taste buds on high even before the dishes arrive. Massive wooden beams support a 15 foot think ceiling that adds to the ambience.

To see web album of more photos, click here Peter D'Aprix © 2010

"Tuscan cuisine is simple, elemental, well-balanced and rooted in the soil. It is straightforward, honest cookery without frills. It uses the best ingredients, letting them speak without adding anything that might distract!" says Jason Balestrieri, Executive Chef of Cantinetta Piero of his approach to cuisine.

And indeed, the menus focus on seasonal ingredients and regional products including seafood and shellfish from the nearby coast, game and meat from the inland and mountain regions, and produce from local farms. Craig DiFonzo is chef de cuisine of the 90-seat restaurant while Jason Balestrieri, of sister restaurant Cantinetta Luca in Carmel, is the Executive Chef who sets the menus and recipes in conjunction with Chef Craig. Chef Craig also teaches cooking classes in the restaurant (photo album), so if you go, give yourself a treat. You get to eat what you prepare!

The lunch menu is very much like the dinner menu, but dinner has a few more items to choose from. Wooden platters of "Salume" cut paper thin and served with their tapenade made with Italian sun dried tomatoes and local olive oil are a signature item and not to be missed. Many of the salume are house made with some others made in Italy. Their cool room for the cheeses and salume is glass fronted so you can see the deliciousness hanging over in the corner of the dining room. Likewise at the other end of the restaurant is the walk in wine "cave" also with a glass wall for viewing. There are wines from Italy and California.

We arrived road weary yet a bit early. Our welcome was warm, we were seated immediately and our fatigue was dissolved with the arrival of the wooden plaque of salume, a crisp white wine and warm bread. This was followed my one of the best soups we have ever had - Carrot and Fennel. It was just superb and we have been lobbying for the recipe to share with you to no avail as of yet. We will post it if and when it arrives. We then had a light sandwich.

Dinner was a more involved affair as dinners tend to be. The menu has a larger choice than lunch. Linda had the Pumpkin soup that was delicious but with its sibling the Carrot and Fennel of that day's lunch had tough competition! I loved the "Cozze al Forno" (Wood Oven Roasted Mussels, Garlic, White Wine, Chili and Parsley). It was perfect. Like many of the dishes, it was cooked and served in an iron serving dish that had been in the wood pizza oven for all or part of its cooking and carried with it the aroma of the wood smoke. Linda opted for the "Ippoglosso alla Palermitana" (Pan Roasted Alaskan Halibut, Roasted Heirloom Tomato and Summer Squash) also fresh from the wood oven. You can view their full menu from their web site at: http://hotellucanapa.com/cantinetta-piero.

If you are a past lover but have problem with gluten, just ask for their gluten-free pasta and indulge yourself again.

This is a great restaurant to enjoy an unpretentious meal with roots firmly in the local soil and sea and its heritage in the Tuscan hills at prices that are less than many far inferior restaurants in the valley.