Hmm thought I replied yesterday, but my post has disappeared.

Ahh got it .. we're from LA but we don't like to drive THAT much =) Thanks for the Silverado Trail tip - we'll definitely avoid Hwy 29 then.

While Schramsberg sounds great, I'm a little concerned about it being too out of our way in Calistoga. If we don't manage to make it there, would you recommend Chandon or Mumm for a better bubbly experience?

If we do St. Helena/Spring Mtn on Saturday, I'm thinking a 10am tour and tasting at Pride followed by a picnic on their grounds, Spring Mtn tasting at 1pm (or 2pm?), and wrapping up at 3pm at one of Duckhorn, Terra Valentine, or Quintessa. Does that timing sound about right?

Thanks again!

Thanks CarrieWas218.
We'll be staying at the Westin Verasa, near Oxbow Market.

I was thinking to pick a single area to stay around as well, but as you can see from my list, I was mostly thinking north of Napa so your Carneros suggestion is a curve ball.

Is the traffic going north really that much worse than west?
I have to admit I'll be disappointed if the traffic dictates that we can't visit a single one of the wineries in the list.

Finally yes, we will be driving to/from SF on Thursday and Sunday. We are flying in from LA and this trip is entirely planned around when we got the restaurant res. So Friday is really TFL day, Saturday is tastings, and the rest is just travel unfortunately.

My husband and I are headed to Napa for a short weekend trip to celebrate our anniversary.
Other than 2 trips to Healdsburg, where we were lucky enough to be in the company of friends who grew up in the winemaking business and made all the arrangements, this will be our first trip to Napa proper and on our own.

I think we’ll have only a single full day (Saturday) to visit wineries, and I figure we’ll be able to hit 3-4 wineries.
I’d like to do a winery tour, a sparkling wine producer, and a winery with lovely grounds for bringing in a picnic, but these don’t have to be mutually-exclusive.
It looks like drive times between where we’re staying in Napa to neighboring cities are only 15-30 min, but I know Napa Valley traffic can be unpredictable and don’t want to lose the day spending too much time in the car.

After perusing the boards, I’m interested in the following wineries.
Is there an itinerary among these or similar well-regarded places that makes sense for my needs?

Artesa (Napa)
Di Rosa Preserve (Napa)
Domaine Chandon (Yountville)
Far Niente (Oakville)
Frog’s Leap (Rutherford)
Mumm (Rutherford)
Cakebread (Rutherford)
Spring Mountain (St. Helena)
Pride (St. Helena)
Duckhorn (St. Helena)
Schramsberg (Calistoga)

We have a Friday 1pm lunch reservation at TFL. Would Chandon be possible to do before or after that meal without negatively affecting the experience?
We’ll perhaps also have 2 half days on Thursday and Sunday, but will be driving from/to the city in both cases.

Thanks for your assistance!

I would suggest you have a Californian place on the list - Gjelina, Lucques, Tavern, JiRaffe, Hatfields are all great choices.

Choppe Choppe used to be located in Culver City before their move to BH and it's fresh and tasty. Their soups, cookies, and lemonades are also great.

Also agree with the recs for Il Tramezzino, Cabbage Patch, and would also throw in Momed or The Farm.

Some sandwiches and side salads from Mendocino Farms.

Ditto

I'd venture a guess that the Ad-Hoc fried chicken night at Bouchon would fit the bill.

Yep La Espanola.
I haven't seen them ever at Trader Joe's, so will have to keep an eye out for them based on bulavinaka's comment.

Pretty certain they'd also be carried at Surfas, Little Spain, and Monsieur Marcel, but haven't tried them specifically there.

Cabbage Patch in Beverly Hills
Lemonade (any location) for their entree/stew options
Green Peas in Culver City

Agreed on Copenhagen Pastry. The raspberry strudel was considerably smaller by the piece than it looked in the display case, but it was "eyes rolling back in my head" good!

Joan's on Third

I went to a dinner in Westside Tavern's private room which was pretty good, if not a little safe/boring. Flatbreads as appetizers; entree choices were salmon, chicken, and short rib with communal desserts bread pudding and sticky toffee cake. They do make you put together a prix fixe menu for any size party using the room. Note there are 2 private rooms - one I think holds 24 people and the other maybe 30 which can be opened up to form a single larger room.

Another option to consider is Waterloo & City. They have a private room in the back (adjacent to the bar), and were open to either prix fixe or a la carte for a party of 20 that I was organizing. We didn't end up going there, so can't tell you how it worked out.

My husband and I liked it when we went a few weeks ago.
We had the pork XLB, sauteed corn, glass noodles with crab, and shrimp with shishito peppers.
They were already out of the scallion pancake when we sat down to eat around 8pm.

We thought taste-wise that the dishes were more home-style than restaurant-style - like something I'd cook up at home with a few simple ingredients. The hostess said they were going for a healthier concept, part of which manifested itself in the XLB which we thought could have benefited from more fat. :)

Besides that, the main con is really just the portion to price ratio.
XLB averaged out to >$1 each and the other three dishes were a handful of food and priced at $12 and $15. The wow factor was not there for us to really justify the markup, even saving the drive to SGV. But overall a very solid effort for the westside and hoping more like it pop up and take it to the next level.

Agree also. My husband took me here for my birthday this year, and we were both sorely disappointed in the meal.
We had omakase with both raw and cooked dishes and shared a bottle of sake.
I remember the noodle dish with a bit of black truffle and the agedashi tomato were pretty good, but thought overall everything was really unremarkable (and didn't get the raves about the blue cheese ball). I would have appreciated more of the cooked dishes being hot, and though the sushi was fresh, it was still missing something for me, and I was not full at the end of the meal.
Our overall bill for 2 was around $450, so having an underwhelming meal in the former Mr. Cecil's space where you have to exit the restaurant to use the restroom was really disappointing. There was a mother with a baby and running toddler in tow, so I'm not sure what identity the place is going for with the food, ambiance, and price being so out of whack.
About 15 minutes into the meal, I was wishing hard that we had gone to n/naka instead.
We won't return.

Yep Coral Tree or Literati. Also Urth Caffe.

Matsuhisa

I don't know about ready-made picnic meals, but I'd think Lemonade or Mickey's Italian Deli would be great to pick up some items for picnicking.

I was underwhelmed. We stopped in for a late snack and drinks a few weeks ago and tried the Roasted Squash & Burrata and Grilled Squid.
They looked good on paper, but were both just okay. The mix of ingredients seemed incongruous and needed something more to shine. Everything in the squash dish was soft/mushy and needed some crunch for texture contrast, while the almonds in the squid didn't work and could have used some acidity.
We tried a couple cocktails - Mezcallin, Miner Incident, and a few Old Fashioneds, which were good.

We tried a number of bakeries when choosing our own wedding cake and ended up choosing Vanilla Bake Shop who had delicious, not too sweet cakes and contemporary designs. They reproduced something I saw in a magazine and it looked great, and their portfolio of past cakes was really impressive too. This was a few years back so not sure if it's still the case, but we wanted a square cake and I remember liking them for not nickel-and-diming us for this instead of round like everywhere else.

My next runner-up would have been Jamaica's cakes who, by the way, offer an amazing cake tasting - a huge assortment of cakes and frostings and they box it all up for you to go).

This was a few years back, but I think we also went to Sweet Lady Jane (not enough selection and too old-fashioned for us) and Hansen's (our least favorite - cake was too spongey/airy and frostings were too sweet).

I've had good luck as a walk-in to Son of a Gun every time I've gone (haven't had the foresight to make reservations).
Agree on all the others and will add Pizzeria Mozza and Angelini Osteria from my own experience.

I was more referring to the way that DTF automatically gets named when someone asks about XLB in LA.
I think Joe's stirs the same controversy in NY - it has both its devotees and others who think it's all hype and nowhere near as good as the hole-in-the-wall place that doesn't get press.
Anyone who enjoys XLB definitely has to try DTF at least once to judge for themselves.

1. Joe's is to NY as Din Tai Fung is to LA. Note there is a very long wait at both DTF locations which are just walking distance from each other in Arcadia. If you're not looking for the big name, there are a number of other very good/better soup dumpling contenders in the San Gabriel Valley. Any search for 'XLB' or 'xiao long bao' on the board should pull these up - Dean Sin World, J&J are some.

2. In-N-Out is our equivalent to Shake Shack - the one that locals grow up on and crave when they move away - and you definitely need to try a double-double animal style if you haven't before. The other thing LA has is the ubiquitous gourmet burger of which we have lots of good ones - Father's Office, Umami, Golden State, Short Order to name a few.

I'll leave Mexican to the many other good recs in this thread, but for your wildcard I suggest you have Californian or Cal-French while you're out here - Gjelina, Hatfields, Jiraffe.

Since the OP didn't specify a whole lobster necessarily, I'll also throw in BP Oysterette on Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica for lobster rolls and other dishes like mac-and-cheese with lobster.

Sounds like you may be thinking of the still moving octopus tentacle dish served at The Prince in Koreatown?

There's a pretty good lamb dip sandwich at Westside Tavern.

Magnolia and Lemonade

I agree, the food at Le Epicerie is not great and the ambience is not really brasserie either - more like a cafe/small marketplace.
MEET is a French bistro a few doors down from Le Saint Amour on the same side of the street which I like better.

I went two weeks ago and really liked both the liang pi (our group's favorite) and yangrou pao mo.
We were surprised to see the bread diced as small as it was in the broth, but they stayed delightfully chewy and not overly soggy until the end and we noticed later too someone tearing their own, so that's something we'll try in future.

We also got the da pan ji (big plate of chicken), but other than liking the noodles hidden underneath, the very bony chicken pieces and sauce were underwhelming.

I had read several reviews touting the lamb burger, but our server said they didn't ever (?) serve it with lamb, so we skipped it since we already had so much food.

I had a bad experience at Echigo before too, and my take on it now is that oddly enough ordering their sushi a la carte ends up better than doing omakase.
When I ordered omakase, I too got pre-sliced fish and that horrid refrigerated plate of sliced albacore fanned out on sauce.
Ordering a la carte, the fish being served a single piece at a time has always been fresh and tasty and the sushi chef seems to be slicing to order.
The last time I went was about 2 months ago - not sure if it's severely declined since then.