Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Nor Cal Love and Addendum

This past weekend I went up to the Bay area to visit my friends and we spent the day in Napa!  I finally had the chance to try Thomas Keller’s famous Fried Chicken as well as have a yummy dinner at Ad Hoc!  We left the city and headed to Napa, the car ride was filled with gossip, sing a longs as well as laughs.  Our first stop was Addendum where we had the fried chicken plate and the Pork BBQ.  I thought I had good fried chicken, but this fried chicken was amazing.  The ribs were also the perfect blend of sweet and spicy and the meat just fell off the bones.   

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The area that Addendum is in is so cute!  In the back of Ad Hoc they have a cute little picnic area where they grow a lot of the herbs, fruit and veggies that they use at Ad Hoc. 

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After the lunch it was down to BUSINESS!  We hit the wineries, one of my favorite wineries we visited was Peju.  I love the way that Peju does their wine tastings, they break you off into groups and the person who runs the tasting is always super knowledgeable and personable.  I am a Cabernet girl and Peju has some great Cabs, but this trip up I bought 3 types of blends.  One of their wines, the 50/50 might soon become one of my favorites.  We even got to do a tasting of one of their $200 bottles!        

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After Peju we hit BV to pick up one of my favorite wines, the Tapestry!  And what would a trip to Napa be without checking out all the grapes??

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We also had time to check out Frog’s Leap where we fit in a wine tasting and a quick game of corn hole.  I love the way this vineyard is laid out and how they did their tastings.  It was such a relaxed setting and they even had a cheese pairing that you could get as well. 

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We had just enough time to grab some sparkly cocktails before our dinner at Ad Hoc at Chandon.  One of each that they offered of course… A sparkly Ginger Mojito, a Cosmo, a Hibiscus Royale and a traditional Champagne Cocktail. 

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  Next post, our fabulous dinner at Ad Hoc!  Thanks to Robert for letting me post all of his amazing pics.  Yes, if you thought my photography skills dramatically improved in one weekend you are mistaken.  Only 5 of the photos are mine…  However I do start Photography classes next week, so hopefully I will be able to take some awesome photos like Robert very very soon!