Brasserie a triumph of good taste  4 and one half stars
August 25, 2002 By JEFF COX
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Drop into Brasserie de la Mer, the restaurant attached to the new Vineyard Creek Hotel at Railroad Square in Santa Rosa. It's one more indication that Sonoma County's destiny as the nation's gastronomic center of gravity is being quickly realized.
Oh, there are fabulous restaurants all over California, but, as John Ash has showed us over the past 20 years, no region can claim more or better home-grown bounty than Sonoma County.
Grapes for wine? They're everywhere and the wines are incomparable. Fruits? Apples and oranges grow here, and everything in between.
Meats? We've got Rockies and Rosies and quality turkeys and man-oh-man, do we have lamb. Cheese? Have you tried Soyoung Scanlan's Andante cheeses, made in Santa Rosa? They're world class.
Veggies? We practically invented them -- in fact, Luther Burbank did invent them.
Olive oil? Lunigiana on Sonoma Mountain was just voted the best foreign, organic extra virgin olive oil in the world at an Italian competition.
Bread? Della Fattoria, Artisan, and Wild Flour Bakery rival the great Europeans.
And seafood? Well, it always puzzled me why this county didn't have a first-rate seafood restaurant, given our proximity to the ocean and its fisheries and to Tomales Bay oysters.
Now we do. The Brasserie is a triumph of good taste, from the stone entrance facade and fireplace to the keystone design of the back bar.
The split level dining rooms are separated from the open kitchen by rich fruitwood partitions topped with leaded and beveled glass. Frank Lloyd Wright-ish light fixtures echo the taupe and raw siena walls. The floors are covered with soft green rugs. Retro-styled plain wood venetian blinds shade the western windows. The room is comfy without being informal and elegant without being stodgy.
The backbone of the wine list is Sonoma County selections, and there are plenty of French and Alsatian wines, plus a smattering from Napa, Oregon, Australia, New Zealand, Edna Valley, and so on.
The prices are very much in line. For instance, the 2000 Ferrari-Carano Fume is $32, the 2000 Viognier from Iron Horse is $32, the 1999 Geyser Peak Shiraz is $35, and the 1999 Willakenzie (Oregon) Pinot Noir is $40 -- and it's a great wine.
Service here has been set at a high standard. The waiter knew all the ingredients of each dish by heart -- a very good sign. Among the lesser delights of the service are the little touches: if you leave the table, you'll find your napkin folded (or replaced if it's soiled) upon your return. All dishes are set on paper doilies on other dishes. But these touches aren't showy -- they're just there in case you care to notice.
The kitchen is run by Chef de Cuisine Liz Ozanich and she has a way with delicate seafood and doesn't mind serving good-sized portions. She comes to Santa Rosa from Philippe Boulot's highly regarded Heathman Hotel in Portland, Ore.
The good and the great are coming here to cook and one big reason is the quality of the foodstuffs at hand. The best investment this region can make in its future is to support the growers and makers of fine foods and wine and the restaurateurs who prepare those foods for an avid and cosmopolitan public. Tourists are the gravy, but the meat of any restaurant is its local trade.
Citrus-cured Georges Bank dry pack scallops. $11.75  5 stars
I'm not sure where Georges Bank is, or what "dry pack" refers to regarding scallops, but these little darlings are marinated in lemon and lime juice, the zest of those citruses, chili-garlic paste, fish sauce, and coconut milk. They're set atop a serving of salmon gravlax cured with salt and sugar, juniper berries, and black pepper. And the gravlax are set on oiled summer greens. It's all very wonderful, spicy, and bursting with flavor.
Hog Island Atlantic oysters on the half shell. Six for $10.25 5 stars
Our local oysters, Crassostrea giga, are "creamy" and muddy-tasting because of it at this time of year, but the Atlantic species, Crassostrea virginica, doesn't develop the summer sac of reproductive gametes -- it just keeps reproducing all year around. These cold beauties are sweet with glycogen and set on ice strewn with black hiziki seaweed and accompanied by a cheesecloth bag with lemon for squeezing.
Sacramento Delta crayfish gratin. $8.50 5 stars
Lots of meaty crayfish tails are sauteed in butter (lots of butter, in fact; if I were to get picky with Ms. Ozanich, it would be with the amount of butter lavished on her dishes), glazed with herbs and cream, enlivened with smoked paprika, given texture with a topping of baked bread crumbs and butter, and set with three whole crayfish paying homage to the gratin inside.
Classic Caesar salad. $6.95 5 stars
Finally, a Caesar salad that's labeled as classic that actually is classic, from the whole interior romaine lettuce leaves to the dressing and grated Reggiano-Parmigiano cheese, to the house-made garlic-thyme croutons. It's a simple thing, yet it's seldom done right. Here it's done right.
Watercress vichyssoise with dungeness crab. $7.50 5 stars
Just remember when you're ordering vichyssoise to pronounce the last syllable Shwahz, not Shwah. This cold potato-leek soup is spot-on French, and in this version is flavored with pureed, green watercress for a delightful flavor tweak. Ultra-thin radish coins and lots of crabmeat give the soup body and soul.
Alaskan halibut. $21.50  3 stars
Hey, why not halibut caught right off our own coast? But that's OK, as long as the dish is good. Here the sweet halibut confit is served with a bitter picholine olive relish on top -- a nice combination. It sits on an artichoke bottom piperade -- a Basque concoction made from sauteed tomatoes and green pepper, although it looks like green and wax beans were used here. Large oyster mushrooms complete the interesting, if less than perfectly successful, plate. The problem? The plate gallops off in several directions at once.
Hawaiian "Shutome" swordfish. $17.50 5 stars
Shutome is Japanese for "mean mother-in-law" and refers to a specific kind of broad-billed swordfish found in warm Hawaiian waters. This is no mean mother, however. It was my favorite dish of the evening, its rich, toothsome meat served with braised Belgian endive (my favorite part of the favorite dish), grilled asparagus, and a savory peppercorn sauce. Triple yummy!
Hawaiian opah Rossini. $28.95 5 stars
Any dish named Rossini means it's served with foie gras, truffles, and demi-glace (because the 19th-Century composer Gioacchino Rossini was such a little piggy), and this piece of fine-textured, full-flavored, warm-water fish comes served seared on the outside and rare on the inside, topped with a sauteed Sonoma foie gras, sauteed spinach, black truffle demi-glace (with lots of truffles), and potatoes dauphinoise (little fried logs of delicately mashed potatoes).
We tried three desserts. The devil's food cake ($6.90 3 stars) was disappointing because it was a dense, dry cakette. Poached peaches in an almond tuile ($6.95 5 stars) was a peach melba that died and went to heaven, and a root beer float ($7.25 5 stars) was to an ordinary root beer float as Roy Orbison is to Britney Spears. (Or is that the other way around?)
Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for Q. Write or e-mail in care of: Press Democrat, P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402, or dtaylor@press democrat.com. Fax: 521-5343.
SEAFOOD FARE
Restaurant: Brasserie de la Mer, 170 Railroad St., Santa Rosa
When: Open daily with breakfast from 6:30 to 11 a.m., lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and to 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Reservations: Definitely need for dinner, maybe for lunch. Call 636-7388.
Price range: Expensive, with entrees from $14.50 to $28.95
Kid-friendliness: 5 stars
Wine list:  4 stars
Service: 4 stars
Ambiance: 4 stars
Food: 4 and one half stars
Overall: 4 and one half stars Star ratings system:
-- Perfect (5 stars)
-- Great (4 stars)
-- Very good (3 stars)
 -- Good (2 stars)
 -- Not very good (1 star)
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