Cox: New chef brings good hotel food to Brasserie

It’s been six months since Chef Chris Ciero took over as executive chef at the Brasserie restaurant at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa, and during that time, the hotel said he would drop the old menu and come up with one of his own.

Well, the old menu is pretty much still in place, but the quality of the menu items has moved up a notch. It’s still hotel food, but it’s good hotel food.

Ciero comes to Santa Rosa from the Sheraton Tampa East Hotel in Florida, although he’s no stranger to the Bay Area, having studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

A feature of the menu that has been carried over into Ciero’s reign is the “Create Your Own” feature.

First, you choose a small or large portion of a protein: chicken breast, shrimp, flatiron steak, tofu, or eggs.

Then you choose a sauce from among olive oil, miso broth, tangerine vinaigrette, smoked paprika demiglace, saffron tomato sauce, and herb-garlic olive oil.

You then choose two side dishes from a list that includes Swiss chard, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, white bean puree, and polenta cake.

Prices range from $9 for the small portion of eggs to $24 for the large plates of steak or shrimp.

The wine list isn’t extensive, but you can find excellent bottles tucked amid the standards, such as the 2010 Arrowood Sonoma County Chardonnay for $36, or the 2013 Matanzas Creek Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc for $34.

Among reds, the 2011 Emeritus Russian River Valley “Hallberg Ranch” Pinot Noir is as good a pinot as you’ll find from Sonoma County. It’s $64 and worth it.

In the good bargain department is the 2013 DeLoach Russian River Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for $24.

The old standard Mini Ravioli ($9 ???½) are still on the menu. This soul-satisfying and palate-delighting dish consists of a generous bowl of hot little ravioli, about ¾-inch square, filled with tangy cheese and served in a light cream sauce that the menu says is laced with pancetta.

But when I tasted it on two visits, it seemed this is no pancetta - this is bacon, baby.

Perhaps if the two thin Crab Cakes ($15 ??½) were a little plumper, with more crab meat, they might have had more flavor. They were just as thin on a second visit.

A drizzle of key lime aioli helped, and an accompanying salad of organic greens seemed just-picked.

What hotel menu is complete without New England Style Clam Chowder ($7????)? It was available on the first visit, but off the menu on the second. I say bring it back.

Ciero’s version sets the standard. It’s soupy, not pasty with too much thickener.

You’ll find fresh potatoes and carrots, shreds of cherrystone clams, and yes, the same bacon that enhanced the ravioli swimming in its whitened depths.

Its condiments are in perfect balance.

The only way it could be better is if it were with Cape Cod steamer clams, but they’re frail little devils and don’t travel or store well.

Rosemary Shrimp Skewers ($9 ??) was one skewer with four grilled shrimp of modest flavor on a stick.

Instead of mixed greens, the Iceberg Wedge ($9 ??) is a fun bit of retro dining, appropriately sauced with blue cheese dressing and set about with halves of cherry tomatoes and bacon.

A couple of special entrées seemed worth trying. Four big, fresh-tasting, deep-sea Seared Scallops ($26 ???) were perched on their mound of buttery mashed potatoes accompanied by a bundle of steamed broccolini.

And the kitchen nailed the Grilled Flatiron Steak ($25 ???). It was tender, perfectly cooked, generously proportioned, and delicious.

For dessert, the Espresso Crème Brulee ($8 ??½) was a unique, coffee-flavored take on the pedestrian pleasures of crème brulee.

All this was delivered in timely fashioned by my server, Sean Batte, a man of good humor who has been there during the Brasserie’s previous incarnations, and who brings classy good service to the place.

To sum up: The Brasserie’s new chef is talented, but doesn’t venture far from a traditional hotel food menu.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.