Upscale Yountville restaurant has inventive menu, exceptional pizzas

It’s little surprise that the pizzas at the new North Block in Yountville are so good. The team inherited the fancy wood-fired oven from the space’s former Redd Wood restaurant, which was known for its golden baked pies.

But on a recent visit, I was especially intrigued by one topping combination: spring onions, Fiscalini aged cheddar and chive oil on naturally leavened sourdough crust ($19). It’s magnificent. The tender onions are so fresh they’ve got a tiny bit of crunch on the green stalks, and their slightly sweet, earthy flavor melds with the gooey gobs of nutty, buttery, smoky cheese. The chive oil adds a rich finish that melts into the blistered crust.

We already had finished several other appetizers, with full entrees on the way, but the pizza was so exceptional that my companion and I ate every slice.

It’s also unsurprising that many of the dishes at this upscale spot in the new North Block Hotel (formerly Hotel Lucca) are just as inventive. The kitchen operates under Chef Nick Tamburo, previously executive chef of New York City’s now-closed Momofuku Nishi, which debuted as a Korean-Italian restaurant until transitioning to full-on Italian with dishes like grilled skate in shellfish brodo.

Here, we get touches of Italian-American-Asian fusion, such as a creamy Duck Liver Mousse touched with bitter-ish matcha powder for spreading on lavosh-style rye crackers ($14). There’s a sumptuous crudo-sliced Mount Lassen trout splayed on a puddle of creamy almond milk and bay leaf oil sauce dotted with salty golden trout roe ($18). Sure, some dishes can be hard to picture on the mind’s tongue, but I love exploring this way.

Take something as seemingly plain as toasted nuts. The warm hazelnuts and cashews are served in a crumpled paper bag, glistening like Cracker Jacks with a hint of savory fish sauce, chile, lime leaf and sesame seeds ($5). This is my new favorite bar snack, sipped with a tropical Negroni ($16) of Myers’ original dark rum, pineapple Campari and Carpano Antica (it, like the other bar drinks here, is overseen by Andy Wedge, also formerly of Momofuku).

So many restaurants offer tuna crudo, and crudo is what this menu describes. But Tamburo serves the big-eye fish so whisper thin it’s carpaccio, dotted with tart rhubarb chunks, Meyer lemon and peppery ginger for bright contrast ($22). It almost looks like a pizza since the fish is spread to the very edges of its round plate — I’d prefer a more elegant presentation, but the flavors are lovely.

Dishes change as the farmers markets do. But for spring, you can count on a very nice asparagus plate ($18). Sliced thin; sauteed al dente; glazed in butter and foam and tossed with fresh seaweed, grilled nettles, tiny pea flowers and smooth miner’s lettuce that tastes so very green, it’s satisfying enough to be an entree, rounded out with a house-baked loaf of crusty, thick-sliced sourdough bread slathered in Achadinha creamery cultured butter from Petaluma ($6).

It would be easy to make an entire meal of the interesting appetizers and vegetables, if my wallet could handle it. North Block is pricey, offering a salad of grilled Swiss chard stuffed and tumbled with celtuce (a Chinese lettuce with a delicate, smoky aftertaste), radish and flowers on a pond of herb dressing for $16, or a dainty spring lettuce mix drizzled in miso date dressing with sunflower seeds and mint for $15. Yet the ingredients are so top-notch, it certainly feels worth the splurge.

For full plates, you could get a sliced California Flannery Beef Dry-aged Striploin paired with a few confit hen of the woods mushrooms and a handful of mustard greens ($48) and be happy. Except I’m more interested in North Block’s unique offerings.

Duck is such a popular Wine Country restaurant staple that I’ve become a little burned out on it. Yet this version — called Duck a la Gray ($39) — roasts the dry-aged, skin-on Liberty bird breast to medium-rare, cuts it into two hearty wedges and serves it with a dollop of crème fraîche, preserved lime, jus and a loose knot of glossy emerald green tatsoi greens for a sweet accent. It’s a welcome twist.

Meanwhile, anyone generally unimpressed with chicken should try this take ($36). The roasted poultry leg and thigh arrives with crackly bronze skin, the meat stuffed with silky, moist matsuri rice and capped in peppery microgreens. The kicker: You dunk the chicken in seasoned yogurt or truly fiery hot sauce and tear off pieces of the poufy pita-like flatbread served alongside.

Not all is perfect, certainly. A sophisticated twist on pork and beans was dull. The Nicasio Devil’s Gulch Ranch pork shoulder is premium, with the pigs pasture-raised then finished with a diet of brewer’s grains, milk, bread and tortillas. Except that the slabs I got were chewy instead of melt-in-your-mouth and set on a barely seasoned bed of soft lima beans and opaque jus under a cap of bland dandelion greens ($32).

I’d also pass on the dessert that was offered on our evening. Sliced, roasted, caramelized sweet potato was soft and weird, plated with vanilla ice cream and some kind of black dust (no dessert menus are provided).

The setting could use some more spark as well. I call the dining room upscale minimalist, with little decor beyond artsy hanging lights that seem to be stuffed from the bottom with plants, an open kitchen topped by a hanging drift of shrubbery and a wood wall decorated with 3-D white flowers. Yet the patio is a bit more dramatic, boasting a fireplace in the hotel courtyard and a covered, smaller dining area with a classic Japanese crane-in-flight mural on one wall.

This is definitely a restaurant to watch in the coming year. While the nascent North Block is already very pleasing, we can anticipate an even more destination-worthy experience as the post-pandemic dining scene opens up. Chef plans are underway to introduce more Asian influences, more smoky grilled dishes and more of those perfect vegetable plates. In short, even more reasons to visit for some of Wine Country’s most compelling cuisine.

Carey Sweet is a Sebastopol-based food and restaurant writer. Read her restaurant reviews every other week in Sonoma Life. Contact her at carey@careysweet.com.