Napa?s 25? Brix aims high, sometimes falls

A lot changed when Brix, the classy restaurant between Oakville and Yountville on Route 29 in the Napa Valley, became 25? Brix in the first week of June.

Not all the change has been for the better.

Designer JeAnne Ettrick and her design partners have ?created an interior which calls to mind a modern, urban farmhouse,? according to the restaurant?s Web site.

Beg to differ, but it?s more like a barrel factory. Staves from old wine barrels form concave backdrops for some of the tables. The south wall of the main dining room has been faced with old barrel wood, rendering the room darker and more closed in than the previously light and airy space. And what?s an ?urban farmhouse? anyway, other than being an oxymoron?

The dining area has been broken up into several discrete areas, with couches and marble-topped tables for two along the edges. A chandelier of empty clear glass wine bottles reinforces the feeling that you are in a winery?s barrel room. The bar area, always a favorite watering hole for locals and tourists alike, remains the same.

Tables along the sunny west wall remain bright, and outside there?s a pretty 60-seat patio overlooking the restaurant?s 16 acres of vines, fruit and citrus orchards, and 14 raised beds full of fresh strawberries, tomatoes, thyme, basil, peppers, eggplant, garlic, melons, lettuce and more.

All that excellent provender should give the new kitchen team, led by Executive Chef Carlos Ca?da, plenty of inspiration. How, then, to explain the Heirloom Tomato Risotto ($22 *)? One person at the table described it as ?gluey, gooey and phooey,? while another thought it was ?like bad mac and cheese.? The consensus was that it ranked with the worst risottos any of us had ever encountered. Perhaps it was the combination of goat cheese and basil oil that failed to please, but the result was an orange-colored, sweetish, gummy dish of overcooked rice.

Not everything fell to the level of the risotto, although that?s faint praise for a restaurant that was once one of the Napa Valley?s bright stars. (The new name of the restaurant, by the way, refers to the brix - percent sugar - of wine grapes deemed ripe enough to harvest.) Some dishes were quite good, such as the 14-ounce, 28-day Dry Aged Prime New York Steak ($42 ***), meltingly tender, full of flavor from its dry aging, and generous of proportion.

A steak like that calls for a good bottle of cabernet sauvignon, and the 800-bottle wine card lists many, including a raft of cabs from Oakville, perhaps the premier sub-appellation in the Napa Valley for growing great cabernet.

Prices are steep, but the wines are well chosen. The 2006 Failla ?Keefer Ranch? Pinot Noir is $79. This ranch is near Sebastopol (and once was home to a donkey Mrs. Keefer named Don Quixote). It also produces superb pinot. The 2006 Radio-Coteau ?La Neblina? Pinot Noir is $88, and the exceptional 2006 Paloma ?Spring Mountain? Merlot is $90. There are many barbarescos, barolos and cabernet sauvignons, almost all in three figures. If you bring your own wine, corkage is $20.

Dinner started with a thin White Corn Soup ($10 **) that contained three little bits of lobster fritter, some bits of smoked bacon, and basil oil. It seemed rather unsubstantial, although the flavor was nicely balanced. Goat cheese and tomatoes made a reappearance in the Goat Cheese and Tomato Ravioli ($15 ***), but here were artfully handled, unlike the risotto. Three ravioli were accompanied by a rich kalamata olive tapenade and a sweet and acidic tomato coulis.

The fried stuffed squash blossoms were so delicious on our recent visit to Scopa in Healdsburg that we jumped at the chance to try the Fried Stuffed Squash Blossoms ($13 *?) at 25? Brix, but the result was just adequate. The main problem was that the blossoms had absorbed so much cooking oil they were greasy. The ricotta inside was fine, as was a good tomato stew on the plate.

If ever there?s a time for a great salad, it?s this time of year, and the Butter Lettuce Salad ($10 ***) didn?t disappoint. The butter lettuce leaves were crunchy yet satiny soft, and thin slices of peaches and nectarines added their late summer notes. Thin shavings of St. Andre cheese rode crisps of toast, while crushed spiced almonds added sweet crunch.

Service in this busy restaurant was always good, but seems to have lost something of its previous punctiliousness. Our server tried her best, but still we sat with the finished appetizer plates and waited for the entrees until table talk turned to annoyance at the slow pace. The problem seemed to be that she was stretched too thin, because when she finally got to us, her service was excellent.