At the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville, a large metalwork sign over the entrance pillars reads, "Francis Ford Coppola." Gone are the flowerbeds that graced the property when it was Chateau Souverain, replaced by olive trees that speak more accurately of Coppola's well-known pride in his Italian heritage. Is his new winery-restaurant-playground just a giant ego trip?
No. It's a show put on by a consummate showman. Even more than that, it's Coppola's generous, open-hearted attempt to share his passions for food, wine, fun and family with the public. It's not so much, "Look at me," as it is, "Look at this, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have."
Into all this comes his new restaurant, now called Rustic and is subtitled, "Francis's Favorites." You may remember that superstar chef Gary Danko once cooked at the restaurant at Chateau Souverain, and that the dining room was very flowery-fancy, where French doors led to a broad outside patio with views down the Alexander Valley.
The patio and views are still there, but the restaurant inside is completely different. Dark wood floors, wooden tables and chairs freestanding and at booths and banquettes give it the rustic appearance. Waiters wear Italian-style white uniforms with gold buttons. The walls display more than 4,000 Italian olive oil tins given to Coppola by Tiziana Guatelli, who spent years collecting them.
An Argentine parrilla or grill occupies the center of the south wall, manned by a rotund chef who keeps the wood fire burning under the wrought iron grates, ready to cook the Short Ribs Argentine Style ($16 **1/2). Coppola filmed "Tetro" in Argentina a few years ago and fell in love with the culture. The meat is a chunk of beef taken by cutting across the short ribs, bone in, flopped on the hot grates and cooked quickly to a medium finish. It's kind of fatty, kind of chewy, but the flavor is wonderful. It's served with chimichurri sauce and what the menu calls "Romanesco" sauce, although what's served is the Spanish classic romesco sauce made from mashed tomatoes, red bell peppers, onions, garlic, almonds and olive oil.
But maybe mistakes are part of what makes Rustic's menu so charming, because most of the dishes are actually Francis's favorites and he tells personal stories about each dish. Let me quote the story he tells about a dish named for director Martin Scorsese's mother, "Mrs. Scorsese's Lemon Chicken" ($23 *1/2). It gets just a star and a half because it was woefully overcooked in an oven hot enough to burn, rather than brown, the skin, and the intense heat dried and toughened the meat underneath. But the idea is wonderful, even if the execution falls short.
Francis writes: "Marty's parents always reminded me so much of my own, that I loved to have dinner with them. Catherine was the greatest cook, and one dish of hers was my favorite. Marty can make it as well, and when he describes how it's done, he always says, &‘You drown the chicken in lemon juice.' Then you add garlic, olive oil, and plenty of fresh oregano and roast until the chicken is revealed, golden brown." If only.
Coppola's family shows up all around the menu, much as the characters in "The Godfather" were drawn from memories of family relationships. Not that the Coppolas were gangsters — his father, Carmine, composed music and scored movies and his mother, Italia, was an actress — but the Corleone family and Italian-American style depicted in the trilogy are based on Francis's early home life. Carmine shows up in Carmine's Stuffed Mushrooms while Italia appears in Calzone Italia. His grandmother is named in Mammarella's Muffaletta (Quarter $8, Half $12, Whole $18 ***1/2), with "Mammarella" the family's endearing name for the grandmother who felt herself too young to be called grandma. This huge sandwich is a New Orleans classic: Italian bread holds ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, provolone, mozzarella, garden vegetables and oil and vinegar. It's like a big, round hoagie, and just as delicious.
The pizza at Rustic is perfetto. There are five kinds to choose from, including one named for Francis's daughter, Sofia — an accomplished filmmaker in her own right (she most famously directed "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson). The Pizza Funghi e Salsiccia ($15 ****) sounded good and tasted even better. The crust was made with an abundance of olive oil and was cooked perfectly so that it was crispy but not crackly, soft inside but not doughy, and it melted in the mouth. It was explained that this superior texture was a result of the dough being slapped into very thin shapes rather than twirled and stretched over the fists, the common technique but one that works up the chewy gluten. Mushrooms, house-made Italian sausage, mozzarella and grated parmigiano — but no tomato sauce — kept the pie delicate and luscious.
The half chicken used for Chicken Mattone ($18 ***) is brined for four hours, then pressed under a heavy weight onto a hot griddle, which renders out the fat but keeps the bird moist — even the breast. This is an excellent version, and one Coppola says he finds outside of Rome. But a version in the countryside between Venice and Verona used generous amounts of thyme on the hot griddle to infuse the chicken meat with thyme's volatile, herby, lovely scent, and I missed that here.
For dessert, Panna Cotta ($6 ***) was a slender portion of shimmery custard given a zinfandel reduction sauce and fresh raspberries along with a mint sprig. It was sweet and melting on the tongue. Another dessert is billed as Italia's Cream Puffs ($6 **1/2). When one thinks of cream puffs, one usually pictures popovers stuffed with whipped cream. These puffs were more like profiteroles stuffed with hazelnut whipped cream drizzled with chocolate syrup, and the puffs themselves had the texture of those cannoli one buys at Ferrara's in New York's Little Italy — thicker and denser than a typical popover. But I'm not putting them down. I don't want Lucca Brazzi showing up at my door.
To sum up: Rustic is the excellent restaurant at Francis Ford Coppola's delightful new winery and day destination in Geyserville.
Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.
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