Ubuntu

Many won't believe this review, but by far the best dining experience I've had thus far in California has been at a vegetarian restaurant.

Ubuntu is a new farm-to-table restaurant in downtown Napa, helping to revive this generally quiet and low-key town center. The farm-to-table concept, while a little dubious in its claim to originality (I generally hope that most of my food comes from some type of farm), is garnering much attention in these eco-minded days. Gourmet has a feature on it this month, and in all my cynicism I do think that these close relationships with small farms offer the best chance for a quality product. Ubuntu, because of its meatless promise, is able to show-off the yield of its own small biodynamic farm located in Napa Valley.

The food at Ubuntu is far from casual, and employs the best of traditional technique to bring very fine cuisine to the table. It isn't three-star Michelin, but it's as fine as cooking gets in California (except for the French Laundry, of course). We started with perhaps the best heirloom tomato salad I've had since moving to California (and I've had a LOT). The tomatoes were perfectly sweet, and were served with burrata and a delicious basil oil. We also shared a plate of marcona almonds that were covered with lavender sugar. Couldn't go wrong with those.

Then came the onslaught of food. Our waiter suggested we get about three plates per person, as the portions were small (I had to shudder when he mentioned the word 'tapas'; damnit, people, not all small plates are tapas). We followed his advice, hoping they would course out the food. However, we were presented with our three dishes from the "Hot" section of the menu at once, which was a bit overwhelming. Still, the food was wonderful, original, and didn't lack the robustness that meat usually bring. We had a selection of caramelized root vegetables, that, though a little underseasoned, were beautifully cooked. The best part of the dish was the sunchoke puree that the vegetables rested on, which was creamy and yet featured the flavor of the sunchoke front and center. We also shared a pumpkin risotto that was given a touch of class from a white corn foam. While that may have seemed more like a side dish, it was truly excellent. Our final dish of that round was a cauliflower clay pot with raw, cooked and pureed cauliflower stewing in a haze of vadouvan. I've only just discovered vadouvan, but it has an incredible flavor. This dish was texturally interesting and the flavors belied the fact that, at its base, we were just eating cauliflower.

The next courses came too fast, with the plates from the previous round still sitting on the table, some with food left on them. We were already completely full, and cursed our waiter for his three-dish-per suggestion. The two dishes that came out were from Ubuntu's egg section, all featuring locally raised organic eggs. The first was a nettle soup, served tableside. The presentation of a soft-cooked egg with a quenelle of savory ice cream and a few greens was beautiful, as was the color of the soup, a deep, dark green. Again, though, the soup could have done with a little more seasoning. Out final dish was a pizza with crescenza, romesco sauce, broccoli and a fried egg. This had been hyped-up by our waiter, and fell a little flat, though I think it was mostly because we couldn't eat another bite.

So what made this so good? I think that the farm-to-table movement, if you can call it that, and the 'fresh ingredients focus' in general falls prey to a sad simplicity that leaves the diner satieted yet uninspired. Too often, the cooking at such places doesn't do justice to the fine culinary tradition that has been developed over the last century. Ubuntu, however, is a great mixture of both ideas. The ingredients were fantastic, but they were also showcased in a very artful way. The chef there, Jeremy Fox, used to be chef de cuisine at Manresa, the restaurant that's at the pinnacle of farm-to-table cuisine. It's no wonder he has such a love of vegetables. At this point, I should mention that Ubuntu doesn't call itself a vegetarian restaurant, as it isn't philosophically inclined that way, but rather a "vegetable restaurant", which is much more appropriate. After all, isn't all vegetarian food marred by overzealous combinations of millions of beans and vegetables and exemplified by sprout-filled wraps and big blocks of flavorless tofu?

Well, I lied when I said we were completely full. Chef Fox's wife, Deanie, who is the pastry chef at Ubuntu and was previously also at Manresa, offers a menu that is equally as interesting as her husband's. We had the meyer lemon curd crepes, that were themselves tasty but unoriginal, but did come with a deliciously inventive combination of huckleberries and chamomile ice cream. The other dessert, a vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar, was cute, but too heavy after that enormous meal.

Ubuntu has only been open six weeks, and it is already a contender for a fine dining destination in Napa. When we ate there, our waiter told us at the end of the meal that the reason the service had been a little haphazard was that the table next to us was host to Michael Bauer, the San Francisco Chronicle food editor. He was on his third visit, and so they were expecting a review in the near future. Our waiter was absolutely confident that would get three and a half stars. While I'm not sure if the service is on par with such a rating (one of our waiters called sunchokes "Egyptian artichokes, and I politely explained that they were actually Jerusalem artichokes), the food is definitely there. With the restaurant still working out its kinks and exploring the possibilities of their farm, I'm excited to see what's to come. If only they could get rid of the yoga studio (yes, there's a yoga studio associated with the restaurant...).

Ubuntu
1140 Main Street
Napa, CA 94559