Eating well in unexpected places
In the heart of Healdsburg, right there on the charming main plaza, tourist traps abound. The famous Oakville Grocery at the corner, full inside and out, is but a Whole-Foods-like shadow of its authentic self along highway 29 in Oakville that still draws me during visits to Napa Valley. But hidden behind yet another quaint-ish bookstore is a gem of a place called Bovolo , that is a foodie's delight. Founded by John Stewart and his wife Duskie Estes, famous for their high-end Cali-Italian Zazu restaurant in Santa Rosa, and perhaps even more so for her brief appearance in season 3 of the Food Network's The Next Iron Chef , Bovolo is Zazu's sister restaurant that adapts the Cali-Italian theme to a chill and unpretentious cafe that's no ordinary bookstore coffee shop. Opened in 2005, Bovolo's pork cheek sandwich was voted in the Top 5 Sandwiches in the Bay Area by San Francisco Magazine. I had to check for myself, and I was not disappointed. On the contrary, not only ...