John Ash & Co.
4330 Barnes Rd. Santa Rosa (at River Rd.)
Phone: 707-527-7687
www.vintnersinn.com
(Winter) Hours:
Lunch: Monday – Friday 11:30am - 2:30pm
Dinner:
Sunday – Friday, 5:30pm - 9pm
Saturday, 5pm to 9pm
Brunch: Sunday, 11am – 2:30pm
Reservations: recommended
Price: About $55 for one dinner with one glass of wine. It is the most expensive restaurant in town. (Obviously, prices vary depending on what and how much you order. But, you can use this as a ballpark figure and compare it to the average prices for other restaurants on this site.)
Cuisine: California Wine Country Cuisine
Menu: Menu changes twice per season
Executive Chef: Jeffrey Madura
Ambiance / Décor: Rustic yet elegant. Made to be reminiscent of a Tuscan country home.
Outdoor Seating?: Porch dining with views of the vineyard.
Parking: Ample, private lot.
Dress: Although dress here is more formal than at most Santa Rosa restaurants, it still leans toward “Wine Country casual,” meaning stylish but low-key. This is a popular place for business lunches and dinners, so business suits are always fine.
Kids?: Children are not unheard of here, but, I’d avoid it. Many people come here to celebrate a special occasion, others are here on business, and still others are staying at the Vintner's Inn and this might be their big vacation of the year. They’re all hoping for a relaxing—or at least quiet—experience.
Notes:
- John Ash & Co. is located at the Vintner’s Inn, which is situated in the Ferrari-Carano vineyards. Ferrari-Carano owns both the inn and restaurant.
- The restaurant was launched in 1980 by chef, food educator, cookbook author, and now, vineyard owner, John Ash. Although Ash is no longer the chef here, he serves as a consultant and comes back for cooking demonstrations, special events, etc. Check the website for upcoming events .
- This is a bastion of Wine Country Cuisine, which emphasizes the use of fresh, seasonal, locally grown products, and the ensuing dishes are then paired with wine.
- John Ash & Co. has one of the best wine lists (perhaps the best) in the area. They offer over 450 wines from around the globe and there are about 10,000 bottles in the cellar.
- If you’ve never been to John Ash & Co. before, you might get a little nervous as you near their driveway—things don’t look too good. The highway is nearby and, and to top it off, a PG&E substation is directly across the street. Fear not. As soon as you get onto the Vintner’s Inn property, it is beautiful. With its terra cotta colored walls, wood beams and wrought-iron lighting fixtures, the restaurant looks like a rustic, Tuscan home. You can dine out on the porch and look out over the vineyards, without even a hint that anything remotely unattractive might lie beyond.
Local Buzz:
John Ash & Co. is a Santa Rosa institution. For years, this was THE restaurant in town. But, as time passed, and as Wine Country became a Mecca for fine dining, a number of other exceptional restaurants opened up in Santa Rosa. Although it’s still one of the most prominent in the area, John Ash must now share the spotlight.
On top of that, styles are changing again, and so the restaurant is losing a bit of its glow. When John Ash launched his namesake restaurant, there was a culinary revolution going on in America. For years, the hallmark of haut cuisine had been big slabs of meat smothered in heavy sauces. Then along came Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. The message being that good cooking is about good food. The emphasis is on the ingredients: fresh, seasonal, local and flavorful. And a good chef is someone who knows how to bring out these flavors, and other than that, he or she pretty much just stands out of the way of the food. That’s the philosophy behind California Cuisine. John Ash, known as the “father of Wine Country Cuisine” took this idea a step further and added that the resulting dishes should be paired with some great wines.
But tastes change, and now, in these days of the celebrity chef, the emphasis is going back to the process. The message is: “So, you have this fresh, tasty, local onion. Now, what are you going to do with it?”
Many of the newer restaurants are taking this approach. Lately I’ve been hearing some buzz about John Ash & Co. not being creative or adventurous enough. I’d have to disagree. Executive Chef Jeffrey Madura has no qualms about tossing together fresh combinations that I’d consider adventurous—such as a salad with hunks of watermelon and sliced red onions on top. (Which, I hear, is delicious.) But, keeping true to the cuisine, the preparation remains straightforward.
And, while we’re on the subject of negative buzz…there is one form of criticism I’ve been hearing that has more to do with human nature rather than anything to do with the quality of the restaurant. Some self-proclaimed foodies can be…how to say it… a bit pretentious. So, once any restaurant becomes a household name and is recognized by the “great unwashed,” the more “elite connoisseurs” have to move on to less-attainable pastures. Such is life. Granted, the restaurant’s heyday was when John Ash himself was the chef. But, although Madura might not be able to fill the shoes of a legend—as is typically the case with legends—he has solid skills. Nevertheless, a foodie (of the aforementioned variety) simply can’t resist saying: “I used to go there when John was still the chef. It was fabulous back then. It’s such a pity that you will never be able to experience that.” Don’t fall for it. John Ash & Co. still provides a wonderful dining experience.
