I love my knock offs!

I have managed to visit several of what I call "knock off" restaurants in the last couple months. These are restaurants whose lesser known chefs once worked at some pretty well known places.

My first knock off restaurant was at El Dorado Kitchen in the square in Sonoma, California. The chefs at this restaurant trained at the world famous French Laundry so they knew what they were doing.

First, let me set the stage. If you have visited Napa and you are assuming Sonoma must be the same you are very wrong. Napa is City Mouse and Sonoma is Country Mouse. And Country Mouse, while perfectly civilized, is a little more rough around the edges than it first appears. The town square in Napa is great. Lots of boutique shops, restaurants, a great kitchen store and a silver jewelry store where I bought some charms and a ring - but I digress. What I most remember about the square was the Swiss Hotel. It can be described as not much more than a dive bar/hotel - and it was full of people drinking beer (beer in wine country!!!! say it isn't so!!!) and getting loud and rowdy. A fun crowd if I hadn't been wearing 3 inch heels...

We went in for our reservations at El Dorado Kitchen and I was struck immediately by its appearance. The staff and the restaurant present as "laid back country" while the clientele presents more upscale, even in jeans. My friend and I could not bear another glass of wine (after 3 full days of tasting even I got sick of it) so we each ordered a martini. The cocktails were very good, the service not so much. Oh well. We each got the chicken over gnocchi. I swear to God I could have died in the gnocchi. Really. And the chicken was fantastic. It had a crunchy shell but inside was so moist and it was not drowned in sauce or over seasoned. It was just right. And the gnocchi was amazing. Really. Amazing. Perfect consistency, amazing sauce. I'd consider flying back just for the gnocchi (my luck it was a special...).

The second of my two knock off restaurants is The National in Athens, GA. The chefs at The National tutored at Five and Ten, the Athens restaurant recently named the Best Restaurant in Atlanta (no, I can't figure that out either - perhaps Georgia's geography classes are worse than I thought). I love Athens, not just because I went to school there, but I love the laid back semi-uptight/semi-bohemian vibe they have going. Anyway, I was at The National. We started with bread and some of the most wonderful olive oil I have ever had. I asked my friend Dan if he thought it would be possible to live on bread and olive oil alone. He thought it might be possible, so we pondered that for a while.

I ordered chicken (again - what is up with me and the chicken?) and just like at El Dorado Kitchen it was perfect. Just perfect. Crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside - almost as good as I'd make at home (this is actually one dish I am very good at, believe it or not).

For dessert we had cheese. I love cheese. Maybe I could add that to the bread and olive oil diet...

My nightcap, however, was a huge mistake. Not because it wasn't good, but because it was a HUGE mistake. Dan and I walked up to East/West Bistro to meet our friends who were in town and I had one (several?) of their ridiculously yummy, rich and dangerously potent chocolate martinis. What is the saying? One martini, two martini, three martini, floor. Yeah, that was me.

So, my verdict on knock off restaurants - they are a definite do!