Thomas Keller’s third restaurant in Yountville (fourth, if you count Bouchon Bakery) serves a single four course prix-fixe menu that changes every day. In other words, if you don’t like what they’re serving that night, pick a different restaurant. Each day’s menu is posted on the website by 11 a.m. PST and includes an appetizer (usually a salad or soup), a main course, a cheese course, and dessert. The four courses, each of which is served family style, will run you $49. If you choose to sit at the bar, however, you can order the courses a la carte, but you’re still limited to the same four items.
I’ve eaten at Ad Hoc twice in the past week, once with a friend and once on my own at the bar. Both experiences were phenomenal. But, I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything different from one of Thomas Keller’s restaurants.
Consistent with my experiences at other Keller outposts, the staff was knowledgeable, courteous, and professional. The interior was tasteful, clean, and appropriate for the atmosphere and type of food being served. In this, Keller’s most casual restaurant, the wines by the glass are served in tumblers and classic rock hits play in the background. The casual American theme even extends to attire. Rather than the tuxedo shirts and bowties worn by Bouchon’s staff down the street, Ad Hoc’s waiters sport relaxed dark brown bowling shirts.
I enjoyed all eight of the courses that came out of the Ad Hoc kitchen, but a few stood tall over the rest.
One of those was my first spoonful of food at Ad Hoc, the chicken and dumpling soup. I had seen this recipe in the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook and it looked amazing. It looked even better in person. One thing that I did not expect is that each course is served family style. The soup was delivered in a large bowl with a ladle set in the middle of the table, leaving my friend and I to fight over the luxurious chicken broth (those words don’t normally go together, but it aptly describes this soup – it’s better than your grandmother’s, I promise) and the last of the soft, pillowy herbed dumplings.
The soup was followed by a grilled lamb sirloin with braised mustard greens, acorn squash, and hush puppies made of black garbanzo beans and sweet potato. I grew up, like many Americans, with roasted lamb served by a food that looked about as naturally green as Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream: mint jelly. Needless to say, I never developed much of an affection for lamb. Ad Hoc’s grilled lamb, however, needed no green jelly. A cheese course with a sour bergamot jelly, which tastes kind of like sour orange rind, followed. This was the evening’s least successful course. The cheese didn’t have much flavor and had an unappealing rubbery texture. The highlight was the fact that both my friend and I remarked that the breadsticks tasted like Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.
The bergamot jelly made another appearance when I ate at the bar a couple nights later and was a fantastic pairing with the Mona, a sheep and cow’s milk cheese from the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative. (I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a little gauche and took the leftovers of my cheese course to go. I mean it’s not like they’re going to serve it to someone else, right?) These two elements of the cheese course were balanced by some wonderful honey that had a naturally smooth vanilla flavor.
Dessert on both nights provided a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the meal. In a meal anchored by chicken soup and roasted lamb, the rich and dense sticky toffee pudding rounded out a satisfying winter supper. A few nights later, the lemon pound cake with huckleberry sauce and crème fraiche was rich, yet citrusy. The familiar deliciousness of lemon pound cake was almost overshadowed by what in any other restaurateur’s hands would have been a throwaway garnish. Candied pine nuts. It is often these singular, unanticipated little bites of pleasure that I’m finding to be a hallmark of the dishes in Keller’s restaurants. They often transform the familiar into the unexpected and exceptional.
The cheese and pound cake would have been the highlight of my second meal if it hadn’t been for the fried chicken. It is so popular at Ad Hoc that not only have they packaged the mix for the chicken for sale at Williams-Sonoma stores, but it is also the only entrée in regular rotation (every other Monday night). Having heard rumors of its popularity, I arrived early to ensure grabbing a seat at the bar. It was a good thing I did, because by 6 p.m. there was only one stool open. Later in the night, a local who regularly visited Ad Hoc (I think the entire waitstaff knew her by name) told me that during the summer people have been known to wait for a bar stool on fried chicken nights for up to two hours. Not waiting two hours: yet another benefit of traveling to wine country in the off-season.
I don’t think the kitchen is accustomed to serving solo diners, because I received a generous serving of five pieces of perfectly fried chicken. I love fried chicken. I had been looking forward to this dinner all day. I had a small lunch and even went for a run in the afternoon. I walked in the door to Ad Hoc hungry and ready for business. I’m not ashamed to admit that I ate all five pieces of my chicken. I was, however, a little embarrassed when I realized that the woman next to me, also dining alone, only ate two of her five pieces.
So, what made this the best friend chicken ever? First of all, it wasn’t greasy. Even the parchment paper at the bottom of the All-Clad bowl in which the chicken was delivered only had minimal grease stains. Second, the skin was perfectly crispy. Although it is fried to a slightly darker color than we might be used to in fast-food chains, neither the skin nor the meat was overcooked. Third, and most importantly, flavor. There was flavor in both the meat and the breading. The meat’s flavor and moisture is due, most likely, to brining. In case you missed it, the chicken was amazing. I’ve spent the time since this dinner trying to determine whether it’s worth it to travel back to Yountville from D.C. one Monday a month. The jury’s still out.
Lest I forget that I’m in wine country, Ad Hoc also has a well-rounded and reasonably priced wine list. In fact I spotted a couple wines from the Bouchon wine list on the Ad Hoc list, but at about a 25% discount. This is just another indication that this restaurant is catering to a crowd whose plastic doesn’t come in gold, platinum, or black.
Similar to the restaurant’s approach to food, it also has nightly wine specials designed to pair well with the evening’s meal. For example, on the first night there was an option to get a pre-selected wine pairing for each course. On fried chicken night, however, there was a sparkling wine being poured by the glass that is normally not on the list. But, for those diners who are tired of drinking wine, the staff is happy to suggest beer pairings too. To accompany my fried chicken, I selected “Blue Apron Ale,” which is a proprietary brown ale made just for Keller’s restaurants by Brooklyn Brewery in New York.
While I’m not ready to put Ad Hoc ahead of Bouchon on my list of favorite Napa restaurants, it does satisfy that craving for good, soul-satisfying, American food prepared at a high level. Also, don’t forget to check out the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, which is my favorite of Keller’s four.
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I knew the fried chicken would be fantastic. I'm so jealous.
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