Lifestyle
This New Napa Restaurant Will Feature a Rotating Tasting Menu Celebrating California Wine Country
Auro’s five courses will spotlight hyperlocal Northern California cuisine with curated wine pairings.
BY Tori Latham  |  February 1, 2023
2 Minute Read
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John Troxell

In California’s Napa Valley, the most important thing is probably the wine. But it doesn’t hurt to have some wonderful food to pair with it.

Auro, a recently opened restaurant in Calistoga, is betting on that, at least. Located within the Four Seasons Resort Napa Valley, it offers a HK$165 (HK$1,292.3) tasting menu featuring five courses of seasonal Northern California cuisine. So seasonal, in fact, the executive chef and Top Chef alum Rogelio Garcia (The French Laundry, Spruce) is changing up the menu every week.

Amuse bouches from Auro
The amuse-bouches John Troxell

“I am so grateful to have the opportunity to return to Napa—where my culinary journey began—and to create a distinctive dining concept from the ground up that pays homage to outstanding producers from California and beyond,” Garcia said in a statement. “The Auro menu is a tribute to my evolution as a chef, and an opportunity to honor the exceptional ingredients of this region and the labor that brought them to us.”

To start, diners will be presented with a series of amuse-bouches like chicken thigh Mediterranean yogurt, turnips with truffle Bergamino cheese and smoked Ora King salmon with yellow mustard. The menu then goes on to spotlight 14-day dry-aged meats and fish, in particular. Delicate dry-aged shima aji is paired with harvest apple, cilantro and emerald crystal lettuce, while California white duck comes with Medjool dates, pearl salsify and Sonoma baby beets. The opening menu is rounded out by butter-poached Norwegian carb with pearl onions, Nantes carrots, Rose Finn potatoes and sauce Semillon before moving on to dessert: golden quince and a gianduja hazelnut chocolate tart.

Chocolate tart from Auro
Chocolate tart John Troxell

Of course, the wine pairings are just as important as the food, and the sommelier Derek Stevenson has taken care to source wines that act as the perfect complement. For example, Radio-Coteau “La Neblina” 2020 Pinot Noir is served with the duck, while Merryvale Vineyards “Silhouette” 2020 Chardonnay accompanies the crab. The complete wine list contains about 250 labels overall, with a particular emphasis on local Calistoga wines.

To start, Auro will be open for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. It will soon expand to weekday dinner service on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as lunch.

Click here to see all the photos of Auro.

Amuse bouches from Auro