Nestled in the tiny hamlet of Glen Ellen, The Fig Café is the type of place I think every town needs: casual and friendly with local, fresh food that’s moderately priced and very well prepared. You’ll find it in the same location as its predecessor, The Girl and the Fig (which has since moved to the Sonoma square). Owner Sondra Bernstein, it seems, has two quality restaurants under her belt—and it shows.
The sage and butter-colored room has a few rounded window booths, but mostly there are closely spaced tables throughout. The open kitchen has chalkboards above it featuring wine specials, desserts and cheeses. Brightly colored paintings add a fun feeling. The menu says, “eat dinner” at the top—but right under that, and only a little smaller, it also says, “but don’t forget about dessert.” No problem there.
We started our meal with Roederer Brut from the short-yet-elegant wine list that features both local wines and Rhone varietals. For an appetizer, our friendly and knowledgeable server, Courtney, suggested the calamari with spicy/sweet lemon aioli—how could we resist? The calamari was lightly breaded and fresh, and the aioli had a saffron color and maybe a smidge of honey. We asked for extra, because the portion was large and the sauce was so good.
Next came the soup of the day, which was cream of spinach. Served very hot, it was bright green in color and had a pure, fresh flavor with only a touch of cream. A Vella jack cheese crisp on top was a nice touch. We also tried the fig and arugula salad. It was a healthy portion and had lots of greens mixed with mild, creamy chevre, pecans, dried figs and a small amount of pancetta, enhanced with port vinaigrette.
At this point, I moved on to a glass of Qupe 2006 Marsanne, a smooth, slightly buttery white wine. It was a nice, light contrast to my comfort food entrée of vegetarian risotto, which was rich and heavy, served hot and mixed with saffron, very thin asparagus and grated taleggio cheese. Hungry? Order that.
Brennen had the fish of the day, which was a pan-seared ling cod served with creamy mashed potatoes and a delicious fava bean, green garlic and leek ragout. So moist, the cod melted away in our mouths and was absolutely flavorful.
For dessert (see, we remembered), Brennen had the fig royale, which was sparkling wine mixed with fig liqueur, fig syrup and a lemon twist. We also shared a cappuccino and an individual cheesecake, which was light and creamy, topped with thin-sliced fresh strawberries, crème fraîche and a sprinkling of pistachios. What a delight.
