Backyard
6566 Front St.
Forestville
(707) 820-8445
Farm-to-table
Breakfast, lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon.
Entrées (dinner): $16-$24
Lovely wine list
Calling all locavores: This place is meant for you. Chef/owners Daniel Kedan and Marianna Gardenhire opened Backyard this past November with a name that reflects its true identity: Everything on the often-changing menu is locally sourced. The couple even incorporates the names of many of the farms it works with right in the menu’s item descriptions. They also grow their own organic fruits and vegetables and offer a family-style fried chicken dinner every Wednesday evening.
Backyard features a comfortable, farmhouse-style dining room as well as a large outdoor patio for al fresco dining. Its wine list features local producers of the highest quality, with many choices available by the glass. There’s also kombucha on tap, coconut water, chai and a nice beer list.
We were delighted to find 2008 Iron Horse Wedding Cuvée (strawberries, crisp, dry) and Roederer Estate Brut (apples, toast) available by the glass. The house pickle plate, which has kimchi, hedgehog mushrooms, sunchokes and sweet persimmon mustard went well with them and had a great balance of garlic and ginger and plenty of crunch. A basket of Bodega Bay Dungeness crab hushpuppies with a mild saffron aioli were golden crisp outside with soft, tasty interiors.
Next up was a lightly dressed butter lettuce salad with romeo apple slices, sweet roasted red beets, creamy chevre and hemp seeds, as well as an expertly spiced parsnip apple soup topped with pickled hedgehog mushrooms.
A glass of Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc (crisp and round; smooth finish) and Claypool Cellars Fancy Pachyderm (dark fruit, caramel finish) went very well with perfectly textured flatbread topped with rapini, buttery and creamy house made burrata (wow—yum), olive tapenade and Meyer lemon.
The thick filet of wild, line-caught halibut was seared golden in a delicious, aromatic saffron broth with fennel, fingerling potatoes and wild lettuce to create a moist and light, yet filling, entrée. And for those seeking something a little more hearty, the chicken pot pie is the way to go. Large and packed with carrots, celery root, parsnips, potatoes and topped with buttermilk biscuit pieces, it comes in a casserole dish and has a rich, thick broth—comfort food to the max and enough to share.
For dessert we first had chocolate brownies with lightly candied walnuts, topped with a drizzle of caramel and a scoop of candy cap mushroom ice cream. Yep, mushroom ice cream! It tastes like maple because that’s the mushrooms’ natural flavor. What a lovely surprise. We also had a delicious Backyard Meyer lemon curd topped with whipped cream and almonds, served in a small jelly jar. It was tangy, sweet, light and the nuts added a wonderful crunch.
