The Pear
720 Main St.
Napa
(707) 256-3900
Southern Bistro
Lunch and dinner daily
Entrées: $17-$24
Nice wine list; soju cocktails
Set right along the water on Napa’s riverfront walk, The Pear offers a picturesque setting in which to enjoy Southern-style comfort food. It has a casual atmosphere with an expansive patio, a large interior dining room with picture windows and an open kitchen where you can see chef/owner Rodney Worth in action. When we visited, sous chef Caleb Ripley was at the helm.
We started with Domaine Carneros Brut Rosé (strawberries, pears, crisp) and Turbo Dog (by Abita beer; think stout in flavor but not as dense) along with an appetizer special of bacon-wrapped white shrimp (large and fresh) with Creole tomato sauce (buttery with mild spices) and a polenta cake. Next up were “tater tots” (potato, jalapeño and cheddar) with chipotle aioli dipping sauce. They had a nice, building heat and I wanted to eat the whole mound, but they’re filling so I controlled myself. Third were fried pickles with a light Napa Smith IPA beer batter served in whole, quartered strips with a mild Creole mustard aioli—a perfect accompaniment.
We moved on to Buehler Vineyards Zinfandel (lush, dark berries) and Rombauer Vineyards Chardonnay (wonderful as always) along with plump and fresh mussels in a sauce of Chardonnay, shallots, butter, garlic and herbs, served with grilled, buttered sourdough (great for dipping).
There are a number of soups, salads and sandwiches on the menu as well, including a popular French onion soup and, of course, a shrimp po’ boy with Cajun remoulade. But since we ate so many appetizers we decided to head straight for the entrées. And wow, they were huge!
First were incredibly tender pear-bourbon glazed baby back ribs—half a rack with tons of meat that literally fell off the bone. They were topped with crumbled peanuts and accompanied by baked macaroni and cheese (hot, creamy) and a mound of collard greens with bits of bacon (although at the time of this writing, the menu had switched to an accompaniment of French fries and cole slaw—hey, that sounds good, too!).
The gumbo “ya-ya” was thick and rich with a wonderful sauce that had a building heat, filled with big chunks of chicken and andouille sausage, tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, onions and garlic as well as a scoop of white rice in the center.
Dessert was bananas foster en croute (in a crisp puff pastry) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chunky and warm pecans and a butter, brown sugar and brandy flambéed sauce. We downed it with some Mr. Espresso oak roasted coffee and left with big smiles and full bellies.
