The Little Gourmet

I wanted to post about this a while back and didn't finish writing it at the time. I had the greatest meal of my vacation in a kid's restaurant. I just have to post about this because it was such a great surprise! We stopped into downtown Napa to find somewhere to eat before continuing on to Tahoe. I asked my GPS to find an indian restaurant for me and it led me to a vacated space so we just started walking. We passed a few budget sit-downs that just didn't appeal, and then we came across a couple different white table cloth places, zagat rated "excellent" and all that but here I am with a 13 month old who is thrilled to be out of the car and mad at me that I'm not letting her run around barefoot and free. So then I saw a sign. The Little Gourmet - follow the path around to the right and across the footbridge. Thank you. A place I can take my energetic little girl and not feel like I should apologize to the other guests. So we found our way around the back and across the footbridge and into this nice little restaurant with menu items like "Monkey Burger," "Snakes and Worms," and "Wagon Wheels Alfredo." Too bad she's too young for their menu, doesn't have the teeth and chewing habits yet. I expected to get okay food but feel good cause I didn't have to shush my baby or insist she stay seated the whole time. But it wasn't just okay food. I ordered one of the evening's specials, a salmon and shrimp pasta with a spicy cream sauce, she ordered the portabello mushroom pasta, a caesar salad, and we got a dish of fruit for the baby. The water came in the goblet style water glasses you'd expect at the white table cloth place, they had a respectable selection of wines, and the baby's water came in a sturdy plastic cup with lid and bendy straw (the reusable tough kind you take home and use again). The salad was whole leaf romaine, very classy presentation and the dressing was exceptional (and he uses buttermilk, no raw egg yolk, so no worries sharing with the little ones) and I started thinking wow, this is more what I'd expect at that zagat rated place. Baby doesn't eat lettuce much yet but I shared some of the baguette and sweet cream butter, butter in a dish not foil wrapped, again more what I'd expect on a white table cloth. Baby's fruit came early with the salad (they know how kids are) so she was happy eating grapes, strawberries, and some banana, all fresh. She was doing well with her cup, she wouldn't let me hold it for her and we applauded the way she was drinking so well from the straw, but she dropped it once, mom got it, and she dropped it again. I picked it up and hid it between my lap and the table and offered her some banana or grape to distract her. A bit later we were enjoying our pasta and I was thinking wow this is good and the atmosphere is nice and I got tired of having the cup on my lap and set it up on the table and maybe a minute after that phoenix saw it and just shrieked. It took me a second to connect the pieces and then I got her the cup and I just started laughing because she was so thrilled to find the cup that I hid. I started explaining it to Brookestar and then Phoenix started laughing too, which made me laugh more, and Brookestar was laughing too and we were really quite loud and that's when I realized it. I have never been anywhere else where I could have food this good, I really was impressed, and have this much fun with my baby and not feel like I was disturbing the other guests.
It felt so good to laugh and laugh with my baby and you can do that in a Chuck E Cheese too but the food... I sacrificed nothing in quality and that sacrifice was something I had just gotten used to. Anyone with small kids knows that catch 22 situation. Either you go to a place with cheap greasy food or you sit down somewhere nice and try to keep your kid quiet when she's bursting with joy and curiosity and wiggles and/or you apologize to the people next to you that she's so loud when they're trying to have a nice quiet dinner. I had become so accustomed to the sacrifice I walked in thinking I'd disappoint my taste buds for the sake of an enjoyable meal with an energetic baby. Instead I sacrificed nothing. I had a great meal and a great time. We all did. For overall experience it was quite possibly the best meal I've ever had. No offense to Charlie Trotter or any other, but I can't imagine bringing my baby with me there and I WANT her with me. She's delightful and has NO volume control. I can't imagine the looks I would get from other customers and I don't want to disturb their meal anyway. If I try to make my baby sit still and be quiet she'll struggle and if I persist long enough she'll cry. They're children! It's not in their nature to sit still and be quiet! Nature has given them this incredible drive to explore and learn and exercise and develop and it just doesn't fit into sit down and be quiet.
I've probably said the same thing a few times and been a bit redundant, but what it boils down to is I was impressed, all the way, with the whole experience. I'm glad I got lost where I did. I'll definitely look for them next time I'm in town.