A day at Petroni Vineyards

One of my favourite Italian restaurants in San Francisco's North Beach is the aptly named North Beach Restaurant, located at 1512 Stockton Street in San Francisco. The ambiance is relaxing, in a Tuscan style with imported Italian tile decor and original works of art. The menu is prepared with the freshest ingredients, in authentic Tuscan style, and a wine list with over 500 bottles of wine with Grappas, Ports and Cognacs. (Yum). Lorenzo Petroni and Bruno Orsi founded the restaurant in 1970 and it is now renowned for it's authentic cuisine and celebrity clientele. Lorenzo happens to own a winery in Sonoma called Petroni Vineyards which won the Golden Award at the Golden Glass Competition in San Francisco, as well as several others. I love this place for the food, the wine and all else mentioned above, but also because of my penchant for young waiters. I know, I know, crazy right? Well, there are only male waiters here. In fact the only female who seems to be on staff is an incredible Japanese bartender in her sixties who looks forty-five and can make you a drink that you didn't know you wanted just by looking at your face. And it's always perfect, and exactly what you wanted! I'm not kidding. Speaking of said waiters, they are usually Italian, and usually very charming. I met a young waiter here, Luca. We are now "friends with benefits" even though he has left to open his own restaurant in Berkeley, which is doing quite well.



My friend Maarit, who has since moved back to Finland, is a journalist from Finland who was living in San Francisco's North Beach for a couple of years while writing a Finnish-language travel guide about California. Lorenzo Petroni invited us for a private tour of the vineyard including lunch prepared by his good friend Carlo; the proprietor of an inn and restaurant in Bodega Bay, so she could write about it in her travel guide. Lorenzo is a jovial Italian man in his seventies who enjoys good food, good wine and the good life in general. He came here and worked his way up from a waiter in the forties and fifties to being proprietor of one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco. He is charming, opinionated and generous.

Petroni Vineyards is located up on a hill in Sonoma off a little oak lined road crossing the Mayacamas Mountain range between Sonoma and Napa. It's very private and you'd almost miss it if you didn't know where it was. Lorenzo graciously took us on a tour of the winery, and showed us where the grapes are crushed, to where the wine is fermented. He also has a residence next to the winery and we were able to taste some of the wines. The house is incredible, filled with amazing art, including an old hand painted claw foot bath tub perched high on a ledge near the ceiling. I loved the Rose and the Sauvignon Blanc. We were joined by some more of Lorenzo's Italian friends and then, with wine glass in hand, we went to find some ingredients for lunch and for a tour of the grounds.

There are fresh olive trees throughout the grounds, grapevines, and fig trees. Petroni makes his own delicious olive oil as well as wine. I felt like I was in Tuscany, with green trees and lush grass visible for miles below us. It was so tranquil up there, no sounds but for the birds chirping. We picked fresh basil and figs, while sipping on our wine. Lorenzo is currently drilling a cave that will connect the tasting room to where the barrels are kept and the wine is aged. We walked further and he has a coop, where he keeps Italian turkeys and chickens and some sort of pheasant - don't ask me the name, I am not well versed in the types of European turkey breeds. They were all strange, colourful and beautiful birds, and also a place where there are cages of albino rabbits!

After our tour, we returned to the main house where we enjoyed more wine, and feasted on fresh mozzarella with olive oil and basil, prosciutto, figs, and three different kinds of salmon. It was a fabulous lunch, followed by fresh grilled steak with rosemary and grilled eggplant. Now that was a lovely way to enjoy a quintessential California afternoon.

Handpainted Claw foot bath tub

Yes, that's a mural!

Crushing grapes

Flowers

 Cabernet grapes

Grape Vines


Figs freshly picked from the grounds

Salmon

Whaddaya know? Old Italian men can really cook!

Mozzarella with olive oil, fresh basil and figs

Grilled eggplant and rosemary herbed steak
Location: Sonoma, CA 95476, USA

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