Cafe La Haye

Cafe La Haye
Restaurant information
Established 1997 (1997)
Current owner(s) Saul Gropman
Head chef Jeffrey Lloyd
Food type New American cuisine
Dress code Casual
Street address 140 E. Napa St.
City Sonoma
State California
Postal/ZIP Code 95476
Country United States
Coordinates 38°17′31″N 122°27′21.15″W / 38.29194°N 122.4558750°W / 38.29194; -122.4558750Coordinates: 38°17′31″N 122°27′21.15″W / 38.29194°N 122.4558750°W / 38.29194; -122.4558750
Seating capacity 38[1]
Reservations Yes
Other information Phone: (707) 934-5994
Website cafelahaye.com

Cafe La Haye is a restaurant in Sonoma, California in the United States. It was opened by owner Saul Gropman in 1996. The restaurant has been a perennial pick by critic Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle in his annual Top 100 restaurants list and his favorite restaurants in Wine Country.[2][3] Cafe La Haye sources food produced within 60 miles of the restaurant.[4]

History

Cafe La Haye was opened in 1996 by owner Saul Gropman.[1] In 2009, Jeffrey Lloyd became the executive chef after Lloyd served as executive chef at Michael Mina and Aqua Restaurant.[2] During the October 2017 Northern California wildfires, Gropman served food for first responders fighting the fires and also served a free, three course meal to locals.[5]

Cuisine

Cafe La Haye is described as serving New American cuisine and by the Michelin Guide, California cuisine.[6] The restaurant is open only for dinner and has a chalkboard listing more expensive, nightly specials above the bar.[1] All food is sourced within 60 miles of the downtown Sonoma restaurant.[4]

The salads may include burrata with Early Girl tomatoes and squash blossoms in the summer.[6] In the fall, organic mixed greens with candied pecans and grapes, beet and grapefruit salad, or a tomato bread salad. Appetizers may include house-smoked trout crepes, crab cakes, or portobello mushroom and polenta.[2][7]

The nightly menu includes a seasonal risotto entree, which may be prepared with pine nuts in cauliflower broth. Seafood is also on the nightly menu, which may include soy-sesame glazed halibut with whipped potatoes and braised kale or dayboat scallops.[6][7] A pasta special is often on the menu, which may include housemade tagliarini with lamb meatballs in a sauce comprising picholine olives, feta and goat cheese, eggplant and roasted peppers. Other offerings include steak and quail.[2]

The dessert menu includes butterscotch pudding.[8]

The wine list comprises local California wines from Sonoma and Napa and French wine selections.[7]

Atmosphere

Cafe La Haye is a small modern restaurant with 34 seats. It has large windows facing the street and mirrors on the walls to give the illusion of a larger space. Paintings by local artists, available for sale, decorate the walls. A small bar, with four bar seats, overlooks the open air kitchen.[6][7] Gropman is at the restaurant most nights, serving as maître d'.[7]

Reception

Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle calls Cafe La Haye "charming" and in 2009 shared that the restaurant is "pleasant, but the interior takes a back seat to the food, which continues to showcase Sonoma's best." He has listed it over 15 times on his Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants list.[1][2] The Press Democrat's Jeff Cox said in 2014 that the restaurant "keeps getting better and better."[7]

The Michelin Guide 2018 named Cafe La Haye a "good standard" restaurant, describing it as a "standby off the square in downtown Sonoma." They state that the restaurant "hasn't aged a day."[6] Lonely Planet calls Cafe La Haye a "top table for earthy New American cooking" and that the "dining room gets packed cheek-by-jowl and service can border on perfunctory" but praises the "clean simplicity" and "flavor packed" food.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bauer, Michael (3 February 2015). "A case study of rising prices at Cafe La Haye". Inside Scoop SF. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bauer, Michael. "Sonoma's Cafe La Haye retains charm, quality". SFGate. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Bauer, Michael. "Michael Bauer's favorite restaurants in Wine Country". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 "Cafe La Haye in Sonoma, USA". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Kauffman, Jonathan. "Sonoma restaurants reopen, hoping diners will come". SFGate. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cafe La Haye - Napa : a Michelin Guide restaurant". Via Michelin. Michelin. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cox, Jeff (28 March 2014). "Cox: Cafe La Haye just keeps getting better". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "Cafe La Haye Napa and Sonoma Restaurants Review". Fodors. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
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