Napa Valley Restaurant Week provides both visitors and residents with an added incentive to experience a new restaurant or revisit a favorite. The weeklong promotion, Jan. 22 – 29, 2017, offers diners a choice of a two-course lunch for $20 per person, or a three-course dinner for $36 or $46 per person. Each chef has created menus to celebrate the season and many of the restaurants offer optional wine pairings at an additional cost. To view the complete list of restaurants participating in Napa Valley Restaurant Week, visit VisitNapaValley.com/RestaurantWeek.
TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR FLAVOR! NAPA VALLEY MARCH 22 – 26
A FIVE DAY FESTIVAL OF FOOD AND WINE BENEFITING THE CIA
Individual tickets for Flavor! Napa Valley, March 22 – 26, 2017, which supports programs and scholarships at The Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Greystone Campus in St. Helena, CA, are now available for purchase online at FlavorNapaValley.com.
Flavor! Napa Valley takes place during Napa Valley’s “Cabernet Season” (November through April) and celebrates both Napa Valley and CIA graduate chefs and winemakers with five days of exclusive food and wine experiences that bring out the best flavors of the legendary Napa Valley. The complete Flavor! Napa Valley schedule, as well as exclusive hotel packages at Silverado Resort and Spa and other Napa Valley lodging partners may be found at FlavorNapaValley.com. Multi-day ticket packages are also available.
WWW.VISITNAPAVALLEY.COM
CHRISTOPHER CZARNECKI -CHEF/OWNER FROM THE JOEL PALMER HOUSE JOINS US TO CHAT ABOUT SOUP FOR NATIONAL SOUP MONTH
About Joel Palmer, the Oregon Pioneer
Joel Palmer was one of Oregon’s preeminent pioneers who left Indiana in 1845 to make his long way West. As leader of one of three wagon trains headed for Oregon, Palmer soon exhibited the leadership qualities for which he became famous. Joel Palmer co-founded the town of Dayton in 1848 and built this home in 1857. It is said that the town of Dayton is named after the hometown of Chris Taylor, a close friend.
The Czarnecki Family
Our family business took shape when my great-grandfather, Joseph Czarnecki, opened Joe’s Tavern in 1916 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His son, Joseph Jr., carried on the tradition, transforming the original tavern into Joe’s Restaurant and changing the focus to fine dining and wine with wild mushrooms (a family passion) as the centerpiece. My father, Jack Czarnecki, followed in his father’s footsteps, taking Joe’s Restaurant to a new level while maintaining the mushroom theme. My parents’ dream to combine fine cuisine, great mushroom hunting, and world-class wine was fully realized in 1996 when they purchased The Joel Palmer House and moved the restaurant West.
Christopher Czarnecki's commitment to fine dining was imprinted on him early, literally from the age of 9, when he was allowed to fill the water glasses at his parents' restaurant - originally called Joe’s Restaurant and located in Reading, PA and now, The Joel Palmer House, a landmark in Oregon's wine country. The world of his childhood was a world of fresh local ingredients, fine wines, busy kitchens, and grateful, happy diners – a world he knew he would inhabit as an adult. Czarnecki stepped out of that world for three years in 2003, when he joined the Army, working in food service, including a year of service in Iraq. During the time when Christopher was “cooking in combat boots” he learned the art of precision, and of course, following the rules. Christopher’s covert attempt at spicing up a dish with herbs and butter at one dinner only earned him 50 pushups, rather than the certain gratitude of his comrades. Chris regards his time in the dining hall as a learning opportunity, and was happy to return to a region where his creativity is fed and supported by the abundance of the area. Beginning in 2006, Christopher made his way back to The Joel Palmer House kitchen, taking over the reins from his father, Jack Czarnecki, as chef in 2007. His parents retired in 2008. In 2014, Chris and his wife, Mary, opened their 2nd restaurant, "The Barlow Room" in Dayton. Designed from the ground up to complement The Joel Palmer House, this new venue is open for lunch, on Sundays, and for special events and catering. The historic bar, casual menu, family friendly atmosphere, craft beers and cocktails make this the go-to local hang out for locals and winery folks. Czarnecki revels in the bounty of the restaurants' location in Dayton, in the heart of Oregon's Pinot Noir country. Czarnecki continues the family tradition of cooking with wild mushrooms, building his menu around whatever local mushrooms his foragers bring to the back door of the kitchen, along with other seasonal specialties. Czarnecki and his wife, Mary, are building their own vegetable gardens in order to provide “hyper-local” produce to the restaurant as well as a mushroom cultivation patch on the property. On the wine side, the cellar at The Joel Palmer House reflects Czarnecki's passion for the best local wines. With more than 500 Oregon Pinot noir wines on the list, and a Wine Spectator “Best of” Award of Excellence since 2010, Christopher often spends time in the cellar with a glass of Pinot noir reflecting on the life he’s built in The Joel Palmer House.
WWW.JOELPALMERHOUSE.COM