The resort now known as Alila Napa Valley (formerly Los Alcabas) has always been one of my favorite properties in St. Helena for its striking juxtaposition between old and new.

In 2021, the Alila hotel group took over the property with its oversized, minimalist, gray-toned rooms with spectacular vineyard views, with the vines so close to the ground-floor rooms that you could walk out your terrace to touch them.

In May 2024, it completed its transition by debuting its new restaurant, Violetto, housed in the property’s beautifully ornate 1907 mansion.

Chef Thomas Lents serves a French-Italian menu with thoughtful options for a 7-course tasting menu ($145) with optional wine pairing ($85), four-course prix fixe ($105) with optional wine pairing ($65), or a la carte. There are also supplemental items you can choose to add.

Recently, I was invited as a guest of the property and restaurant to stay overnight and to experience the new menu.

If you dined at the restaurant in its former incarnation as Acacia House with Chef Chris Cosentino at the helm, the first thing you will notice about the dining room is that the window into the kitchen is no more. It’s been walled over, making the space a little more insular, intimate, and formal yet still relaxed.

Lents was a James Beard semi-finalist nod when he oversaw Sixteen restaurant in Chicago. He was also chef de cuisine at Michelin three-starred Quince in San Francisco, so don’t sleep on the pastas at Violetto, which are made in-house.

His wife Rebecca LaMalfa is also a chef, whom you may remember as a contestant on “Top Chef” (season 12 in Boston). Although Lents says he’s been asked several times to compete on the show, as well, he has always declined. Just not his thing, he shrugs.

What is definitely his priority is his cooking, which shines at Violetto, as I found when I enjoyed the prix fixe with Lents adding a few more dishes that he wanted especially to highlight.

The amuse is an attention-getter, with its long wooden tray with an assortment of goodies — that comes with a story. Right now, it’s all about chickpeas, inspired by Lents’ Sicilian grandfather, a farmer who would enjoy a bowl of garbanzos every day, seasoned simply with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

There is a delicate tart shell with a filling of goat cheese and green chickpeas, grassy and nutty tasting, flavored with lavender from the on-site garden. Alongside is a chickpea beignet with the tang from a dollop of tomato preserves on top. There is also a mug of “sin to waste” brodo, made with mushroom stems and other veggie scraps that are fermented, then roasted to make a broth with a Parmigiano rind. It is the furthest thing from tasting like leftovers. Instead, it is a deeply restorative warm broth with deep earthy and umami notes that you feel to your core.

Finally, on a separate plate is the tiniest chickpea panisse, crispy as can be and custardy within, capped with an airy Parmesan foam. To say I could have eaten a good handful of these is a vast understatement.

My husband and I opted for one of the supplement dishes: house-smoked local sturgeon and cauliflower rillettes with caviar and blini ($44). I especially liked how crisp the blini were, unlike some that are a little too flaccid to really support a good amount of dip and caviar on top. This was like gourmet chips and dip. There were even the world’s smallest (and cutest) ruffled potato chips garnishing the top.

Another supplemental item worth ordering is the focaccia ($10) that arrives hot in its own cast-iron dish. Lents went through several iterations until he came up with his perfect version of a Northern Italian-style studded with olives that’s a little denser in texture yet still nicely chewy and crusty.

My husband’s first course of chestnut soup arrived looking almost like a fanciful cappuccino, with a big frothy top of onion-milk foam on top and crumbled amaretti cookies. Underneath were pieces of poached apple, starchy chestnuts, and crisp guanciale. It was velvety and rich, and tasted upper-crust luxe, making you think that extending your pinkie finger while spooning it up wouldn’t be out of the norm at all.

I opted for the fennel salad with rich, meaty chunks of line-caught tuna and shaved fennel confit with fennel pollen, all in a creamy, sharp tonnato dressing.

As mentioned, Violetto makes its own pastas — and they are superb. Put it this way, my husband and I were sharing all our dishes, but after one bite of my bucatini with Santa Barbara sea urchin, I so wanted to hoard it all to myself (even if I did relent and let him have some in the end). I’ve had uni pastas where you couldn’t really taste the uni. I’ve had others that had a bitterness owing to the lackluster quality of the uni. This one featured supple strands of bucatini coated in seaweed butter and uni that was fresh, sweet, and creamy as can be. A little Calabrian chili gave a little hit of heat in this voluptuous dish.

My husband’s rigatoni was enveloped in a meaty boar sugo that tasted of red wine. Mustard greens along with cocoa nibs added a nice bitter edge in this hearty, meaty pasta.

Lents also brought out pumpkin risotto that he shaved white truffle over at the table. It was creamy with a perfectly languid texture, not too stiff or loose but just right. The pumpkin added a gentle sweetness of fall, and almonds lent a toasty crunch. Italian 24-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano Red Cow, higher in protein and butterfat than the usual, was grated over the top, adding sweetness and intense nuttiness.

My entree was juicy, tender Wolfe Ranch quail with fluffy bread dumplings made from the focaccia crumbs, foresty matsutakes, and savoy cabbage. Think gourmet comfort food with deep, pure poultry goodness and you get the idea.

My husband’s Wagyu short rib was cured, then smoked for 6 hours, then slow cooked for 36 hours. Seasoned with fish sauce, and served with a Venetian condiment of Jimmy Nardello peppers and eggplant, the rich tasting, smoky meat had that wonderful sticky quality and fall-apart tenderness that required no knife.

For dessert, the passion fruit and rum baba arrived in an almost onion dome-like shape, bright yellow and adorned with edible flowers. It was bright and zingy, and not overly boozy.

The fig custard sat on a buttery cookie foundation and was covered in a liquid short-bread “magic shell,” with fresh figs and crisp tuille shards. Vanilla was probably the most prominent flavor, as I can’t say I really tasted fig deeply in the custard, maybe owing to how late in the season it was for the fruit.

Mignardises arrive in a cute Italian cookie tin. When opened, it revealed pistachio-tangerine torrone, blood orange pate de fruit, and petite biscotti.

The next day we awoke to a misty Wine Country morning that was brightened by breakfast served in the restaurant.

A basket of assorted pastries ($10) was pure temptation with a flaky croissant; warm, moist slab of carrot cake; buttery scone; and a pumpkin muffin.

The breakfast sandwich ($20) gets a zesty Italian spin with a fried egg, sliced ham, peperonata, basil, and provolone on a fluffy bun that’s served with home fries.

The almond and banana tartine ($19) features a large slice of crusty, toasted sesame bread, cut in half, dolloped with whipped ricotta, banana slices, toasted coconut, pepitas, and cocoa nibs. It was a nice, imaginative change from avocado toast or simply a yogurt cup with bananas on top.

With that, we were fueled up for the drive back home to the Bay Area — even if leaving the Alila was definitely hard to do.