Tag Archives: Wine Country dining

Dining at Violetto at the Alila Napa Valley

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Smoked sturgeon and cauliflower rillettes with caviar at Violetto at the Alila resort.
Smoked sturgeon and cauliflower rillettes with caviar at Violetto at the Alila resort.

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.

Violetto is housed in a 1907 mansion.
Violetto is housed in a 1907 mansion.
The main dining room.
The main dining room.
The bar-lounge area.
The bar-lounge area.

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

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The Return of Cyrus

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A perfect cube of succulent pork belly served with a zingy ale aged with cherry blossoms at the new Cyrus in Geyserville.
A perfect cube of succulent pork belly served with a zingy ale aged with cherry blossoms at the new Cyrus in Geyserville.

After a seemingly interminable odyssey, the wait is indeed over.

Cyrus, the acclaimed fine-dining restaurant that closed in Healdsburg in 2012 after a landlord dispute, finally reopened again last September in a striking new iteration in Geyserville.

Chef-Owner Doug Keane, co-owner Nick Peyton, and their team couldn’t be more relieved and thrilled to be back at it again. Neither can their legions of fans, so many of whom considered the original Cyrus their favorite restaurant.

The original Cyrus garnered two Michelin stars. The new one already scored one star — barely two months after opening.

At the entrance.
At the entrance.

Keane spent a decade searching high and low through the Alexander Valley, which was founded by the restaurant’s namesake Cyrus Alexander. He had all but given up when this site came available. Though this sleek contemporary glass, steel and concrete building is the polar opposite of the restaurant’s original Old World provincial aesthetic, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting place in this new age and time. At least, that’s what I found when I finally had the opportunity last week to dine here.

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