Last night, we had dinner at JoLe in Calistoga. They describe themselves as being a “farm to table,” Contemporary American restaurant.
We opted to sit at the bar, which led to the service being slow and spotty. Does this ever happen to you? The food was really good, but the poor service sort of took away from our overall experience.
The plates were small, so we shared a bunch of different things.
We started with the roasted cauliflower since I saw that the man next to us was eating it. He cracked me up because he ate the cauliflower, but left the lentils and raisins on his plate. 
Roasted Cauliflower- lentils, raisins, butternut curry:
Sea scallops- potato latkas, apple sauce, mushrooms:
Branzino- broccoli rabe, peanut sambal, carrot ginger puree:
Roasted Quail- brussels sprouts & garlic mashed potatoes:
And now, my favorite…
Mascaparone Cheesecake- sugar cookie crust, blood oranges:
The cheesecake was amazing. The mascarpone mellowed out the cream cheese flavor, and the sugar cookie crust added a nice twist.
Do you decide if you’re going to order dessert ahead of time or do you just order it if you’re in the mood and something looks good?
Maybe I’m weird, but I sort of set it up in my head ahead of time whether or not I’m going to get dessert! I think I look forward to it more if I do that… either that, or I’m just crazy. 
-Laura
SOOO fancy!!
Everything looks amazing!! I’m like you! I always set myself up for dessert ahead of time!! Definitely makes it more exciting!! 
I TOTALLY check out a restaurant’s desserts before going and kind of make up my mind then if I’ll have it or not. And then I look forward to it the entire time!
Both the cauli and dessert look fabulous to me! Sitting at the bar is so hit or miss. Sometimes it means great service, sometimes horrible service! The restaurant looks very cool overall though. I rarely get dessert (usually am too full)- if I know we’re going somewhere that has a dessert I really love…I will save room though and order lighter