Terra- At the Table

The Sunday afternoon drive to Terra, one of St. Helena’s most accomplished restaurants—and one of the finest in the Napa Valley—carried me back to 1975, when I lived in Calistoga and dabbled in food and wine. The triggers were many: the sideways light across vineyards, the trucks heavy with grapes traveling the Silverado Trail, the heady perfume of just-crushed and fermenting grapes.

But none of that prepared me for the jolt I received at Terra. I had last been in the handsome stone building 30 years ago, when it housed the fully French La Belle Helene restaurant. The flamboyant, opera-obsessed chef was as hysterical as the mid-1970s, with a cavalier, slapdash approach to fancy cooking that led to wildly mixed results.

When Hiro Sone and his wife, Lissa Doumani, moved in and opened Terra in 1988, the kitchen became decidedly more consistent. The two, who had met working with Wolfgang Puck in Los Angeles, brought complementary skills to their venture. Sone has classical training in both French and Japanese cuisines from years of study in his native Japan. Doumani, the daughter of Stags’ Leap Winery founder Carl Doumani, was returning to her valley home with a broad pastry repertoire she learned at Spago under Nancy Silverton, renowned pastry chef and owner of La Brea Bakery.

Terra today is as understatedly sophisticated as any restaurant in San Francisco, thanks to grace, comfort, and professionalism in the dining room, and sophisticated cooking that doesn’t overreach or try to dazzle with flourishes. The approach has worked so well that Sone and Doumani have opened a companion restaurant in San Francisco: Ame, which translates as soul in French and rain in Japanese, opened November 1 in the St. Regis Hotel.

Although Ame is closer for East Bay residents, Terra will always have a rustic feel that San Francisco can’t match. Its two intimate dining rooms are hugged by stone walls and sheltered by the exposed beams of the dark wood ceiling. Crisp, abstract, black-and-white prints add a modern element. The welcome is quiet and discreet; the high-backed banquettes sturdy yet soft; the linen and glassware fine; and the lighting muted yet carefully targeted to allow for easy reading of the menu, which is handwritten by Sone.

Many dishes draw their inspiration from France, Italy, and Sone’s homeland. Offerings showcasing Sone’s mastery of seafood pair smoothly with a wine list featuring the valley’s finest bottles and a smattering of selections from Europe and Australia. A lively 2004 Sauvignon Blanc from Joel Gott held its own with the richest of dishes, as did a muscular 2003 DuMol Viognier from the Russian River Valley .

Sone’s subtle hand first appeared in the appetizer Hokkaido scallop “carpaccio,” a plate of thin disks of scallop dressed in lemon coriander vinaigrette. The translucent scallop, half raw, half cooked by the warm vinaigrette, tasted of the sea and lemon, the richness of the flesh punctuated by the bite of chive and its flowers. Utterly simple, the dish hewed successfully to that maxim of modern cooking: Let the ingredients shine, unmarred, unmasked.

More constructed was a salad that in less expert hands could have been a muddle. On a long platter topped with a tea leaf, Sone stacked tender ginger-poached shrimp, bite-size blocks of sweet watermelon, ripe tomato, and thinly sliced chili and red onion. It worked. The lemongrass vinaigrette gave the elements a Thai tone and just enough acidity.

A meatier appetizer was just as exquisite. Sweetbreads, which can be overbearingly rich if improperly handled, found the right partner in a salad of rucola (wild, young arugula), forest mushrooms, and sweet corn. The small chunks of fried sweetbreads—Sone calls them “croutons”—came warm and crisp without, still tender within. Again cutting through richness with acidity, he dressed the salad with a tart vin cotto—the intense and acidic Italian cooked wine—creating a dish that carries with it the first hint of fall.

Sone’s balanced technique was clearly evident in the main course that the restaurant’s staff refers to as Terra’s signature dish: broiled sake-marinated Alaskan black cod and shrimp dumplings in shisho broth.

It is extraordinary. A generous hunk of delicately broiled cod swims in a complex broth tinged with soy sauce and sake. You’re left wondering how Sone managed to move that tender, delicate fish from stovetop to bowl and keep it intact.

Desserts are but one part of Doumani’s realm. Besides her deserved reputation as the restaurant’s pastry princess, she is also its general manager and the undeniable spirit of the dining rooms. On the night of our visit, her section of the kitchen produced a creamy tower of tiramisu and a delicate blackberry pie—an adorable individual serving—with buttermilk ice cream and a drizzle of caramel.

With their new restaurant in San Francisco just opened, this talented couple has the chance to bring their easy sophistication and quality cooking to the demanding maw of downtown and its phalanx of critics. Based on what the pair has done at Terra, it’s hard to imagine those critics—amateur and professional alike—not being thrilled with their urban outpost.

Terra Restaurant, 1345 Railroad Ave., St. Helena, (707) 963-8931, www.terrarestaurant.com . Dinner Wed.–Mon.

Directions: Head east on Interstate 80. Exit onto Highway 37 going west toward Napa. Make a right onto Highway 29. Continue straight on Highway 29 until you reach St. Helena. Make a right on Adams Street, the second light once you reach St. Helena. Turn right on Railroad Avenue. Continue for half a block, and you will be at the restaurant. There is no sign.