It’s rare when a chef is both an established player and a rising star. And it’s even rarer when a top-notch resort pushes the boundaries of culinary convention and offers guests a deep experience of place that defies compartmentalization. In this case, Gustavo Rios is the chef, and Picobar, opening today at Solage, Auberge Resorts Collection, is the property.
Calistoga has been coming on strong in recent years, the pandemic notwithstanding, and Solage’s Solbar has long been a dining mainstay in the Napa Valley. The resort is further elevating its game with Picobar, a casual, unassuming poolside eatery that just happens to serve world-class Mexican food. And the mastermind behind these recipes, both traditional and surprising, is Ensenada native Gustavo Rios, whose career took off at Solbar in 2007 and who, after a time at nearby Evangeline, returned to Solbar as executive chef.
And now, in what seems like the perfect intersection of talent and timing, Rios is combining his long expertise in northern California cooking with the coastal Mexican recipes and techniques he grew up with. The result is Picobar, whose compelling menu will get the attention of even the the most jaded lover of Mexican food traditions who finds him or herself in northern California — as we all know, there’s a lot of bastardization of this noble cuisine in our lovely state.
Rios is both an artist and an expert: He invents where there is space to roam, and he sticks closer to the culinary rulebook when that’s what works best. His food is in technicolor, where so many attempts at Mexican cooking, especially in hotel settings, are in pastels. Rios’ cooking is vibrant, exciting, and alive.
In an extensive preview of the menu in May, I think I tasted everything that was being considered for the launch, and I can honestly say there was not one dish that wasn’t a clear-cut “yes” in my book. I’ll highlight my absolute favorites and let you take it from there.
The whipped avocado is both homage to guacamole and reinvention of that wheel (and as simple as it is satisfying): Brokaw avocados whipped up with a variety of seeds and nuts with a little creamy, young goat cheese and some micro-greens and edible flowers.
The aguachile is a glistening raw sea scallop in its shell dressed with cucumber, mint, and chile — like ceviche in a party dress. And the Cowgirl Creamery queso, pictured above, is a coastal NorCal twist on a Mexican classic.
The salsas, of course, anchor everything. An arbol, a tomatillo, and the most gorgeous coarsely chopped tomato salsa sit at the center of the table throughout the meal, ready for experimentation and play.
The Cooke Farms organic strawberry salad is a study in contrasts: Crisp, sweetly dry jicama is juxtaposed against the juicy, bright berries, both of which are undercut by sweet watermelon and cucumber, all held together by lime, mint and chile, sort of like a fancy food-truck pico de gallo.
Tostadas and tacos are a centerpiece of the menu. The fresh chickpea tostada with picked red onion knocked my socks off with its clean, earthy flavors, and the calabacitas taco had me at “squash blossom,” presented with tomatillo and sunflower sprouts.
You could take an entirely different path through the menu and not go wrong.
Cocktails are a must here. Elephant’s Memory has mezcal, turmeric, ginger, lemon and egg white, with a little charcoal decoration that reads like latte art.
I didn’t make it to dessert on this go-’round, but I tried enough of the menu to know that Picobar is not only a welcome addition to the Calistoga restaurant landscape, it’s also a gamechanger for its inventive embrace of the familiar and its boundary-pushing creativity.
