We welcome you, and hope you enjoy a leisurely meal with us. If you need to be somewhere by a certain time, please let us know. Otherwise, why not relax and enjoy one of our house aperitifs? Our apricot aperitif is a glass of house chardonnay with our housemade apricot liqueur and our huckleberry aperitif pairs a glass of our house merlot with our housemade huckleberry liqueur.  $8.75

For dessert, you may want to try our pumpkin soufflé with a warm chocolate sauce. If so, it should be ordered with your meal.  $7.50

Stilton is often called the "king of blue cheeses" and Colston Bassett produces some of the finest. Our Colston Bassett Stilton salad features traditional flavor combinations: Mixed greens are tossed with a port vinaigrette, over which we sprinkle toasted walnuts, crumble the British cheese, and finish the presentation with sliced, poached pears.  $9.25

Several years ago, when local chefs were invited to serve food at the Mendocino Wine Affair, we were asked to prepare something that would pair well with the local, "bold red" wines. Our answer was a flavor-packed terrine of wild boar with huckleberry chutney.  $9.75

Two of our more abundant, locally-foraged mushrooms are golden chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) and gambonis (Boletus edulis). We like to saute them and use them to make a wild mushroom sauce, incorporating a bit of madeira, a pinch of herbes de Provence, and some cream. Then we warm some escargots in the sauce and present our escargots forestièrs in puff pastry.  $9.75

Deemed "the best crab soup I've ever had" by a noted cookbook author and frequent contributor to the SF Chronicle's food section, our Dungeness crab bisque's intense flavor is derived from the fresh crab shells we pick up at Noyo Harbor. The bisque is fortified with just a bit of brandy and finished with fresh crab meat.  $8.25

A short stack of foie gras... Medallions of fresh foie gras, pan seared and stacked between silver-dollar-sized savory shallot crepes, and served with an apple-fennel-port "syrup."  $19.25

Our dinner salad of mixed greens is tossed with your choice of dressing, and garnished with sliced radishes and red onions, grated carrots and sliced mushrooms. Dressings are mustard-herb vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, and creamy goat cheese.  $6.50

This evening's soup is always made from scratch, and often incorporates one of our homemade stocks.  $6.75

The house pasta features our housemade marinara (spicy-hot from the addition of habanero and chipotle) which is combined with diced, sauteed chicken-turkey sausage, and served over fettuccine. The heat of the sauce is tempered by a Mediterranean-inspired garnish of fresh goat cheese, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.  $19.50

Navarro Vineyards has just republished a complimentary cookbook of recipes which utilize their verjus. In it you'll find a pasta recipe we developed for the cookbook when it was originally released about ten years ago – rabbit with whole grain mustard and verjus, served on linguine.  $21.50

Sablefish -- often incorrectly called black cod -- is a local catch which is mostly exported to Japan, where it is revered for its mild flavor and buttery texture. We season and saute a filet and serve it with a green peppercorn sauce.  $24.75

One of the most frequently asked questions we get around town is: "When will crabcakes be back on the menu?" We serve them only when fresh, local crab is available. That being said, we now offer our very popular spicy Dungeness crabcakes, which are sautéed and served with our housemade jalapeno mustard and lime wedges.  $25.50

This month's scampi offers tender, sweet black tiger prawns sauteed in olive oil with garlic, thyme, lemon juice and white wine, and finished with sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives and sliced caperberries. As a reminder of our proximity to the ocean, they get a final sprinkling of dried kelp.  $25.75

"Poulet au Vinaigre" it would be called in France. We braise free-range chicken (juicy, falling-off-the-bone tender dark meat only) in white wine and vinegar. The chicken is served with a sauce made from the braising liquid, and caramelized shallots.  $22.75

A take-off on a traditional pot-au-feu, ours is made with pheasant. The breast is pan-seared, while the leg is boned and made into quenelles. Both are then poached in pheasant stock and served in a double consomme of pheasant with chanterelles and braised fall root vegetables.  $28.50

Though our local wild huckleberry crop wasn't abundant this year, we couldn't resist bringing back the pan roasted Muscovy duck breast with huckleberry-lavender sauce. Through the year, this is one of our favorite sauces. The aroma of it cooking is ethereal. We score the skin of the duck and sear it in cast iron to render some of the fat, finish roasting it in the oven, slice it, and serve it on the huckleberry-lavender sauce.  $27.25

Perfect for a rainy night on the coast... Kobe-style boneless beef short ribs, braised and served with a cabernet reduction and sautéed black chanterelles, a trio of fall root vegetable purees, and sage polenta croquettes.  $27.25

A frenched rack of lamb for two is roasted and served with a complex, provençale-style sauce and ratatouille. The sauce takes four days to make. Lamb stock is simmered overnight, reduced to a demi-glace, combined and simmered with wine, a vegetable mirepoix, herbs and other ingredients, and, finally, thickened and seasoned. A request for mint jelly will summon the executioner from the kitchen.  $32.50 per person.

This month sees the return of a very popular dish to our menu. Loin of venison is oven roasted with a mustard-herb rub, sliced and served on wild mushroom polenta.  $28.50

Flavorful, tender Kurobuta pork is purebred Berkshire, raised naturally on small family farms. We prepare a prime rib of Kurobuta pork two ways. The loin is roasted with a "warm spice" mixture. It's sliced and served with a sauce of apple cider and brandy. The ribs are braised and grilled with a spicy apple brandy glaze.  $28.25

Our New York strip steak is hand trimmed and cut to order from well-marbled, grain-fed, mid-western beef. We grill it as you like it.  $28.50. For an additional  $2.00, it can also be prepared as a pepper steak, coated on one side with crushed peppercorns, sauteed and served with a sauce of red wine, brandy and demi-glace.

Cypress Grove's "Humboldt Fog" goat cheese is an ash-covered, soft-ripened goat cheese. It is patterned after France's Morbier, in which the morning and afternoon milk are separated by a layer of ash. We pair the cheese with a paste of dried Mission figs stewed with wine and fresh thyme from our garden, and serve it with baguette slices.

"Serena" is a Three Sisters Farmstead raw milk cow cheese from Tulare County. Similar in flavor to a great Gruyère, it is difficult to slice neatly, but grates great. We serve it over a warm onion-custard tartlet. The sweetness of the onion provides a nice balance to the sharpness of the cheese.

The Marin French Cheese Company produces a soft-ripened cow's milk cheese it calls "Schloss." It has a distinct nuttiness, and a nice bite – almost an "extreme" cheese, but not quite. We serve it with quince paste and roasted cumin shortbread.

Our double caramel custard is the only dessert to have been on our dessert list continuously for over a decade!  $6.25

Our molten chocolate cake this month is made with Belgium's Callebaut bittersweet chocolate. In the center of the cake is a compote of port-stewed dried cherries. Not surprisingly, a glass of port makes a perfect accompaniment. Takes 15 minutes to bake.  $7.25

We begin making our huckleberry-lemon cheesecake by baking citrus shortbread cookies. We crush the cookies to form the crust. Then, we make a creamy, lemon-flavored filling into which we fold wild huckleberries.  $7.25

Apples, cinnamon, caramel. Yum! Our apple napoleon features caramelized puff pastry layered with warm, sauteed apples and cinnamon-infused pastry cream. It's served with an apple brandy-caramel sauce.  $7.50

Rendezvous dessert afficianados know that every year during the holidays we offer our housemade candy cane ice cream with a warm chocolate sauce.  $6.75

If you pre-ordered the pumpkin soufflè with a toasted hazelnut sauce, as suggested above, it should be ready shortly. If not, we may not be able to prepare it for you in time. But it doesn't hurt to ask.  $7.75

Sorbet quatre fleurs is a refreshing blend of orange, lemon, banana and pineapple.  $6.50