Following a chef from Ciccio to the CIA
I’m always fascinated by the movement of chefs from one kitchen to another, and how they adapt to new environments. Sometimes they soar — and in other cases, they fall flat.
Recently I’ve been following the career of Polly Lappetito, who came to prominence at Ciccio in Yountville and earned a place in the Top 100 since it opened in 2012.
Her soulful cooking was a perfect fit for the compact space of a century-old building that at one time was an Italian market. Diners could see her working in the open kitchen where she prepared her versions of Italian American specialties, which were written in script on the one-page menu. Her kitchen turned out some of the best pizza in the Napa Valley, as well as straightforward pastas and main courses like pork Milanese and house-made cannoli for dessert.
In May she was lured to the Restaurant at Culinary Institute of America Copia. Before she arrived, the restaurant had debuted by taking a page from State Bird Provisions in San Francisco. The chefs would prepare dishes — compressed beets with Point Reyes blue cheese; beet-cured salmon with fennel; hanger steak tartine — and one of them would then circulate in the dining room to “sell” them. While novel, the concept was an awkward fit in the large, modern restaurant.
Lappetito returned to conventional service and started preparing a menu that looks similar to Ciccio, without the pizza.
On a recent visit, for example, the menu included only a dozen savory items, starting with chicken liver toast with crispy sage ($6) and a simple escarole salad with walnut vinaigrette ($11).
Vitello Tonnato ($14) was right out of the Ciccio playbook: a linear pile of shaved meat on preserved tuna with aioli and dots of capers. There is a classic cacio e pepe ($16), bucatini with black pepper and Grana Padano cheese. Main courses included a rustic vinegar-braised chicken with onions, spinach and pancetta ($21), and pancettawrapped lingcod ($25). While every dish was good, some lacked the finesse I found at Ciccio. The vinegar on the braised chicken was a little too sweet, and obvious seasonings like pancetta were too liberally relied on. That ingredient flavored braised chicken, lingcod and white bean and kale soup ($9).
The cannoli that was a mustorder at Ciccio is on the CIA menu; it was good but didn’t taste as fresh as when I had it at Ciccio.
I also returned to Ciccio to see how the kitchen was being handled under chef Bryant Minuche, her former sous chef.
The food is in the same vein but missing the precision Lappetito brought to the menu. That is especially true of the pizza ($24), which was a little doughy. When paying $24 for any pizza, which is even the cost of the margherita, it should be perfect. The menu also seems to have expanded. It included a satisfying gnocchi with Sunday Sauce ($19), a rich tomato meat sauce with cherry peppers; and herb-crusted Mount Lassen trout ($26) atop golden beets and caper aioli.
I was also a little disappointed in the too-sweet semifreddo ($6). However, one thing that never disappoints is the offering of a half-dozen variations on the negroni.
While Ciccio felt a little off kilter, the Restaurant at CIA Copia was better than what I remember — but not as good as Ciccio under Lappetito. The CIA dining room has a more refined setting with carpeted floors and expansive windows, and the more corporate vibe seemed slightly at odds with the rustic food. However, I have hopes that the two might mesh over time as the chef gets more comfortable with the new venue.
Ciccio, 6770 Washington St., Yountville; (707) 945-1000. www.ciccionapavalley.com. Dinner 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.
The Restaurant at CIA Copia, 500 First St., Napa; (707) 9672555. www.ciaatcopia.com. Lunch (or brunch) and dinner daily.
Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. Email: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1 Instagram: @michaelbauer1