Coppola offers hearty taste of American Indian cuisine
After months of evading questions about what, exactly, its new restaurant would be, the Francis Ford Coppola team has announced the opening of Werowocomoco, serving “American native cuisine” at its Virginia Dare winery in Geyserville. It opens to the public Saturday, Nov. 5.
Pronounced exactly as it’s written, Werowocomoco takes its name from a 17th century American Indian settlement on Virginia’s York River, once the capital of the Powhatan Confederacy. You might wonder: What do the Powhatans have to do with Sonoma, to which a number of American Indian groups are native?
It doesn’t — rather, it has something to do with the story of Virginia Dare, a complicated myth that offers an origin story for winemaking in America. “The focus of our story is on another early Virginia colony,” Coppola explained in an email, “also known in the story as ‘the lost colony’ because that is the setting of the birth of Virginia Dare, and one of the earliest American wine producers.”
“Given the setting of this early colony and the birth of Virginia Dare, I felt it appropriate to feature American native cuisine,” Coppola said.
The restaurant, with a 66-seat interior and additional patio seating, features menu items like a bison burger on an acorn bun, venison chili and rotisserie prairie chicken. Fry bread makes several appearances: as tacos (where salsa choices include a butternut squash number with Urfa chile), as sponges for the stews and as dessert, when it is filled with berry compote. A restaurant representative said that there is no executive chef and that Coppola himself created the menu.
A short wine list is dominated by Virginia Dare bottlings, supplemented by a few Sonoma County neighbors like Seghesio, Pedroncelli and Idlewild. The by-the-glass selections, all Virginia Dare, range from $5.25 to $7, and bottles go up to $120. Liquor is not available.
On Friday, Nov. 4, the night before the grand opening, Werowocomoco plans to invite Geyserville residents to the restaurant for free food. Invitations will be sent in the mail a week in advance.
Werowocomoco, 22281 Chianti Road, Geyserville. (707) 735-3500. Open for lunch and dinner. For the winter, first seating will be at 11 a.m. and last seating at 6 p.m.
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Ins tag ram :@ esther mob