PRESS Restaurant: A Napa Destination for Wine-Loving Bacon Eaters

Love travel? Love wine? Love bacon? Love Napa?

How about a combination of everything? You can find it all at PRESS Restaurant in St. Helena, California.

But check this out… PRESS Restaurant is unique in that it doesn’t just offer bacon on the menu, it actually features a Bacon Bar!

Here’s a look at what you might find at this distinctive bar:

Hobbs artisanal (applewood-smoked) bacon ($3) from San Francisco Bay Area is smoked two full hours longer than usual; applewood smoke gives it balanced salt-sweet flavors, firmer texture, and a more delicate smoke character than most.

Nueske bacon ($5) – an extra-smoky bacon from Wisconsin with a dense, meaty texture – earned the 2009 Gold Award from the Specialty Food Association, and has been acclaimed in Saveur and Cuisine magazines, the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. For the Bacon Bar, PRESS chef Stephen Rogers cuts it extra thick to show off tender leanness; he also adds it to green vegetables for an explosion of savory flavor.

“Candied” bacon ($4) – Hobbs is also the base for the house’s special Candied Bacon, which PRESS processes with raw sugar and Dijon mustard. The contrasting sweet, salty and savory flavors are a bacon lover’s dream.

But, you haven’t seen or tried anything until you check out their long and comprehensive wine list… all 39 pages.

Order by the glass, bottle, or spring for 1.5 liters. The variety and price point is yours to choose from because they literally have it all. Just in case you forget, the PRESS Restaurant wine list is a not-so-subtle reminder… this is Napa.

And yes, Chef Stephen can whip up vegetarian dishes as well.

Next time you find yourself playing wine tourist in Napa, you know where to eat…