La Toque’s wine list is among the very best in the Country, one of 28 awards of ultimate distinction given by the Wine Enthusiast, (Only 5 in California) Ken’s picture is there and my name is spelled correctly. All is fine in the world.

Ok, this is excellent news, but we won the same award last year and since our list has gotten better, Ken and I aren’t surprised that we are award worthy again, but people who subscribe got the issue before it hit the newsstand and kept calling us to congratulate us on being a “hot” restaurant.

It is good to be hot and great to get press but we were curious to see how we would be “hot” exactly. Where I am from,  hot means movie stars and every table booked every night. No restaurant in Napa Valley is turning away business in January. (La Toque does have hot tables by the fireplace and those are booked every night and we get our fair share of celebrities.) Hot, as a term,  is more often applied to new places. We have been open for 8 years. Could we be hot now? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

On the cover, Jaime Pressly is hot. that much is very clear, a beautiful actress, she has a sassy, seductive and vulnerable look to her, she comes across as a younger and taller Michelle Pfeiffer from the south. It is well known that wearing black makes blondes look slimmer, the photo makes clear that drinking a glass of wine makes blondes look smarter. And just underneath this hot picture is the headline, Restaurant Hot List. If you look inside the magazine there is no such article about “hot” only about awards. But there is a comments about Jaime’s wine preferences, Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir!

The Restaurant Hot List, and not the Hot Restaurant List. Just as well really, it is a good list. Everyone that reads the magazine is welcome to join us at  La Toque, we are very warm, with a fireplace, a candlelit room, beautiful flowers, genuine smiles and smoking hot food and wine pairings.