Michael Bauer isn’t a frequent hater of restaurants, and his penchant for finding the good qualities in many an eatery earned him the moniker “Mikey Two Stars” over at Eater. So it always seems like one should sit up and pay attention when he pans a place the way he did this weekend with Farmstead in St. Helena. Charmed he is not by the concrete floors and cacophonous barn-like dining room, and he gives a mere one star to the food which he calls “out-of-kilter.” [Chron]
While most have noted how Roman-feeling Barbacco is, Patti U. finds Stefan Terje’s Italian small plates to have more of a “California sensibility.” In the end — and p.s., she’s really one who never writes a bad review — she calls it “A meal of many tastes, unified by a common pantry and Terje’s inspired cooking, do add up to a big, luscious whole.” [Examiner]
