Thomas Keller’s Ad Lib in Napa gets a reprieve until October

Thomas Keller’s Ad Lib will live on until October.

For those lamenting that you never made it to Keller’s pop-up at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, you just got a reprieve.

Ad Lib, the lauded chef’s tribute to classic American cuisine, will now stay open through the Frys.com Open golf tournament in October. The restaurant, which is housed in the resort’s Royal Oak space, was slated to close March 2.

As the French Laundry, Keller’s flagship restaurant up the road in Yountville, gears up to reopen this spring, the current Ad Lib culinary team will move there. They’ll be cooking out of a kitchen built into four shipping containers while a new expanded kitchen is built next door to the pretty stone building that houses the dining rooms.

Michael Sandoval, culinary developer for Thomas Keller Restaurant Group and former chef de cuisine of Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, will become chef de cuisine during Ad Lib’s remaining tenure at Silverado Resort & Spa.

With its speakeasy vibe, pounding soundtrack and menu of classic American dishes, such as deviled eggs, Caesar salad, beef Wellington, grilled lamb chops with minted apple jelly, and coconut cake, Ad Lib is a one-off, with none of the gravitas of the French Laundry or New York’s Per Se. In Keller’s view, Ad Lib is ELF -- “exciting, loud, and fun.”

And hey, you might be able to catch Keller himself making Caesar salad tableside when he’s in town.

Ad Lib at the Royal Oak, Silverado Resort & Spa, 1600 Atlas Peak Road, Napa, CA; (707) 754-4148; www.thomaskeller.com/ad-lib. Complimentary valet parking. Starters, $12 to $21; plates, $28 to $72; sides, $12; sweets, $10. Open Thursday to Monday.

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