STYLE / RESTAURANTS : A TOAST TO THE WINE COUNTRY

When their tender shoots unfurl and grapevines race toward summer, a trip to Napa or Sonoma is the perfect spring jaunt. This year, I went north early and was delighted to find several new or noteworthy restaurants hitting their stride. With the promise of great food and even better weather to come, the time is right to plan a trip of your own.

The French Laundry in Yountville is set in an idyllic century-old stone building that was once the town’s French laundry and, more recently, a highly regarded restaurant by that name. Thomas Keller, former chef at Checkers in Los Angeles, took over the restaurant two summers ago, and it has not been the same since. Simple country food this is not. Meals here are closer to what you might have in France, in a two-star restaurant going for its third.

Keller recently moved his modest but comfortable kitchen into a small outbuilding where the chef’s table offers dining with a view of the action. The former cramped kitchen is now furnished with an antique zinc-topped bar and stools covered in silvery taupe velvet. He’s also gained a new deeply romantic little dining room with stone walls and just three tables.

The meal I ate opening week, even before the kitchen renovation, was impressive enough, but the lunch I had recently was truly spectacular. And, given the quality and setting, lunch is a bargain: $28 for three courses, $36 for four. The menu is also flexible; you can switch the order of courses or choose two items from one category if you like.

Everything about the place speaks luxury--the space between tables, the French chairs upholstered in black mohair, the handsome table settings, the light breeze playing across pots of flame-red tulips. When my first bite is a slender crisp cone filled with sweet onion cream and good caviar, I feel very lucky. This is everything the wine country should be. A tiny cup filled with the most splendid lobster cream, pale coral against the translucent porcelain, still lingers in the memory. And those were just two of the thrilling amuse-gueules, or palate teasers.

I really don’t want to give up a bite of my mascarpone and potato agnolotti lavished with earthy, wonderfully musky black truffles. But I have to, in order to get a taste of the restrained and very elegant tartare of yellowtail tuna in a bright orange ginger-tomato coulis, and the charred, velvety rare duck foie gras on a soft cushion of sweet, peppery onions. Keller is an astonishing cook, blessed with a rare intelligence and impeccable taste, and just might be the best chef in California. He takes a pretty grilled filet of sea bass and sets it on buttery ribbons of savoy cabbage cloaked in a whole-grain mustard sauce. Maine diver scallops, absolutely perfectly cooked, are paired with a parsley root puree and wisps of fried parsley. Butter-tender breast of veal is stacked with polenta cake and intensely flavorful root vegetables. And for red wine, can there be a better dish than jambonettes de canard, duck legs braised so slowly that they practically melt off the bone, presented with pearl barley and tiny glazed onions in broth? I rest my case.

A few bites of glassy Meyer lemon creme bru^lee strewn with berries, a taste of bittersweet chocolate cake gilded with gold leaf, conclude this splendid lunch. But, no, there’s more. Keller also offers exquisite mignardises, a selection of tiny cookies and other sweets. And finally the waiter passes a box of delicate dark truffles rolled in cocoa.

The French Laundry, at Washington and Creek streets, Yountville; (707) 944-2380. Closed Mondays. Lunch Friday through Sunday only. Five-course prix fixe dinner menu $57, chef’s nine-course tasting menu $70.

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When Mustards Grill first opened, I was astonished that Oakland friends would drive more than an hour to Yountville a couple of times a week. “They always have just what I want to eat,” my friends told me. Twelve years later, they still do. But don’t let the line of tourists in shorts throw you, locals mob the place, too, for inventive California cuisine that’s very good and very consistent.

Check the blackboard above the kitchen for specials. And order the heavenly onion rings with homemade ketchup to share as an appetizer. Smoked salmon, with tender pasilla chile corncakes, is exemplary. Crispy calamari turn up in an Asian-inflected slaw. And the “chopsticks” chicken salad--grilled chicken tossed in a hoisin dressing with shredded vegetables, cilantro, mint and peanuts--gives Chinois on Main’s version a run for the money. The burgers are great; so is the lemon- and garlic-infused, crisp flattened chicken. Fish, such as grilled salmon in a caper and vegetable stew, is treated with respect. And barbecue ribs, tender and smoky, come with squares of corn pudding. Dessert could be lemon meringue pie, a warm apple dumpling--or something from the fine dessert wine and after-dinner drink list, plus a smoke in the outdoor “cigar and wildlife preserve.”

Mustards’ dinner receipt boasts: “Way too many wines.” No way. The restaurant has an eclectic list that’s constantly being revised. Organized by grape variety, it has bottles from all over the world, making it possible to have a mini-tasting of, say, Mourvedre or Syrah. Small wonder the restaurant is a favorite with winemakers.

Mustards Grill, 7399 St. Helena Highway, Yountville; (707) 944-2424. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $32 to $85.

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In the middle of summer, the narrow roads of Napa Valley can seem like the 101 at rush hour. And though neighboring Sonoma County has always offered more open terrain to explore, it’s never had as many restaurant options. But now there’s Willowside Cafe, a cheerful haven worth the slight detour on Guerneville Road just north of Santa Rosa. In the low-slung wood roadhouse, regulars sip wine by the glass at a long bar, and copper tables gleam softly beneath lamps wedged in bare branches against the walls.

Friends from San Francisco who have lived in Guerneville for years still talk about their last meal here. Richard Allen cooks in the style of the Chez Panisse cafe, rustic French-California-Italian dishes--simple, delicious food made with fresh lamb, pork, cheese, herbs and lettuce from nearby family farms.

Willowside, open only for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, is just about all one chef can handle. After reading the one-page weekly menu, you’ll want to order everything: a lovely mushroom soup with scallions, lamb crepinettes (sausage patties seasoned with herbs), plump Prince Edward Island mussels in creme frai^che spiked with whole-grain mustard, scallops in blood orange beurre blanc. And while I love the pork loin, cured in an herb brine, simmered with lentils and served with mustard aioli, it is orzo with artichokes and Redwood Hill Farm feta cheese that turns my head.

Willowside Cafe, 3535 Guerneville Rd., Santa Rosa; (707) 523-4814. Dinner only. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Dinner for two, food only, $45 to $55.

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Bistro Robert, maybe. Or Rene or Raoul. But Bistro Ralph? The name teases out a smile. Picture a storefront on Healdsburg’s diminutive town square. Whimsical touches are everywhere: the name in metal letters flanked by fork and knife above the door, a Victorian pressed-tin ceiling, daffodils in rusty metal vases. And there’s chef Ralph Tingle, a gregarious young man in baseball cap and ponytail, behind the counter.

Before you order, hot miniature rolls laced with anise and topped with salt, start things off right. Flour-dusted calamari are beautifully fried, not a lick of grease. And there’s a huge, refreshing Caesar made with hearts of Romaine and aged Vella Jack. At lunch, there are thin-crusted pizzas topped with fresh Dungeness crab and pesto, a juicy lamb burger with Laura Chenel goat cheese and soul-satisfying soups. The dinner menu is more ambitious and occasionally less successful. Finales include a first-rate chocolate souffle and a terrific sundae with homemade vanilla ice cream.

With its well-priced, all Healdsburg wine list, this is a savvy, sweet-natured, truly local bistro, ideal for lunch if you’re visiting wineries in the Russian River Valley.

Bistro Ralph, 109 Plaza St., Healdsburg; (707) 433-1380. Closed Saturday and Sunday at lunch. Dinner for two, food only, $45 to $65.

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Make note in your Napa Valley address book of Pinot Blanc on St. Helena’s Main Street, yet another of Joachim Splichal’s Patina spin-offs, opening later this month. It and every other restaurant will likely be very hard to get into, so be warned: Whenever you visit the wine country--week day, weekend--make reservations well ahead or you may have to settle for a tuna sandwich for dinner.