Talk about farm-to-table, Lodi’s legendary Towne House restaurant was located on a historic farm where the restaurant was the original house to the Towne family. Keeping that homestead vibe, delicious wine country cuisine is served family-style. Elegant but without pretense, I found every detail thought of and carried out with warmth and excellent service. It’s the kind of place where you actually feel a connection to those who aren’t just your servers but feel more like long-time friends.
Located at the Wine & Roses Hotel, amongst vineyards, tall oaks, redwoods, and weeping willows, The Town House’s ingredients come from local farms, including their own garden. Fresh and crisp, everything had that extra crunch to it that made you feel like you were eating something truly homemade.
Romantic inside and out, it’s perfect for twilight dining under a fairy lit gazebo on a warm balmy night. And there are plenty of balmy nights in Lodi. And lucky me, on Tuesday’s in the Town House’s lounge I joined in for their piano sing-along. Their award-winning local Lodi wines are said to “sing out of the glass.” At the Towne House, I was invited to sing with my glass. Holding my wine glass like a microphone gave me a little extra courage to belt out some tunes with the rest of the fun loving and surprising talented locals.
Now that Lodi has emerged as a wine making region (not just grape growers) it’s worth circling on your wine road map. And with restaurants like the Towne House, you get all the perks of wine country – farm fresh ingredients and sumptuous recipes paired delicious old vine Zinfandel wine, but without any of the pretense of the more commercial wine country regions.
*I was a guest of Charles Communication and the Lodi Wine & Visitors Center
*Photo courtesy of the Wine & Roses Hotel
Author, journalist and publishing consultant, Donna Sozio has been featured in 200+ media outlets including the Tyra Banks Show, Early Show, Fox News, Good Day LA, Seventeen Magazine, Yahoo! Personals, Match.com, Lavalife.com, WeBlogtheWorld.com, EcoSalon.com, OrganicAuthority.com and many more.
Her books The Man Whisperer (Adams Media) and Never Trust a Man in Alligator Loafers (Kensington) were Amazon.com bestsellers, had TV/Film options and were translated into German, Portuguese and Czech.
