"Inspired by California's most famous wine region, the restaurant offered a tasting menu with wine pairings and brought in chef Andrew Sutton, who came from Napa Valley's Auberge du Soleil, to lead the culinary program. It brought in rave reviews and accolades from national food publications. In its opening review, the Los Angeles Times said that "Napa Rose is the only one that offers real competition to the chef-owned kitchens" in Downtown Disney, like Wolfgang Puck's now-gone Avalon Cove."
"But in recent years, the restaurant had gotten tired. The food was consistently good, and the tables were consistently full, but the atmosphere itself felt outdated. The earth-toned interior that was chic in the aughts felt more like a holdover from another time; the framed reviews on the walls, mostly dated from two decades ago, didn't help with the impression of age."
""When we were thinking about what the new Napa Rose looked like, of course we had to stick to our California craftsman roots," Walt Disney Imagineering's Katrina Mosher, who worked on the restaurant's redesign, said at a media preview on Feb. 3. "One of the things at the Grand that we always try to do is push for better design for a modern-day audience.""
Napa Rose reopens Feb. 6 following a 10-month closure and full renovation that updates interiors, menus and dining experiences. The restaurant originally opened in 2001, introduced tasting menus with wine pairings and recruited chef Andrew Sutton from Auberge du Soleil, earning national acclaim. The space had grown dated in recent years, with earth-toned decor and framed reviews from two decades earlier. The refurbishment keeps the dining room layout, including an open kitchen and chef's counter, while presenting a cozy, alluring and modern-but-not-trendy look rooted in California craftsman design.
Read at SFGATE
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