Happy Birthday Jeannie

September 18 is Jeannie’s birthday. She got gifts from her mother, from cousin Cindi, and from friend Jo. We went out to dinner.

Stokes’ Restaurant is on Monterey’s Path of History, in an adobe built in 1833, just twelve years after Mexico’s independence from Spain, when Monterey was the capital of Mexican California. The house was a center of Monterey society in the years following its purchase by James Stokes, an English sailor, later a doctor, druggist, mayor of Monterey and landowner in Monterey and San Jose. There were other owners after the middle of the century, then the adobe was bought in 1890 by Mortimer and Hattie Gragg, and once again its parlor and living rooms played an important role in Monterey’s social life.

In 1950, the property became Gallitan’s, a restaurant with a national reputation. Employees report numerous sightings of a nineteenth century man believed to be Dr. Stokes, and in an upstairs bedroom his beautiful and beloved wife Josefa Soto de Cano, who died in 1855. Hattie Gragg has also often been seen – even to this day – by staff and guests.

Anyway, it’s our first time at Stokes, a rare restaurant with more Mobil stars (3) than dollar signs (2). They didn’t have our first wine choice, a Fumé Blanc, but we ended up with Talbott Vinyard’s Kali Hart Chardonnay, grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County, on the eastern slope of the coastal Santa Lucia mountains.

For a first course Jeannie had fried green tomatoes with horseradish rémoulade; it was excellent. Not much so my crispy potatoes with aioli. I expected a crisp, hard exterior with a soft, hot center (think a good French baguette). I got warm limp lumps of potato that were anything but crisp. It got better with the main course. Jeannie’s crêpes with spinach béchamel, summer vegetables and Gruyère cheese were excellent again, and I did as well with a free range herbed chicken breast on polenta with Dijon jus. First courses were around $4, and main courses $18 and $19. The wine was $8 a glass, not much less than you’d pay for a full bottle of the Kali Hart, but that’s typical for restaurants, isn’t it?

It was a quiet, memorable evening together. Happy birthday, Jeannie.