Eating in wine country

A wine-tasting weekend would not be complete without good food, and we found some great restaurants this weekend. It always surprised me that in the entire Yakima Valley, you only had a choice of fast food, Mexican, or Chinese. In all the years we lived in the Tri-Cities and traveled to and from Seattle, we never stopped to eat in the valley. We'd eat in Yakima, or wait until we got home. But just like the winery scene is changing, so is the restaurant scene.

Last year we discovered Picazo, a restaurant in old-town Prosser, with a chef who cooks with a Spanish flair. Pasta, steaks, seafood…  excellent food, excellent wine list to go along with it. This was our choice for dinner on Friday night.

On Saturday, we tried a new place called Tuscany, which is in the same block as Picazo, in an old corner building with gorgeous arched windows. It's tiny, only 10 tables. But the food was amazing. We'd decided on steaks tonight, after all the great reds we tasted today. So with a glass of Mercer Cab Sauv in hand, we chose New York strip steaks, which came with salad, grilled veggies, and roasted potatoes…  and lots of garlic. The steaks were brushed with garlic butter, and they were fork tender and mouth-watering. We both agreed that this is one of the best steaks we've ever had.

We speculated that this was once the local bank, as it has the rather elaborate interior molding and lamps you'd expect to find in a bank (gives the image of prosperity, very comforting to the clientele). I loved the bathroom—tiny, tiled, great sink, and you step up into the toilet stalls. Reminded me of the  Roxy theater in Renton from my childhood.

And thanks to a Central Washington magazine we picked up at Barnard Griffin, we discovered a new restaurant in Sunnyside. We were looking for someplace other than the hotel for breakfast, and since there were a couple of caches in town that we planned to find before we started wine tasting, we decided to give it a try. Bon Vino doesn't sound like a restaurant that would serve breakfast, but it was packed. The curb appeal isn't great, but inside it's all Tuscan with earth colors, polished stained concrete floors, pendant lamps, lots of wine-related art on the walls, and a fireplace in one corner. Behind the L-shaped bakery counter they've painted an entire wall with chalkboard paint, and that's where the menu was. Nice touch! My  kielbasa and eggs were flavorful, and my English muffin was homemade (as were the lemon bars we bought for an after-dinner snack). This restaurant is definitely on our list for next year's wine tasting weekend.