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Michelin recommended in the San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country 2009 issue.
A relaxed feel and light-hearted approach have put this little family-run place on Sonoma's culinary map. Husband-and-wife team Nick and Jen Demarest's respect for locally grown produce is evident in the handful of appetizers and entrees that comprise the daily changing menu of California cuisine. Cooked with care and creativity, the food here is homey and comforting. Tastes of the Mediterranean enliven the likes of simple yet impressive rainbow of heirloom beets paired with leeks and sauteed shrimp, or Moroccan-style braised lamb along spiced carrots, cous cous, harissa, and charmoula.Set on Sonoma's hostoric plaza, the serpentine dining space seats about 40 people and is augmented by a large garden patio furnished with tiny red metal tables.
Sonoma on the Verge
THE GRUB
The family-owned Harvest Moon Cafe feels like a trip to the European countryside; it’s small and cozy with a lovely outside dining enclave and simple but delicious food, such as the housemade pork and pistachio terrine. 487 First St W
San Francisco Magazine July 2007
Harvest Moon Café, Here's a chic little bistro that serves up ever-so-tasty dishes of interesting California cooking. There's quail that might be southern fried, or stuffed with risotto. A small but interesting wine list will intrigue you. There's usually a superb pasta dish, but the menu changes nightly, so you never know quite what to expect—except that Chef Nick Demarest's preparations will be first-rate. His wife Jen makes the desserts.
Press Democrate 2006
New, small and casual, Sonoma’s Harvest Moon Cafe offers local food filtered through a Mediterranean sensibility. Chef Nick Demarest worked at Chez Panisse, but he also spent a year cooking for the ambassador to Cyprus, and both have influenced his food. The best seats are inside, at the counter by the kitchen, where you can watch Demarest (and his pastry-chef wife, Jen) while they work their magic. Listed in the farm to table restaurants issue under the "worth the trip category. Gourmet Magazine October 2007
Blanco y Negro Dessert
At Harvest Moon Cafe in Sonoma, California, Nick and Jen Demarest prepare simple food with a Mediterranean bent. Jen, who creates the desserts, uses a food processor to make this lemony, cinnamon-laced ice milk for her nod to Italian affogato—espresso over ice cream. Desserts like this earn raves from the locals, including revered author Paula Wolfert.
Food and Wine August 2007
BEST FOR A COZY DATE NIGHT
Harvest Moon Cafe
The scene Sweet little stucco-walled dining room right on the square, with patio seating behind.
The food Two Chez Panisse alums get back to basics in a short, fresh Mediterranean menu. Remind yourself how good perfectly cooked beans can be, especially topped with stellar homemade pork sausage.
Sunset Magazine March 2008
Go for the gold
On the menu
“I love those things,” says Nick Demarest, chef-owner of Harvest Moon Café (487 First St. w., Sonoma, 707-933-8160). “We grow Sun Golds in our garden at home and eat them straight off the vine.” The ones that make it to his kitchen are incorporated into any number of dishes all season long. “Sun Golds tend to be very acidic, so I like to pair them with rich dishes,” he says, “like pappardelle with pesto or over a grilled hanger steak. Slice the tomatoes and mix them with salt and basil, and they make their own juicy thing.” And when they start to get a tad overripe, Demarest throws the tomatoes into the blender to make vinaigrette. “Just blend them and combine with shallots, a bit of red wine vinegar, and olive oil. We use it on all our tomato salads,” he says. San Francisco Magazine July 2007
The family-owned Harvest Moon Cafe feels like a trip to the European countryside; it’s small and cozy with a lovely outside dining enclave and simple but delicious food, such as the housemade pork and pistachio terrine. READ MORE
Sf Chronicle—Sunday, August 12, 2007 Michael Bauer
New moon rising
Harvest Moon Cafe shines fresh light on Sonoma's main square.
Josh Sens
October 2006
On a recent summer evening in downtown Sonoma, Jen Demarest worked the floor of her family-run restaurant, delivering plates of wild arugula salad with a locally grown baby strapped to her chest. From behind the counter of his small, open kitchen, Jen’s husband, Nick, chatted with diners while tossing a plump quail on the grill. He bore the flushed, happy look of a proud, busy parent—the father of a 3-month-old girl and the patriarch of Sonoma’s best new place to eat.
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