favorite diners

Last summer we launched this blog, with a post called PIT STOP… ”On the way to Napa via the 101, from San Francisco (at mid point, on hwy 121) is the most delicious + old fashioned little diner called the Fremont Diner, serving some of the best food in Northern California. A stop here is a top priority!”

This post always generates the liveliest of discussion and is at the top of every itinerary I put together…

SINCE IT IS Michael Bauer month, I emailed him and asked: “which is your favorite old-school diner in the Bay Area…. ?,”  to which he typed back, “the Fremont Diner.”  And I can’t agree more.  So much so, that when my husband tried to buy the old Pommeta’s Deli in Oakville last year, we shamelessly stalked and begged chef/ owner Chad Harris to bring his brand of awesome to the Oakville Grade/ Napa/ Highway 29…

Why?  Because we are fried-chicken-and-waffles-kind-of-people, who can’t help but admire Chad’s audacious vision…  Vision that starts from the moment you walk through those clanky, old screen doors, and into his theater/kitchen. Chad and his fist full of life-altering recipes transformed the old BABE’s diner, from a seedy looking greasy spoon, into a mecca for lovers/ students/ connoisseurs of nostalgic Americana food.  And all done with a modern wink: a tin shed, steps off the highway, pumping out the most delicious fare in the land… decadent things like pulled pork sandwiches; shrimp and grits; fried oyster + shrimp po-boys; ham baked in brown sugar and basted in Coca Cola, served with buttermilk bisquits smothered in butter and honey… Just for starters.

Their breakfasts are as sublime + naughty as their desserts…

Je suis in LOVE!

Fremont Diner
2698 Fremont Drive
Sonoma, CA 95476
707.938.7370

{photo credit: nicole mcintosh bruce}

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