Brasserie Restaurant - Santa Rosa

What could be better than watching your favorite sporting events on flat screen TV's and eating some of the best food in Wine Country? Yes, it all comes together easily at Brasserie Restaurant, conveniently located at Railroad and 3rd in Santa Rosa. It's even a safe place to go for those who wear the cardinal and gold. Having the Brasserie open to the Fight-On crowd proves luck is not always with the Irish. (The Brasserie no longer hosts the USC games but the food is still exceptional.)

Sometimes it's with USC (USC, USC...).

Lucky, indeed, are North Bay USC fans because Brasserie Restaurant serves up award-winning fare with their three-dollar beers and five-dollar bloody Marys.

Harvest Fair awards have just been handed out and, again, Executive Chef Richard Whipple and Brasserie brought home gold and silver galore.

Best of Show was earned (along with a double-gold medal) for their Swedish Cream Cannolis. I tried them and I'm still salivating.

Double gold medals were also awarded to their rustic, filled puff pastry and their chocolate mousse in a praline cup.

Additionally, they won gold medals for their pork tenderloin, tomato galette and mushroom pasta. Silver was awarded to Brasserie's seared ahi tuna, Dungeness crab cake, polenta lasagna (with saffron tomato sauce) and grilled Korean short ribs.

The Brasserie is a cheery, open space (al fresco dining is an option) with tables you can push around to suit your crowd size and where the food is always fresh and satisfying.

The first time there we tried the crispy green beans. They were lightly fried in something just right just long enough to make them crisp.

On that occasion, Chef also went off the menu and fixed a bowl of pasta the way Carolyn requested it, with olive oil, garlic and little else. Brilliant.

The Artisanal Charcuterie (everything is local!) we ordered during the disastrous USC/UW game was elegant, varied and almost made up for the Trojan loss. Blue cheese, a goat cheese that tasted like real cheese, two different kinds of salami, olives, pickles and some slices of French bread kept our minds off the pain of it all.

During this game Carolyn happened by a chalkboard announcing broccolini soup was the special soup of the day. Being a certified broccoli nut, she was mesmerized. What could this soup be? Broccoli with some sort of pasta? (She is also a pasta nut.)

It turned out to be a dark-green elixir of tastes and essences of broccoli that never should have dared to be so perfectly blended.

After the loss to U-Dub, I insisted on ordering one of Brasserie Restaurant's award winning cannolis (mentioned above). Fortunately for us, two were served on a bed of fresh blueberries, raspberries and some kind of ambrosia red sauce.

Carolyn swooned, and murmured something about how glad she was the alumni club had the sense to pick such a classy place for our happy hour. I ate my cannoli and paid little attention to her.

But I did hear her say, "Isn't it nice to be as loud as you want and eat luscious things?"

Oh, and the hamburger and fries served during happy hour is only $5. All who had one loved it (at least we think all did). We never received a report back from Dr. Mark (see the video). At last count, he was still flourishing his hamburger bun with condiments.

Of course, it could have been my fault we didn't hear back from him. I don't remember much after the cannoli.

Kelly Tyre Rating: Three Tyres (Get there as soon as you can!)

For more information on their happy hour, contact Brasserie Restaurant at (707) 636-7380