When Patti’s Bistro, Sebastian’s foremost German restaurant, moved about eight years ago from its previous location in Micco to the southern edge of town in the Napa auto parts strip mall, it lost a lot of its regular customers.
“You’d think we’d asked them to undertake a death march,” said Patti. The move nevertheless worked out well for Patti and her husband-chef because at its new location, Patti’s draws a lot of people from Vero and the beaches – and Patti believes Sebastian diners are bound to come back soon in sizable numbers, too, with her attractive offer for earlybird diners.
For the summer, Patti’s has a dinner special from 4 to 6 p.m. for $10 (you must order a beverage to get the special price). Entrees are varied to suit anyone’s taste – liver and onions, chicken parmagiana, bratwurst and sauerkraut, shepherd’s delight, herb-crusted cod and pasta aioli, reflecting the ethnic backgrounds of Patti and her husband. She’s German and Irish and he’s Irish, German and Italian. All dinners come with a salad, vegetables, side dish and dessert.
On a recent Saturday night, we couldn’t make the earlybird dinner (the World Cup soccer tournament was on TV). But when we got there toward the end of the dinner hour, Patti, who handles the dining room herself, was able to warmly greet us and accommodate us at a cozy table by the wall despite the fact that she was busy serving several large parties of a mostly older crowd, one of which was celebrating a birthday with balloons and all kinds of merriment.
The interior is reminiscent of a grandmother’s home, with dark wood and wallpaper, but the wall-to-wall mirror gave the room a spacious feel.
We started our dinner by sharing an order of calamari ($9.99) for an appetizer. The large tender rings were accompanied by a nicely spicy marinara sauce – obviously the Italian influence of the chef. The waiter brought us warm dinner rolls, as I ordered a beer – non-alcoholic per doctor’s orders – which came with a tall, frosted glass, while Christine had a glass of pinot noir as she was convinced she was going to order a meat dish. She found the house wine quite palatable.
I’m partial to osso buco whenever I find it listed on a menu, and when I saw it here on the non-German portion of the offerings at $23.99, I couldn’t resist. For a starter, in order to try different things, I encouraged Christine to order the house salad of lettuce, grape tomatoes, and carrots with a choice of several homemade dressings (she chose thousand islands), while I went for a cup of split pea soup, which was thick and flavorful just like it was in the European home where I grew up.
Garlic mashed potatoes and green beans were the accompaniments to my osso buco, a braised pork shank wonderfully seasoned – the meat was so tender it just fell off the bone.
One of us had to go German in character with what Patti’s Bistro is all about and Christine “sacrificed” herself to choose from the German fare and order the sauerbraten ($18.99) with a potato dumpling and red cabbage (other possibilities for sides included potato pancakes or spaetzle).
She said it wasn’t much of a sacrifice since again, just like with my osso buco, the meat was so tender, she didn’t have to use a knife to cut it. The gravy was sweet and tangy from the vinegar marinade and the gingersnaps, which Patti assured us came from an old family recipe.
I decided to have a cup of (decaf) coffee after dinner while Christine finished sipping her wine, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that dessert came with dinner. Christine wasn’t sure about having room for dessert – a slice of moist chocolate cake, with vanilla sauce, whipped cream and blueberries – but after one forkful, she finished it easily.
Service was attentive throughout the entire meal despite the large parties requiring the wait staff’s attention. The waiter promptly filled and re-filled our water glasses and brought more rolls, while Patti herself stopped by several times to make sure everything was satisfactory.
The menu includes several other German dishes, including wienerschnitzel, jagerschnitzel, and a combo for two which includes a piece of all the schnitzels, sauerbraten and bratwurst.
Specials of the day we were there included mahi-mahi with a lime-mango salsa and a veal dish prepared Mediterranean style.
Including drinks and an appetizer, our bill for two came to around $70 before tip, but we’re looking forward to going back and having another wonderful homey meal for much less as we take advantage of one of those earlybird specials – when the World Cup is over.
