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You are here: Home / Archives for Bocce

Diavola Restaurant – The Little Restaurant that Could

June 1, 2012 by Joe Becerra

For the past four years, Dino Bugica has been running his little amazing Italian restaurant, Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria, in the quiet town of Geyserville. When it first opened, few thought that this tiny town could support more than one upscale restaurant. The established and highly-regarded Santé restaurant was a few doors down, and Dino had been the head chef there. In just a short time, Diavola has become a very popular spot among the locals, as well as the workers and visitors to the nearby wineries of the Alexander Valley and the Dry Creek regions. We have been raving about this spot since it opened. Last week we organized a dinner at Diavola for our 8th annual WCG Bocce Tournament. Sixteen of us wined and dined to our delight, devouring a variety of delicious foods prepared by Dino and his crew.

We began our dinner with three orders of salami and cheese. The salami and sausages are house cured and wonderful. Then came the salad that was so amazingly good: The asparagus and egg salad has a lightly fried farm fresh egg, crispy pork belly, truffled pecorino and lemon vinaigrette. Oh, my!

Dino Bugica chef of Diavola in Geyserville

Dino working the pizza oven. Is Brian Wilson a fan?

For the entrée, we had a mix of tasty pizzas and creative pasta dishes. The pasta with the slowly braised pork, beef, basil, and pecorino cheese was without a doubt the crowd’s favorite. In our dinner party of 16 we had one person with dietary restrictions, and for her, Dino whipped up a farm fresh arugula salad and the most awesome pizza a vegan has probably ever seen or tasted, for that matter.

Here are a few testimonials from our party
Ray says: I thought the food was authentic artisanal Italian with fresh ingredients. The restaurant itself had the feel of a bistro while the service was excellent and well paced.

Mike says: Given the size of our group (number not weight) I thought the price was more than reasonable. They were very poised in their service and plates came at a good pace. I was most impressed by the individual style of each dish and how clear the flavors were displayed without any one flavor being dominant. Close your eyes and you could be in a country inn in Italy, the only thing missing was hearing Italian spoken. Comparing Diavola with other wine country restaurants, this is a clear winner. I highly recommend Diavola.

Janelle says: The food is delicious and innovative, the place feels friendly, and the prices and service were good.

Vegan Pizza

Tita says: Daviola was delightful. The chef was able to accommodate my vegan
needs with a beautiful fresh asparagus and tomato pizza without any
oil, dairy, meats. The salad was freshly prepared with artisan greens
and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Delicious. Special thanks to the
Chef.

The latest accolade for Diavola’s was the inclusion of this restaurant in the recent issue of the Wine Spectator magazine featuring the Sonoma County wine country. I’m not sure which will bring more business to the restaurant, this blog article or the full-page photo of a Diavola pizza in the Wine Spectator.

Menu and other information can be found on the Diavola Website. If you want to visit wineries in the Geyserville area, we have a terrific wine trail to follow. Bring back a bottle of your favorite Geyserville wine to Diavola and enjoy a fabulous Italian feast.

Filed Under: Alexander Valley, Restaurants, Russian River Wine Country - Sonoma Cty. Tagged With: Bocce, Diavola pizzeria, Diavola Salumeria and Pizza, Dino Bugica, Geyserville, restaurant in Geyserville, The Wine Travelers

Armida Winery – one of the best picnic wineries

May 26, 2012 by Joe Becerra

Enjoying a picnic lunch at a winery is one of life’s finer pleasures. We have our list of favorite wineries with great picnic areas and views, and the Armida Winery is one of those that head the list. Armida is located on the edge of the Dry Creek Valley on Westside Road, a couple of miles from the town of Healdsburg. It is small family-run winery producing 10,000 to 12,000 cases a year.

The winery is situated high on a hill affording a spectacular view of the Russian River Valley area. Yes, although the winery is situated in the Dry Creek AVA, the view is of the neighboring Russian River Valley. The winery has a good-sized deck with several tables that afford this wonderful scene. A pond just below the deck adds to the beauty of the vineyards off in the distance. Once people experience this beauty, they return again and again to enjoy this spot. Saturdays are very popular here, especially from Spring to the early Fall months.

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Filed Under: Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Wine Country - Sonoma Cty. Tagged With: Armida winery, best picnic winery, best view winery, Bocce, Russian River Valley AVA, Wine Travelers

Francis Ford Coppola & the WCG Bocce Tournament = Much Fun!

May 29, 2011 by Joe Becerra

It was a perfect day for our 7th Annual WCG Bocce Tournament held in Geyserville at the Francis Ford Coppola winery on May 26th. With four new beautiful, professional Bocce courts, the gourmet Rustic Café, and spectacular views of the Alexander Valley, we could not have asked for a better venue.

Assistant Winemaker Emma Kudritzki

We make the Bocce event a two-night affair, this time lodging in Geyserville at the Geyserville Inn. The day before the tournament we visit a winery or two, have a picnic lunch, and have a nice dinner at a local restaurant. It was a very rainy morning the day we headed up to Geyserville. We were worried that the courts would be too wet to play our tournament the following day. But by 1 pm the rain had stopped and the sun had broken through the clouds. Our first stop was the Mauritson Winery where we had previously arranged to have a tour with assistant winemaker Emma Kudritzki, followed by a tasting of their newly-released Rockpile wines.  We’d brought our picnic lunches along and the Mauritson Winery was kind enough to set up tables for us inside the barrel room and spare us from the outside winter-like climate.

Dinner at Diavola Pizzeria

That evening we had a family-style dinner at Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria in Geyserville. Chef Dino Bugica cooked up a beautiful array of pizzas and fresh pasta dishes and other delicious delights. What a fabulous meal and at such a reasonable price! Who would think that in tiny Geyserville you could find such a gourmet fare as this one? This place should be on Michael Bauer’s Top 100 Restaurants; it is that good.

Lunch at the Poolside Café

Now for the 7th Annual WCG Bocce Tournament. We had 8 teams of Bocce players and, with the four Bocce courts at Coppola, we were able to play a full round-robin schedule with each team playing seven games, a grand total of 56 games plus an added play-off game to decide the championship team.  These courts cannot be reserved, so we’d arrived when the winery opened and immediately started our tournament on all four courts. We played ferocious and spectacular Bocce until the tournament was completed at 4:30 pm. We did break for lunch at 1pm.  In advanced we’d ordered a lunch for us to be served buffet style at the poolside café. The food was wonderful and the setting on the patio by the pool is very peaceful and enjoyable.

One of the great things about Bocce, at least at our level of skill, is that the game is so easy to play, anyone can win. The old sport clichés like “on any given day” or “that’s why they play the game” could not be truer with our tournament. Two of the teams that had fared poorly over the last few years battled down to the wire for first and second place. In the playoff situation, the Library Reserves bested the Winos.  Last year’s winner, the Zin Lovers, finished dead last.  Go figure!

The entire staff at the Francis Ford Coppola winery that attended to us must be congratulated. They were extremely helpful, courteous and very professional. The Staff at the Geyserville Inn was also very gracious in helping us plan our appetizer dinner the night of the tournament.  For a reasonable fee, you can rent their meeting/party room for your casual gathering.  The fee includes the use of tables and chairs, as well as a Barbecue kettle for your use.  We’d all brought appetizers from home and kept them cold in the refrigerators in the rooms.  We enjoyed our relaxing evening rehashing the day’s activities and awarding the perpetual trophy to the Library Reserves. The trophy must be prominently displayed in their house and it is the WCG commissioner’s duty to make periodic inspections at the home of the Library Reserves to see if they are complying with this tradition.

 

Filed Under: Alexander Valley, Bocce, Travel Tips Tagged With: Bocce, Diavola pizzeria, Francis Ford Coppola winery, Geyserville Inn, The Wine Travelers, Wine Country Getaways

Hopland Bocce Wrap Up

May 24, 2009 by Joe Becerra

Our 5th Annual WCG Bocce Tournament is over. As usual, it was a tremendous success judged by the amount of fun we had. Yes, there was a winning team. Hmmm, who would that be? Oh yes, the “Crushers.”Second place went to “Two-Buck Chuckers,”and third place to the “Terrible Tannins.” As one of the players on the “Library Reserves” emphatically put it, “there are no losers here.”

Hopland Inn, Hopland CA

Hopland Inn, Hopland CA

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Filed Under: Mendocino Wine Country, Wine Information Tagged With: Bocce

5th Annual WCG Bocce Bash — Hopland, CA

May 19, 2009 by Joe Becerra

We are on our way to Hopland, CA, to play Bocce, enjoy good food and wine, and most of all have fun with our friends. Bocce ball is a very easy game to play and requires very little physical skill and effort to play at the beginning level. A great athlete can be easily humbled in Bocce by a non-athlete playing in their first game. That is what makes this game so fun and exciting to play among a group of friends. Bocce courts are in many recreation centers and parks. But the best place to play Bocce is at a winery. More and more wineries are adding Bocce courts to their grounds and encouraging visitors to play at least a round or two in between sips of wine.

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Filed Under: Mendocino Wine Country, Wine Information Tagged With: Bocce

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