We ended our day at downtown Napa’s Torc, a smart-looking restaurant that we wished we had in New York—if not for the inventive, unpretentious food, for the cool logo featuring a boar. We wondered about that, and learned from Chef Sean O’Toole (who once worked in New York), that “torc”—an ancient Gaelic word for boar—also symbolizes feasting with friends. As the torc also appears on the O’Toole family coat of arms, it seemed destined . . . .
The seasonal menu is driven by a mosaic of ingredients: Dungeness crab with yuzu kosho, “Fairytale Pumpkin Soup” with hedgehog mushrooms, and steelhead trout with fresh garbanzo beans. We left convinced that Napa’s gain was NYC’s loss.
Wine Spectator
Chefs spend all week planning and overseeing the execution of elaborate dishes for the pleasure of the dining public. We have often wondered, what do chefs cook, eat and pour on their days off? In this series, Chefs Cook at Home, we visit the personal kitchens of some of our favorite chefs, to see—and taste—what they're up to in their downtime.
Sean O'Toole does not want to wash dishes or spend all day coddling a sauce when he's in his home kitchen. "A day off involves a lot of sleep," says O'Toole with a laugh. "TORC is a young restaurant—we opened about a year ago—and I don't take many days off. When I'm cooking at home, I'm usually cooking grilled stuff, always on charcoal or mesquite. We'll do a piece of beef, maybe a nice dry-aged rib eye or a New York strip, with a Little Gem [lettuce] salad dressed with good oil and vinegar."
TORC occupies the space in downtown Napa that was once home to the Michelin-starred Ubuntu. O'Toole is a native of Boston who grew up working in the hotel and restaurant business. In a career that's taken him to New York, Paris and San Francisco, he has cooked for Floyd Cardoz, Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Laurent Gras and Ron Siegel. He was the opening chef at Bardessono in the Napa Valley town of Yountville and held operations management roles at the Michael Mina group and at Quince and Cotogna in San Francisco before opening TORC with his wife, Cynthia. She has written a wine list that's balanced between Napa and Old World selections, with a few standout bottlings from other regions.
The recipe below is a much-simplified version of a roast chicken dish for two from the TORC menu. "When you cook six and a half days a week, you want to do something really simple, but at the same time tasty and elegant," says O'Toole. A compound butter under the skin gives the bird intrigue and layers of warm, spicy, nutty and herbal flavors, but at the end of the day, it's a comfortable dish that requires little fussing. Sean and Cynthia enjoy it with a Syrah from Cayuse winery, or another Syrah from Washington, as the wine's big structure stands up to the buttery chicken while an olive/herbal element is echoed in the vegetables.
Zagat
In November of 2013, Torc took over the address formerly inhabited by Ubuntu. And as much as we miss the late shrine to vegetarianism, Torc's food is every bit as destination worthy. Here are some of our favorites from chef Sean O'Toole (Cotogna, Quince).
Dish Standouts: The concept of Louisiana Gulf shrimp "cocktail" ($15), essentially a cool, creamy horseradish panna cotta doused in spicy tomato sauce and topped with shrimp, is a creative twist on a classic. Although the flavor felt a bit muted in the cold preparation, it was still refreshingly unique. Plump Louisiana white shrimp shine in lush grits ($19) graced with green garlic, piquillo peppers and Southern tasso ham.
Dessert Wows: We tried three desserts and loved all of them, which doesn't often happen. For starters, we could swim in house brown butter ice cream ($7). The most layered dessert was a nectarine praline tart ($9), drizzled in praline spread with a mound of smoked lemon cream on top and olive oil cake inside — unusual, nuanced and delicious. Same goes for the lively strawberry parfait ($9; pictured at top), partnered with strawberry ice cream and dotted with rhubarb jam. The highlight on the plate is a sour-tart greek yogurt "roll" easily sopped up with vibrantly purple hibiscus angel food cake.
1140 Main St., Napa; 707-252-3293
Food GPS
The City of Napa, which doubles as the county seat, often gets second billing to Yountville, a smaller city that’s ground zero for The Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, along with talented chefs like Richard Reddington and Michael Chiarello. However, restaurants like Torc are helping to make south county even more formidable. Chef Sean O’Toole, a Massachusetts native who previously cooked at high-profile restaurants like Cotogna and Quince in San Francisco, and Cafe Boulud and Tabla in New York, has his own culinary showcase. I squeezed in two meals at Torc during my visit to Napa for the wine-focused Bud Break Boot Camp, and every dish hit the mark, but none so squarely as the Milk Chocolate Caramel Bar ($9).
When I spoke with O’Toole after brunch, he preached layered textures and ingredients, and they were certainly in effect for this standout dessert. The bar consisted of four layers: crispy feuilletine, fluffy sunflower mousse, milk chocolate mousse, and chocolate caramel ganache. Coconut foam, chocolate snow and candied sunflower seeds capped the bar. Decorative chocolate sauce graced the plate, along with creamy quenelle of toasted sunflower ice cream.
The Examiner
Excuse the alphabet soup but TORC in Napa is the latest and hottest restaurant on the Napa scene. Only open for a few weeks, Chef Sean O'Toole's latest endeavor is quickly capturing the hearts and palates of Napa locals! OMG (Oh my God!) is clearly in order for this well situated and welcoming eatery. One would be well advised to get in before it explodes and it takes weeks to get a reservation. TORC is a reference to wild boar, a send up to Sean'sGaelic heritage where wild boar represents feasts and hospitality. In a phrase - rustic wine country chic!
Napa Valley Register
Napa welcomes a new restaurant to its downtown food and wine roster next week when chef Sean O’Toole returns with a contemporary American eatery in the space that once housed Ubuntu. While it is not his first restaurant, it is the first culinary operation where he is not only executive chef but also proprietor. A few years ago, O’Toole crafted the menus for the restaurant in Yountville’s Bardessono hotel, a post he held for two years.
Urban Daddy
Your remaining weekends in 2013 are filling up fast, and there’s one unchecked resolution for the year:
“Eat heritage pork with cheddar grits on the hallowed grounds of an old yoga studio.”
Close call. Really came down to the wire there.
ZAGAT
There is new life in the former Ubuntu restaurant and yoga studio in Napa, which has been closed for two years. Chef Sean O'Toole will open a contemporary American restaurant called TORC at 1140 Main Street on November 25. Opening dishes include Hudson Ranch heritage pork with cheddar grits, collard greens and mustard sauce, housemade strozzapreti with pecorino Romano, tellicherry pepper and dino kale and a roasted chicken for two with black spice, coconut rice and spicy bok choy. It will be the first eatery for O'Toole, whose resume includes stints at Quince andBardessono.
TableHopper
Dinner at the recently opened Torc was merely a couple of minutes away, and it was such a pleasure to be back in the beautiful Ubuntu space. The place was hopping. Chef-owner Sean O’Toole is totally rocking some great flavors on this menu—he borrows from an international pantry, with the can’t-miss sweet potato pakoras keeping company with his unique pasta dishes (like housemade bucatini in a wild boar ragù with cocoa and hit of lime), and a stellar roasted chicken for two that took a trip all over Asia. Desserts by Elizabeth Gentry will rock your world (don’t hold back here). I’ll be writing about this one more soon, but I will say I had a twinge of jealousy we don’t have this restaurant in SF
7x7
A former chef at Quince, Sean O’Toole, has moved into the space on Downtown Napa's Main Street that once housed the ill-fated Michelin-starred vegan eatery and yoga studio, Ubuntu.