Taylor's Automatic Refresher in St. Helena

Petaluma California - Today, we drove all the way to St. Helena for lunch! With all the gourmet restaurants in the area, where did I want to eat? Taylor's Automatic Refresher, of course! One of the last classic drive-in's, Taylor's Refresher is simply perfect. Big juicy burgers, frosty milkshakes and, since they are in St. Helena, a fine selection of local wines. Orders are placed at a walk-up counter and then they deliver your meal from a window on the side of the restaurant. There are nice picnic tables with umbrellas on the lawn behind the restaurant. Yes, there was a line!

A regular burger, garlic fries and a shake at Taylor's Automatic Refresher


Taylor's Automatic Refresher in St. Helena

I want to make it perfectly clear that this was "our" lunch, not my lunch. We were smart and shared, though we each had a shake. As you can plainly see, this lunch was delicious and as you plainly know, garlic fries are not the best thing to eat just before sampling sparkling wines!

DT and I have visited many wineries before. We live next to a big producer and live near many, many wonderful Oregon vineyards. But we thought we could learn a thing or two about the production of sparkling wines by visiting Domaine Carneros.

We did. We learned that we should stick with French champagne. Since the widow Clicquot actually developed the actual methode champagne in 1772, maybe there is a reason her stuff is the best? Also, since so many of the American sparkling wines are more expensive than the real stuff... why not just drink the real stuff?

Domaine Carneros

We headed back to Sonoma to see the cars at the Jaguar Wine Country Classic and walk around the town square where people had set-up craft booths and food stalls. Of course, there was wine tasting (we didn't) and many fabulous cars to see. This is a busy weekend in wine country. Last night, there was a huge wine auction - only $7500 per couple - for charity, with Jay Leno acting as the auctioneer.

It was getting late, so we headed back to the motorhome to freshen-up for dinner. Planning to drive over to the coast for fish, we sat down for a few moments, turned-on the Mariner game and decided to call it a night! This was the first dinner I have cooked since Yosemite! Mariner's won.

RV Park: Petaluma KOA