There Will Be Cake!
Legendary Mustards Grill Celebrates 25 Years In Napa Valley

Yountville, CA, April 7, 2008 – Mustards Grill, Napa Valley’s landmark restaurant, is pulling out all the stops in June to celebrate twenty-five years of extraordinary food.

When award-winning Chef Pawlcyn first fired up the grill at this wine country roadhouse in 1983, she was at the forefront of the farm-to-table revolution, and set a precedent for culinary innovation and excellence that continues to be an inspiration today. A place where Mac trucks are as welcome as Mini-Coopers, Mustards enchants and surprises all who visit with creative twists on America’s favorite comfort foods.

Throughout the month of June, Pawlcyn will pay tribute to her culinary past by rolling out Mustards’ greatest hits, including appetizers, entrées, and desserts from various years along the way. Chinese chicken salad, ripe garden tomatoes with basil, and warm goat cheese salad have all evolved into classics, becoming standard fare at diners and restaurants across the country. These and other iconic dishes are now part of America’s culinary heritage, and the public will be able to experience the original creations firsthand.

Mustards Grill became an instant hit when it opened its doors in 1983. But just like a movie or song that keeps fans entranced for decades, this overnight sensation had staying power. More than just a neighborhood hangout, devoted fans have been meeting here for lunch every week for two decades. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that newcomers never feel out of place. Much like Cheers, which gained a foothold in America’s imagination that same year, Mustards is a place where everyone knows your name. The idea of a spot beyond the realms of home and work, where people can let down their guards and meet new friends, resonates just as strongly with today’s customers as it did then. This warmth, however, is just one part of the recipe.

With Northern California’s bountiful harvest at her fingertips, Pawlcyn draws inspiration from her extensive travels and vast cookbook collection (with upwards of 6000 volumes) to invent the cross-cultural combos that Mustards is famous for. From the very first menu it was clear that Pawlcyn had a unique approach: She combined grilled, locally made, house smoked ham with Jarlsberg cheese and tomato chutney for a new take on the classic ham and cheese sandwich. With Executive Chef Erasto Jacinto by her side, other scrumptious dishes followed: Sonoma duck with tomato salsa and black beans (1988), fried calamari with curried slaw (1994), and chile marinated lamb shanks with mashed potatoes and pumpkin seed pesto (2006).

Pawlcyn’s commitment to fresh, local, and hand-grown food goes beyond the norm.

The tomatoes for the housemade ketchup, served as a condiment to Mustards’ famous onion rings (1983), come from her personal organic farms. Mongolian pork chops (1986), tea-smoked duck (1992), and baby back ribs (1990) all get their wood-smoked goodness from the house smoker, hand-built by a German bricklayer.

Persimmons, apples and citrus grow on trees in Mustards’ garden, one of the first organic restaurant gardens in the country. Local blueberries, the size of marbles, show up in cobblers and crisps.

Pawlcyn went on to become a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, chef-owner of Go Fish and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena, and co-creator of many renowned Bay Area restaurants, including Fog City Diner, Bix, Roti, Tra Vigne, and Buckeye Roadhouse—quite a journey from twenty-five years ago when Pawlcyn was in her 20s and had just realized her dream of opening Mustards.

Throughout June, special selections from the early wine lists will available. Brimming with hard-to-find gems and older vintages that have sold out, Mustards has been called a “wine geek’s paradise” but is also accessible to casual sippers thanks to an extensive and varied list of wines by the glass. The comfortable dining room and lively atmosphere is the perfect backdrop to this snobbery-free wine country dining experience. So stop on by in June to raise a glass to a quarter century of good friends, happy times, and great food.

Mustards Grill is located at 7399 St. Helena Highway in Yountville, California and offers lunch and dinner seven days a week. For reservations please call 707-944-2424 or visit www.mustardsgrill.com.

For more information please contact:
Burditch Marketing Communications
Paul Burditch/Marin Levi
323.932.6262
paul@burditchmc.com / marin@burditchmc.com