Bite Club

Sonoma's comeback kid: Everyone loves a comeback story. All the better when it involves Kobe beef.

After years of lurking in the shadows as a solid but not particularly innovative Sonoma institution, the General's Daughter has been reinvented as one of the most consistently impressive restaurants in Wine Country. No easy task.

With quiet perseverance over the past two years, Chef Preston Dishman has been winning over the hearts, minds and stomachs of locals with his Southern take on California classics. Backed by the restaurant's new owners, Floridians Jim and Bettie Hall, Dishman has been given free rein over the menu, marrying Southern ingredients like andouille sausage with local tomatoes, Dungeness crab cakes with Creole mustard butter or goat cheese beignets. He is, after all, a Southern boy.

Dishman stops, however, well short of making the whole thing feel hokey and forced. Calling his food New American with a distinct Southern drawl, his obvious mastery of classic French techniques serve as a solid platform for his experimentation in Cal-Ital-Lowcountry cooking.

A plate of Dishman's slow-braised American Kobe short ribs at a recent winemaker dinner sealed the deal. Swoon-inducing, the ribs were melt-in-your-mouth bits of meat and sweet sauce piled on a potato puree (more butter than potatoes, Dishman admits) with baby spinach. Professional courtesy was all that kept me from a gushing bear hug of thanks. Maybe next time. This story still has plenty of chapters waiting to be written. General's Daughter, 400 West Spain St., 938-4004.

There's always more delicious Wine Country dish waiting at biteclub.press democrat.com.

-- HEATHER IRWIN