Preview: The French Laundry

 

Before I try to write an elaborate post on our experience at the French Laundry, I wanted to provide some context on how we got reservations.

 

Bottom line: We got lucky. I should have bought a Powerball ticket.

 

Basically I asked Visa Concierge to "try" to book a reservation at TFL for any weekend in August. No such luck. I was left on a waiting list for several days. Having failed for the Nth time, I figured I should book dinner at another restaurant. That happened to be Benu.

 

Fast forward a few days before we were to leave to Napa, I had this revelation. A thought came into my mind that maybe, just maybe we might dine at the French Laundry. I was also contemplating that I could use the money to buy new carbon fiber wheels for my road bike. Decisions, decisions...I cancelled the Benu reservation on a hunch.

 

So August 10th rolls around and I'm thinking, "Wow, this anniversary sucks." We spend the day in San Francisco and we come back to the hotel to take a nap before dinner. I dump Benu to dine at...Bouchon. It was a really early reservation so we had to leave the hotel to drive to Yountville around 3pm.

 

All of a sudden my phone rings. I thought it was my alarm but it was actually...

 

The French Laundry...

 

Thankfully, I had their number on my phone or I would have mistaken them for a telemarketer. I answer the phone with my work voice, "Hello, this is Jocelyn."

 

After that it was a blur. The lady on the other line said something about...cancelled reservation, celebrating an anniversary, waiting list, an open table on Sunday.

 

All I knew was...don't hang up, say yes and give them your credit card number to seal the deal. So that's how we got reservations at the French Laundry.

 

Pure luck and a gift from God.