Sometimes a Date Night starts with a little afternoon delight.  No, not the kind from the popular 70’s song…I mean the kind of afternoon delight that they’re serving up at Wilson Creek Winery in their new Cicchetti Bar.

The Cicchetti Bar opened in December to fill that gap between lunch and dinner when you’re a little peckish after wine tasting, or want to grab a snack before a movie, but it’s still too early for a full meal.  The Bar is open every weekday afternoon from 3 – 5pm and on Saturdays from 1 – 4pm.  My wife and I stopped in for a bite late on a Tuesday afternoon.

After the Creekside Grille restaurant finishes its daily lunch service, Wilson Creek takes the chefs out of the kitchen and brings them out in public to prepare small plates of food to order at a manned cook’s station.  The Cicchetti Bar is movable, so on a beautiful sunny day you may find it out on the vineyard patio; on a rainy day the Bar may be indoors with a view of the Barrel Room.

Executive Chef Clay Blake created the Cicchetti menu, modeled after the small snacks that are served in bars and restaurants in Venice, Italy.  “The idea is Venetian, and they serve small plates like this called ‘Cicchetti’,” Clay says.  “It’s pronounced chi-KET-tee, which is kind of difficult for some people to say but I hope it will catch on.”

As with Spanish tapas, Italian cicchetti can be ordered individually or combined to make a full meal.  Cicchetti are best paired with a small glass of wine, which Venetians call an ombra, meaning shade or shadow.  This dates back to the old days of Venice, when there were wine sellers in Piazza San Marco.  In the hot months of the year, the wine sellers in the square set their tables in the shade of the Campanile bell tower. As the shade moved around the square during the day, the wine sellers kept moving also, so they would always have their stands in the shade.

When we asked Chef Clay which cicchetti he recommended, he first asked what wine we were having.  We started with a couple glasses of white:  Wilson Creek’s Quartet Blanc, a dry white blend with just a touch of sweetness, and their 2007 Sauvignon Blanc.  Clay prepared the Albacore Escabeche to pair with our wines.  A Spanish-style dish, the albacore was marinated in a spicy sauce made with pickled Jalapenos, then served cold over a bed of greens.  It was presented with some crostini on the side to scoop up a dollop of tuna.  The albacore had just the right amount of spice to get your attention, and my slightly sweet wine cooled it down before the jalapenos overwhelmed.

 Learning about ombras, cicchetti, and escabeche were just the first parts of our culinary education at the Bar.  Clay’s next selection was the Persian Piadine.  The Italian version of a piadina is a thin flatbread topped with a wide array of cheeses, meats or veggies.  Chef Clay’s Persian version uses a warm pita as the base, covered with a blend of cucumber, cherry tomato, radish, red pepper, scallion, pomegranate, garlic, dill, mint, and crumbled goat cheese.  The Piadine was a beautiful combination of colors and delicious flavors. 

 At this point in our afternoon, Bill Wilson, General Manager of the winery, happened by and told us that we had to try the Drunken Figs…but only if we paired them with their 2007 estate Zinfandel.  So we did.  We watched as Clay sautéed the bacon-wrapped figs and explained how they were prepared.  “We poach pears, and into that goes Zinfandel and some of our Sherry,” Clay said.  “We re-hydrate these figs (Calimyrna brown figs from Northern California) with this Sherry-Zinfandel-Pear mix, then cull that down to a nice little base.”  The resulting reduction sauce was rich and sweet, but the salt from the bacon gave it just the right balance.  Bill’s recommendation was a good one; this was my wife’s favorite dish of the day. 

 When another Wilson family member, Libby Wilson Johns, came in to order her favorite cicchetti, the Grilled Cheese Uncrustables, we decided we’d better try these too.  “I get this almost every day,” she said.  “They are so simple and delicious!”  The dish consisted of two mini toasted cheese sandwiches:  blue cheese on sourdough, and provolone on marbled rye with tomato and basil.  We washed down our bites with the last of our Zinfandel, completely happy with our snacks and good to go until our planned dinner later that night.

 We enjoyed interacting with our Chef as he prepared the dishes right in front of us, and the portion sizes were perfect for a light meal.  The added adventure of trying something new, even pronouncing a new word, cicchetti, made the Cicchetti Bar a fun experience.  With a few more cicchetti left to sample from the menu, we’ll be back soon for a repeat of our afternoon delight.

 Located in Temecula’s Wine Country, at 35960 Rancho California Road, Wilson Creek Winery hosts the Cicchetti Bar every afternoon.  Chef Clay is also planning a romantic Valentines Day weekend, offering special four-course dinners on Saturday, Feb. 13^th and Sunday, Feb. 14^th.  For more information or reservations, contact Wilson Creek at (951) 699-WINE (9463) or visit www.wilsoncreekwinery.com.

 If you have a restaurant you’d like to recommend, send an email to Bill at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  And when you visit local restaurants for your Date Night, tell them you read about them in Neighbors!