Union Hotel
Courtesy of the restaurant
There's an obscure rhetorical concept known as "metonymy," which James Thurber described as a condition in which the container becomes the thing contained and, in a linguistic inversion, the thing contained becomes the container. That is: were I holding a bottle of milk in my hand, and were you to threaten me, I might say, "Get away, or I'll hit you with the milk" – metonymy!
A fine example of metonymy of a certain kind is a town that is known for a particular kind of restaurant. Take, for instance, Occidental, CA. Though the town is home to the highly regarded French spot, Bistro des Copains, for those of us who have journeyed there for years, the name of the game in Occidental is Italian food, served family-style at long shared tables, in rooms that hold 500 folks.
Waitresses cruise the restaurants of Occidental with rolling carts, on which they carry Brobdingnagian tureens of soup, bowls of salad, platters of pasta. Wine flows with abandon. The noise is joyous, interspersed only with the occasional gasp of palatal pleasure or cry of digestive pain. The sentence heard most often is, "How do they expect me to finish all this?'' They don't – doggy bags are ubiquitous.
At one time, there were three Italian family-style restaurants in Occidental – the Union Hotel, Negri's and Fiori's. Fiori's (which was owned by Negri's) was the newest of them, and hence had the least loyal following; a few years ago, it turned into a Southwestern restaurant called Altamont. Which left the competition for carnal gluttony to Union and Negri's. When they're full (which is every weekend), they effectively double the population of Occidental. And come holidays like Mother's Day, the wait for a table at the Union Hotel and Negri's can be imposing. Some show up for lunch, only to wind up being seated for dinner.
The menus have grown over the years; there are now many options should you want to go à la carte. But for those of us who prefer what's referred to as "The Original Family Style Menu," the meals are carved in stone – or perhaps pasta. At both the Union Hotel (where there are, by the way, no hotel rooms) and Negri's, the meals start with baskets of bread and butter, and steaming tureens of minestrone, followed in short order by mixed salad, an antipasto of meat and cheese with lots of pepperoncini and olives, plus homemade ravioli and zucchini fritters. At this point, you have a choice, which at the Union Hotel is either chicken or steak. At Negri's, there are more options – chicken, beef and seafood. But the drill is the same – more appetizers than you can possibly consume, followed by a main course you can't possibly finish.
And at the end, when the time comes for dessert, what's called for are the apple fritters, which some argue are better at the Union and others swear by at Negri's. The point is moot, for by this time, only the rare few have tastebuds that are still sentient and functional. Most have entered a vague, dim, calorically-induced haze. And all are grateful that the center of town is, in essence, a large parking lot surrounded by restaurants. Though the drive out of the woods can be a long one – do remember to bring a designated driver...or two.
The Union Hotel, 3703 Main St., Occidental, 707-874-3444
Negri's, 3700 Bohemian Hwy., Occidental, 707-823-5301.
– Merrill Shindler