The Village Pub at The Vi, Ferndale, CA…read more
We almost walked away....
We'd been in and out of The Vi over the years, back when the building was clearly the best thing about the place. And that building deserves better than that.
If you've never been to Ferndale, this Victorian is the centerpiece of the whole town. The main drag ends right at its front door. Walking in and looking at the original woodwork, that hundred-year-old bar, the staircases, the paint, it's a genuinely remarkable space. We just stopped coming because the food and drinks couldn't keep up with the room.
What brought us back? A new menu. Five egg white drinks. My wife spotted them and that was enough. It's our anniversary, let's give it one more shot.
We sat at the bar and ordered two whiskey sours. What arrived looked beautiful, but no foam. Turned out they were out of egg whites. That's a tough moment when it's the reason you drove to Ferndale on your anniversary, and my wife didn't hide her disappointment.
The bartender was gracious, offered to comp the drinks, offered to make something else. We said no, we'd drink them. And honestly? Even without the whites, the craft was there. Ice cold, properly made, genuinely delicious. The bartender knew what she was doing.
We ordered food and settled in.
The farmer's lunch came out first and stopped us both cold. Sliced salami, a small cured sausage, three clean triangles of aged cheese, two thick golden toast points with a rosemary sprig tucked into a pool of herbed butter, and a generous pile of pickled carrots and onion with whole peppercorns. In rural Humboldt, plating usually means they slid it toward the table and called it done. This was intentional, centered, composed, magazine-worthy. Twelve dollars. We looked at each other like we'd found something.
Then something happened that we're still talking about.
The new owner, Jason, moved here from Nashville and brought a lot of that culinary energy with him. He'd been watching the whole egg white situation. He sent his bartender back over with an offer: could he interest my wife in one with egg whites? She said she thought they were out...
Turns out, He'd gone to his house, which is in the building, and gotten fresh eggs.
That's the kind of thing that turns a meal into a story. She got her whiskey sour. Proper froth, ice cold, executed right. Exactly what she came for. The mood shifted completely. We ordered dinner.
She got the Oklahoma Smashburger, two smashed patties with caramelized onions spilling out the sides, American cheese melted clean, everything packed into a buttered and toasted brioche bun with handcut fries piled around it. That bun had a shine on it. I ordered the steak frites, flatiron, medium rare, pre-sliced and blanketed in a thick au poivre sauce with chopped parsley, a mountain of handcut fries alongside, and a ramekin of housemade dill ranch that had no business being that good.
I want to be careful about how I say what I'm about to say. That steak is in the top five I've eaten in fifty years of eating steak everywhere I've ever traveled. I've had a 35-day dry aged tomahawk, I've sat at Niku in San Francisco, Stark's, The Palm in Las Vegas, ate from the hands of Bobby Flay & Morimoto himself so i know a great steak. This flatiron, at $32, belongs in that conversation. I didn't expect to find a top five steak again. I thought I'd already hit that ceiling. It's right down the street from my house.
Jason came out to talk, thought we were travelers since no one recognized us. We told him we live in the next town over. He seemed genuinely happy to be here, proud of what he's building. You could see how he runs the place. Hire people who can shine, then get out of their way and back them up. That bartender was carrying the bar with real confidence.
The chef came out and you could see in his face that it meant something to hear the food was landing because the Vi is now something. The building always was, and now the inside can finally match it.
If you're in Humboldt County and want a real craft cocktail, a kitchen that's paying attention, and an owner who will literally go get you eggs from his own home on a Saturday night, this is the place.
We'll be back. Often.
Cheers and Well Done!
