by Laura Ness
Bardessono Hotel & Spa is truly a secret gem in Yountville, California—one that, once they find it, guests are reluctant to leave. Says its sommelier and food and beverage director Adam Kerr, “Bardessono is just off Yount Street, but it’s quite well-hidden. We call our long, beautiful driveway ‘the road of intent,’ because unless you specifically [know to] go down [it], you don’t!” At the end of said driveway awaits a luxurious oasis whose natural beauty is enhanced by the earnest and genuine hospitality of the staff, Kerr included.
From his first job as “the muffin man” at Sweet Tomatoes in his native San Diego, Kerr eventually became a bartender, then a restaurant manager. He was working in Honolulu when he met Master Sommeliers Chuck Furuya and Roberto Viernes, who opened his mind and palate to wine. A strategic introduction landed him his first stint as a sommelier in 2006—at no lesser an institution than The French Laundry, also in Yountville. “When I first arrived, it was like, ‘Oh, wow!’” he recalls. “For the first time in my career, I had found a team that had worked as diligently as I had to get there!”
Though he eventually left California to build his career from Sante Fe to Waikiki, he returned in 2021 to take over the food and beverage program at Bardessono’s Lucy Restaurant & Bar. There, his team includes four managers, 15 kitchen professionals, and a 30-strong front-of-house crew. Many have been there for five years or more, which is remarkable in today’s dining landscape. “They found their niche,” says Kerr. “It’s not hustle and bustle. Here, it’s about integrity of service: one table at a time, one person at a time.”
When it comes to building Lucy’s wine list, Kerr jokes, “Our guests have better cellars than we do! They have more Burgundy, Barolo, Brunello—things I can’t even get. I started thinking about what we can bring that they won’t have the ability to get themselves.” To that end, he focuses on under-the-radar side projects from star California winemakers like Andy Erickson, Jayson Woodbridge, Jeff Ames, Laura Diaz, Heidi Barrett, and Philippe Melka. He’ll tell guests, “‘Hey, did you know that Philippe is making Merlot?’ [My selection] is creative; it’s fun and builds excitement. . . . I’m a Field of Dreams guy—I always knew that if I built it, they would come!”
Kerr’s “small-scale, intimate, personal” approach extends to Lucy’s seasonally driven cocktail program, which relies heavily on ingredients from the certified-organic on-site garden. As he recalls, “When I started, I sat down with Christopher Rodriguez, our creative and brilliant bar manager, and asked, ‘Who are we trying to be?’ We literally wrote it down on a pad. ‘We are classic, seasonal, local, innovative. We are the standard-bearers on the block.’ We condensed our program down to eight cocktails. Everything is measured precisely. It’s like baking. We must reproduce them flawlessly every time.” A favorite recent example: The That’s Fall, Folks, which Kerr calls “a play on a Sidecar with St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur, vanilla, orange, lemon, and Armagnac. It was elegant and refreshing. We like to build off classics and improvise.”
To continue the fun, Kerr has begun to host Tiki Thursdays—but dispense with notions of bad Hawaiian shirts and tacky mugs. “We make our own syrups and put the drinks, like Banana Punch with mezcal, falernum, strawberry liqueur, and lime, into Martini glasses or nice crystal,” he explains. “Soon we’ll have enough recipes to write our own cocktail book.”
Whether he’s shaking things up behind the bar or sleuthing out the next small-production wine gem, Kerr personifies Bardessono’s ethos of excellence. “Napa is great people doing great things,” he asserts. “I’ve never been somewhere where there are so many people who have worked really hard to get where they are. Why would you trade this for anything?”