Husband and wife team Eric Korsh and Ginevra Iverson, owners/chefs of Restaurant Eloise in Sebastopol, moved here from the East Coast and are bringing a little “New York audacity” to our polite North Bay palates.

We North Bayers, as a rule, are a courteous group. Plus, we like to be liked. So when we invite people over to our place for a meal, we tend to worry about not offending anyone, pleasing everyone... “What if the peppers are too hot for some…hold off on the garlic in case someone doesn’t want their breath to stink…ooh, easy on the salt, it’s bad for you...” And somewhere along the line of thinking and rethinking, we tend to water down the dish, and our personalities.

Bless the New Yorkers. They have a lot of personality.

And when you go over to Eric and Ginevra’s place for a meal, be prepared to place yourself in their capable hands and try dishes that have their own vibrant, quirky, intense, real personalities shining through. Now, granted, when something has a lot of character, there is the danger that you might absolutely hate it. But, then again, you might fall in love.

Take, for example, the roasted bone marrow served with parsley salad. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But, for many, it’s their own personal nirvana. This is the one dish at Restaurant Eloise that was not created by either Eric or Ginevra. Instead, Ginevra brought that recipe with her from her former job at Prune in New York City. And is the owner/chef at Prune upset that one of her restaurant’s most popular dishes will be served elsewhere? Heck no. “We all agree that the fried bone marrow dish is just too good not to share,” Ginevra explained. “This is one of the best things in the world to eat and it would just be wrong to keep it a secret.” In fact, the owner of Prune got this very same recipe from St. John in London.

Look for this and other audacious dishes at Restaurant Eloise. But, of course, this is Wine Country, so you’ll also be finding plenty of fresh, local produce in your meal. And some of the produce will be extremely fresh and local—straight from the Restaurant Eloise backyard garden. “One of the big draws of moving out here is that we would be able to have our own garden to cook from,” said Ginevra, who grew up in Marin. “Back in New York, we had to grow tomatoes from the pots we kept out on the front stairs of the brownstone. Here…here there’s so much fresh produce all the time…it’s incredible. It really does add a whole new dimension to everything.”