A few weeks ago my husband and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with dinner at one of our favorite local fine-dining establishments, Gogi’s Restaurant in the quaintly historic gold mining town of Jacksonville. When the pandemic started and everything shut down, this was one of the places we really feared might close for good, as the dining room is small and the restaurant’s fare didn’t lend itself well to to-go-style service. But owner-chef Gabriel Murphy took it slowly and patiently. That first summer he offered pick-up service one day a week for one of his excellent soups and the house-made sourdough bread. This allowed him to make use of products he already had on hand, give his wait staff a little income and brighten the days (and palates) of his loyal customers. Many of us opted to purchase gift cards at that time in support of the staff and as a sign that we would return whenever the restaurant did.

Gabriel didn’t rush things, and he finally quietly reopened this past summer, with fewer nights per week initially but the same great food (although with some judicious tweaking of some menu staples) and standout service. We’ve visited a few times over the past months, and there really was no question where we would go for our sweethearts’ dinner in February.

As we often have in the past, we decided to forego the crowds on February 14 (and leave those precious few reservations for some well-deserving young couple with little ones at home who need a nice night out!) and visited on the following night, instead. We had a nice steak at home on Valentine’s Day and then enjoyed a pleasant evening at Gogi’s when the waitstaff and kitchen would be under less pressure and we wouldn’t feel rushed to make room for the next sitting.

The dining room, featuring a beautiful dark-wood bar, seats about 30, making for an intimate, casually elegant atmosphere. We usually bring a nice bottle of wine from our home cellar, but Gogi’s is known for its range of inventive cocktails and a nice wine list boasting mostly local vintages from the well-regarded Rogue and Applegate valleys. The menu offers three or four starters; a selection of salads and a soup of the day; and a half-dozen or more entrées, this night including a few seafood options, steaks, duck, pork and a vegetarian dish.

We always start with the aforementioned sourdough bread, served warm with a delicate basil pistou, and the chef always sends out a nice little amuse-bouche. This night it was a petite gougère filled with a pleasing tomato jam.

For our second course, Harry chose the soup, a vegetable lentil, which he found very flavorful and stuffed with vegetables but very light on the lentils. He also likes his soup piping hot, but it came to the table barely warm, so he requested it be heated up,   which they were happy to do. I opted for the Blue Apple Salad, a pleasing concoction of mixed greens, shaved apple, blue cheese (from our local Rogue Creamery), candied walnuts and a tasty spiced apple vinaigrette.

We both really enjoyed our entrées. I ordered the rosemary-crusted bistro filet, a serving which I found just right for me. Perfectly cooked to my request of medium, it came on a bed of whipped sweet potato alongside roasted Brussels sprouts.   The 2012 Va Piano black label Syrah (from Walla Walla, Washington) we had brought from home proved the perfect pairing with the beef and only got better through the evening. Harry couldn’t resist the pan-seared king salmon served on lemon-spinach risotto with roasted asparagus and a perfect shallot-citrus pan sauce.

Of course, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I saved room for one of Gogi’s spectacular desserts, and it just had to be the Triple Chocolate Brownie Cake. It starts with a brownie base and is topped with a lusciously light chocolate mousse, all draped in chocolate ganache. The presentation was as gorgeous as the dessert was decadent, and because I’ve learned a thing or two about red wine and chocolate over the years, I had saved some of my Syrah to finish the meal in style.

We toasted our 42nd Valentine’s Day together and agreed we’d celebrated it in the best way possible.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor