It’s Friday, and you’ve offered to take some visiting friends out to dinner…a nice bottle of wine, some tapas for the table, and maybe a little music. Where do you go to accomplish all three, Sacramento or Napa? Think again. Placerville—the wine and tapas culinary bastion of Gold Rush country—has you covered.

It’s Personal Wine Bar and Bistro on Main Street features “Americana-style tapas” and “unique regional foods from Spain, Carolina’s low country and New England’s seacoast,” according to their website. In keeping with the low-key dining style typical in these parts, It’s Personal delivers all of the “big three” without all the fuss.

We started our evening with a tapas sampler plate—bacon-wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with Manchego and cream cheese, which were slightly sweet, salty, smoky and addicting, alongside sausage-stuffed mushrooms with a hint of rosemary and olive oil. To ward off fork-wars we placed another appetizer order of each. “No blood at the table,” as my father used to bellow to his six boys. Right Dad?!

We followed with dinner portions of coq au vin and fettuccini Alfredo with shrimp. The chicken (coq au vin) was braised until tender and served over a rich red wine sauce with mushrooms, pearl onions and bacon lardons (“mouthwatering-goodness” would be a perfect adjective here). As our order of shrimp Alfredo arrived, we were surprised to find it accompanied by house-made pasta. Creamy Alfredo sauce with six large shrimp is a no-brainer anywhere, but add al dente fresh pasta to the mix and it’s a whole new level of delicious. 

A couple glasses of wine, one of the beers on tap or their signature sangria blanco eases you right into the evening’s entertainment. Dinner, drinks and music with friends in a quaint setting? It just got personal.

It’s Personal Wine Bar and Bistro, 414 Main Street, Placerville, 530-303-3792. 

By Lorn Randall //  photos by Dante Fontana