Answers to Questions About “The Vine”

The Vine Restaurant is one of the Best Walla Walla Restaurants

You have asked! So here are the answers.

Let me provide some quick answers to common questions about The Vine, the on-site restaurant of Cameo Heights Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Touchet Washington, 25 miles West of Walla Walla.

  1. So the first question must be: Are you a public restaurant or just open to guests of Cameo Heights Mansion?  We are just what the name implies, a public restaurant, open to everyone, zoned and approved to function in that capacity by the Walla Walla county commissioners.
  2. Do you handle walk-in traffic or by reservation only.  Normally, all our dinner guests come here by prior reservation, made either by phone (509-394-0211) or online at Opentable.com.
  3. Are you open every day? We are open on Monday through Saturday—closed on Sunday and Monday.  (During the winter and spring months of November – April, we are closed on Monday night.)
  4. Do you do lunches? Yes, but they need to be a minimum of 8 people @ $35 or a minimum of $280 for the group. All lunches are necessarily by advance arrangement and reservation.
  5. Is there a menu online? Yes! However our menus change nearly daily as the chef is continually changes to match the seasons and make daily selections using or the best of local produce and meats. on’t try to keep a menu online that is current and up to date. Therefore we provide a seasonal sample menu which shows an overview of what a menu for different times of the year might look like. Thus, there will always be some intrigue about coming to The Vine to see what is on the menu. To view online the seasonal menus, click on the Restaurant link and then search the drop down box for the Seasonal Sample Dinner Menus. You may also see menus for the past three days on Opentable.com.
  6. What style of restaurant is “The Vine”? We are a fine dining establishment, you know, with tablecloths, and the dish servings often utilize French or Italian names for the ingredients. The style of food is creative New American prepared on-site using fresh local ingredients such as our farm to table garden on-site, whenever possible.
  7. How much does it cost?  We serve a prix fixe seven-course tasting menu for $79/person.  The individual courses can also be ordered a la carte with prices printed on the menu.  The 3rd, 5th, and 6th course have 3-4 options to choose from.
  8. Do you offer wine pairings with your dinner? We are not currently offering wine pairing until we able to hire and train sufficient staff to sell wine by the glass and do paired wine pours. We will announce here and elsewhere when that practice can be resumed.
  9. Do you sell wine? Yes, we stock over 160 different labels of mostly Walla Walla wines but about 25 are from other very fine Columbia Valley wineries.
  10. Do you actually inventory all those wine? Yes, we inventory nearly 600 bottles of wine and champagne, usually 3 deep of most labels.
  11. Do you publish your wine list online? Yes, of course. Go to the page entitled “Wine Menus” under “Restaurant” tab.  However, we do not guarantee that the online version stays currently updated.
  12. Do you have a corking fee? Yes, $20 for a 750ml bottle of wine, and double that for a magnum.
  13. What exactly is a corking fee? It really has nothing to do with removing your cork. It is a euphemism for meaning that you will be charged the house corking fee if you bring in your own bottle to the restaurant regardless of who opens and pours it. Many restaurants do have corking fees to cover the cost of ensuring that customers, who enjoy wine with their dinner, will have exciting options to choose from.
  14. Do you sell beer? Yes, we sell the almost complete line of micro beers from Ice Harbor Brewery of Kennewick, Wsshington. We also sell and stock many American lagers and pilsners and the popular Mexican beer, Modelo Negra and Modelo Especial.
  15. Do you sell American-style light lagers, like Budweiser and Coors Light? As noted above, yes we do.
  16. Do you sell non-alcoholic drinks? Of course, we have natural made strawberry lemonades, kiwi limeades, sodas, rich coffees, teas, and all labels of the world famous Sheffield Ciders from Basin City Washington. We also have a selection of non-alcoholic wines from Draper Valley.
  17. Do you sell spirits and do you have a bar? No, we do not have a bar and we do not sell spirits. In fact, since we are not licensed for them, you are not able to bring them in either.
  18. Who is your chef and where did you find him. 7/24/21 update:  We are sad to announce that we are recruiting a full time executive chef. In the mean time, chef Maddox Mel has been knocking it out of  the park every night. He is a young man, barely 22 years old, graduate of  the Columbia Basin college culinary program. He has also trained under executive chef Kelly Siner here at Cameo Heights Mansion. He is a delightful and outstanding member of our dining team. As in great wines where it all begins with the grapes, remarkable food begins with an outstanding chef. Thus our aim has always been to have the very best chef in the area, perhaps the state. As many of you know, we have a sterling reputation as the place to go for fine dining in Eastern Washington. We are keenly aware of the fact that our outstanding legacy is maintained by continuing to provide extraordinarily delicious and beautiful culinary creations. Hopefully our search for the next chef at Cameo Heights Mansion will be short but above all it will be driven by our  commitment to always be on the cusp of exceptional fine dining. 
  19. How soon before our scheduled stay do we need to make reservations at The Vine?  We seat and serve about 8 persons an hour so we do have very limited seating. Since all seatings are by reservation, when a certain hour is filled we can no longer take reservations at that time. So then, the answer to your query is: We have no policy on how soon you have to make a reservation but rather you have to ask yourself: How flexible is my schedule and desire to eat at The Vine? We always try to make it possible for guests of the Cameo Heights Mansion Bed and Breakfast to eat at The Vine but scheduling challenges may make it too early or, more likely, too late for their druthers.
  20. Can you handle dietary restrictions? Dietary restrictions, without an exception, are handled very nicely with delicious alternatives. We have no problem adapting to vegetarians and vegans, gluten-free, etc.; in short, we handle with ease all sorts of sundry food allergies and dietary restrictions, provided we are given advance notice of your dietary restrictions.
  21. Is the food good? I will let our guests answer that one. You may peruse the TripAdvisor Guest Reviews or OpenTable.com for diner reviews. Though many dining establishments cringe at the mention of reviews, we actually hope that prospective guests will look at our dining reviews when making a decision where to eat. With Opentable.com, for example, we are consistently among the highest points of any dining establishment in Washington.
  22. How far from Walla Walla or Tri-Cites?  We are midday between Pasco and Walla Walla – 25 miles from the center of Walla Walla and/or the Pasco airport.
  23. What do you mean by “Luxury Ride and Dine?” Since we are out of town a few miles, we have a very reasonably priced package that makes it very easy for you to come dine with us. It is called Luxury Ride and Dine. We don’t want the isolated setting of our peacefully quiet and stunningly beautiful location to be a deterrent to people enjoying our dining. We will provide budget-priced chauffeured service to and from The Vine for any guest visiting from Walla Walla, Hermiston, M-F, or Tri-Cities,
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Weddings at Cameo Heights Mansion

Did you get engaged or know of someone who did recently?  Cameo Heights Mansion is a wonderful place for a wedding.