Plate Shop, 39 Caledonia (at Johnson), Sausalito, 415-887-9047 Plate Shop is just what Sausalito (and Marin) needed: a city-savvy restaurant with proper cocktails and imaginative dish preparation. Not to say all is idyllic at this new hotspot. In early opening weeks, service is attentive but the clientele isn’t always so. I watched an overly-suntanned, blonde woman bark at her sweet… Read more →
Intriguing bites and openings in other parts of the Bay Area? All Spice is a new, upscale Indian restaurant in San Mateo. Though still working out kinks with some dishes not yet fully realized, the space is romantic and service engaging in a cottage I adored in its former iteration. Oakland’s Camino is a space I love for different reasons:… Read more →
Long Meadow Ranch Winery does it all in Wine Country: grass-fed beef, heirloom fruits and vegetables, eggs from their chickens, lush olive oils, and, of course, wines. Seeking to grow everything used in their restaurant and winery, they continue to push boundaries, currently exploring a dairy and cheese-making. I’ve written a few times about Farmstead, their restaurant, helmed by delightful,… Read more →
GAUMENKITZEL, meaning ‘delight for the taste buds’, opens later this week (if all goes as planned) in an open, sunny space on San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley. Owner Anja Voth brings restaurant and patisserie experience from Hamburg and Berlin. Her husband Kai Flache constructed and designed the restaurant with his local firm. They operate as a gracious, complimentary team. A… Read more →
In Top Tastes I list the top ten new restaurant openings of the year in San Francisco. Here I list an additional four best new Bay Area openings: one in the South Bay, two in the East Bay, one in Wine Country. In the midst of Oakland’s continued proliferation as a dining hotspot and the new downtown Napa reign of… Read more →
Easily the best new opening in Oakland in 2010, Daniel Patterson’s long-anticipated Plum delivers his impeccable technique in heartwarming food. After a handful of visits both for dinner and lunch (and a preview dinner back in September), I come away with a sense of being enveloped, not by the communal seating or uncomfortable bar stools, but by the warmth of… Read more →
On a beautifully moody, rainy weekend this November, I trekked up to brand new Branches in the gorgeous farmland and vineyards of Ukiah that were aflame with red, orange and yellow leaves this time of year. Branches is a chophouse/restaurant, bustling fireside pub, bakery and butcher all rolled into one large space. Unusual for these parts, it was already mobbed… Read more →
LOCANDA DA EVA – It’s interesting to see a food writer open his own restaurant… dining out every night (and often lunch, too) gives you a unique perspective from which to assess what elements create the most magic in atmosphere, while it inevitably imparts harsh comparison standards. Robert Lauriston, who’s all over Chowhound boards and used to write for the… Read more →
SAN CARLOS THE REFUGE – Much has already been said about the famed pastrami at San Carlos’ Belgian bar and hearty sandwich/burger spot, The Refuge. Jan Newberry of San Francisco magazine rightly lists it as one of the best in her sandwich guide. All I can say, is get there if you haven’t. These are among the best of these… Read more →
There may be other Bay Area concert winery venues (Mountain Winery, for example), but none like family-owned Wente Vineyards in Livermore. Run by the same family for five generations and set on a 3000 acre expanse of golden rolling hills and vineyards, Wente is managed by delightfully down-to-earth family members who keep the business alive, yes, with wine-making, but also… Read more →