Author: biteclub

Oops, you did it again. The most romantic day of the year is less than 24 hours away and you haven’t got a prayer of getting a romantic dinner reservation for your honey. Relax, Romeo. BiteClub made a few phone calls to pull your bacon out of the fire. You owe me. Big. You can’t […]

In the eternal quest for the latest and greatest, it’s easy to forget about the restaurants that stick it out day after day, year after year, serving up great food. Not the fanciest food or the most innovative. Just food you can count on. Money well spent. Tummies totally satisfied. Places you want to go […]

I’m not usually a fan of chain restaurants. And I know most of you hate them as well. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes, occasionally, once in a blue moon, they really have some redeeming qualities. Mr. Pickles is one of them. Now, understand that my universal hatred of chain […]

BiteClub hears that Petaluma’s Cafe Zazzle will re-open on Friday, January 25 at 11am, according to owners. The restaurant has been closed since late October when a kitchen fire did significant smoke damage to the building. Can they make a comeback?

If the shark has indeed jumped on retro-chic steak joints, nobody told Santa Rosa. Just a week after opening, Mark and Terri Stark’s Railroad Square steakhouse is packed with curious locals willing to pay top dollar for organic, dry aged, corn and grass-fed cuts of beef hand-picked by the city’s favorite chef. You’ll get the […]

Check out the photos of Zazu’s nose to tail feast, held Jan. 20, 2008. Celebrating the Feast of Saint Anthony (the patron saint of butchers), chefs Duskie Estes and John Stewart invited friends and eaters to indulge in an homage to pork. As founder of Black Pig Meat, Stewart is a preserved-meats master and porcine […]

I love it when discussions start up spontaneously that get everybody thinking. This week, folks started talking about the area’s best Caesar salad–a thread that spawned from the opening of Stark’s Steakhouse. And that got me thinking. After a week of shortribs, mashed potatoes and gut-busting stews, where can you get a top-notch salad? Despite […]

Everything but the squealOkay, word on the street is that when it comes to food trends, salumi has officially jumped the shark. Along with artisan bacon and, well, anything pig related. I say phooey. Like the little black dress, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Chanel No. 5, pork is a timeless classic. Settling in for the […]

Don’t know a Tourtiere from Poulet Basquais? Ever wonder what the heck bouillabaisse actually is? Me too. Over the weekend, I found what’s quite possibly the coolest book ever, 1001 Foods to Die For, a compendium of the most fascinating foods in the world, with entries written by a who’s who of food — from […]