Charlie Palmer Steak will open in Napa in late 2016 at the forthcoming Archer Hotel.
Charlie Palmer Steak will open in Napa in late 2016 at the forthcoming Archer Hotel.
Charlie’s Wine Country Three-peat: Chef Charlie Palmer is on a roll. Following his recent St. Helena restaurant opening at Harvest Table he announced yesterday that he’ll be opening Charlie Palmer Steak in downtown Napa. The restaurant and rooftop bar is slated to open at the forthcoming Archer Hotel, a 183-room luxury hotel planned for late 2016.
Charlie Palmer Steak will open in Napa in late 2016 at the forthcoming Archer Hotel.
The restaurants and hotel will be centerpieces of the 275,000 square-foot Napa Center, which is being hailed as a game-changing “Napa Valley experience” with more than 40-plus shops and restaurants.
Palmer has steak houses in New York, DC, Las Vega and Reno currently. The tireless chef also recently released a cookbook, Charlie Palmer’s America Fare ($40, Grand Central Life & Style).
Charlie Palmer Steak will open in Napa in late 2016 at the forthcoming Archer Hotel.
RKTO Coffee and Tea has opened in Santa Rosa at the Trek Bicycle Store
So what’s a RKTO?
RKTO Coffee and Tea has opened in Santa Rosa at the Trek Bicycle Store
You can tell that Malorie, a popular local barista in Santa Rosa, is tired of explaining what RKTO means. Standing behind the counter of the RKTO coffee/kombucha/tea bar that’s popped-up inside the downtown Santa Rosa Trek store, she graciously gives it a shot, then turns it over to shop president, Bret Gave. Apparently it means “great Northern bear”, as in the Bear Republic. As in California, he explains.
Gave has hit on a trend that’s popular in Europe, and making its way into hip retailers across the U.S. — putting a food and drink spot inside a retail store — in his case a high end bicycles. “We’re creating a community space,” said Gave, who hopes to expand the coffee bar area to include beer, an outdoor space and eventually some sandwiches, as well as a meet-up spot for bicyclists heading out on rides.
Frankly, we’re more than happy with the current local lineup of BiteClub fave, Bella Rosa coffee, Straus milk, Republic of Tea, Red Bird Bakery goodies, Revive Kombucha (on tap) and Guayaki yerba mate. Well, that and Malorie. Ten percent of the proceeds from the bar will benefit local cycling advocacy groups.
And as for the name? How about Really Killer Trek Osteria? Add your suggestion online at BiteClubEats.com. We’ll pass ‘em along to the baristas. 512 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa (inside the Trek Store), open weekdays from 7am to 2pm.
Hazel Restaurant will open in Occidental summer 2015
Hazel Restaurant will open in Occidental summer 2015
Berkeley chefs Jim and Michele Wimborough of Zut! on Fourth are slated to open Hazel Restaurant, a wood-oven focused restaurant in Occidental. The couple are taking over the longtime Bistro de Copains space, which was for years a West County destination for French cuisine.
The new restaurant, which the couple are describing as “rustic California-Mediterranean” will make heavy use of the dual live-fire ovens and will include thin crust pizzas, local fish from Bodega Bay, burgers and small plates. Michele will head up the desserts, including a weekly seasonal Friday Pie Day, sundaes, cookies and cakes. The couple are looking to open in mid-July.
The Terrace at Rodney Strong Vineyards has opened with a luxe pairing menu. Photo: Heather Irwin.
The Terrace at Rodney Strong Vineyards has opened with a luxe pairing menu. Photo: Heather Irwin.
The smell of spring swirls around the newly-opened Terrace at Rodney Strong Winery — rows of grapevines, freshly-mowed grass, and a bright pink rosé of pinot noir in the glass. Breathe deeply, then pinch yourself, because you’ve found your new Happy Place.
More than a tasting room, this intimate outdoor patio features the perfect lazy-afternoon sip and nibble experience with five luxe bites paired with five Rodney Strong wines.
Kick back under the cheery orange umbrellas, survey the expansive vineyards before you and let yourself be pampered with a plate of local cheeses or charcuterie with perfectly paired wines, or go all in for the chef-created five course pairing that (on our warm spring afternoon it included Dungeness crab and short rib bao) with several reserve wines (we fell hard for the 2012 Reserve Chardonnay).
Rodney Strong Vineyards Terrace
Chef Tara Wachtel heads up the kitchen (Adafina Culinary, Zazu Restaurant + Farm), making this a tasting worth going out of your way for. Well, that and the view.
Terrace at Rodney Strong Winery: Five course tasting, $55; cheese plate for two, $25, cheese and charcuterie, $35. Reservations recommended, but not required. Open Friday through Sunday from 11am to 4pm, 11455 Old Redwood Hwy, Healdsburg, (707) 431-1533.
Oh, and by the way, don’t miss the Meyer lemon marmalade with the cheese plate and strawberry rhubarb jam.
Grace Ann Walden, food columnist and spitfire, died in June 2015, unexpectedly.
Grace Ann Walden, food columnist and spitfire, died in June 2015, unexpectedly. Photo from Twitter.
RIP Grace Ann Walden: The sassy, brassy Bay Area food writer died on Friday. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the Bay Area food world who hadn’t had a run-in with Grace Ann Walden.
The former Chronicle food writer pretty much invented a style of gossipy food news in her long-running “Inside Scoop” column that many of us have emulated over the years. You just knew she knew all the best dirt, the juiciest news and where everyone’s skeletons lurked — and she wasn’t afraid to use it. Brassy, sassy and yeah, a little insane, she had a huge part in inspiring me to do BiteClub way back in 2005.
My heart broke a little when she was “let go” from the Chron right around the time I launched in 2006. But I vowed to keep her writing spirit alive in my column.
Not long after, I took one of her legendary food tours of Little Italy, tasting cookies at neighborhood bakeries and shuffling our little group in the back door of a local butcher (way before that was a cool thing to do). At the end of the tour we sat down for a meal together, and I realized that I wanted to be Grace.
I wanted to be that wild and unruly food writer who always had her finger right on the pulse of the local food scene. (It didn’t hurt that she was a red head to boot).
Over the years, the Inimitable Grace Ann would rail against one or another of us local food writers for some perceived slight. Trust me, we all got it from Grace. But she’d cool down, and let bygones be bygones eventually. It was a bit of a badge of honor to have her write one of her scathing emails to you.
Even so, a while back I volunteered to help her create the Yummy Report, just when she was just getting her feet wet in the digital world, and wanted to do a newsletter to send to her fans. She found someone else, but I always regretted that I didn’t get to work with her on something, though no doubt we Queen Bees would have killed each other.
All I can say is that without Grace, the local food scene will miss the peculiar and wonderful awesome sauce that she always brought to the table. Here’s a cheers to you GAW. I owe a lot to you.
(Grace loved her dogs, Bruno and Tinkerbell (who are now looking for a home at the Novato Humane Society), and all of us hope someone can help them out.)
Applewood Inn and Restaurant yellowtail crudo with radish blossoms by Chef Jamil Peden. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
There are two routes to the Applewood Inn and Restaurant just outside Guerneville.
Applewood Inn and Restaurant salmon crudo with radish blossoms by Chef Jamil Peden. Photo: Heather Irwin
One speeds you along the Russian River, through small West County hamlets, dropping you — and everyone else riding your tail — into downtown Guerneville rather unceremoniously.
The other, along State Route 116, gently winds you through historic apple orchards, redwood groves and vineyards, and is designated as an official “scenic highway” of Sonoma County.
Applewood Chef Jamil Peden suggests you take the road less traveled. Because you’ll probably pass some of his ingredients along the way, setting the stage for a menu that is entirely inspired by the seasons and flavors of West County.
Chef Jamil Peden at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
Built in 1922, the historic Applewood Inn isn’t new, but 38-year-old Peden is. Taking over the once-Michelin-starred restaurant in April 2015, he’s revamping everything from the staff and menu to the culinary gardens and dated interior to recapture a “uniquely Sonoma County experience”. Something, he feels, has been missing the last few years as chefs shuffled in and out.
“When Brian Gerritsen was chef 15 years ago I came [to Applewood] and it felt to right, so Sonoma County. I believe deep down I can recreate and make it that again,” said Peden, standing among lettuces, fennel and dill growing in the gardens outside the inn. Hens quietly cluck in the background while the wind rustles through apricot and apple trees in the nearby orchard.
Chef Jamil Peden at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
“I want [Applewood] to be a destination experience again,” he added. Gerristen, who now works in San Francisco, is one of several outstanding young chefs showcased at the inn over the years, including David Frakes (now at Lynmar Winery ), Brian Anderson (Bistro 29) and Bruce Frieseke (Bella Vineyards). Frieseke captured a Michelin star in 2011, and again in 2012, but the restaurant has since lost it.
If any local chef is up for the challenge of recreating a Michelin-worthy restaurant that’s both rustic and ambitious in its culinary outlook, it’s Peden. Critics gushed over his luxe tasting plates at Petite Syrah (where he was chef de cuisine under chef-owner Josh Silvers) that included beets with panna cotta, horseradish, black leek ash and beet sprouts. At Woodfour he defied a simple burger and brats menu for upscale fish and chips, braised short ribs with carrot-miso puree or heirloom bean cassoulet with truffles. Memorable stuff, for certain.
Rye Gnocchi at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
But Peden has always needed a place to call his own, to really spread his culinary wings and fly. “I’m tired of bouncing around. I’m ready to slow down,” he said.
Plucking a handful of nasturtium leaves, he heads into the kitchen to fire a plate of rye gnocchi with dollops of sheep milk ricotta ($26), gingerly placing the green leaves around the plate. Next, he plates a ring of salmon crudo with horseradish, radish seed pods and pickled beets that puts an entirely new spin on Surf and Turf (tasting menu, $85).
Grilled Octopus at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
“I’m opening with some solid dishes from my past,” he said of the crudo, which has been elevated from a similar dish at Woodfour. But he’s also working toward 100% West County sourcing, using area farms, ranches and fisheries to inspire new dishes. So don’t expect to see Maine lobster or even foie gras on his menus. “I just don’t want to. I don’t need to,” he said of these luxury ingredients. Instead, Peden serves duck liver mousse ($16, not using an enlarged duck liver) with rhubarb or local rock cod ($32) with sugar snap peas and purslane.
Other dishes from the menu that inspire: Grilled octopus with Meyer lemon curd, capers and potatoes ($18) that returned my tastebuds to the simple, fresh flavors of Italy’s Amalfi Coast; salmon with truffle lemon cream and celery leaf ($36 or on tasting menu); or perfectly cooked egg atop fried quinoa, avocado, favas and lacto-fermented carrots (tasting menu). Most dishes are available a la carte, but the $85 tasting menu is the best bet for really experiencing Peden’s creativity.
Salmon at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
Calling his cuisine “Interpretive American”, he’s avoiding the ubiquitous California/Mediterranean cuisine that dominates much of Wine Country.
“I like to deliver something that just might take you a little off guard,” he said. “I want you to think ‘Why is that ingredient there?’ and then take a bite and think, ‘Oh! That’s why that’s there’,” he said.
Chef Jamil Peden at Applewood Inn and Restaurant
As for regaining that elusive Michelin star that Applewood? “I’m not really going after it, but it would be a nice reward for hard work and being true to myself,” Peden said.
Applewood Inn, Restaurant and Spa: 13555 Hwy. 116, Guerneville, (707) 869-9093, applewoodinn.com. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 5:30 to 8:30p.m., reservations suggested.
Artist rendering of the proposed Brewster’s Beer Garden in Petaluma. Courtesy of Michael Goebel.
Artist rendering of the proposed Brewster’s Beer Garden in Petaluma. Courtesy of Michael Goebel.
Permits have been signed and work is set to get started on Brewster’s Beer Garden in downtown P-town. We’ve just gotten word from owner Mike Goebel that he’s planning a pretty ambitious space that will include a large restaurant with a beer garden (natch), bocce ball court, kids playground area and bar. “The site was phenomenal,” said Goebel by phone.
Artist rendering of the proposed Brewster’s Beer Garden in Petaluma. Courtesy of Michael Goebel.
“I like the people and the culture of Petaluma, and it’s nestled in with cool historic buildings right on the river,” he said of the now-parking lot near Buffalo Billiards on Petaluma Blvd North. Goebel is the owner of several bars in San Francisco and the restaurant, Mamacita.
Artist rendering of the proposed Brewster’s Beer Garden in Petaluma. Courtesy of Michael Goebel.
He’s tapped Chef Chris Beerman of the popular SF comfort food restaurant Citizens Band (also Boulevard, Conduit) to head the kitchen, which will focus on “barbecue influenced” food and local craft brews.
Goebel hopes to create a family-friendly space that includes the possibility of bringing in dessert food trucks or coffee carts to add to the experience. “I want something cool anddifferent, we think this is a really sweet opportunity,” Goebel said.
Dustin Valette, owner/chef of Valette in Healdsburg. (photos by Chris Hardy)
When Dustin Valette says he feels a spiritual connection to his new Valette restaurant in downtown Healdsburg, he’s not just talking feel-good fluff. It’s possible he sees a friendly ghost or two in the space that was formerly Zin Restaurant & Wine Bar.
First, there’s the name.
“It pays homage to our family’s history with the building, since my great-grandfather, Honore Valette, owned it in the ’40s, back when it was a bakery,” the chef said. “He had many bakeries throughout the Bay Area, actually, including two in Healdsburg. This building was Home Bakery, and he also had Snowflake Bakery.”
Second, there’s the long history with his good friends, Jeff and Susan Mall, who for the previous 15 years owned Zin. The Malls, who said they were unable to reach agreement with their business partner on the future of Zin, closed it last December and moved to Baja California. The building is now Valette’s treasure, with 130-year-old redwood plank tables and a busy open kitchen.
There’s nothing nostalgic about the menu, however. Valette spent the past six years as executive chef with Charlie Palmer at Dry Creek Kitchen, and yes, he offers the superb artisanal salumi for which he became famous there. Now, the charcuterie is finished in a box custom-made by Valette’s brother, Les Garzini. But the Healdsburg native puts his own imaginative twist on other recipes, brimming with eclectic accents while still showcasing the simple beauty of mostly local ingredients.
Those are Bernier Farms vegetables in the celeriac soup dotted with toasted pistachio, beet tartare and a golden goat-cheese puff. Thin-shaved Early Bird Farm radishes gild the Hawaiian ahi niçoise with salted cucumber, 64-degree egg yolk and olive powder, and Liberty Ducks star in the cured smoked duck breast and thigh roulade with Pinot-poached foie gras.
The dressing on the black quinoa dumplings is extra-special, made with charred scallions. “They come from Valette Estate,” the chef quipped. Another signature is the sourdough flatbread, baked on-site.
Stax Social Eatery in Cotati offers DIY mix-and-match meals like this “Good Indian Stuff” tray.
Stax it Up: One of the hottest trends in the restaurant scene right now: Do it yourself entrees. Shifting menu decisions from the kitchen to the customer, clever restaurateurs offer a set list of ingredients for customers to customize to their gluten-free, meat-free, low-carb, Paleo-friendly, low-cal and “I don’t like onions or olives” needs. Among some of the local newcomers: Pieology’s top-your-own pizzas, Chipotle’s DIY burritos and bowls, and the recently-opened Heritage Eats (Napa), with their luxe meat and condiment sandwich fixings.
Stax Social Eatery (actually written as St@x), which recently opened in Cotati takes it one step further, with thematic trays of ingredients you can stack up any way you want.
Here’s how it works: Select from eight different trays (or tasting menus) which include tiny bites of 10-12 items. We fell hard for the “Good Indian Stuff” vegetarian tray, made up of Bombay spice potatoes, cauliflower “tots”, roasted eggplant with peanut masala, Indian flatbread, pea cakes, mango yogurt sauce, chutney, fig jam, lentils, coconut rice and chickpeas.
Stax Social Eatery in Cotati offers DIY mix-and-match meals like this “Good Indian Stuff” tray.
Then…play with your food — using fingers (heck with forks) scoop, stack, dip and nibble your way through, making up flavor combos (kulcha, red chutney, eggplant and spiced lentils, perhaps). Each tray includes 10 to 12 items, so go with a crowd and order multiple trays including the Louisiana (boudin balls, crispy pork skins, Johnny cakes, remoulade, collard greens) “Low Country” (pork rillettes, country ham, catfish, crispy chicken skin, mustard greens and pickled peaches), Northern Italy (smoked sausage, risotto cakes, brown butter gnocchi, white bean puree) or teen-friendly sliders with mini burgers, Spam and egg, pulled pork, pretzel rolls, onion jam and mac and cheese).
Stax Social Eatery in Cotati offers DIY mix-and-match meals like this “Good Indian Stuff” tray.
We couldn’t help but wonder how the kitchen staff could possibly put together these complicated trays from more than 75 individual items. “That’s gotta be some mis en place,” said my co-eater friend. In fact, Chef Paul Croshal has it down to a science, though it can get a little hectic during busy weekends, especially with more than 90% of the menu has to be made daily — and these aren’t simple dishes by a long shot. Showing off his culinary chops, Croshal makes nods to of-the-moment buzz eateries like Momofuku’s cereal milk and cookies (sugary corn flakes steeped in milk, then strained out, leaving only the deliciously sweet drink) on his menu.
One customer described the milk and cookies experience as, “The cereal milk must be made from rainbows and unicorn blood.”
Also on the dessert menu, a mini “Pie Party” of apple pie, lemon cream and chocolate cream with cornflake milk ice cream.
Stax Social Eatery in Cotati offers DIY mix-and-match meals and desserts like cookies and milk
Keep in mind that they also have a selection of pre-planned sandwiches like the shrimp po’boy, Cuban pork sandwich and ratatouille sandwich ($10-$12) if you’re not up for the DIY experience. Beer and wine available.
Just go with curiosity, a sense of adventure and a few friends for the best experience. We’re pretty sure this is about the most fun you can have at a restaurant — and still be legal.
Stax SOcial Eatery: Open 11a.m. to, well, whenever o’clock Tuesday through Sunday. 8204 Old Redwood Hwy, Cotati, staxsocialeatery.com.
There aren’t many stand-up comics who are beloved international superstars, perform in four languages, run marathons for charity, and have become a poster boy for transvestites.
OK, there’s only one.
He’s Eddie Izzard, the British comedian who will play the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa on June 17, beginning a six-day dash through the Bay Area. Izzard arrives as part of a world tour that has taken him from Cardiff to Katmandu. While Izzard has sold out New York’s massive Madison Square Garden, he’s coming to Wine Country to play the more intimate, 1,600-seat Wells Fargo theater.
Izzard’s act is a joy ride of free-associating absurdist humor, so much so that John Cleese, the legendary comedian from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, calls Izzard the “Lost Python.” His narratives skip like a stone across a pond, bouncing from the predictability of British movies (“They usually involve a room with a view, and a staircase, and a pond”), to using Monterey Jack cheese as a weapon, or the relationship between fake breasts and jellyfish. Then he’ll admire the cleverness of the average pear, which is only ripe for a half-hour, often when you’ve just left the room.
It’s all served with crooked smiles, eye rolls, quick stops and self-deprecating warmth. “Must not do that joke again,” he’ll say as he pretends to write on his hand after a joke bombs.
Wrap all this in stage garb that can often be, well, lively. Izzard is a handsome man, all beefy and blond, but he’s performed in boots, nail polish and red lipstick, with fishnet stockings and a slit skirt — a look he describes as “male lesbian.”
While some of his peers spend their off-hours collecting Porsches or engaging in Twitter feuds, the 53-year-old Izzard pushes himself, mentally and physically. His life slogan is, “We Can All Do More Than We Think We Can Do.” Izzard has certainly proved that. He loves language and has done shows in English, French, German and Spanish. Izzard once ran 43 marathons in 52 days, raising money for the Sport Relief charity.
Izzard also has a keen interest in current events and plans to run for mayor of London in 2020. “Being a transvestite has toughened me for politics,” he said.
