Upsetting a lady who works with boiling oil all day isn’t a good plan. Ever.
Apparently a poorly-conceived quip (trust me, they’re all poorly conceived) about the wonder of Harvey’s Gourmet Mini Donuts (come on, they’re mini donuts!) putting “funnel cakes to shame” (which I thought was clever, and still do) didn’t sit too well with Nancy Cordova, of Fancy Funnel Cakes.
“Maybe it is that you have not tried our funnel cakes, or you just made a hasty statement without realizing how harmful this could be for our business,” she said in a recent email. Or, maybe I wasn’t aware of the wrath of a Funnel Cake lady scorned.
Consider me schooled. Nancy’s Fancy Funnel Cakes are delightful. See the picture at right if you don’t believe me. It is most likely the sexiest funnel cake you will ever see — covered with whipped cream, caramel, chocolate and fresh strawberries. Click on it. Really. It’s delightful. If you don’t try one, you are just plain silly. I would suggest a head-to-head with the donuts just to be fair to everyone involved.
You can find Nancy and her Fancy Funnel Cakes each Wednesday night at the Downtown Santa Rosa Market. So there. Now excuse me while I go smooth things over with the cupcake gals, because I think I may have stepped on their butter cream frosted toes as well.
“Bro” Mosa Cocktail Recipe
Dude Drink of the Week: Monti’s answer to the Mimosa.
Vodka + beer = A fighting chance at seeing Sex & The City 2 tonight.
Serve in an 8-10 oz “bucket”” glass. Wearing as little as possible for optimal effect.
The Bro Mosa
3/4 oz Smirnoff Vodka
2/3 full glass w/ PBR*
1/3 remaining glass w/OJ
Garnish with an Orange Wedge
From Monti’s Rotisserie
714 Village Court
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
p: 707.568.4404
Sunday Brunch 10:30 – 2:00
Sunday – Thursday 11:30 – 9:00
Friday – Saturday: 11:30 – 10:00
Piner Cafe…and steakhouse?
PLEASE NOTE: Chef Cheyenne is no longer at the cafe and is currently working at Spoonbar in Healdsburg. BiteClub has not been to the cafe since his departure.
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Chef Cheyenne Simpkins is no one’s fry cook. This young, CIA-trained chef has spent time in some of the top kitchens in the country, including a stint at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. Suffice to say he knows his way around a mise en place.
Which makes his spanking-new Thursday through Saturday night gig at Chris Schilling’s folksy Piner Cafe so unexpectedly delicious. Three nights a week, Simpkins takes over the grill, turning out hearty comfort food and steakhouse classics at rock-bottom prices.
The menu: Inspired by his East Coast roots, Southern influences and nods to, well, the fact that it is, after all, still a diner, the menu ranges from fried chicken and grits to surf and turf. This is serious dude-friendly dining.
Starters: Rhode Island style calamari with cherry and banana peppers ($5.95), Buffalo wings ($5.50); fried mozzarella wedges, Tilapia ceviche; shrimp and cheese grits ($5.95); grilled mushroom salad with eggs, bacon, spinach.
Entrees: You’re here for the fried chicken and steak, which are towering entrees are worthy of two, or even three subsequent meals. Louisiana Style Fried Chicken (his grandma’s recipe) with Red Pepper Gravy ($14.95) kills, as does a 10oz ribeye with grilled shrimp and roasted garlic sauce ($18.50). Also hot: Roast Chicken with crispy skin and Thyme Jus ($14.95).
What seals the deal, however, are “slammin sides” (two included with each entree) that don’t just phone it in, but haunt your every stomach-growling moment for days. Prepare yourself for the Best. Mashed. Potatoes. Ever. (which I don’t say lightly). I would knock my mother over for another bowl. She’d probably do the same to me. We understand each other like that. Garlickly greens, polenta and thoughtful mac-n-cheese also deliver.
Dessert + Wine: Chris still holds the fort on desserts, with homey classics like chocolate cake and brownies with ice cream. The cafe currently doesn’t serve beer or wine (though they’re working on it), so plan accordingly.
For what it lacks in elegant ambiance, the Piner Cafe’s dinner menu makes up for in value and quality: Well under $50 for an appetizer, two entrees, four sides and a brownie for dessert (plus two massive take out boxes). Not to mention a ambitious young chef at the helm who truly wants to impress you. Score.
The Taco Bike
The brilliantly-conceived Frankenbaby of a taqueria and a tricycle, Todd Barricklow’s Taco Bike is taking street food to it’s next logical step: A complete mini-kitchen on wheels.
It’s both simple and incredibly ambitious, kind of like all of Barricklow’s mobile creations. The Santa Rosa artist has already created a number of freak bikes, soldering bits and pieces of metal and machine together to craft hybrid multi-use vehicles, including the Two Penny, a mega-trike (made for the 2009 Handcar Regatta) with 8-foot high wheels and his family’s own one-of-a-kind cargo-hauling bikes.
But the Taco Bike is a beast of a different sort.
After a friend complained about stringent health-code restrictions on street vendors, Barricklow struck on the idea of building a human-powered mobile kitchen that would include a hot-water hand-washing station, grey-water tank, commercial-grade cutting surfaces, hot griddle and specialized tray to keep cold items, well, cold. He even built in a pay-station for customers to push their bills into an enclosed safe so the food handler doesn’t have to touch the money (a health issue). What happens if you don’t have correct change? Barricklow says that’s where the community aspect comes to play — you’ll have to hit up someone else in line to help you out.
The Taco Bike will soon prowl the streets of San Francisco, commissioned by forward-thinking seafood spot, Weird Fish restaurant.
Want one of your own? Builds start at about $5,000.
More details: Contact Todd at ToddBarricklow.com
Recipes You’d Kill For…
Okay, shout out…
Which local chefs’/cooks’ recipes will you kill to have? Remember that amazing meal you had at last year and the crabcakes you just can’t get out of your mind? How about that freshly baked bread from the little steakhouse around the corner? Or even a cocktail you wish you could recreate at home…
Tell me what Wine Country recipes you want me to track down and I’ll do my best to find ’em, test ’em and post ’em right here on BiteClub.
Got an especially hard one to track down? Even better.
Tell me the recipe you’d kill to have…
John Ash & Co | Santa Rosa
Around since the 1980’s, John Ash & Co. at the Vintner’s Inn is an institution, most notably as ground zero for serious Wine Country cuisine. It’s stately ambiance harkens to a more opulent decade, but the restaurant remains a popular “occasion” restaurant for locals and visitors. Chef Ash and his protege, Jeffrey Madura, have both moved on (Ash no longer works at the restaurant that bears his name), but the venerable Thomas Schmidt continues their fusion of French and Mediterranean (with a few Asian and German) influences using local products.
Expect dishes like Ahi Tuna Tartare, King Salmon, Liberty Duck, Beef Filet and Lamb Chops done with a sense of gravitas — there’s a reputation to live up to, after all. Holidays are mainstays at the restaurant, as are wedding parties.
Less formal is the clubby Front Room Bar, where you can sink into a leather seat and nibble on tasty small plates while kicking back well-crafted cocktails. Happy hour is a local favorite.
4330 Barnes Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95403-1514
(707) 527-7687
Open Mon-Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri-Sun 3pm-11pm
Amrit Indian Cuisine opens
Roselanders are already buzzing about the brand new Amrit Indian Cuisine (443 Dutton, Santa Rosa) that opened last week. The space has been a revolving door for restaurants, most notably the former Trisha’s Lumpia House and most recently a Chinese restaurant. BiteClub hit the $8.99 lunch buffet last week, which included an impressive selection of vegetarian and meaty dishes (lamb, chicken tikka masala, tandoori chicken) along with fresh naan.
The opening comes on the heels of Sizzling Tandoor closing their short-term curry and naan spot at the downtown Santa Rosa mall — which always seemed a bit shoehorned into the former Mongolian Grill spot, but a nice local addition to the chain eateries that dominate.
Subway will move into the spot. Wheee.
Effort to shut down pop-up dinner backfires in Hburg
UPDATE: I just heard from Lisbeth Holmefjord, the co-restaurateur of the newly-opened Baci in Healdsburg. The rumor mill has run amok that it was Baci that blew the whistle on Mateo’s Eastside Road spot. Not true, she says. Her contention: She’s one of Mateo’s biggest fans and his move from Eastside Road was more about liability than anyone complaining.
“I was shocked when I read this on the Internet. Mateo and I have been very good friends for twelve years. I’ve helped him with his business plan. Would I be so stupid to accuse him?” says Lisbeth. According to her, she was actually at one of Mateo’s recent dinners on Eastside Road and was surprised to learn of the move. “Mateo’s not competition to me, we’re not even open on Wednesdays. We love to go out on Wednesdays,” she said.
Meanwhile, the dinners continue to sell out. You can’t buy this kind of press.
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Karmic Justice? News from the Mateo’s Pop-Up dinner front….
After a Healdsburg restaurateur complained about Mateo Granados’ pop-up dinners in a barn on Eastside Road several weeks ago, the site was closed down. Among some restaurateurs, there’s a growing resentment about temporary dining set-ups or food trucks that bypass the high overhead of a brick and mortar restaurant.
Understandable if they’re next door, sucking away clients. A little harder to fathom when the site is miles out in the country (and frankly a whole lot closer to Windsor than Healdsburg).
But here’s where the whole thing backfired…the generous folks at Costeaux French Bakery Cafe hearing of the Tendejon de la Calle’s plight have offered a temporary home for Mateo’s dinners to continue on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. In downtown Healdsburg.
But that’s not all…This Friday (6/4/10), funky Roadhouse Winery (107B N. Street, Healdsburg), will host the movable feast at their tasting room (for the second time), sweetening the deal with a la carte pours of their silky pinot noirs, pool and video games after diner. Hello, yes please. Plans are in the works to keep ’em going through the summer. (Wanna go? Contact Eric Hall for details: Info@Roadhousewinery.com, or call 922.6362).
So what’s it all the fuss? Several longtime Hburg chefs BiteClub spoke to say they’re far from concerned about unfair competition from Mateo, a former Dry Creek Kitchen chef and longtime local who’s got a penchant for transient eats. The sentiment from most was simply live and let live, because the press is good for everyone.
Seems you can’t keep a good pop-up dinner down. So really, why try?
Tendejon de la Calle, weekly on Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 5pm until dusk. Invites available only by email list or by calling 623.5474. Entrees $16-$19 each, appetizers $8-$12. Cash and local checks only. BYOB and glasses.
Weigh in…What’s your take on this whole situation? Should restaurateurs be worried or supportive?
Vote for America’s Favorite Farmer’s Markets
Celebrity chefs, out.
Farmers, in.
Suddenly its cool to be a hick again as
…wide-eyed hipsters modishly swap their iPhones for dirty coveralls…
…green-keen eco-warriors reclaim their own little piece of Mother Earth…
…lady and gentleman farmers with a Green Acres complex get seedy…
…Facebookers drive us all crazy with their Farmville obsessions…
…and bemused octagenarian agrarians who’ve been through the ups-and-downs of real-life farming for decades sit back and wonder what all the fuss is about.
Whatever their reasons for hoping on that John Deere, the good news is that the intense passion is fostering a renewed interest in where food actually comes from (hint: not the store! Read Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, it’s a snap.). And with that, a slow but steady change in how all of us eat. Suddenly fewer of us are mindlessly consuming factory-farmed foods from the local megamart and more of us are heading to local farm markets to actually meet ‘n greet with their friendly neighborhood producers. Which is probably a good thing considering the fact that small, family run farms were teetering on the brink of extinction just a few years ago.
In an effort to bring even more light to these dirt-under-the-nails food growers, the American Farmland Trust is now promoting a nation-wide challenge to see which four farmers markets across America can really the most support from their customers.
This of course should be a cinch-up for SoCo, considering we have more farm markets than you can shake a rhubarb at.
Except there are several who aren’t signed-up. You know who you are (Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Rohnert Park, so sign up!). On the ballot are the Wednesday Night Market in Santa Rosa, the Windsor Farmer’s Market, and Occidental markets. Winning markets get national bragging rights. VOTE NOW
Which really, is a whole lot cooler than laying claim to Rocco DiSpirito or Bobby Flay.
SRJC Cafe reopens June 23
The Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Café and Bakery will open for summer session on Wednesday June 23, 2010.
At the Café, students plan, prepare, cook and serve a weekly menu of seasonal salads, soups, sandwiches, pizzas, entrees and desserts. The Café opens for lunch at 11:30AM and serves until 2:00PM. A sample Café menu can be viewed at www.santarosa.edu/café. Seniors age 60+ receive a 15% discount on lunch each day, all day. Reservations, though not required, are recommended by calling 707-576-0279. A separate room is available for group luncheons and meetings of up to 36 people.
The SRJC Bakery features freshly baked pastries and award winning breads made by students in the school’s Baking and Pastry Program. Between 7:30AM and 10:00AM, baked goods and Taylor Maid coffee drinks can be enjoyed in the Café’s dining room while watching culinary students prepare for the day’s lunch service. Breads, pastries and desserts (that change daily) to take home can be purchased until 2:00PM Wednesday-Friday.