2022: Eat — A guide to the Bay Area's spectacular food scene

A BAY AREA NEWS GROUP PREMIUM EDITION

The Bunet Piedmontese served at Oakland’s Belotti Ristorante is a classic Italian dessert.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Sourdough was just the starter

The Bay Area gave birth to many a tasty treat

BY JOAN MORRIS

Would San Francisco be San Francis co without sourdough?

It’s hard to imagine a less crusty City by the Bay, or a region devoid of cioppino, Green Goddess dress ing, martinis or an It’s It on a hot day — or any day, really. The Bay Area is the avowed originator of all these foods and spirits, give or take a good debate.

Sheila Himmel, a former Mercury News restaurant critic and James Beard award-winning food writer, who also curated an “SF Eats” exhibit for the San Francisco Public Library, says the Bay Area’s geog raphy, the immigration spurred by the 1849 Gold Rush and the region’s overall embrace of alternative thinking led to the creation of foods and drinks that are as San Franciscan as the cable cars and Golden Gate Bridge.

Here are just a few of the foods that made the Bay Area famous.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

Any list of iconic Bay Area foods has to start with sourdough, a bread born of necessity and nurtured in the heart of San Francisco. Its beginnings actually date back more than 6,000 years, but gold miners, faced with a scant supply of foodstuffs, took advantage of the ancient recipe which uses wild yeasts found in the air to leaven the dough.

A slow rise and artistic shaping will transform these balls of dough into Boudin’s signature sourdough Dungeness crab and teddy bear breads. JIM GENSHEIMER/STAFF ARCHIVES

Left: Fernando Padilla, Boudin’s master baker for more than 40 years, and his staff use the original sourdough starter — the Boudin mother dough — that dates back to the Gold Rush.

JANE TYSKA/STAFF ARCHIVES

A French baker, Isidore Boudin, is credited with turning sourdough into San Francisco’s favorite when he opened his bak ery here in 1849. Boudin’s wife, Louise, rescued the mother dough in 1906, after the Great Earth quake and Fire, by tossing it into a bucket and carrying it to safety. That mother dough is still used in every Boudin loaf today.

Laura Smith Borrman, author of “Iconic San Francisco Dishes, Drinks and Desserts,” says histori ans have learned that the Califor nia gold miners weren’t quite as limited in their baking goods as was believed, so their sourdough might not have been as sour as that made by gold-seeking miners in Alaska’s Klondike.

That does nothing to detract from Boudin’s origin story, how ever, and the stories being written right now throughout the Bay.

“There is a flood of bakeries that have the ‘It’ bakers,” Borrman says, “giving their take on sour dough bread. They are keeping a tradition alive, but making it new.”

THE MARTINI

Depending on what side of the Bay you live, the credit for this elegant libation goes to either a bartender in San Francisco or one in Martinez. Claims that it actually was created in New York just aren’t tolerated here.

The San Francisco martini differs from the East Bay one, originally called the Martinez, by the choice of vermouth, says Trev or Felch, author of “San Francisco Cocktails.” San Francisco’s uses dry, the Martinez incorporates sweet. There’s also some debate on the choice of garnish — olive vs. maraschino cherry. Otherwise,

the legend story is much the same, involving a miner asking for a special drink.

Felch accepts the San Francisco story, while Borrman sides with Martinez, which doesn’t care what anyone thinks. You’ll find a plaque in that city declaring the martini the creation of Martinez bartend er Julio Richelieu in response to a miner’s request for something special to keep him warm on a ferry ride to San Francisco.

The San Francisco origin story involves perhaps the first celeb rity bartender, “Professor” Jerry Thomas of the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, who is said to have made a special drink for a miner

Left: The Martini Monument in Martinez includes this quote honoring the drink: “Humorist James Thurber once said, ‘one is alright, two is too many, and three is not enough.’”

DOUG DURAN/ STAFF ARCHIVES

on his way to Martinez. Either way, a ferry was involved.

CIOPPINO

This amazing concoction of sea food in a spicy tomato broth is a loving salute to the ocean. Italian fishermen, fishing off the Pacific coast, made the hearty dish from fresh-caught seafood. The soup, plus a hunk of sourdough bread, made for a filling meal, and ciop pino soon made its way from the galley to the restaurant, because we know a good thing when we taste it. There are hundreds of different recipes, all variations on the theme.

IT’S IT

The origin story of this dessert is Borrman’s favorite and reflects a certain spirit of creativity and determination the Bay Area is known for. The It’s It is certifi ably San Franciscan, created in 1928 by George Whitney, one of the original owners of Playlandat-the-Beach. He was looking for a dessert that could be easily enjoyed while strolling among the attractions of the beachside amusement park. He finally set tled on a vanilla ice cream cookie sandwich, dipped it in chocolate and declared “That’s it!” (Or, depending on the source, “This is it!” Or simply “It!”) Playland is no

Above: Edible Excursions founder Lisa Rogovin, center, shares tastes and tidbits of San Francisco food history with Canadian guests Lori Greenberg and her daughter, Brianna, during a food tour of the Ferry Building Marketplace in September.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

Left: Cioppino, San Francisco’s iconic seafood stew, originated with the region’s Italian fishermen.

MARK DUFRENE/ STAFF ARCHIVES

more, but the ice cream treat lives on — in mint, cappuccino, straw berry and pumpkin versions, too.

MAI TAI

Like the martini, the mai tai has a muddled and contested his tory, Felch says. Victor Bergeron, owner of the East Bay’s legendary Trader Vic’s restaurant and tiki bar, is said to have created the drink, which has its roots in the daiquiri family, for Carrie and Easton Guild in 1944.

When the couple asked for “something special,” Bergeron whipped up the rum-based drink and added a splash of fresh lime and orgeat, a sweet almond syrup.

Carrie tasted it and exclaimed “Maita’i roa ae,” declaring in Tahitian that it was excellent.

Bergeron’s mai tai eventually made its way to Hawaii, where it became wildly popular.

The only wrinkle: Eleven years earlier, Donn Beach, considered the king of tiki bar culture and owner of Hollywood’s Don the Beachcomber restaurant, claims to have created the drink, which he called the Q.B. Cooler.

We know our loyalties. The Bay Area lays claim to the drink, which is still served at the Trader Vic’s in Emeryville today.

FORTUNE COOKIE

The cookie that portends the future had to be made in China, right? So what’s it doing in a list of Bay Area classics? Turns out it’s mostly a Japanese invention, but it took a fortune cookie company in San Francisco to make it into a classic.

The original Mai Tai is still served today at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville.

Suyeichi Okamura founded Benkyodo, a small Japanese confectionery and snack shop that became known for making small after-dinner treats. The company also supplied cookies — Japanese rice crackers folded around paper fortunes — to serve guests at Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden beginning around 1911. By the 1940s, restaurants in China town were offering the cookies, too, and enthusiastic tourists were returning home with tales of the whimsical San Francisco treats.

GREEN GODDESS

This tangy, vividly colored salad dressing has had its origins chal lenged, but San Francisco has the bona fides. The executive chef at the Palace Hotel in the city, Philip Roemer, created the dressing to honor actor George Arliss and his 1920s hit play, “The Green Goddess.”

The salad typically topped by that dressing came later. The orig inal was served over an artichoke.

GILROY GARLIC FRIES

The history of garlic fries isn’t as well defined, but Lisa Rogovin, founder of Edible Excursions, one of a growing number of Bay Area food tours that celebrate restau rants and iconic foods, often includes them on her tours.

There might be other garlic fries in the world, but the ones served at Bay Area restaurants and San Francisco Giants games are a nod to how the region’s fresh ingredients have influenced food, Rogovin says.

Rogovin prefers the fries served up by Gott’s Roadside, which has locations in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, as well as the original founded in 1999 by two brothers in St. Helena.

“You want them hot,” Rogovin says, “so you’re not eating soggy fries.”

TOSCA’S HOUSE CAPPUCCINO

Bars in the Bay Area have twice had dark days, Felch says. Bars couldn’t sell intoxicating bever ages — at least not in the open — during Prohibition. And the pandemic closed bars that didn’t also have food service. In both instances, Felch says, bars recov ered, but in different ways.

Tosca Cafe, which has operated in North Beach since 1919, found a creative way to skirt Prohibition by creating the House Cappuccino, which at best was a wink and nod to the classic Italian drink. Tosca’s version was basically a cup of hot chocolate, made with Ghirardelli chocolate, of course, and a shot of your preferred spirit.

The recipe later was embel lished to include chocolate ga nache. The drink became instant ly popular and remained so long after Prohibition was lifted.

Bars are only now starting to recover from the 2020 pandemic shut-down, but in the true spirit of the Bay Area, bartenders are breathing new life into a growing cocktail scene, Felch says, exper imenting with new and different alcohols from around the world. And Tosca, which reopened its restaurant as well as its bar in late 2020, still pours that signa ture toddy: bourbon, cognac, hot chocolate, steamed coffee and a side of history.

Top: The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco’s Chinatown is popular with locals and tourists alike. Above: Gott’s Roadside’s garlic fries are among the tasty attractions on an Edible Excursions’ food tour of the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace.

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES; DAI SUGANO/STAFF

From burritos to banh mi to burnt almond cake, Silicon Valley puts scrumptious on the serving plate

BY LINDA ZAVORAL

Sprawling Silicon Valley is known for its techie hangouts and deal-making hot spots, diverse restaurant scene and Michelinstarred standouts that range from Chez TJ in Mountain View to Manresa in Los Gatos. But any local foodie worth his salt (Himalayan pink, of course), knows that these five epicurean experiences are musts.

1 Savor the history and the fruit: Before there was Silicon Valley, there was the Valley of Heart’s Delight. With 100,000 acres of orchards, this region was acclaimed for its luscious plums, apricots, cherries and other fruit. (Oh, what we would give to have seen Blossom Hill Road back in the day, when it was known for blossoms and not bumper-tobumper traffic.) In fact, until the 1960s, this was the world’s largest fruit producing and canning region, keeping more than 40 can neries and packers humming. Most fruit production has moved to the Central Valley, but you can still learn about and taste the famous crops. The city of Sunnyvale has preserved 10 acres of Blenheim apricot trees and opened a museum at Orchard Heritage Park. Saratoga grows cherries, plums and apricots at its Heritage Orchard. And a handful of family-owned orchards remain, especially in southern Santa Clara County. Next spring and summer, check out Andy’s Orchard in Mor gan Hill and don’t miss the fruit stands along Monterey Highway.

Details: www.heritageparkmuseum.org and https://andysorchard.com

2

Drizzle the orange sauce: Philadelphia’s the cheesesteak king. San Francisco’s synonymous with sourdough. St. Louis put toasted ravioli on the food map. And San Jose has Orange Sauce, the beloved taqueria condiment that’s becoming more famous by the day. Marcelino Barrita, found er of the local La Victoria chain, invented the spicy sauce nearly 25 years ago at his first shop to give a little extra zip to his burritos and tacos and hopefully boost sales. It worked, and now there are copy cat versions at taquerias through out the Bay Area. Pour on the original at La Vic’s six locations (five in San Jose, one in Hayward).

Details: www.lavicsj.com

Bite into a banh mi: Santa Clara County is home to more than 150,000 residents of Vietnamese descent, so we enjoy terrific Vietnamese cuisine here. But just as foodies have a favorite burrito, you’ve got to start with a favorite banh mi (pronounced

3

Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill is known for its tree-ripened stone fruit, persimmons and more.

Marcelino Barrita, founder of the La Victoria taqueria chain, developed his distinctive taco and burrito sauce recipe 25 years ago. Now, La Vic’s Orange Sauce is a South Bay cult fave.

ARIC CRABB/STAFF

bun-mee), the yummy and super-affordable sandwich. Pork, chicken, cured meats or pâté are piled onto a freshly baked baguette and topped with lightly pickled carrot and daikon, plus cilantro, cucumber and jalapeños. Try Little Saigon’s popular Duc Huong, which is open from 6 a.m. daily and sells half-sandwiches in case you can’t decide between barbecue pork and grilled beef. Trust us: It’s worth braving the line.

Details: 1020 Story Road, San Jose; https://duchuongsandwiches.com/

4 Shop in Italy: OK, make that Eataly, the three-story empori um in Santa Clara devoted to food representing every region of Italy. Take-away eateries are on the first floor; we recommend a square of Roman-style pizza followed by pistachio gelato. You’ll find wine tastings and 1,200 bottles of vino on the second floor. And the — what’s Italian for pièce de résis tance? — is the third floor, with its 10,000 products. Specialty salumi, rare cheeses, handmade pasta abound. And if you’re a fan of gianduja, you will be in hazelnut heaven. Row after row is devoted to Italy’s prized hazelnut-choco late combination.

Details: 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara; www.eataly.com/us_en/stores

5 Finish up with a slice: If the South Bay has a signature dessert, it’s the Burnt Almond Cake. (Not to worry, newcomers. The almonds are actually toasted or caramelized, not burnt.) Many decades ago, Tony Peters of Peters’ Bakery on San Jose’s Alum Rock Avenue created the recipe and then taught other bakers. It still reigns as the region’s most popu lar dessert for birthdays and spe cial occasions. The cake — usually white layers, but Peters’ Bakery also makes chocolate and seasonal pumpkin versions — is topped with a custard-cream frosting and that addictive almond crunch. You’ll find versions at bakeries and cupcakeries across the valley.

Details: 3108 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose; https://petersbakery.com/order/

KARL MONDON/STAFF ARCHIVES

Ellen Wu, 18, of San Jose, shops for Italian chocolates inside Eataly Silicon Valley at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara. DAI SUGANO/STAFF

You’ll find everything from Italian salumi and handmade pasta to fresh seafood at Eataly. DAI SUGANO/STAFF

Cups of raspberry gelato are prepared inside Eataly Silicon Valley at Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara. DAI SUGANO/STAFF

WEST MARIN BUCKET LIST

Have an epicure’s adventure in an agrarian oasis

BY LISA KRIEGER

Only a winding, hour-long drive north of San Francisco, West Marin is a place apart from the rest of the busy Bay Area — dreamy, wild and blessed with a rich agrarian tradition. Long ago, fearing the perils of suburban sprawl, the region conceived the nation’s first agricultural land trust to protect its family farms and historic ranches. Now, urbanites are welcomed as allies to help support its farmers, ranchers, cheesemakers, oystermen and fishers. A foodie destination forever free of condos and golf courses, West Marin feels as though it has always been this way and always will.

1 Awaken to an almond muffin at Bovine Bakery: Get here early for the best choice, as items at this beloved cafe sell out fast — the line starts at the Dutch door and can extend down the side walk. A blackboard on the side walk lists their creative selections, which change daily, ranging from vegan scones to raspberry almond marzipan tarts. A tasty alternative is just around the corner at famed Brickmaiden Breads. Neither spot has inside seating; instead, sit on the curb and enjoy the daily parade of Point Reyes’ bicyclists,

pickup trucks and colorful char acters.

Details: 11315 Shoreline Highway, Point Reyes Station; www.bovinebakeryptreyes. com/

2 Fancy some velvety Formagella, a first-place winner at this year’s annual American Cheese Society competition: Feeling more adventurous? Try “Lucas Valley,” a rind cheese with a delicious funk. Both are found in an old

Point Reyes Station is home to the Heidrun Meadery, which makes dry, delightful wine from honey using the French methode champenoise for effervescence. COURTESY MARTA YAMAMOTO

barn-turned-tasting room at Nicasio Valley Cheese Company. Generations of the company’s Lafranchi family have ranched in this lovely valley since the early 1900s, inspired by their Swiss Italian heritage. Recipes are made with 100 percent organic milk and have earned dozens of awards. While visiting, you can watch cheese being made — or sit at a table and gaze out at happy Holsteins and fir forests.

Details: 5300 Nicasio Valley Road, Nicasio; https://nicasiocheese.com/

3 Savor the Oysters

Rockefeller at the folksy Marshall Store, perched between Highway 1 and Tomales Bay: Like its name, this dish ($25) is rich, loaded with butter, garlic, spinach, Toma cheese and crusty breadcrumbs. The ramshackle roadside spot serves Pacific Preston Point oysters exclusively from their family’s Tomales Bay Oyster Company, the oldest continuously operating oyster farm in California, on an outside deck and waterfront tables. Their clam chowder is a local favorite. Dress warmly and watch the bobbing boats, while fog creeps down dark and distant hills. Want to learn

Nicasio Valley Cheese Company’s attractions include these soft ripening Tomino rounds, which are aged for five weeks.

OF NICASIO VALLEY CHEESE CO.

more? Take an Oyster Lovers Tour: https://foodandfarmtours. com/tours/oyster-lovers-tour/

Details:19225 Highway 1, Marshall; https://themarshallstore.com

4 Catch the crisp and champagne-y mead of Heidrun Meadery: This is

nothing like the cloyingly sweet drink made from medieval recipes. Rather, it’s a dry delight with bubbles that push the aromatics into your nose and palate. Its wine is made from honey, elevated by the French methode champenoise for effervescence. The flavor of each sip in the flight of four ($25) is influenced by the floral source of the honey, ranging from California oranges to Hawaii’s ‘ hi‘a Lehua. Now city hipsters have discovered this place, heightening its vibe of flowers and fun. Stroll the meadery’s wild gardens, glass in hand, or peer into the barn for a peek at the 55-gallon vats filled with honey from around the world. And yes, tours are available.

Details: 11925 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station; www.heidrunmeadery.com/

5 Step

history and hoist a Lost Coast Smiley’s, a

into

blonde ale,

to honor all things

wet, wild and wonderful: Every night, surfers and rowdy locals gather at Smiley’s Schooner Saloon, pictured, in the famously eccentric village of Bolinas, bounded by seawater on three sides. It was founded 151 years ago, and new owner Leila Monroe has preserved its old Western character and added live music, an outdoor patio, Mexican dishes and a stellar selection of 11 draft beers. The food is organic, nonGMO and locally sourced, from places like Niman Ranch and sustainable TwoXSea.

Details: 41 Wharf Road, Bolinas; https:// smileyssaloon.com

COURTESY

Boats from Hog Island Oyster Company bob on Tomales Bay in Marshall this past spring. ALAN DEP/STAFF

ALAN DEP/STAFF

Music on the menu

STORY BY JIM HARRINGTON ILLUSTRATION BY PEP BOATELLA

Joel Selvin can still clearly recall the moment he realized that restaurateurs had taken pairing music with meals to a whole new level.

“I walked into this incredibly pretentious, foodie-oriented Mission district restaurant,” he remembers. “And outside, there was a glass bulletin board case that showed that night’s menu and that night’s playlist — like they were pairing them.

“It was a new level of pretense in the restaurant business and in the music business that I hadn’t en countered. But I understood what was going on.”

And he decided to get involved. The longtime Bay Area music critic, who had just retired after a multi-decade run as the music critic at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009, decided to jump on the trend and offer up his services as a mu sic consultant/curator to local eateries.

His first gig was with the Red Rocker him self, singer Sammy Hagar, who Selvin says hired him to create a “steak-eating playlist”

Bay Area restaurateurs curate the tunes to bring out the best in their cuisines

at his then-new Mill Valley spot, El Paseo.

“To me, that meant a lot of big band, a lot of up-tempo R&B, a lot of sort of white supper club pop,” Selvin says. “Didn’t see any rock ‘n’ roll in a steak-eating playlist.”

Selvin was in a unique posi tion at the time — given that he could draw upon his vast private music library to create playlists that could be uploaded to iPods. Streaming has since changed the game, and pretty much everybody has access to millions upon mil lions of recordings these days.

Not so coincidentally, the cu rated restaurant playlist concept has gone mainstream in recent years. Now establishments around the Bay Area and well beyond are pairing ditties and dishes.

Of course, the idea is hardly new. Musical accompaniment for the dining experience has probably been around as long as there have been instruments. A fine meal accompanied by the right soundtrack — or jazz combo or Renaissance troubador —has been one of the world’s great joys

Above: The curated music emanating from this speaker at Flour + Water adds to the restaurant’s ambience.

Top right: Music director Andrew Poole prints copies of the Flour + Water playlists for patrons.

Bottom right: A music playlist curated by Kristina Farino, music director at Penny Roma, streams from a mobile phone.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

for centuries.

What is new, however, is the ease and simplicity with which people can deliver such far-reach ing playlists these days, due to the advancements in streaming.

Walk into Besharam, chef Hee na Patel’s popular Indian restau rant in San Francisco, and you’ll find plenty of Bollywood hits as part of an international playlist that is as likely to stop in Bangkok as it is in Beirut. And the playlist might sound quite different a few months later.

“It always changes,” Heena says. “I believe the music needs to be changed with the season — and with the food. Of course, you are here to eat. But I am trying to give you the whole experience — and the music is one part of it.”

Of course, diners probably won’t be surprised to hear Bollywood tunes being played at Besharam. Pairing cuisine with music from the same area of origin is common. If you walk into David Kinch’s The Bywater in Los Gatos to get a fried shrimp po’ boy, some Creole spiced fries

and an order of beignets, it seems only natural to hear such Fat City favorites as Allen Toussaint and The Meters.

“You’ll get a lot of New Orle ans-type music — a lot of that blues, jazzy (music),” says Bywater manager Jorge Marquez Lobato.

Yet, sticking only with what’s expected isn’t always the right choice. So, many restaurants will stray from matching the cuisine only with music from the same geography. In the case of the Bywater, patrons get New Orleans tunes as well as a big batch of familiar pop offerings.

“You make sure that there is general pop music and greatest hits from throughout the eras,” Lobato says. “So, a lot of ’60s, ’70s and ’80s — not really the ’90s.”

Bywater further mixes it up by setting the playlist on shuffle, thus removing any real sense of order from the equation and setting the table for some really cool and un expected musical juxtapositions.

“You might be sitting here and the next thing you know, you will hear some New Orleans rap

The soundtrack changes frequently at chef Heena Patel’s popular Besharam, where Bollywood hits mix with an international playlist.

KARL MONDON/ STAFF ARCHIVES

pop in, followed by the Beatles,” Lobato says.

It’s easy enough to find pre-ex isting playlists on Spotify or other music streaming sites. Just type in “classic rock” or “date night” or whatever, then push play. (Restaurants, however, pay music licensing fees to organizations like ASCAP — the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publish ers — in order to be able to play music in public venues.)

Yet, some might consider pip ing in a ready-made playlist akin to letting some random chef walk into a restaurant’s kitchen and start whipping up the meals for the night.

There’s a definite downside to having a generic, unorganized playlist, where “all of a sudden you have, like, Led Zeppelin blaring and then it’s, like rap, and then it goes into Beyoncé and then it’s like back to ’70s Yacht Rock,” says co-executive chef Thomas McNaughton from Flour + Water in San Francisco.

That’s why Flour + Water employs music directors to curate

At right: Joel Selvin curated the first playlists used at Sammy Hagar’s now-closed steakhouse, El Paseo in Mill Valley.

JOCELYN KNIGHT/ STAFF ARCHIVES

the tuneful offerings played for the restaurant group, which also includes Penny Roma, Trick Dog and Flour + Water Pasta Shop.

No, it’s not a full-time gig. Music directors Andy Poole and Kristina Farina have other non-music related responsibili ties. They do, however, get “a cool title and a fake business card,” McNaughton says.

The playlist concept is different at Flour + Water than most other restaurants. Instead of focusing on individual songs, the San Fran cisco eatery fills its playlists with full-length albums. That means you could walk into Flour + Water for a bite and hear the 2011 Blood Orange debut, “Coastal Grooves,” played in its entirety, followed by, say, both sides of the Pointer Sisters’ “Energy” from 1978.

Compiling good music alone is not enough, says McNaughton. The playlist must match a restau rant’s “flow of service.”

“It actually does take curation throughout the night,” he says. “Our vibe at 5:30 — and demo graphic — is a lot different than it is at 10 p.m.”

Ryan Pollnow, McNaughton’s co-executive chef at Flour + Water, says that a music director plays a crucial part in the dining experience.

“He’s pairing the energy of the restaurant at different points of the night to different energies of albums — and also the build with in those albums,” Pollnow says.

“It actually becomes incredibly complex to really pull off success

Above: New Orleans tunes mix with pop offerings — and cocktails — at The Bywater restaurant in Los Gatos.

KARL MONDON/STAFF ARCHIVES

Opposite: The Flour + Water restaurant group’s team includes Andrew Poole, left, music director for the flagship restaurant; Ryan Pollnow, co-executive chef and partner; Thomas McNaughton, co-executive chef and founding partner; and Kristina Farino, music director of Penny Roma.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

fully. But when you do, and when it’s a person that’s in that music director role and in that service five nights a week and knows those different kinds of cue points throughout the night, it’s some thing that is really magical.”

Of course, despite the effort, there’s no guarantee that people will notice the specially selected music. But there are times when it’s clear that diners are indeed listening.

“One of my favorite things to see in the restaurant is that guests pull out their phones and use Shazam, because they are into the song and (want to know) what is this?” Pollnow says. “And to have the ability to go to the same guest with a printed playlist and, not in a negative way, say, ‘You can put the phone down for the rest or your meal. Here’s what you are listening to. And also, here’s the next album that is about to come up after Stevie Nicks’ ‘The Wild Heart’ — or whatever it is.’”

Restaurateurs and curators say it’s always a good idea to listen to employees’ suggestions — they are the ones, after all, who will be listening to a playlist night after night, week after week.

Selvin learned that lesson after he created his first “steak-eating playlist” years ago.

“It was well received to the degree that I created the proper atmosphere,” he says. “But it was only about eight hours long, and after the second day, the staff was ready to kill me.”

“One of my favorite things to see in the restaurant is that guests pull out their phones and use Shazam, because they are into the song and (want to know) what is this? And to have the ability to go to the same guest with a printed playlist and, not in a negative way, say, ‘You can put the phone down for the rest or your meal. Here’s what you are listening to.’”

Ryan Pollnow, co-executive chef at Flour + Water

EAST BAY BUCKET LIST: WEST OF THE CALDECOTT

Eat, drink and shop where the culinary revolution began

BY JOHN METCALFE

Berkeley and its East Bay neighbors are not only the birthplace of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse and the California slow-food movement that transformed the way we eat. Their culinary groundbreaking goes back to the invention of Rocky Road ice cream, American corn nuts and the legendary Mai Tai cocktail. You don’t have to travel far to find stellar Caribbean fare, amazing banh mi, world-class Italian and cutting-edge vegan. Here are some of the places we love visiting:

1 Get deep into ’za: Great pizza joints dot the East Bay like pineapple on a Hawaiian. You’ve got Nick’s with its pastry-chef cred and Oakland-style sourdough crust. Berkeley’s Rose Pizzeria slings crackery versions zipping with jalapeño, and cult favorite Emilia’s bakes New York pies. But the most iconic of them all — with more than 225 best-pizza awards and block-spanning lines — is Zachary’s Chicago Pizza. What, you were thinking Cheese Board? It’s great. But Zachary’s gets props for making Midwest lasagna pie a Bay Area institution, with an ultra-buttery crust and a cornucopia of fresh fillings. Try the classic Italian with sausage and peppers, heavy as a door stopper — you’ll never think about Lou Malnati’s again.

Details: Locations include the flagship at 5801 College Ave., Oakland; zacharys.com

Deep-dish pizzas are a hallmark at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza.

Far left: The New York Times declared Boichik’s bagels as good as any from a New York bagelry.

BOICHIK BAGELS

Left: Berkeley Bowl is known for its impeccably fresh produce that includes everything from radicchio to prickly pear, pictured.

MIKE BYRNE

2 Visit a grocery wonderland. It’s not uncommon to hear somebody moved to the East Bay to be closer to Berkeley Bowl, the market founded by Glenn and Diane Yasuda in the 1970s. It’s so beloved, some couples actually take their engagement photos there.

When the Cosmic Crisp apple hit the news, you knew which place would have it first. A kom bucha bar? Berkeley Bowl has one, as well as local burrata and imported Japanese goods. And the produce section is amaz ing to browse, with ivory-white bittermelon and raw garbanzos and a discount shelf that attracts deal-seekers like hungry raccoons.

Details: 2020 Oregon St. and 920 Heinz Ave., Berkeley; berkeleybowl.com

4 Try a ‘pumperthingel:’ Even before The New York Times declared Boichik’s Bagels as good as New York’s, the place seemed destined for success. New Jersey native Emily Winston was so stricken with H&H Bagels’ decline, she spent years designing a sim ulacrum. Made with high-protein flour and Berkeley tap water, her bagels are chewy, malty and shiny.

The sesame bagel has a crunchy jacket of toasty seeds, and the cinnamon-raisin is so good, it needs little more than butter. But the ultimate is the pumperthingel, an oniony/molasses-y mix as dark as a German forest. Slathering it with lox cream cheese launches it into pumpernickel heaven.

Details: 3170 College Ave., Berkeley; boichikbagels.com

3

Sip the Earth. Snail Bar. Slug. Shuggie’s. Nowadays, it seems, if you’re a natural-wine joint without a weird name, you’re the weird one. But long before any of these trendy places existed, there was Donkey & Goat Winery, the first of its kind in Berkeley, whose barnyard moniker alludes to the funky flavors and Earth-friendly practices that have made natural wine a trend.

D&G wines are made with little intervention and even less sulphur, resulting in carignanes and sparkling merlots as intrigu ing as they are delicious. It’s no coincidence Wine & Spirits has deemed it one of the world’s top 100 wineries — twice.

Details: 1340 Fifth St., Berkeley; donkeyandgoat.com

5 Get decadent at a taco truck: Foodie social media can be used for evil — remember that fake trend of chicken cooked in NyQuil? But it can also gospelize genuinely fantastic food. Buoyed by Instagram hype, ooey-gooey quesabirria tacos hit SoCal around 2016 and flowed up to the Bay Area, where taqueros drew huge lines of hungry patrons clamoring for cheesy tacos dunked in hot consomme.

You’ll find great versions of the dish — long-simmered beef or goat squished into corn-tortilla purses with melting mozzarella or Chihuahua — all over the East Bay, from El Garage in Richmond to Aguachiles el Tamarindo and the La Santa Torta food truck in Oakland.

SANTA CRUZ BUCKET LIST

Some top-notch noshin’ where the surf’s up

BY AMBER TURPIN

Santa Cruz’s reputation skews more towards flip flops and 4:20 parties than elevated food experiences, but regardless of what brings you to this beachy surf city, you’ll have no problem finding something delicious. It could be as simple as the best tahini salad dressing of your life at the landmark vegetarian Dharma’s (it was McDharma’s until Mickey D’s sued them in 1986) or a little corn quesadilla from Tacos Moreno in midtown. But these five food experiences will wow you.

1 Eat with your fingers: Chef and restaurateur David Kinch’s name is synonymous with Manresa, the three Michelin-star restaurant in Los Gatos. But the Santa Cruz local made his neighbors very happy indeed when he opened Mentone in Aptos in 2020. Pizza from the bedazzling Mugnaini oven — why yes, that is a mosaic tribute to The Rolling Stones on its exterior — is the big draw here. The Pizza Soppressata ($24), for example, is topped with salami, pickled Calabrian chiles and “fairy dust.” And the Caesar Salad, which arrives in a huge colorful bowl filled with radicchio, torn bread croutons and shards of shaved parmesan, is perfection.

Details: 174 Aptos Village Way, Aptos; www.mentonerestaurant.com

2 Know your farmer: Santa Cruz hosts at least one farmers market nearly every day — and three on Saturdays, including one with ocean views (when the fog cooperates). This region is an organic food heaven and a pulse point for small farms. Ninety produce and food stalls dot the Saturday Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College, for example, offering handcrafted cheeses, organic juices and artisanal breads, as well as veggies, flowers and herbs. The Downtown Santa Cruz Market serves up a wide array of nota ble bites — everything from momos to pupusas, naan and biscotti — alongside the produce.

Details: https://santacruzfarmersmarket.org and https://montereybayfarmers.org

Far West Fungi sells a variety of edible exotic mushrooms, such as these pink oyster mushrooms, at its Santa Cruz shop.

VERN FISHER/STAFF ARCHIVES

SHMUEL THALER/STAFF

4 Get messy: If only the walls at Zachary’s restaurant could talk. This local favorite has been around since 1985, survived earth quakes and pandemics, and it still serves up dishes that taste exactly the way you remember them. The turmeric-stained homefries, sourdough pancakes and oatmeal molasses bread are all great, but the most beloved brunch dish is the Mike’s Mess ($15.50). It’s a pile of potatoes, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and bacon topped with melted cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and a shower of green onions. Best wear stretchy pants, even for the junior version ($13). (Psst, there’s a vegan version, too.)

Details: 819 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz; www.zacharyssantacruz.com

5

Find fantastic fungus:

3

Goat it up: Companion Bakeshop opened on Santa Cruz’s Westside in 2010, but Erin and Jeremy Lampel’s bakery and cafe soon began drawing lines. Today, they have brick-and-mor tar locations in Santa Cruz and Aptos and stalls at seven farmers markets. You’ll find their delicious fare — sourdough loaves, galettes, croissants, kouign-amann — at local coffee shops, and they’re the

pie partner for Pie Ranch near Pescadero. There are no wrong choices, only delicious ones, but if you see a Goat Horn, buy it imme diately. This small, horn-shaped loaf is laced with crackly pools of goat cheese.

Details: 2341 Mission St. in Santa Cruz and 7486 Soquel Drive in Aptos; https:// companionbakeshop.com.

Locally grown grains star in the breads and baked goods at Companion Bakeshop.

Mushroom hunting is such a big deal in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the region holds an annual Fungus Fair. So it makes perfect sense that you’d find so many mushroom-centric dishes on menus. FLASHbird, the Abbott Square fried chicken joint helmed by chef Jeffrey Wall from Alder wood, offers a mind-blowing, crispy hen-of-the-woods mush room sandwich ($13) alongside the poultry sammies. The menu at Far West Fungi’s Santa Cruz shop includes a mushroom muffaletta ($15). And inside the craft beer mecca that is the Sante Adairius Portal, Bookie’s Pizza serves up chef-driven, farm-to-table, “inau thentic Detroit-style” pizza ... and astounding maitake mushroom wings ($16), slathered in butter and Frank’s Red Hot. Dip them in the house blue cheese ranch, of course.

Details: www.flashbirdchicken.com, https://farwestfungi.com and www. bookiespizza.com

Left: Shoppers at the Downtown Santa Cruz Farmers Market make their selection of Early Girl tomatoes at the Live Earth Farms stall.

DAN COYRO/ SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL

Dining out is such a personal experience. Some people stick to counter-service, while others prefer prix fixe. Some of us are willing to cross the county — heck, the region — for the promise of the best vegan sandwich, while others find themselves returning to that trusted neighborhood trattoria.

Lucky for us, the East and South Bays offer innumerable dining experiences that are not only wonderful but represent nearly every global cuisine, from Japanese izakayas to taquerias, chaat houses and more.

So how did we even begin to build this list of 50

East and South Bay restaurants offer dining experiences that rival the best of San Francisco’s

STORY BY JESSICA YADEGARAN, LINDA ZAVORAL AND JOHN METCALFE

ILLUSTRATION

BY TELEGRAMME

50 unforgettable

Best Restaurants? First, we took San Francisco out of the equation. That bastion of gastronomy gets enough ink, and besides, our readers live here. Next, we spent months visiting and revisiting restaurants — and eating kale in between — to produce a list that we believe is both thorough and thoughtful and has something for everyone, from Brentwood to Berkeley to San Jose.

Consider these sensational bistros, cafes, swanky fine-dining spots and tiny holes-in-the-wall not so much a ranking as a guide for all occasions and cravings.

OAKLAND

Daytrip

When you crave the brilliantly unexpected

Let’s be clear: Months ago, before Bon Appetit named Oakland’s Daytrip one of the best new restaurants in America, the trend-setting natural wine bar had already shot to the top of our list. Finn Stern and Stella Dennig’s Temescal neighborhood bistro is a revelation, a place where you will experience funky, palate-opening wines alongside dishes so lively and scrumptious, they make standard fine dining fare (we’re talking about you, roast chicken) an absolute bore.

The secret is executive chef Stern’s razor-focused pursuit of fermentation, which brightens everything from salad to pasta. Sonnets could be written about Daytrip’s now-famous celery salad, the way the feathery Sardinian sheep’s cheese balances perky habanero and lemon verbena chlorophyll. Or how it would be a crime to toss handmade sourdough basil pasta in marinara, when it clearly belongs with Sugar Kiss melon vinegar, goat’s milk brunet and Shared Cultures’ small-batch miso.

As if Daytrip could get any better, the atmosphere is fun and unpretentious, the service confident, and nothing on the menu, which changes often, is more than $28. One more gush: They list the names of every Daytrip employee on the menu in alphabetical order, with Dennig and Stern tucked in the middle, not at the top. Here’s to starting more trends like that.

Don’t miss: The ever-changing menu typically offers a dozen dishes, including desserts, but the pastas, mussels, hot focaccia and salads always shine.

Details: 4316 Telegraph Ave., Oakland; www.thisisdaytrip.com; $$

PALO ALTO Ettan

The first indication you’re in for a special meal at Ettan is the space itself — a virtual palace of exquisite tilework and chandeliers that leads to a patio of lush greenery and upside-down umbrellas. Once you’re done gawking, you can sit and enjoy the Cal-Indian cooking of Srijith Gopinathan, who hails from Kerala and snagged two Michelin stars at San Francisco’s Taj Campton Place.

Gopinathan’s dishes are artful and bursting with texture and brightness, a prime example being the sesame leaves with “chaat flavors.” Crispy, fried leaves are piled with juicy mango, chickpea crumble, candied sesame and cilantro — like the most interest ing loaded Pringle ever; you won’t be able to eat just one. Buttered monkey bread in hot cast iron makes a perfect vehicle for assertive kale and eggplant chut neys. The pea kulcha with ricotta sings of springtime (there’s an earthier version with a shower of black truffle), and chicken wings with fermented chiles are astonishingly juicy. Perhaps it’s the chef’s roots near the Malabar Coast, but anything seafood-related is a guaranteed hit, from the velvetiest scallops with tam arind to shallot-crusted black cod in a shrimp curry whose complex flavors unfold seemingly forever.

Don’t miss: Everything mentioned above, plus the wild mushroom “one pot” with potato korma and idiyappam, black cod in shallot crust with coconut rice and the Travancore shrimp curry.

Details: 518 Bryant St., Palo Alto; ettanrestaurant.com, $$$

SAN JOSE

Acopio

When you want what the taqueria trailblazers are cooking

Taqueria Lorena held down an East San Jose corner for decades, until a fire shuttered the family business founded by Jose and Carmen Vidrios. That’s when daughter Lorena, the namesake, started putting a second-generation plan into motion with brother Carlos: They would open a modern, evolutionary Mexican restaurant, the sort of place that Lorena said San Jose hadn’t seen before. The plan by the siblings, both chefs, came to fruition earlier this year with Acopio — the name means a reunion or gathering — on the East Side.

With executive chef Marshall Reid, they’ve created a contemporary menu with Old World touches. The soft, supple tortillas, for example, are handmade from blue corn nixtamalized onsite. A Lebanese-spiced grilled pork taco pays homage to the Arabic influence that led to Mexico’s famous spit-roasted al pastor.

The Mole de Pato, a chile adobo confit duck leg served with pistachio mole and seared, spiced masa cake and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds, quickly became Acopio’s signature dish. It’s a stunner, beauti fully cooked and composed, texturally interesting and Instagram-gorgeous. The preparation varies — this fall it’s Pipian Verde con Pato, with a green mole and lemon-thyme masa cake — but the pistachio version will return come pomegranate season this winter.

Don’t miss: Start with the Tortillas de Casa appetizer, served with frijoles puercos, queso fresco, chiltomate salsa and salsa verde cruda, or the spicy corn ribs, Costiillas de Elote, before tucking into the duck entree or the Carne de Res with grilled chayote.

Details: 399 S. 24th St., San Jose; www.acopiosj.com; $$

Buffalo burrata is a highlight at Daytrip. ARIC CRABB/STAFF

Ettan’s patio offers alfresco dining. NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

When you want Michelin-quality Indian in a fun, photo-worthy setting

Mezcal gives Acopio’s Bebida Prohibida its signature flavor.

OAKLAND Belotti Ristorante

When only the most delicate stuffed pastas will do

Take that first bite of Michele (mee-ke-le) Belotti’s food, and you can almost hear the dramatic symphon ic music that opens Netflix’s “Chef’s Table,” where the Italian chef flicks flour on the cutting board. Belotti, who grew up near Milan, could join their ranks. His eponymous Rockridge restaurant, conceived and run with his wife, Joyce, strips gourmet Italian food to its essence: simple, minimal ingredients combined in ways that print memories on the palate. The hand made pastas are headline-worthy: casoncelli stuffed with beef and pork shoulder, bigoli tangled in duck sugo and orange zest, tagliatelle topped with grap pa-marinated wild boar and Tuscan pecorino.

Belotti Ristorante is that rare neighborhood bistro that hits every mark. It offers a reasonable price point, exceptional wine list, long and convenient hours and confident servers who make spot-on recommendations, as they breeze by with samples of world-class Brunello. Even the simplest of desserts, a traditional panna cotta, is not the typical jiggly mold but a pot of silky, raspberry-topped cream custard that cues the music again.

Don’t miss: The Casoncelli Bergamaschi (Bergamo-style stuffed pasta with beef, pork shoulder, prosciutto, Grana Padano, sage, butter and smoked pancetta) is a crowd-pleaser. Also wonderful: the tortellini tradizionali in brodo (tiny tortellini in short rib-chicken-oxtail bone broth) and Agnolotti di Lidia (stuffed pasta with beef shank, flat iron, pork loin, sausage, escarole and spinach).

Details: 5403 College Ave., Oakland, with a take-out and pasta shop at 4001B Piedmont Ave., also in Oakland; https://belottirb.com; $$

appetizer. The “Burnt” French Onion Soup, crowned with Comté cheese, is the richest around. (You’ll also find Comté, France’s meltiest, atop the burger here.)

Craving scallops? Black Sheep Brasserie brings in only the coveted sweet Hokkaido ones, and they’re cooked to perfection, with just the right amount of sear.

And don’t be surprised to hear a foodie at a nearby table rhapsodize about the evolving gnocchi prepara tion, which this season is a roasted — and smoked! — pumpkin version with sage cream and walnuts.

If you’ve left room for dessert, the promise of Ma ple-Calvados Caramel with the Buttermilk Beignets should make that decision easy.

Don’t miss: The Steamed Mussels, served with saffron cream, aioli and a pile of pommes frites.

Details: 1202 Lincoln Ave., San Jose; https://bsbwillowglen.com; $$

CAMPBELL

Orchard City Kitchen

When your taste buds need a wake-up call

If you’ve been eating off too many predictable menus, re-energize your palate with a trip to Or chard City Kitchen. You’ll want to grab a few friends, because the appeal here is wildly inventive, hyper-sea sonal small plates, and chef/owner Jeff Stout and his team come up with some outrageous combinations that work. (The overall-wearing chef with Michelin cred also owns and operates the upscale and creative Be.Steak.A, located nearby.)

SAN JOSE

Black Sheep Brasserie

If you think of Willow Glen’s see-and-be-seen street as Rue Lincoln, then Black Sheep is the chic brasserie everyone calls their favorite. For good reason.

This contemporary French-California kitchen, which has its roots in restaurateur Don Durante’s long-ago Le Mouton Noir, puts outstanding meal after outstanding meal on the table, and diners have come to expect that level of quality.

Many swear by the 38 North Duck Breast, with seasonal accompaniments. Others wouldn’t think of starting their meal without the Duck Liver Mousse

To get the full OCK experience, you need to share plenty of dishes. A popular starter is the BBB (biscuits, bacon, honey butter). But earlier this fall, the kitchen was making a Hungarian fry bread called Langos and serving it with chimichurri-cultured butter and aged cheddar. That’s hard to pass up. Moving on, a Bitter Tropical Salad of radicchio, cabbage, coconut, peanut and nuoc cham makes for a refreshing palate cleanser, and then there’s a Tamarind Pork Belly served with Jimmy Nardello peppers, piloncillo and marcona almonds. (Even serious foodies spend a lot of time here googling ingredients.) The Bone Marrow Orecchiette is accompanied by water chestnuts, dates, crispy shallots and blue cheese. And Sauerkraut Fritters become Ger man-Italian fusion when served with ricotta, basil aioli and red onions. Who dreams up this stuff?!

Just order and enjoy. Because on your next visit, there will be a whole new assortment of small plates.

Don’t miss: If you’d feel more comfortable with a couple of menu standbys, you can’t go wrong with the aforementioned BBB, the Korean Fried Chicken or the seasonal vegetable dishes.

Details: 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Campbell; www.orchardcitykitchen. com; $-$$

Belotti’s Casoncelli Bergamaschi is a Bergamo-style stuffed pasta. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

OAKLAND Lion Dance Cafe

When you want a road trip-worthy sandwich and so much more

One of the most exciting restaurants in Oakland is vegan, doesn’t have indoor seating and is perhaps most famous for a sandwich that’s only served on Saturdays. Oh, but what a sandwich: The shaobing is a triumph of spice and funk, with a recent version featuring velvety slabs of Asian eggplant, potato and smoked-tofu fritter, pickled Thai chile mayo and fresh herbs and lime leaf. It’s squished between chewy bread baked with sesame oil in the dough and encrusted in sesame seeds — one could eat the bread alone and be happy, it’s that good.

Order from the quick-moving line, then have a seat at the festive parklet among youngsters much cooler than you to enjoy more Singapore-inspired cooking from C-Y Chia and Shane Stanbridge. A huge clump of maitake mushrooms, seemingly ripped whole from the forest floor, is perfectly battered and zippy with Fresno-chilei sambal. The sesame-peanut noodles are a textural feast with chewy strips of seared yuba and crunchy veggies, plus an encore of mala numbing spice. For dessert, don’t miss the A.S.S. Cookie (take your mind out of the gutter, it’s almonds, sesame and shallots). You’ll never be bored at Lion Dance, and you’ll never miss meat or dairy. In fact, the brined-to fu nuggets, which were recently on hiatus (but may come back!) due to their intensive week-long prepara tion, might actually make you swear off Mickey D’s.

Don’t miss: That shaobing sandwich #72, the mushroom goreng with sambal, sesame L.G.M. Noodles with stir-fried market veg and, if you can score them, those tofu nuggs with sambal mayo.

Details: 380 17th St., Oakland; liondancecafe.com, $-$$

MENLO PARK

Flea Street Cafe

When you want a beautiful taste of the season

The two lists that book-end the Flea Street Cafe menu tell you all you need to know about pioneering chef Jesse Cool’s priorities.

One is an appreciation of the many purveyors — from Harley Farm to Dirty Girl Produce to Webb Ranch and 25 others — whose devotion to “sustain able, organic and pasture-raised products” fuels this iconic Peninsula restaurant. The other is a “Heart of the House” tribute naming the employees who share the passion of Cool and chef/GM Bryan Thuerk.

Service in these serene dining rooms is friendly and very attentive. As for the fare, the summer menu showcased Brentwood corn in a soup garnished with avocado, salsa verde and smoked chile dust and Cen tral Valley stone fruit in a homey dessert called the Masumoto Family Farm Nectarine Galette. Making the transition to the winter menu will be the luxuri ous Slow Braised, Grass-Fed Short Ribs, a customer favorite with an evolving cast of supporting char acters. On a recent evening, it was smoked shiitake mushrooms starring with horseradish spaetzle and blistered padron peppers to make a superlative en tree. All meals come with a bread basket that includes the restaurant’s legendary little buttermilk biscuits.

Don’t miss: The clever “Which Came First?” entree is a variation on the theme. This summer, Thuerk reimagined the question as a Cobb salad with buttermilk fried chicken and pickled hen egg. Another time it was chicken topped with soft-poached egg raviolo.

Details: 3607 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park; www.cooleatz. com; $$$

Fish & Bird Sousaku Izakaya

When you want to try the evolution of Japanese bar food

“Sousaku” refers to creative reimagining, and sousaku is all over the old B-Dama crew’s Fish & Bird, from the stylish space with its soundtrack of The Pogues and Professor Longhair to izakaya plates executed with modern flair. From the bar, one might enjoy an Espadin mezcal with red yuzu kosho, then move on to something from the charcoal grill that elevates everything it touches: local cod marinated in Oakland sake lees, say, or marbled steak with bracing anchovy ponzu. One of the restaurant’s most soughtout meals is a platter-for-two of fresh seafood and A5 wagyu, which diners cook themselves over tabletop charcoal burners.

The negitoro minidon is a small but ridiculously sumptuous bowl of glistening fatty-tuna cubes, nes tled on soft pads of dashi omelet. A corn and sea-bean fritter mixes fresh kernels and the asparaguslike plants grown in salt marshes, then tempura-fries them into a matcha-dusted bird’s nest for the perfect sweet-salty indulgence.

Don’t miss: All of the above, plus the A5 wagyu yakiniku and seafood for two. Finish with that Basque cheesecake.

Details: 2451 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; fishbirdizakaya.com, $$-$$$

Dumpling Hours

When you want to one-up Din Tai Fung

In a town where the fine dining restaurants can sometimes blur, Walnut Creek’s Dumpling Hours pro vides an impeccably delicious, one-of-a-kind experience. Made-to-order dumplings — boiled, pan-fried or soup — are the stars at this in-the-know favorite, with dough so delicate and deftly pinched, you can see the spicy pork and black truffle through each elegant sachet.

Dumpling Hours doesn’t take reservations, but wait times are reasonable, because the staff runs a tight operation with a clipboard wait list that keeps things moving and service that is reliably swift. Salads, noodles and sides are executed with as much focus as the dim sum. In addition to altar-worthy xiao long bao, look for Mandarin dishes otherwise missing in downtown Walnut Creek, like crispy pig ears and

Chef C-Y Chia, right, and Shane Stanbridge’s Lion Dance Cafe is an outdoors-only affair.

Flea Street Cafe’s popularity is due to owner Jesse Ziff Cool, left, and head chef Bryan Thuerk.

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

WALNUT CREEK AND BRENTWOOD

Find the Bay Area’s Michelin-starred restaurants, including San Jose’s Adega and Oakland’s Commis, on pages 44-45.

cucumbers in a nose-clearing spicy sauce and snappy wood and silver ear mushrooms in house dressing.

Don’t miss: The hot and spicy pork xiao long bao, of course, but also the ginger and scallion noodles, shrimp and pork pot stickers, Brussels sprouts with truffle and the bright green vegetable dumplings decorated to look like fall leaves.

Details: 1389 N Main St. in Walnut Creek, and at 2505 Sand Creek Road, #112, in Brentwood; www.dumplinghours.com; $

11-20

OAKLAND Bombera

When you want a Chez Panisse cafe in a Mexican home

Located inside an old firehouse in Oakland’s Dimond district, Dominica Rice’s Mexican restaurant is an epicenter for Chicana culture and thoughtful, gourmet Mexican food made by grandmas in an open kitchen. A hearth drives much of the stellar menu, from garlic-and-lime marinated roast chicken to grilled filet mignon with crispy Oaxacan cheese.

House-dried and ground masa is transformed into the corn tortillas for legendary pan-seared pork belly tacos, and house-smoked trout becomes the topper for the most precious little to stadas we can’t stop thinking about. Even corn on the cob is elevated without being fussy, its gleam ing kernels glossy from lime, chile and whipped pumpkin and sesame seed butter.

Whether you’re attending a Chicanx art show, masa-centric pop-up or just sipping a watermel on margarita from your leather-backed perch at the bar, you can’t help but get swept away in the party vibes — think paper fan streamers — of this bright, light-filled warehouse and garden patio.

Don’t miss: Spicy carrots with toasted almond misantla are a must. Also wonderful: the smoked trout tostadas, pork belly tacos, duck carnitas mole verde, citrus flan crema Catalan and, of course, seasonal margaritas.

Details: 3459 Champion St., Oakland; www.bomberaoakland. com; $$

Owner and chef Dominica Rice commissioned a Jessica Sandoval mural for her Bombera restaurant.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

SAN JOSE

District 7 Kitchen

When you’re craving Vietnamese fusion

Twenty years after introducing Bay Area palates to Vietnamese cuisine via his Three Seasons restaurants in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, executive chef John Le is cooking in the heart of the Bay Area’s Vietnam ese-American community.

The contemporary District 7 Kitchen he opened in San Jose’s Little Saigon showcases his style of fusion cooking and introduces new diners to his finely crafted sauces.

Start with the refreshing and well-composed Green Papaya & Grilled Shrimp Salad, the SoftShelled Crab Spring Rolls or perhaps the nori-wrapped Salmon Rolls. The Three Seasons Garlic Noodles, wildly popular through the decades at all of his restau rants, are a must. You can add crab, prawns, chicken, even duck confit or Korean beef. Le’s Shaken Beef is a refined version made with beef tenderloin.

The surprising fusion addition is Lomo Saltado, a signature dish in Peru. What’s that doing on the menu? Le fondly recalls that during his Saigon childhood, his mother would make French fries sauteed with beef, spring onion and fish sauce. He created a Viet-Peruvian version for his customers by adding a touch of aji amarillo, the Peruvian chile paste.

Don’t miss: If you consider yourself an adventurous eater but have never tried durian, Le makes a Durian Tiramisu that tempers the fruit’s assertive aroma. Eat, enjoy and proudly cross that off your bucket list!

Details: 979 Story Road, San Jose; www.d7kitchen.com; $$

Salmon rolls are served with crispy wrappers, nori and housemade pickles at District 7. JANE TYSKA/STAFF

OAKLAND Snail Bar

& Avocado Remoulade, which never leaves the menu, gets its zip from the horseradish-tinged sauce.

When

feeling snackish and thirsty for natural wine

When this corner bistro opened last year, it got immediate buzz for its funky, natural wines and French-approved crudite and chilled seafood. Since then, it’s become apparent the eatery from chef An dres Giraldo Florez (a vet of Saison and Alinea) has much more to offer. It’s rare to find any missteps on the small, ever-evolving menu — and that includes the snails, as beautiful as biology illustrations and served bubbling in a miso-cashew sauce.

General manager Peter Larue, formerly of Chez Pa nisse, keeps the wines interesting with selections that might range from a natural malbec from Argentina to a grenache rosé from up the road in Richmond. Having a glass with a few snackable plates is a great way to prepare for a late dinner — and we have suggestions.

Charred bread with smoked tomatoes, aioli and a blanket of mangalitsa lardo takes pan con tomate into the porky heavens. A Venezuelan pancake called cachapa presents as an omelet but is made with sweet corn, gooey burrata and a scorching hot sauce (you can add optional black truffle). And ham and cheese is the Platonic ideal of this midnight sandwich, with mounds of tender, spiced meat between bread crisped into a buttery lacquer.

Don’t miss: The pan con tomate is non-negotiable, as are the cachapa, ham and cheese and snails.

Details: 4935 Shattuck Ave., Oakland; snailbaroakland.com, $$-$$$

In a meaty mood? Unlike NOLA’s traditional red beans and rice, the Rich Man’s Red Beans and Rice here features a wealth of housemade andouille sau sage, smoked pork shoulder and house-cured bacon.

The Bywater chefs also explore the cuisines that reflect the Crescent City’s other waves of immigration. On the special Monday menu, Banh Trang Nuong, a Vietnamese rice-paper “pizza” topped with egg, shrimp and chiles, makes for a lovely shareable starter. And the crispy glazed Tamarind Wings are irresistible.

Don’t miss: Any gumbo, jambalaya or fish special and soft-shell crab when that’s in season. At Sunday brunch, the Chicken and Waffles gets raves.

Details: 532 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; www.thebywaterca.com; $$

butter sauce and crowned with crispy shallots. And the wood-fired oven turns out pizzas with toppings such as housemade nduja sausage, a spicy specialty of Calabria; pesto, the pride of Genoa; and Mission figs grown here in California.

For dessert, how about a traditional tart from the heel of Italy’s boot? The Bocconotto Pugliese is filled with pastry cream and luscious imported amarena cherries.

Don’t miss: November brings the most prized of truffles, the white ones, from northern Italy to the menu. Look for large raviolo with egg yolk and white truffle, risotto with white truffle and other specials.

Details: 1041 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, with Scotti’s wine bar, bistro and shop, called Cru, located nearby; www.donatoenoteca.com; $$

LOS GATOS

Shepherd

LOS GATOS

The Bywater

NOLA

Acclaimed chef David Kinch may be stepping back from his three-Michelin-starred Manresa at year’s end, but there’s good news for fans of The Bywa ter: He will remain involved in the evolution of the restaurant where he pays tribute to New Orleans, the city that inspired his love of cooking.

Impeccably fresh seafood stars in the Creole and Cajun dishes. The Gumbo Filé broth is rich, dusky and, depending on the day, studded with oysters, fish, crawfish or crab, and maybe some brisket from the smokehouse. Fresh oysters are available three ways: raw, with mignonette and cocktail sauce; broiled, with chile butter; or as Kinch’s cheekily named version of oh-so-rich bivalves, Oysters Rock a Fella. The Shrimp

REDWOOD CITY

Donato Enoteca

When you feel like touring Italy

Marvelous, red-checkered-tablecloth meals abound in the Bay Area, which is home to scores of Ital ian-American restaurants. There are times, though, when a tour of Italy is in order. That’s where Donato Scotti comes in. The chef-restaurateur’s ethos and menus have been rooted in regional Italian cuisine since he opened his eponymous places in Redwood City and Berkeley, long before Eataly brought its regional emporium to Silicon Valley.

On the antipasti menu, burrata Pugliese from the south of Italy is the perfect foil for three types of pep pers. A grilled salad of Calamari e Fagioli showcases both Monterey Bay calamari and imported Italian butter beans, Bianchi di Spagna. From Scotti’s home near Lake Como comes the recipe for the traditional Bergamo ravioli of wild greens and Taleggi o Vero, the pasta shaped like a scarpinocc (or shoe) and cooked to al dente perfection, then dressed lightly in a brown

&

Sims

When you want seasonal cuisine seven days a week (lunchtime, too)

Don’t let the whimsical cat mural over the front en trance fool you. There is some serious cooking going on inside this restaurant that made its debut a year ago.

Billed as an American brasserie, Shepherd & Sims is everything that South Bay diners have come to expect from chef-owner Jim Stump (The Table, Forthright Oyster Bar & Kitchen, The Vesper, Lamella Tavern) and wife/co-owner Angelique Shepherd: creativity, seasonality, high-quality ingredients. At this large restaurant (indoor seating for 150, outdoor for 75), chef de cuisine Robert de la Mora, formerly at the helm at Forthright, delivered a summer menu packed with stone fruit, corn and tomatoes and has now pivoted to autumn and winter dishes. That means the refreshing and unusual Heirloom Tomato Salad, with compressed watermelon, a caramel-peanut crunch and Thai basil, won’t return until next summer. But the Creole Risotto, thick with smoked ham hocks, and Olive Oil-Poached Spanish Octopus, with a white soy miso emulsion and Japanese eggplant, may be sticking around.

Long hours are part of Shepherd & Sims’ appeal. While so many restaurants in this post-pandemic period have had to limit themselves to dinner service just four or five nights a week, this Stump restaurant has managed to offer lunch/brunch, happy hour and dinner seven days a week. You’ll want to be especially nice to this crew.

Don’t miss: The Roasted Cauliflower, bathed in a rich red curry sauce and topped with golden raisin relish, Thai basil, mint and fried shallots and garlic, has become a Shepherd & Sims signature. Yes, a cauliflower dish that good. Buy one for the table to share. Or selfishly make it your entree.

Details: 15970 Los Gatos Blvd., Los Gatos; www.sandslosgatos. com; $$

you’re

When you don’t have time for a trip to

Donato Enoteca is run by chefs Gianluca Guglielmi, left, and Donato Scotti. DONATO ENOTECA

OAKLAND

Delage

When you want an intimate and gorgeous kaiseki dinner

There’s probably no more Instagrammable Jap anese restaurant in Oakland than Delage, which serves set kaiseki menus of sushi and seasonal dishes. The meal might begin with “crystal bread,” a clear orb floating on river rocks that crunches like ice and is topped with smoked salmon and wasabi cream. Or a perfectly fried cube of Alaskan black cod in a white-miso sauce slashed with red-chile and green-shiso oils, like an Ab-Ex painter is working in the kitchen. Or a ceramic eggplant vessel that exhales a cloud of steam to reveal kombu “umami broth” dotted with arare pearls.

As dishes emerge from the back, diners can watch executive chef Mikiko Ando work her magic in the front. The Hokkaido native evinces the concentration of a brain surgeon as she places microgreens and flowers on fresh fish, the majority brought in from Japan. Bluefin tuna is sumptuous with a brushing of house-seasoned soy, and torched-skin butterfish lives up to its rich, melting name. A small but nicely curat ed list of wine and sake rounds out the experience. Enjoy a glass while uploading food porn to all your jealous followers.

Don’t miss: The menu is ever-changing, but you can look forward to at least two courses of excellent nigiri.

Details: 536 Ninth St., Oakland; delageoakland.com, $$$$

When

SAN BRUNO Mazra

swooningly delicious Middle Eastern food

Habibi — the Arabic term of endearment — appears in every corner of this whimsically decorated all-halal Mediterranean restaurant in San Bruno. Do it for the habibis. Take it easy, habibi, good food takes time. Cau tion, wet floor, don’t slip, habibi. Each sign feels like someone’s grandma is pinching your cheeks. And the food — tender kabobs, six-hour lamb shank and fresh, addictive salads — has that same comforting sensi bility, with some chef-driven touches. No wonder this converted Middle Eastern grocery store took the No. 2 spot on Yelp’s Top 100 national list in 2021.

The Jordanian owners, the Makableh family, have decorated the former Green Valley Market with bold Arab pop art and strands of artificial cherry blossoms, so there’s always something to look at as you tuck into specialties such as slow-roasted shawarma, street-style wraps and whole heirloom purple cauliflower tossed in tahini sauce. Everything is made from scratch, down to the seasonal strawberry lemonade and pineapple-can taloupe juice. Even the self-serve black tea — hot, laced with cinnamon and complimentary — is next level.

Don’t miss: Double kabob plate, hummus, Arabic salad, oyster mushroom kabob, sambusa.

Details: 504 San Bruno Ave. W., San Bruno; www.eatmazra.com; $-$$.

Le Papillon

When you’d like a top-tier dinner at a reasonable price

If you thought the circa 1977 Le Papillon had settled into some sort of musty existence on Saratoga Avenue, think again.

Executive chef Scott Cooper is bringing bright, contemporary flavors and surprising combinations to the prix fixe and tasting menus. A black garlic romesco adds umami to the Grilled Rack of Lamb. An Asparagus Salad is made new again with yuzu sabayon, crisp prosciutto and rye. Toasted Couscous “Risotto” features porcini mushrooms, leeks and tomato confit.

Of special note is the Roasted Chilean Sea Bass entree, a stunning filet so artfully cooked that we head-slapped ourselves for even thinking of ordering steak. The fish, sitting on a yuzu beurre blanc, was served with pickled shimeji mushrooms and a precious, labor-intensive potato mille-feuille (that’s French for 1,000 layers, and we counted nearly that many).

At many top-tier Bay Area restaurants, high-end entrees hover in the $50-$70 range, and Michelin menus cost hundreds. That makes the prix fixe here a veritable bargain at $100 for three courses, $120 for four courses.

Service at Le Papillon is impeccable, with the waitstaff anticipating the needs of diners, yet remaining unobtrusive. Would the party of six lingering over conversation and coffee like yet another cup? No? Then please keep enjoying each other’s company.

See, civilized dining and culinary creativity aren’t mutually exclusive.

Naturally, you’ll want to make reservations. Remember to dress appropriately and put the cellphone on mute when you arrive.

Don’t miss: DoorDash is never going to deliver souffles. So if you’ve never had the ethereal pleasure — or it’s been a long time — you owe it to yourself to order the Grand Marnier Souffle.

Details: 410 Saratoga Ave., San Jose; www.lepapillon.com; $$$$

Top Hatters

When you want a creative menu that’ll make your hat spin

The offerings at Top Hatters are as distinctive as its location in an old hat shop. Start with a cocktail named for a head-topper, a Trilby Thistle, perhaps, with bourbon and artichoke or a honey-tequila Bee’s Beret. From there, it’s a dive into DanVy Vu’s playful

you want

Delage executive chef Mikiko Ando brings most of her fish in from Japan. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF

SAN LEANDRO

cuisine, which takes notes from Vietnam but is as hard to nail down as a fedora in a windstorm.

Fluffy doughnuts with scallions and bacon are dusted not with sugar but Parmesan; they’re like a savory version of Cafe Du Monde beignets and just as easy to gobble. Descriptions for the small plates might make one’s head spin — mushroom and hempseed pate with truffle oil and Big Sur goat cheese, anyone? — but the kitchen somehow makes the combos irresistible. Oxtail over creamy grits is pure comfort with zips of flavor from Chinese sausage, Asian pear and orange gremolata. And the charred Savoy cabbage with maitake and sous-vide egg is one of the best things on the menu. It’s smokey and but tery and will have you rethinking this most Eastern Bloc of vegetables.

Vu helped run a zeppole shop, so it makes sense to end with her lemon-ricotta version with three dipping sauces. And if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s Vietnamese egg-custard coffee, which you can amp up with Amaro Montenegro.

Don’t miss: We’re smitten with the Savoy cabbage with maitake, savory doughnuts, oxtail and grits and the tissue bread.

Details: 855 MacArthur Blvd., San Leandro; tophatterskitchen.com, $$

21-30

CAMPBELL AND SAN JOSE

Luna Mexican Kitchen

When

Ahhhhh, the aroma emanating from diners’ tables on The Alameda in San Jose and the Pruneyard in Campbell.

Walk right past the sizzling parrilladas, or grills, and head to the hostess stand, where you’ll probably need to put your name on the waiting list — because there is almost always a wait at Jo Lerma-Lopez and John Lopez’s Luna Mexican Kitchens. The entrepre neurial couple hit upon a winning concept when they first decided to turn a vintage spot into a restaurant with a healthful, organic approach. It’s the concept of no: “No additives, no preservatives, no cans, no micro

waves, no exceptions,” their website declares.

Tortillas are pressed by hand daily from organic, non-GMO corn, and entrees are made with antibiot ic-free meats, sustainable seafood, free-range chicken and local produce. The scratch kitchen makes all sauces and salsas fresh daily.

The over-the-top Mixed Grill, with Niman Ranch carnitas and St. Louis rib, Mary’s free-range chicken, all-natural hormone-free steak fajita, wild shrimp wrapped in bacon, jumbo wild shrimp in garlic butter and chicken jalapeño sausage, is wildly popular for good reason. Also fantastic is the Cochinita Pibil, the achiote/citrus-marinated pork.

Don’t miss: The expanded breakfast menu features choices like New York Steak or Housemade Chorizo Con Huevos; Horchata French Toast with piloncillo syrup and organic berries; and a Cucumber Nopal Smoothie.

Details: 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Campbell, and 1495 The Alameda, San Jose; www.lunamexicankitchen.com; $$

you can’t resist the captivating aromas

The Luna Mexican Kitchen bar specializes in tequila and mezcal-based cocktails. JOSIE LEPE/STAFF ARCHIVES

DANVILLE 11th Tiger

When you’re craving authentic Thai with hometown tales

Everything about this five-year-old Thai street food eatery in Danville feels familial and homey, from the knickknack-filled interiors to the warm Thai staffers who guide you through the massive menu of noodles, rice dishes and curries. They’ll tell you which specials hail from their hometowns and even introduce you to a house-brewed Thai herbal liquor the color of cherries (it’s medicinal but very cool).

Grab a table on the charming covered patio — the dining room can get packed with the to-go crowd — and steer your attention to those regional specialties, like fermented pork sausage that gets its fiery red color from bird’s eye chiles and is served with fresh ginger, as they do in northeastern Thailand. Another north ern dish, khao soi, is comfort in a bowl, with springy egg noodles swimming in a stand-out curry soup. 11th Tiger also offers clay pots — something you don’t typically see in Thai restaurants — and a host of salads beyond larb gai. If you like spicy food, look to battered and fried fire prawns, as well as a signature emerald rib-eye, which is stir fried with whole peppercorns, kaffir lime leaves and a heat-packed ginger sauce.

Don’t miss: Essan sausage, crispy chicken and basil, khao soi, curry puffs and drunken noodle are all musts.

Details: 171 Hartz Ave., Danville; http://11thtiger.com; $-$$

SANTA

CLARA

Jood

When you want Lebanese farm-to-table from a counter

This tiny counter-service restaurant in downtown Santa Clara is doing next-level Lebanese barbecue and street food, including epic sandwiches on locally baked pita and lavash. With his wife and co-owner, Rawan, chef Khaled Harbali also runs the Belmont vegetarian hot spot, Falafelle. But he knew chargrilled meat long before chickpea fritters. Harbali is descended from Lebanese shepherds and cattle ranch ers and ran a successful restaurant and butcher shop in Beirut before moving to the Bay in 2013.

At Jood, cherished family recipes featuring tender rib-eye, juicy chicken and flavor-packed kafta take center stage on his grill. A sensational garlic-brined and butterflied chicken is made to order and served on lavash custom-baked for Jood by a South San Francisco bakery. Pro tip: We like to put in a to-go order while we’re eating lunch — a sweet potato or rib-eye “sandweesh” stuffed with house fries, pickles and housemade hummus — so our take-out dinner is ready just as we’re licking the last of the toom from our fingers.

BERKELEY Lulu

When you can’t decide between mezze and brunch

An exceptional bread and pastry program anchors the menu at this all-female run, daytime corner café in West Berkeley, where the bold flavors of Palestin ian-California cuisine shine for breakfast, lunch and one of the best weekend brunch experiences in the East Bay.

Chef-owner Mona Leena’s mezze brunch, presented on round wooden slabs, is a Middle Eastern techni color dreamscape of next-level dips — think preserved lemon labneh with mint oil, serrano hummus with spiced lamb — alongside heartier bites, like fen nel-scented falafel and an Arab-inspired elote. Drinks are just as dreamy: Cold brew is swirled with caramel and tahini, and the lemon orange blossom spritz is spa water with soul. While rezzies fill up weeks in advance for Friday-Sunday brunch, you can walk into the fig wallpapered café for cardamom-scented scones, orange-sumac sugar cookies or a seasonal manousheh. Save your burger cravings for a lunch visit to Lulu. Their kefta-style sandwich is stuffed with sumac fries. Be sure to notice the cool Arab pop art, too.

Don’t miss: Vegan breads, knafeh pancake, fried halloumi and watermelon salad, rose brulee cappucino, kefta burger and corn and feta scone are irresistible.

Details: 1019 Camelia St., Berkeley; www.luluberkeley.com; $$

Jood, which means comforting (ain’t that the truth), makes every sauce and side from scratch, in cluding the sun-dried tomato “sun” sauce and a spicy pili pili made from Fresno chiles. It is touches like these and those beautiful fig-and-olive-decorated tile tables, custom made in Positano, Italy, that make us go out of our way to eat at Jood.

Don’t miss: The rib-eye bites sandweesh, of course, the fattoush salad with pomegranate molasses, char-grilled kefta and halloomi salata with imported Cypriot sheep’s milk cheese.

Details: 635 Laurel St., San Carlos; https://www.eatjood.com; $

Jood’s rib-eye sandweesh is stuffed with fries, pickles and housemade hummus. SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF

Owner and chef Mona Leena serves mouthwatering brunch boards at Lulu in Berkeley. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

SUNNYVALE

Meyhouse

When you want a delicious education in Turkish food

You think you know Turkish cuisine — and then you visit Meyhouse, which serves çiroz (salt-cured wild mackerel) and algam (turnip juice that you can order spicy). Your eyes will get cartoonishly bigger as you make your way through the menu — that house yogurt, did you realize its mother culture came from a famous Turkish restaurant back in 2013?

Of course, you don’t really need to know anything to understand the food here is fantastic, thanks to a kitchen run by chef Omer Artun, who has a background in, of all things, physics. The mezze are a celebration of bold flavors, from tongue-tingling walnut and Aleppo pepper muhammara to a soft mound of Turkish Ezine cheese, an extremely rich and fragrant feta variant spiked with oregano and pistachios. Piping-hot flat breads are great vehicles for house-cured meats like fermented sucuk sausage and pastirma, fenugreek-spiced striploin aged for months. The adana kebab of knife-cut lamb has the perfect grill kiss, but if you’re going for one entree, make it the yo urtlu. This melange of meatballs and yogurt and beef tenderloin, so tender a falling leaf would cut it, is served with a tomato and brown-butter sauce that has to have the restaurant regretting its freebread policy.

Don’t miss: Trust us, go with the girit (sheep’s milk cheese with pistachios), ahtapot (octopus with garlic-paprika sauce) or yoğurtlu (steak tenderloin with decade-old yogurt cultures and tomato and brown-butter sauce).

Details: 133 S. Murphy Ave., Sunnyvale, but moving soon to 640 Emerson St., Palo Alto; meyhousefood.com, $$-$$$

MENLO PARK

Camper

chef is up to

If you haven’t dined with Greg Kuzia-Carmel lately, what are you waiting for? The chef-partner of creative, farm-to-table Camper is a veteran of San Francisco’s Quince and Cotogna who wants to put his stamp on the Peninsula dining scene.

Grab a table inside or out doors on Menlo Park’s Santa Cruz Avenue and nibble on the Warm Cast-Iron Buttermilk Cornbread with its sweetly assertive green chile-honey butter and Blistered Shishitos with smoked Greek yogurt while you delve into the menu options here.

A Black Pepper Bucatini is tossed with guanciale, spicy pis tachio “butter,” tomatoes, pickled ramps and stracciatella cheese. (The housemade pastas always impress with their creativity.) The chef’s signature Greg’s Steak is a marinated tri-tip with mole negro and onion chimichurri, accompa nied by crispy sunchokes. There’s even an addictive Catalan-spiced ketchup for the Camper Cheese burger and French fries.

Kuzia-Carmel is ramping up for a second concept nearby, by the way. Canteen will be an all-day wine bar featuring a seasonal menu of small plates plus takeout options.

Don’t miss: Saturday’s brunch menu is an intriguing, ever-changing one. You might find French toast with roasted apples and vanilla mascarpone. Or eggs baked Shakshuka style.

Details: 898 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park; www.campermp.com; $$

At Meyhouse, roasted erishte — a Turkish pasta — is served with clams and dried sausage. ISABEL BAER

Seasonal pasta dishes at Camper range from rigatoni with 12-hour ragu to herb dumplings with broccoli spigarello and artichokes. ERIC WOLFINGER

When you’re curious what this ambitious

LAFAYETTE

Rêve Bistro

When it’s time to see Paris meet California

What does a French restaurant from a chef who worked with Alain Ducasse look like when transport ed to the ’burbs? In the case of Rêve, it’s an unassum ing strip-mall frontage that — voilà! — opens to a whimsical outdoor oasis of plush curtains, black and white-checkered tablecloths and ornate lights seem ingly shipped in from a Paris Métro stop.

Paul Magu-Lecugy, who went from cooking at Michelin-starred restaurants in France to high-end hotels in San Francisco, opened the bistro with his wife Laura with an eye toward excellent service and reasonably priced fine dining. All the classics are here, albeit elevated by the chef’s technique and access to California’s bountiful farms — think duck with hon ey-sweet black figs, scallops with gnocchi and squash blossoms and boar pate studded with apricot and

juniper berry and served with cornichons. Steak frites is a tender ribeye beautifully pan-seared in butter, with a newspaper cone of fries you’ll think are duck fat-fried but are not. The boudin blanc, meanwhile, cuts like an herb-and-wine-scented cloud with a rich shallot sauce and even richer mashed potatoes. The wine list spans at least four pages with good pulls from Napa to Bourgogne. And no meal would be com plete without ordering the gougères, bite-sized poofs of cheesy goodness for the table — or frozen to enjoy later at home.

Don’t miss: Classics — gougères, steak frites with peppercorn sauce, boudin blanc, seared scallops — are classics for a reason.

Details: 960F Moraga Road, Lafayette; revebistro.com, $$$

Wildseed

When you want cutting-edge vegan cuisine, plus drinks

Even with the advancement of vegan science, Wildseed might still have you scratching your head. How did the kitchen make a quality Andalusian salad with bacon and cheese without, well, the bacon and cheese? And for the excellent porcini-dusted mush room fritters — how is the roasted-garlic aioli entirely plant-based, yet so rich and creamy?

Once you get over these quandaries, it’s simple to love Wildseed’s menu, designed by chef Alejandro Morgan of San Francisco’s El Techo (among other places). Everything is bright, fresh and popping with texture, such as a juicy watermelon salad with puffed rice, coconut feta and Jurassic-sized mint leaves. Cev iche presents meaty slabs of king mushroom dunked in a lime marinade almost indistinguishable from sea food leche de tigre. A masala with “neatballs” might have you dreading mushy, soy-glued meat spheres, but no — they’re delightfully nutty with a caramelized flavor like graham-cracker pie crust. The elevation of superfoods and phytochemicals extends to drinks so beautiful, it’s as if Pantone designed them. Beet soda is minerally and refreshing and tastes like a week’s worth of vitamins, in a good way, and the house G&T has a rave-party purple glow, thanks to its essence of butterfly-pea flowers.

Don’t miss: Who can resist wild mushroom zeppole? Also great: the ceviche of king trumpet mushrooms, green forest flatbread with smoked cashew mozzarella and any of the boozy or zero-ABV drinks

Details: 855 El Camino Real, Palo Alto; another location at 2000 Union St., San Francisco; wildseedsf.com, $$

PALO ALTO

Wildseed’s Spicy Yellow Curry is so popular that it never leaves the menu. WILDSEED

French chef and co-owner Paul Magu-Lecugy opened Rêve Bistro in 2016. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

SARATOGA

Hero Ranch Kitchen

When you want to be part of the Big Basin Way buzz

Primetime reservations fill up well ahead of time. Diners crowd the sidewalk, hoping to snag an available table. There’s a pleasant buzz both indoors and out in the alfresco area, which winds toward the back of the building.

Four years after longtime restaurateur Angelo Heropoulos opened his Hero Ranch Kitchen, the place is as popular as ever. Repeat diners say the restaurant offers them an appealing combi nation: fine dining in an ap proachable atmosphere. Come ca sually dressed, meet your friends, order your favorites, hang out over a glass of wine or cocktail.

Many of the early standouts are still starring on the menu. Consider the Pan-Seared Halibut or Scallops. Also popular are the steaks — a Wagyu filet, a Brave heart Black Angus filet, a Bone-In Ribeye — which are topped with truffle butter and accompanied by Irish Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes. Or share a few appetizers, maybe the Crab Cakes sitting on Asian slaw or the Buttermilk-Fried Chicken with Poblano Cornbread.

Psssst, there’s something else that keeps diners coming back.

Hero Ranch doesn’t charge a cork age fee. (You may have to read that twice for it to sink in. No corkage fee. In tony Saratoga.)

Don’t miss: The 14-ounce Bone-In Pork Chop, more than 2 inches thick, glistening with its signature apricot glaze and served with a rich potato mash and bacon-infused Brussels sprouts.

Details: 14583 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, sharing a kitchen with sister restaurant Flowers next door; www. theheroranchkitchen.com; $$

Chez Sovan

When you want to boast about your new “find”

Call it an unassuming eatery. A no-frills place. A hole in the wall.

For 35 years, Chez Sovan has been serving exceptional Cam bodian cuisine — marinated lemongrass chicken skewers (Sach Ang), paprika-tamarind noodles (Kew Tiew Cha) and especially the signature dish of Amok, an aromatic fish mousse steamed in banana leaf — out of a small corner restaurant near 13th and Hedding streets.

It was 1987 when Mercury News reporters desperate for lunch options in that industrial neighborhood met founder and cook Sovan Boun Thuy, tasted the cuisine of her homeland and shared the discovery with the newspaper-reading public. But with every wave of Silicon Valley newcomers, the hidden gem had to be shared again.

These days, son Brian Nong runs the establishment, and he’s

emerged from the pandemic with a small yet impressive menu of customer favorites that also includes Chicken Curry with Cambodian spices and Cabbage Salad tossed with lemongrass sauce, lime dressing, ground peanuts, mint leaves and cilantro.

Nong opens the restaurant for weekday lunch only, just 2.5 hours from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The limited business hours add a delicious element of exclusivity. If you know, you know.

Don’t miss: Like the Amok, the Ginger Fish is a revelation: a basa filet fried to a light crunch, topped with ground chicken and a sauce redolent of fresh ginger and shallots, then sprinkled with cilantro.

Details: 923 Oakland Road, San Jose; 408-287-7619; chez-sovan.cafeinspector.com; $-$$

SAN JOSE

Brian Nong, who took over Chez Sovan from his mother, lures diners to his Cambodian cafe for weekday lunches only. RANDY VAZQUEZ/STAFF ARCHIVES

WALNUT CREEK

Slice House by Tony Gemignani

When you want pizza with world-class cachet

Walnut Creek’s worst-kept secret is a 900-squarefoot, counter-service pizza place on the heaviest traffic corner of town. The magnificently hand-crafted pies — a library of styles, from New York and Sicilian to Detroit and Neapolitan — are the work of Fre mont-raised Tony Gemignani, a 13-time World Pizza Champion who’s been spinning dough in the Bay Area since he was 17. Gemignani has received many accolades over the years, but 2022 is the pinnacle: He was named pizza maker of the year, and his San Fran cisco pizzeria, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, No. 10 in the world by a panel of Naples-based experts. Stateside, Gemignani made the cover of Pizza Today magazine, an honor he calls bigger than a James Beard Award. The tiny Walnut Creek pizzeria — the first to bring multiple pie styles to the East Bay when it opened in 2016 — is particularly important to Gemignani. Not only is it the busiest Slice House outside of San Francisco, but with the mini empire moving toward a franchise model, it is the only one Gemignani and his partners own.

“It’s in my backyard,” Gemignani says. “And the young staff reminds me of my first jobs.”

Those staff members, who whip up pizzas by the slice as well as whole pies, are champs in their own right. Pizzaiolos work practically back-to-back with cashiers in a cramped space, where the vibe is somehow always chill, even on weekends. In addition to two dozen pizzas available in multiple styles, Slice House offers an array of salads, subs, meatballs ($1 on Mondays) and pastas.

Don’t miss: There are no bad choices here, only delicious ones, especially if you order the Wise Guy, Purple Potato, Pigman, Tomato Pie or Gemignani’s gold-medal winning Cal Italia, made with gorgonzola, prosciutto and figs.

Details: 1500 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Walnut Creek. Also at 135 Parrott St. in San Leandro and 1000C El Camino Real in Belmont; https:// slicehouse.com; $

Petiscos

When you want to give Portuguese cuisine a whirl

Not sure if bacalhau should be your next culinary obsession?

Start with a small plate. Or two or three. That’s the specialty at downtown San Jose’s Petiscos.

Restaurateurs Carlos and Fernanda Carreira and their chefs, David Costa and Jessica Carreira, first elevated Portuguese cuisine to Michelin level, gar nering a star for their Adega restaurant in the city’s Little Portugal neighborhood. Then they launched their affordable, approachable concept, Petiscos — the name means small plates, the Portuguese equivalent of Spanish tapas.

The choices here for shareable plates of traditional favorites are many. The delectable Shrimp in Gar lic Sauce is a must, as are the showy and delicious Flaming Chourico and the addictive Tempura Green Beans. It’s tough to decide among the Duck Rice, Asparagus Rice or Mushroom Rice, but you need one of those for the table. Other Petiscos fans swear by the Chicken Gizzards or the tender cubes of Beef Tongue. And Bacalhau, Portugal’s popular codfish, is served in casserole and codfish cake versions.

Not into sharing? The Francesinha sandwich is an OMG creation loaded with steak, ham and chourico, covered with cheese and then topped with a fried egg and gravy.

Don’t miss: If you enjoyed dessert at Petiscos, head over to the family’s East Santa Clara Street bakery-cafe, Pastelaria Adega, for pastéis de nata custards and other sweets.

Details: 399 S. First St.; http://petiscosadega.com; $-$$

Horn BBQ

When you want prize-winning ’cue with plenty of soul

Oakland pitmaster Matt Horn (pictured below) needs no introduction. His West Coast-style barbecue has made national headlines for years. And Horn BBQ, his counter-service restaurant in West Oakland was a 2022 James Beard finalist for best new restaurant. Like many restaurants, Horn BBQ has struggled during the pan demic; at press time, Horn was reportedly dealing with several financial issues, including delayed wages. Inside the eatery, lines move fast, thanks to a streamlined and focused counter system. Arrive early if you want to snag a seat inside — the positive juju from the old Brown Sugar Kitchen is still here — where framed photos of Horn and his family, including his beloved smoker, Lu cille, line the walls. You’ll find her out back, along with a parklet of dark-gray picnic tables with life affirming quotes (“Take the stones people throw at you and use them to build monuments”) scrawled on the fence.

You can get both the smoky-crusted brisket and juicy pulled pork by the pound or tucked in a sandwich, in addition to links, smoked chicken and a medley of sides, including mac and cheese, Horn’s personal favorite. And if Horn’s story of grit, deter mination and hard work doesn’t pluck at your heart strings, this will: The self-made chef is going to teach kids the history, craft and art of barbecue for free. The Academy of Smoke, geared toward budding pit masters ages 8 to 12, launches in the spring.

Don’t miss: Brisket, obviously, pulled pork, beef ribs, collard greens, pit beans and to finish, banana pudding.

Details: 2534 Mandela Parkway, Oakland; www.hornbarbecue.com; $-$$

Slice House is known for its Cal Italia pizza.

LAURA ODA/STAFF ARCHIVES

ANDREW THOMAS LEE

Wojia Hunan Cuisine

When you crave hot-and-sour Chinese excellence

Some folks might balk at paying $18 for a basket of fried rice balls. But they’ve probably never tried Wojia’s, which are wildly addictive, glutinous rice orbs typically seen in Chinese dessert soup. Here, they’re turned savory with liquidy black-sesame filling and heaps of sliced jalapenos and red chiles. Just be sure to have a glass of water nearby for the ever-building heat.

Heat is what this popular Hunanese spot is about. It’s not so much a punch-you-in-the-mouth shock, but an exhilarating harmony of sour-hot spiciness typical to the cuisine and its use of fresh, dried, fermented and who-knows-what-else chiles. Diners will be rewarded by ordering any of the odder cuts of meat on the menu, from spicy ox aorta to glassy slices of beef tendon shining with chile oil. The soup of Laoshan sliced flounder (which can be upgraded with a live fish) offers silky meat and a broth fragrant from pickled vegetables and even more chiles. If you want to impress your table, look to the menu’s “Five Wows” section for the Chairman Mao Stew Pork Hock, a huge, tender hunk with a bone sticking straight up like a caveman’s club.

Don’t miss: Those fried glutinous rice balls are especially memorable, as are the sauteed eggplant with string beans and Laoshan boiled sliced flounder.

Details: 917 San Pablo Ave., Albany; hunancuisineonline.com; $$

LOS ALTOS

Asa North

LOS GATOS

Asa South

When you’re curious about Wayback Wednesday

Andrew Welch’s two popular Asa restaurants, the original in Los Altos and the newer one in Los Gatos, are paying tribute to yet another restaurant and its signature cuisine.

That would be Casa de Cobre, the Mexican restau rant specializing in Michoacan fare that Welch oper ated in Saratoga for some years with executive chef Marcelino Hernandez. Customers were clamoring for a taste of Casa, so the pair brought back the recipes in 2020 for what they called Wayback Wednesday — and the tradition continues.

Treasured family recipes dominate. Hernandez’s abuela’s recipe for spiced, braised beef shoulder created a rich entree on Entomatado night. An old Casa favorite, Cochinita Pibil, slow-cooked pork

shoulder, makes frequent appearances. The pork is slow-cooked in layers of banana leaves with ancho chile and white wine, then served with guajillo salsa and pickled local vegetables.

And then there are the traditional best bets on Asa’s pan-Mediterranean menu: the decadent Exotic Mushroom Pasta and the warming Bowl of Soul, a seafood standout. During the winter months, the fabulous Dungeness Crab Pasta, with tomato, cream, garlic, a touch of spice and an anisette flambe, is a must for crustacean lovers.

Don’t miss: The moist Carrot Cake, studded with golden raisins and walnuts, topped with a whiskey-cream cheese frosting and then gilded with a little caramel sauce, is the way to end the meal.

Details: 242 State St., Los Altos, and 57 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, Los Gatos; www.asalosaltos.com; $$$

DUBLIN Star Chaat

When only legit Punjabi and Gujarati vegetarian will do

Tucked at the back of Dublin’s Hacienda Crossings shopping center, Star Chaat is a sit-down, white-table cloth Indian restaurant without the white tablecloth prices, that gives the beloved Chaat Bhavan some stiff competition. The restaurant, which has cheery orange walls, an attentive wait staff and paper liners covering those tablecloths, specializes in both vegetarian Pun jabi and Gujarati cuisines. It’s a standout for so many reasons, from the mouthwatering appetizers and silky curries to the extensive bread program.

Monthly specials pay homage to the season or the occasional fusion dish, like masala pasta or paneer tikka tacos. But the best dishes, the ones you will crave and go back for, are traditional, made from scratch and brimming with complex flavors and textures. Bombay vada pav, spiced potatoes dipped in gram flour batter and fried, is served on a pillowy soft roll, with a top-and-bottom smear of flaming-red, peanut-laced chutney and a side of dry garlic chutney. A crispy chaat basket offers a half dozen delicate, whole wheat cups filled with fresh vegetables, moong sprouts and potatoes, all topped with yogurt, chut neys, even pomegranate seeds. Vegetable biryani can be simple and greasy, but not here, where the basmati rice dish is assertively spiced, layered with vegetables and served alongside raita dotted with just-softened boondi. There is so much to discover at Star Chaat — housemade cottage cheese, tawa-fried parantha sprinkled with carom seeds. Just go.

Don’t miss: You’ll want that crispy chaat basket all to yourself. Also great: the bhel-sev thali, mix-veggie biryani, usal pav and ragada patties.

Details: 4930 Dublin Blvd., #800, Dublin; https://starchaatcuisine. com; $

OAKLAND Pomella

When you want casual Mediterranean done with confidence

There’s something fun and whimsical about Pomella, the California-Israeli eatery from chef Mica Talmor. Perhaps it’s the patio with its Crayola-orange furniture and gabled sunroofs perfect for picnicking. Or maybe it’s the customization: Dozens of dishes can be mixed, matched, slipped into wraps or salads, and doused with a rainbow of sauces, from tzatziki to ha rissa to fermented mango. And the deli cases beg you to bring something home — grape leaves, fruit crisps, chocolate pots de crème.

Fans of Talmor’s previous restaurant, Ba-Bite, will recognize the concept of healthy, fresh mezze plates, a spread meant to be shared. Her hummus is as good as ever, tangy and silky-smooth from the chickpeas cooked in alkaline water. Pomegranate eggplant, served with yogurt and tahini, has lovely charred skin and a sweet, campfire aroma, while roasted beets delight with their topping of crunchy walnuts and ras el hanout. Larger plates include chicken tagine with couscous and preserved lemon, and springy lamb kefta with your choice of rice (go for the majadra jazzed up with lentils and a snowfall of caramelized onion).

Don’t miss: Just thinking about these — the hummus, the pomegranate eggplant, beet salad, mango amba and spicy-green schug sauces — is making us salivate. Don’t forget the rugelach.

Details: 3770 Piedmont Ave., Oakland; pomellaoakland.com, $

Pomella is known for its tangy, silky-smooth hummus.

DOUGLAS DESPRES

OAKLAND

Mela Bistro

When you want delicious Ethiopian without all the butter

Kitfo, that Ethiopian special ty of steak tartar mixed with clarified butter, is delicious, but its rich decadence can make a stomach go a bit wonky. Not so at Mela, a self-dubbed “modern Ethiopian” restaurant with food as bright and colorful as its artful interior. Here, the asa kitfo is made with sushi-grade tuna and blended with chile and pops of false cardamom; it’s totally irresistible, with a luxuriance that comes not from ghee but house-clarified olive oil.

Adiam Tsegaye prepares all her food with the same reverence toward health and deliciousness. The vegetable platter mimics a painter’s palette with crunchy purple cabbage spiked with gin ger, potatoes blushing from beets and collard greens that retain a gardeny chew. It’s all vegan, as is a second version of kitfo made with chopped portobello mushrooms. Meanwhile, the tibs are made with grass-fed lamb and beef and lightly sauteed with spices that’ll have your belly feeling warm and happy.

A glass of Mela’s housemade, fizzy honey wine makes a fine ac companiment — as does the gim let with roasted red pepper. Italy’s imprint on Ethiopia is evident in a fetching array of desserts from tiramisu to chocolate cake made with tejj, the same grain in the restaurant’s springy injera.

Don’t miss: Sample your way through the menu, but make sure you try the asa kitfo (raw ahi with herb-infused olive oil), vegetarian platter and shiro wot — and the tej (honey wine).

Details: 35 Grand Ave., Oakland; melabistro.com; $$

SAN MATEO

Sushi Sam’s Edomata

For top-notch omakase at a great price

Downtown San Mateo is a hotbed of Asian cuisine, and this longtime Japanese restaurant has one of the city’s most devoted fol lowings. Don’t let the nondescript exterior fool you. Sushi Sam’s Edomata is the real deal and counts Mark Zuckerberg and Pris cilla Chan among its regulars. At the bustling bar, where Japanese is the primary language spoken (far beyond the jovial “kanpai”), bandana-wearing itamaes bend over the freshest cuts straight from Tokyo, transforming them with modern techniques into nigi ri, sashimi and hand-roll heaven.

The menu changes daily, so go for the omakase, a chef’s assort ment of nigiri that comes with a seasonal housemade dessert — the pastry program has its own Instagram — and will run you around $60, depending on market price. A rub of puckery yuzu balances the sweetness of blue shrimp, while a shower of minced garlic and green onion elevates buttery bonito. And you may nev er have heard of mountain pep per, but once you taste its spicy, herbaceous notes on kanpachi, it will become your favorite pairing. The restaurant is small, and lines can get long, so make sure to call starting at 2:30 p.m. to make a reservation for that evening. Keep trying, if the line is busy. You’ll get through, and it’s totally worth it.

Don’t miss: Omakase, of course, and fig goat cheesecake, green tea tiramisu and toro. Can’t choose? Go with the daily specials.

Details: 218 E. Third Ave., San Mateo; www.sushisams.com; $$-$$$

Chef-owner Adiam Tsegaye’s Mela Bistro offers a colorful vegetable platter brimming with gingery purple cabbage, beet-tinged potatoes and more, served with injera rolls and honey wine.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

WALNUT CREEK Lita

When you want Miami glitz with that Caribbean escape

Combine Caribbean influences with the knowhow of a veteran East Bay restaurant family, and you can understand why diners are drawn to Lita, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Walnut Creek. By channeling Miami, Ghaben Partners (Broderick Road house, Batch & Brine) provides an escapist vibe we don’t see much in these parts, at a time when we all need it. And Lita, which is frequented as much for the stunning interiors and Latin jazz playlist, as it is for the food and cocktail programs, is definitely a vibe. The illuminated marble bar and custom infinity mir ror are camera catnip, complemented by lush plants and just enough gold to be stylish, not gaudy.

Starters, shareables and entrees, like ancho chile coffee short ribs or a jerk maitake mushroom rice bowl, pay homage to Caribbean-Latino dishes but oth erwise do their own thing. Lita won’t replace your fa vorite Cuban hole-in-the-wall. But it is an experience, nibbling salt cod fritters and sipping a clarified milk rum punch at the poshest bar east of the Caldecott, where globe-trotting bartenders will chat you up about their exploits in Miami, Mexico and beyond.

Don’t miss: The cocktails are stunners, and the slash and burn whole fish, double mojo verde skirt steak and those short ribs are extravagantly delicious. Finish with that chocolate passion cake.

Details: 1602 Bonanza St., Walnut Creek; www.litawalnutcreek.com; $$-$$$

41-50

RICHMOND

El Garage

One word — quesabirria

The Montano family of Richmond was among the first to bring drippy, delicious, slow-cooked birria to the Bay Area, and they are still among the best. What started as a small garage operation on Garvin Avenue turned into a cavernous Macdonald Avenue restaurant where people line up for their top seller: crispy, flavor-drenched quesabirria tacos.

For the uninitiated, slow-stewed beef is stuffed into corn tortillas with gooey mozzarella, dipped in the birria’s broth and then fried for next-level flavor. You absolutely must get a side of the brick-red consome, swimming with beef, cilantro and green onion, to sip on its own or use to dip your tacos.

While there are several good quesabirria spots in the East Bay, we appreciate that El Garage offers other dishes worthy of your attention, too, like a fierce chicken tinga and an avocado tostada for vegetarians. They also keep the lines moving, so you’re not waiting long, and offer so much seating that you’ll never have to dip or slurp on the curb. And even though it’s a counter-serve spot, they bring your food to you, which is always a plus.

Don’t miss: Quesabirria tacos, of course, consome, tostada de tinga, aguachile verde and that tamarind agua fresca.

Details: 1428 Macdonald Ave., Richmond; www.elgarage.online; $

EMERYVILLE

Good to Eat Dumplings

When you want authentic Taiwanese flavors

Good to Eat started as a pop-up, slinging potstick ers and dumplings to Oakland brewery patrons. This year, it graduated into a bustling sit-down space in Emeryville, and while it still prepares dumplings — springy-skinned wonders with fillings that range from shrimp-and-pork to cauliflower-and-shiitake — lim iting oneself to only that would be a disservice to the kitchen’s talents.

Cofounders Tony Tung and Angie Lin create flavors from Taiwan that most Americans may have never ex perienced. Vegetables from local farms shine in small plates like opo-squash leaves with tahini and pickled white bittermelon with honey. (Yes, they somehow made a salad out of bittermelon.) The fried chicken with fermented-tofu sauce is funky and crunchy, and the Taiwanese minced-pork noodles are engineered for endless slurping. A substantial stew of pork belly with rice wine and ginger is an excellent rendition of traditional red-braised pork, with jiggling pieces of meat in a savory braise as dark as molasses.

And the restaurant stages occasional tasting menus and community events like a Moon Festival barbecue to recreate the Taiwanese experience of grilling out side with family and friends.

Don’t miss: Braised pork belly and scallion with rice is a must. Also delicious: the minced-pork noodles, vegetable sides and, of course, dumplings.

Details: 1298 65th St., Emeryville; goodtoeatdumplings.com, $-$$

Lita evokes glitzy Miami Beach in both its decor and menu. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

El Garage’s quesabirria launched a trend. JESSICA YADEGARAN/STAFF

Taiwanese braised pork belly or Lu Rou Fan is a must-order.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Ghazni Afghan Kabobs

When you’re all about mom-and-pop kabobs

When the craving hits for Afghan food — glistening basmati rice, juicy kabobs and succulent braised lamb shank — we hope you’re in Hayward or close enough to hit one of the Wahab brothers’ no-frills family restaurants. Named for the ancient city in Afghani stan, once a sister city to Hayward, Ghazni checks all the boxes of a traditional Afghan restaurant, with a few touches that caught our kabob expert’s attention. For starters, Ghanzni serves brown basmati rice, buttered just enough to give those long grains a glisten — but not enough to smell like movie popcorn. The qabuli pallaw is just about the tenderest slow-cooked lamb shank you’ll find, served hidden under a gener ous pile of raisin-and-candied-carrot basmati. Their mantu is so good, it could sustain its own take-out window: Delicate, two-bite dumplings are stuffed with seasoned ground beef and topped with bright lentils, yogurt and a flurry of fresh and dried herbs.

The Wahabs, Tawab and Fawad, have been in the restaurant business for 30 years. They started out in pizza, but a lifelong dream to bring their family’s recipes to Hayward was realized in 2014, when they opened the A Street location, followed in 2019 by the eatery on West Winton Avenue. They said, “We kept thinking, ‘Why are people always going to Dublin, Fremont or Santa Clara for Afghan food? We should do it in Hayward.’” We’re so glad they did.

Don’t miss: Mantu is a must, as are the qabuli pallaw, borani kadu, bolani, murgh kabob and grilled chicken salad.

Details: 217 W. Winton Ave. and 1235 A St., both in Hayward; www. ghazniafghankabobs.com; $-$$

CAMPBELL AND PALO ALTO

Naschmarkt

When your schatzi is a schnitzel

Restaurateur Dino Tekdemir figured the Peninsula dining scene was missing something — something that a classic Wiener Schnitzel could fill.

So this summer, he opened a second location of downtown Campbell’s appealing Naschmarkt, a New Austrian cuisine specialist for the last decade. This one adds a new element to Palo Alto’s California Ave nue dining scene.

Here you’ll find all the Austrian goodies, from

pretzels to smoked pork bratwurst to our favorite, Wiener Schnitzel with lingonberry sauce. The rich, mushroom-sauced Jaeger Schnitzel is served with the kitchen’s housemade spaetzle. Beef goulash, the paprika-braised Hungarian specialty that’s so popular across the border in Austria, is another menu stand out. Overall, it’s a pan-Euro model with some splash es of seasonal California cuisine — think Pan-Roasted Halibut, Bucatini Pasta with Asparagus, Watermelon Gazpacho.

For dessert? It may be hard to choose between the Apple Strudel with hazelnuts baked in-house and the fluffy Salzburg Nockerl souffle with blueberry compote.

Don’t miss: Break out of your wine rut and pair your meal with a gewurztraminer, gruner veltliner or zweigelt.

Details: 384 E. Campbell Ave., Campbell, and 2323 Birch St., Palo Alto; www.naschmarkt-restaurant.com; $$

LIVERMORE

Range Life

Where wine country meets elevated farm fare

This rustic, yet modern fine-dining establishment nestled among Livermore’s rolling hills is the quint essential wine country restaurant, with seasonal, farm-driven dishes that come to life when paired with zippy wines, like pink zweigelt and skin-fermented Clarksburg cortese. Much like the wines on its list, Range Life boasts a real sense of place. The restaurant is housed in a stark-white brick building dating back to the 1800s. There’s a 100-year-old California pepper tree on the back patio, along with a colorful mural featuring the Lab and other nods to Livermore.

Chef and co-owner Bill Niles is from the Tartine family of restaurants, and he knows that magic is made by letting pristine ingredients from local farm ers, ranchers and fishermen do their thing. The menu is focused, with a small selection of snacks, appetizers and entrees, including a stunning brined Klinge man Family Farms ham chop dressed with softened O’Henry peaches and crispy savoy cabbage. A summer chopped salad is far from typical, the cherry toma toes, lemon cucumbers and basil bits transformed by crunchy sesame seeds, shishito peppers and creamy, aged cheddar. And Milk and Honey — malted milk ice cream covered in honeycomb with a drizzle of the greenest olive oil — reminds us how the simplest desserts really are the best.

Don’t miss: That Klingeman ham chop is a winner, as are the chopped salad and roasted chicken with a twist on panzanella that includes eggplant, Fan-Stil pear, Red Rock onion and fresh stracciatella.

Details: 2160 Railroad Ave., Livermore; www.rangelifelivermore.com; $$$.

DALY CITY Koi Palace

When you want lobster and they want duck. And dim sum.

This Cantonese seafood specialist needs no intro duction. Since opening its 400-seat Daly City flagship in 1996, Koi Palace has become the Cantonese dining and dim sum experience by which other Bay Area spots are judged. With arched Moon Gate entryways, attentive, buttoned-up servers and massive fish tanks brimming with crab and lobster, these large, ban quet-style restaurants (there are now four in the East and South bays) offer tea service, dim sum and a wide selection of noodles, rice dishes, soups, barbecue, con gee and, of course, whole seafood preparations.

Start with steamed dumplings, such as the savory pork, shrimp and mushroom shumai dotted with candylike orange roe, which arrive in yellow-rimmed bamboo steamer baskets. The Rainbow Sampler is like a Crayola box of Shanghai-style dumplings, with dough that gets its colors from paprika, turmeric, squid ink and spinach or kale. Treat yourself to whole crab or lobster (serves two) poached in ginger, soy sauce and scallions over crispy, stir-fried noodles. Barbecue pork buns and crispy-skinned Peking duck are also legend ary here. Tea lovers: Go for the Tasters Select.

Don’t miss: Dumpling aficionados must try the Shanghai-style dumplings and pork, shrimp and mushroom shumai. And the whole crab or lobster is a must.

Details: 365 Gellert Blvd., Daly City; Also in Milpitas, Redwood City and Dublin. https://koipalace.com; $$-$$$

Artisanal loaves and fresh pastry are One House Bakery’s claims to fame.

Silla

When you desire modern takes on Korean classics

You can find many yummy Korean dishes in Santa Clara’s K-town — spicy fried chicken, inky black-bean noodles, DIY barbecue — but what you might not expect is cioppino. Yet it makes sense: Korea has both a deep-rooted fishing culture and a passion for hearty soups that warm the soul. Here diners can enjoy chef Eric Shin’s tomatoless “Better Than Cioppino” (BTC for short, a nod to the local crypto-currency scene), which has the whole ocean plus beef tendon thrown into a creamy sauce ideal for dipping — not with sourdough, mind you, but rice.

Silla’s full of such twists on traditional fare. Bossam with honey-butter sauce, or bulgogi tacos with cheeseon-the-outside tortillas? Sure, why not? Sizzling rice arrives with soft batons of eel and tricolor fish roe that add saline pops to each bite. A seafood-scallion pancake is hubcap-sized and crispy on the edges, with a soft, tentacle-laden interior not unlike takoyaki. The galbitang is a long-simmered and clean-tasting bone broth with intensely beefy hunks of short rib. Throughout the menu are modern takes on dishes that will remind you that Koreans love cheese, from Fire Fire Chicken with spicy mayo and cheese to a Spam and American-cheese Army Stew, a preparation Anthony Bourdain once called (in a nice way) the “ultimate dorm food.”

Don’t miss: So many choices, but the seafood and scallion pancake, colorful fish roe and eel rice and galbitang are non-negotiable.

Details: 2910 El Camino Real, Santa Clara; sillasv.com, $$-$$$

BENICIA

One House Bakery

When you want the best baked goods, plus the kitchen sink

Bread is a meal — or at least it can be in France, where a properly baked baguette needs little more than butter and cheese to make one content. That’s true of the ham-and-soft-cheese at One House, a deceptively simple but perfectly crisp-sweet torpedo that reminds you that a sandwich’s best ingredient is the baker’s chops.

Hannalee Pervan was schooled at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa and worked for the team that provided bread to Thomas Keller’s French Laundry. She helped start this ambitious bakery in 2018, using flour milled daily, organic dairy and her own meticulously devel oped recipes, then caught a bad patch during COVID, when she lost her senses of taste and smell. But the place is still firing on all cylinders, whether you want a country levain or a savory treat to enjoy in the stun ningly gardened back patio.

A frisee salad with runny-yolk egg and dice-sized lardons opens the palate to heartier dishes, includ ing a moist chicken pot pie enveloped in a perfectly flaky crust and an heirloom tomato and mozzarella sandwich with house chimichurri. Savory waffles are a specialty here, served with braised beef or “falafel-waffle” style with kefta and tzatziki. And it would be a crime to walk away without dessert, whether that be an intense chocolate-cream tart, seasonal-fruit crostata or lemon meringue with a porcupine’s back of torched peaks.

Don’t miss: Anything involving bread, that pot pie and the couscous salad with squash and halloumi are terrific. Do not deny yourself dessert.

Details: 918 First Street, Benicia; onehousebakery.com; $

FREMONT

Momo & Kebab

When you can’t scale the Himalayas for momos

You have to respect a place that’s so confident about what it does well, it’s in the business name. The kebabs at this unassuming spot are indeed good — marinated in lemon and garlic and properly charred in a clay oven; the sekuwa-style lamb is smoky and delicious with some butter-brushed naan. But you’d be sleeping, if you didn’t order the menu’s star, the momo, Himalayan dumplings of meat mixed with herbs and steamed until tender. Some places make

momos that are dense and chewy. Not here — the delicate-skinned chicken momo bursts with flavor and gingery juices. It’s more Din Tai Fung soup dumpling than anything else, a feeling you can enhance (and most customers do) by getting it in a bowl of Sichuan pepper and roasted tomato broth.

The kitchen prepares a number of other Nepali/ Tibetan specialties, including a warming thenthuk soup with hand-stretched noodles and Navaratna korma with sweet coconut milk and nine types of nuts and vegetables. But again, a plate of momos is all you really need — if you’re still peckish, try a dessert of baked yogurt with honey that’s like the meltingest cheesecake ever.

Don’t miss: Chicken momos with Sichuan pepper-spiced roasted tomato sauce are the ones to get. The free chai is a bonus.

Details: 37100K Fremont Blvd., Fremont; momoandkebab.com, $$

New England Lobster Market & Eatery

When you want it fresh off the boat, er, make that plane

Have the urge to get cracking? Drive to Burlingame and head toward the water.

No, lobsters haven’t decided to take up residence in San Francisco Bay. But they are flying in daily.

What started in 1986 as a wholesale operation and market, with shipments coming in from nearby SFO, expanded years ago into an enterprise that would do the cooking for crustacean lovers.

Lobster rolls are the big draw here, with meat fresher than your neighborhood market or restau rant is serving. Order yours “naked” (just the lobster meat, with melted butter on the side) or “dressed” (with light mayo, salt and pepper) or “seasonal” (with avocado and bacon). All come with housemade chips and coleslaw. Fresh lobster is also available in tacos, nachos, salads, with mac and cheese and in cups or bowls of the great Lobster Corn Chowder. Get your Dungeness crab fix with a crab melt, crab roll, crab slider, crab salad or crab nachos.

If you prefer to do the boiling and/or cracking at home, you can purchase from the market up front. They also sell lobster/crab roll kits, lobster boil buck ets (with sausage and corn) and quarts of chowder.

Don’t miss: The daily deals. Check out Lobster Lover Monday, 1-Pound Lobster Plate Special, Twin Tail Wednesday and 3-Pound Thursday.

Details: 824 Cowan Road, Burlingame; https://newenglandlobster. net; $$

SANTA CLARA

ARIC CRABB/STAFF ARCHIVES

This dessert plate served at Michelin-starred Chez TJ offers a variety of tastes, clockwise from top, from Tasmanian pepper pate de fruit to a canele, rose financier and goat cheese cheesecake.

KARL MONDON/STAFF ARCHIVES

Breaths — and appetites — bated for the release of the 2022 Michelin Guide

BY LINDA ZAVORAL

The stars will be coming out before year’s end.

We’re talking about the Michelin Guide honors, aka the Oscars of the fine-dining world. The California list is bound to be one of the most interesting announcements in a long time, what with top-tier restaurants facing post-pandemic challenges when it comes to staffing, the supply chain and inflation. Have the Miche lin inspectors been “grading easy” when it comes to any service miscues or ingredient substitutions?

We already know that the Bay Area list will see some changes. AL’s Place in San Francisco has closed permanently, and Ajay Walia’s Michelin-starred Rasa in Burlingame is now the distinctly more casual Saffron. Will David Kinch’s highly regarded Manresa in Los Gatos — the only three-star restaurant south of San Francisco — earn a swan-song rating, even though Kinch is stepping away after Dec. 31?

Michelin’s early release of “new discover ies” in California adds to our curiosity. Just one of the 10 “new discoveries” last year — Marlena in San Francisco — made it onto the 2021 star list, so what does that mean for the 17 Bay Area restaurants vis a vis the 2022 star list?

And then there’s our perennial question: In 2022, did more Michelin inspectors make it out to the East Bay, particularly Oakland, where the culinary scene is so exciting? For years, the only Michelin star honoree there has been chef James Syhabout’s two-starred Commis.

We shall see. Meantime, here are the 2021 star winners, if you’d like to make some reservations.

THREE STARS

(Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey)

Atelier Crenn, San Francisco

Benu, San Francisco

The French Laundry, Yountville Manresa, Los Gatos Quince, San Francisco SingleThread, Healdsburg

TWO STARS

(Excellent cuisine, worth a detour)

Acquerello, San Francisco Birdsong, San Francisco Californios, San Francisco Campton Place, San Francisco Coi, San Francisco Commis, Oakland Lazy Bear, San Francisco Saison, San Francisco

ONE STAR

(A very good restaurant in its category)

Adega, San Jose

AL’s Place, San Francisco (now closed)

Angler, San Francisco

Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford

Avery, San Francisco

Bar Crenn, San Francisco

Chez TJ, Mountain View

Gary Danko, San Francisco

Ju-Ni, San Francisco

Kenzo, Napa

Kin Khao, San Francisco

La Toque, Napa

Madcap, San Anselmo

Madera, Menlo Park

Marlena, San Francisco

Mister Jiu’s, San Francisco

Mourad, San Francisco

Niku Steakhouse, San Francisco

O’ by Claude Le Tohic, San Francisco

Omakase, San Francisco

Plumed Horse, Saratoga

The Progress, San Francisco

Protégé, Palo Alto

Rasa, Burlingame

Selby’s, Atherton/Redwood City

The Shota, San Francisco

Sons & Daughters, San Francisco

Sorrel, San Francisco

SPQR, San Francisco

Spruce, San Francisco

State Bird Provisions, San Francisco

Sushi Shin, Redwood City

At Commis, the Michelin two-star restaurant in Oakland, the fare includes dishes such as this slow, poached egg with smoked dates, alliums and malt.

Sushi Yoshizumi, San Mateo

Village Pub, Woodside Wako, San Francisco

Wakuriya, San Mateo

EAST BAY BUCKET LIST: EAST OF THE CALDECOTT

Tread the taco trail, savor the sweets

A platter of taco temptations awaits diners at Tacos El Patron in Pleasant Hill.. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

BY JESSICA YADEGARAN

Walnut Creek’s fine dining scene is what first springs to mind when you consider the culinary landscape east of the Caldecott Tunnel, where diners flock to Lita, Sasa and Teleferic Barcelona. But there is a lot more yum to be found under Mount Diablo’s golden shadow. A thriving beer culture, for starters, with beloved breweries in Lafayette, Walnut Creek and Concord. And you can bet there’s a taco to go with your pint: Concord is home to so many taquerias, they have their own Taco Trail. Here are five local foodie favorites worth the trip.

1

Bite into birria tacos at Tacos

El Patron: This counter-service taqueria offers everything you’d want in Mexican food — burritos, shrimp ceviche, even choriqueso — but the slow-cooked beef stew tucked inside blistered tortillas and topped with cilantro and onion is the star here. Add cheese or just dip those tacos into the accompanying consommé. Heck, gulp it down. Pescatarian? The signature El Patron taco, made with shrimp, guacamole, melty cheese and pico de gallo, has your name on it.

Details: 2290 Monument Blvd., Pleasant Hill; Also in S.F.; www.tacos-el-patron.com

2

Book dinner on Main:

Walnut Creek’s Main Street Kitchen & Bar is the answer to Cali farm-to-table breakfast, lunch and dinner cravings. Over the years, this family-owned bistro has refined its ingredients, refreshed its techniques and expanded its dining areas, with lush surroundings and live jazz that make it a complete package. That lively atmosphere is the perfect fit for a robust brunch — the MSK omelet, made with organic Medjool dates and Laura Chenel goat cheese, is perfection — or alfresco lunch or dinner. Look for wood-fired pizzas and

seasonal dishes, such as duck ragu with pomegranate seeds.

Details: 1358 N. Main St., Walnut Creek; https://mainstkitchen.com

3

Take a swig at Epidemic Ales: This 10-barrel brewhouse opened in Concord’s warehouse district in 2016. The brewery is known for its clean lagers, juicy, hazy IPAs and bright amber ales — and the fierce artwork emblazoned on every 16-ounce can (Zombrew is hella creepy). You can count on experimental draft beers and whimsical offerings, like a frozen beer slushie made with Epidemic’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake Hazy Pale. Food trucks roll by daily, and events range from paint night to pub trivia.

Details: 150 Mason Circle, Suite J, Concord; www.epidemicales.com

4

Hit the

Top: Clarissa Gaddis, left, of Seattle, and Kellie Matheu, of Oakland, dine out at Main Street Kitchen and Bar in Walnut Creek in March.

Above: Guisell Osorio’s alfajores are the centerpiece of her of her Sabores del Sur dessert lineup.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF; JESSICA YADEGARAN/STAFF

year-round farmers

market: More than 45 regional farmers, ranchers, growers and other food makers gather at the downtown farmers market in Walnut Creek on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Stroll the length of Locust Street while listening to live music, as you score oyster and wood ears from South Valley Mushroom

Farm, cow and goat farmstead cheeses from Achadinha Cheese Co. and fresh salad mixes from Hollister-based Royal Greens Farm. Don’t miss The Frenchy Gourmet’s tasty kefirs and East Bay Bakery’s innovative FrenchIndonesian pastries.

Details: Locust Street, from Cole Avenue to Lacassie Street; www.cccfm.org/walnutcreek-market

5

Savor buttery alfajores:

Sabores del Sur offers its dreamy cookies and empanadas out of a commissary kitchen

in Lafayette. Chilean chefowner Guisell Osorio’s delicate shortbread sandwich cookies first started making headlines more than a decade ago. Filled with creamy, dulce de leche and dusted in white powdered sugar, the cookies are made with love — you can practically taste that — and come in the traditional size, minis and chocolate-dipped. Just place an order for same-day pick-up.

Details: The Lafayette Kitchen, 271 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette; www. saboresdelsursf.com

Tantalize your tastebuds on Mount Tam or in its shadow

BY LEANNE BATTELLE

I caught my first glimpse of majestic Mount Tamalpais three decades ago as my airport transit bus wound its way into downtown Mill Valley. The doors opened at Lytton Square, where the Depot Café & Bookstore beckoned, its patio filled with diners relishing a sunny alfresco lunch. Marin’s expansive open spaces, its tight-knit communities and cultural scene and its restaurants — oh, its restaurants! — quickly took me in. Whether you’re a local or just visiting for the day, here are five foodie experiences for your itinerary.

Explore the massive Marin Farmers Market, the third largest in California. Held year round just outside San Rafael’s Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned Civic Center, the market draws more than 200 local vendors and puts the senses on overload with its brimming bins of enticing rainbow chard, Albion strawberries, Brandywine tomatoes and other seasonal treasures. Alluring aromas waft from pop-up kitchens, such as The Farmer’s Wife, where griddled sandwiches are layered with Prather Ranch beef, avocado, chimichurri and aged cheddar. You’ll find distinctive small-batch pastas — think duck egg noodles and squid ink bucatini — at the Mill Valley Pasta Co. stand and gluten-free baked goods at Flour Chylde Bakery.

1

Details: Thursdays and Sundays at 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael; https://agriculturalinstitute.org

2 Sample the seafood and suds at the Hook Fish Co. and Proof Lab Beer Garden in Tam Valley. Pick up tacos ($15+ for two), filled with the day’s fresh catch, pickled slaw, pico de gallo, avocado and spicy aioli on housemade corn tortillas — perhaps with a drizzle of carrot-habañero hot sauce. Wash it all down with one of the 40 brews and ciders on tap, as you relax at one of the wooden booths outdoors in a serene setting that feels miles away from the congestion out front. There’s a crimson Equator Coffees shack here, too, and the Proof Lab Surf Shop, in case you need a shortboard with that macchiato.

Details: 254 Shoreline Highway, Mill Valley; https://prooflab.com

3

Picnic on the mountain: A hike or bike ride to the upper reaches of Mount Tam is always a splendid idea. But the hills come alive every spring for the Mountain Play — expect “Into the Woods” hijinks in May — making it prime gathering time for outdoor enthusiasts, theatergoers and happy picnickers. Gather supplies for that amphitheater repast beforehand at Mill Valley Market, which offers both sandwiches and box lunches ($20), or Good Earth Natural Foods in Mill Valley. Or pick up fare onsite at the Mountain Play refreshment booths, where the barbecue comes courtesy of pitmaster Forrest Murray, Jr., and the beer hails from Lagunitas Brewing.

Details: Mill Valley Market; www.millvalleymarket.com. Good Earth Natural Foods, www.genatural.com. Find Mountain Play ticket and shuttle information at http://mountainplay.org.

4

Browse Sausalito’s restaurant row: The waterfront is enticing, no doubt. But Sausalito’s Caledonia Street boasts a full spectrum of cuisines, from Mediterranean fare to Indian, Thai and Japanese restaurants. Sandrino will transport you to Trento, Italy, the hometown of its chefs, who left their 10-year-old restaurant there to set roots by the sea. Topped with Italian cheeses and meats and fresh produce, the pizzas are glorious. The Stracciatella San Daniele ($27) showcases stracciatella, arugula and 24-month aged prosciutto di San Daniele, while the Trevigiana ($28) is topped with mozzarella, gorgonzola and grilled radicchio. Don’t miss the housemade panna cotta and tiramisu.

Details: 45 Caledonia St., Sausalito; http://sandrino.co.

Top center: Buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil tops a Bufalina pizza at Sandrino Pizza & Vino in Sausalito.

Top right: At Burmatown, the bao are filled with miso slaw, fresh cilantro and your choice of Korean ribeye, garlic lemon shrimp or ginger chicken.

Above:

Tease your tastebuds at Corte Madera’s Burmatown, where chef Jenny Gee — and her daughter, Jennifer Fujitani — first began sharing the traditional foods of Gee’s Myanmar homeland in 2014 in cozy quarters. The love continues at their new, trendier and more expansive eatery just around the corner, where locals flock for the fermented tea leaf salad, hoisin-glazed ribs, garlic noodles and miso-glazed black cod.

Details: 18 Tamalpais Drive, Corte Madera; http://burmatown.com

KARL MONDON/STAFF ARCHIVES

Refreshments are available for spectators at the Mountain Play premiere of Hello, Dolly! at the Cushing Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley in May.

DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN

Mount Tamalpais serves as a backdrop for the Marin County Farmers Market at Civic Center in San Rafael in 2021.

Top left: Top left: Sebastopol farmer Dave Hale slices a Pink Pearl apple at his stand at the Marin County Farmers Market at San Rafael’s Civic Center.

KARL MONDON AND ROBERT TONG/STAFF ARCHIVES

To market, to market

BY AMBER TURPIN

The concept of bulk shopping is a very American thing. Else where in the world, it’s common for people to shop daily or for just a couple of days at a time. It ensures fresher ingredients and cuts down on wasted food (and requires con siderably less storage space than the results of a Costco run).

Turns out that’s how many Bay Area food professionals — chefs, cookbook authors and food makers

SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF

The first inspirational step for many a fine meal

Nisei chef David Yoshimura shops for ingredients at the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace and Farmers Market twice a week.

— shop, too. They frequent small local grocers and specialty mar kets, such as Vallejo’s Anchor Pan try, Belmont’s Namaste Plaza and San Francisco’s Nijiya. And they shop for produce at the region’s bountiful farmers markets once a week or more, letting the season al splendors there inspire their restaurant menus and table decor as well as their home cooking.

PAUL MAGU-LECUGY, RÊVE BISTRO

Farmers markets — and the brimming produce aisles and specialty foods at Lafayette’s Dia blo Foods — draw chef Paul Ma gu-Lecugy, the chef who owns this French bistro in Lafayette with his wife, Laura. Paul was a chef at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis before the couple opened what they call a “little bit of Paris in the ’hood.”

“I spend hours upon hours creating a new menu,” he says. “Of course, being French and owning a French bistro, I’m inspired by the flavors and food of France. I am always picking up new cookbooks to see what other great chefs are doing.”

But it’s the farmers markets that frame his week and provide seasonal inspiration.

“Every Sunday, I start my week with a trip to the Walnut Creek Farmers Market,” Paul says. “It’s there I can see what’s really in season locally and talk directly with the farmers to get a sense of what is coming up and when. I usually pick up some things for my weekly seasonal specials there. When you see, smell and taste a perfectly ripe fruit, vegetable or root that just one day ago was on a tree or a vine or in the ground, there is nothing more inspiring than that. Cooking is an art, and food is the medium.”

Details: Rêve Bistro is at 960 F Moraga Road in Lafayette; http://revebistro.com. The Walnut Creek Farmers Market is open Sundays on Locust Street; www.cccfm.org. Find Rêve’s gougeres in the freezer case at Diablo Foods, 3615 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette; www.diablofoods.com.

Manresa Bread’s Avery Ruzicka sources her fresh produce from Santa Cruz’s many farmers markets as well as her own backyard garden.

SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF

Right: Chef Paul Magu-Lecugy of Rêve Bistro starts his week at the downtown Walnut Creek Farmers Market every Sunday.

ARIC CRABB/STAFF

AVERY RUZICKA, MANRESA BREAD

Ruzicka began her bread-baking career at Los Gatos’ legendary three-starred Manresa. By 2013, she was doing bakery pop-up booths at farmers markets. The first Manresa Bread brick-and-mortar opened in Los Gatos in 2015 — and her fifth location is set to open this fall on Santa Cruz’s Westside.

With half a dozen farmers markets in her home town — Santa Cruz — or close by, Ruzicka has plenty of choices.

“We are lucky to have so many to choose from each week, with two separate markets on Saturdays,” she says. “I try to get all my produce from either my home garden or a local farm and only buy items at the grocery I cannot source directly from the producer. I spice up my local finds with fun preserved items, liked smoked fish from Fishwife and spicy condi ments I read about on Instagram. It allows for the most creative food habits, I have found.”

During the pandemic, Ruzicka planted an expan sive garden with raised beds in her backyard that has been so prolific, she only needs to hit the farmers market every couple of weeks. And the long-neglect ed, now-thriving apple tree she discovered in that garden inspired a new dish, too.

“A warm salad of roasted sweet potato, delicata squash and apples, tossed with raw shaved apple and squash that have been quick pickled in apple cider vinegar and garlic,” she says. “Finish the salad with a drizzle of local olive oil and some toasted nuts and serve with Manresa Bread Levain, of course”

Details: Find details on Manresa Bread and its locations in Los

Above:

Gatos, Los Altos, Campbell and Palo Alto at www.manresabread.com. Order tinned fish from Fishwife at https://eatfishwife.com. Find Santa Cruz farmers market details at https://santacruzfarmersmarket.org and https://montereybayfarmers.org

KATIA BERBERI, ANNE’S TOUM

Katia Berberi didn’t start out in the professional food world — she was an operations and development manager for Tesla for five years — but she grew up making Toum, an addictive Lebanese garlic sauce that can be used as a dip, a marinade or a spread. (Try it slathered on grilled cheese or drizzled over kabobs, she says.) In 2019, she launched her East Bay-based company, Anne’s Toum, in 2019.

“I am a daily shopper,” Berberi says. “While I’m eating breakfast, I think about what I’m going to have for dinner and then plan to shop for it later in the day.”

In addition to shopping local farmers markets, Berberi enjoys shopping at several markets, including Vallejo’s family-owned Anchor Pantry, which carries an enticing selection of pickles, cheeses, sausage and crackers — and Anne’s Toum.

“While there are a lot of great Middle Eastern grocery stores around,” Berberi says, “we tend to get our Arabic bread, Arabic pickles, ingredients for hummus, baba ganoush and even pre-made labneh at Shish Market in San Ramon. They also have a good selection of Arabic spices.”

Details: Find Anchor Pantry at 620 Marin St. in Vallejo; https://anchorpantry.com. Shish Market is at 1061B Market Place in San Ramon, www.theshishmarket.com. Find a list of shops and farmers markets where Anne’s Toum is sold at www. annestoum.com.

DAVID YOSHIMURA, NISEI

Yoshimura began his career at New York’s now-shuttered wd-50, before coming to San Francisco’s then-new Californios, which now holds two Michelin stars. These days, you’ll find him at Nisei, the fine-dining Japanese restaurant he opened last year on Russian Hill — and at the Marin Farmers Mar ket and the San Francisco Ferry Building Market, where Yoshimu ra and his team shop for ingredi ents twice a week. And when he’s going to cook at home, he picks up ingredients at the Japanese super market, Nijiya, in the city.

”I usually find inspiration for my cooking in the seasonal pro duce at the (farmers) market,” he says. “We like to look forward to the seasons and plan our menus around what is coming up next. Inspiration can come from past experiences with holidays and loved ones or by simply looking at the bounty around us.”

That inspiration extends from the menu to dining room embellishments. “Fall is one of the best times of year for Japanese cuisine,” Yoshimura says. “I generally look forward to using pumpkin in a variety of ways, persimmons and chestnuts.

Hoshigaki is the sign for fall, and we cannot wait to hang them in our window at Nisei.”

That harbinger of autumn consists of strings of slowly dried persimmons that have been gently massaged every day for four to six weeks. It’s a Japanese tradition that goes back centuries.

Details: Nisei is at 2316 Polk St. in San Francisco; www.restaurantnisei.com. The Marin Farmers Market in San Rafael’s Civic Center is open on Thursdays and Sundays;

Top: Katia Berberi, the chef behind Anne’s Toum, heads for Vallejo’s Anchor Market for specialty items, including pickles, cheeses and salumi. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

www.agriculturalinstitute.org.The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; https://foodwise. org. Nijiya has locations in San Jose, Mountain View and San Mateo, as well as San Francisco; www.nijiya.com.

HETAL VASAVADA, MILK & CARDAMOM

Every foodie has a favorite farmers market, of course. For Vasavada, the Belmont-based food photographer and recipe devel oper behind the popular Milk & Cardamom blog and 2019 dessert cookbook, it’s the San Mateo Farm ers Market. You’ll find her there on Saturdays, browsing the baskets of persimmons, pomegranates, heir loom apples and other ingredients. Autumn is baking season, she says, a time to “create little memorable moments of sweetness.”

“Being a blogger and Insta grammer, it’s always a plus when the fruit is visually stunning as well,” she says.

Vasavada loves Sigona’s Farmers Market, too, a small, family-owned specialty market in Palo Alto and Redwood City. And for her Indian food essentials, she heads for Namaste Plaza in Belmont.

Details: The San Mateo Farmers Market is held on Saturdays on the College of San Mateo campus; www.pcfma.org/sanmateo. Find details on Sigona’s locations at https://sigonas.com. Namaste Plaza has six Bay Area locations; http://www. namasteplaza.net.

Left and far left: Belmont’s Namaste Plaza is one of Hetal Vasavada’s favorite places to find Indian ingredients, such as kolhapuri jaggery, an unrefined cane sugar.

RANDY VAZQUEZ/STAFF ARCHIVES

Sweet treats and savory stuffs abound in the city that invented sourdough

BY JACKIE BURRELL

San Francisco’s gustatory reputation dates back to the birth of that rough-and-tumble city. Think Isidore Boudin’s Gold Rush-era sourdough loaves, Domenico Ghirardelli’s confections and Etienne Guittard’s French-style chocolate. North Beach. Chinatown. And Fisherman’s Wharf, with its cioppino, chowder and steaming pots of fresh Dungeness crab.

You likely don’t even need us to tell you to try the Mission burritos of El Farolito (hello, super carne asada), the Irish coffees at The Bue na Vista and pretty much anything at Green’s, the legendary birthplace of high-end vegetarian fare. But these five hot spots offer some of our favorite things.

1 Slurp the soup dumplings: Xiao long bao — XLB to dump ling devotees — have taken the Bay Area by storm in recent years, a movement accelerated by the opening of Shanghai giant Din Tai Fung in Santa Clara in 2016. To day, you can find these addictive Shanghai-style soup dumplings at eateries across the region — and at China Live, the towering, 20,000-square-foot gastronomic destination restaurateurs George Chen and his wife, Cindy WongChen, opened in 2017. Go for the plump XLBs, filled with savory pork and scalding broth, of course. But be sure to check out all the other gastronomic attrac tions, too, from the exhibition kitchens and multiple restaurants to the tempting market. Pick up a jar of Chef Chen’s Famous Chili Crisp ($12) while you’re there.

Details: 644 Broadway, San Francisco; https://chinalivesf.com

2 Break bread at Tartine: Elisabeth Prueitt’s croissants are divine. The frangipanefilled version even more so. And the morning buns are a pastry symphony of cinnamon, sugar and fresh orange zest. But it’s the crusty, sourdough country loaves ($12.75) created by baker Chad Robertson that fan the flames of our carb-obsession, especially when those just-baked slices are slathered with fresh butter and a sprinkle of flaky salt.

Details: Tartine’s San Francisco locations include the Tartine Manufactory at 595 Alabama St.; https://tartinebakery.com.

3 Eat your words at Omnivore: Page-turners are certainly fun — and we won’t say no to a Poirot-esque outing. But we’d much rather browse the shelves of Celia Sack’s Omnivore Books on Food, where cookbooks and foodie memoirs reign supreme. Housed — oh so appropriately — in a century-old butcher shop, this cozy bookstore’s stock is devoted entirely to all things culinary, and its book signings involve authors such as Melissa Clark, Illyanna Maisonet and, on Nov. 29, Claire Saffitz.

Details: 3885A Cesar Chavez St.; https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com

The San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace is a foodie haven, with 48 restaurants, food stalls and boutiques, and a and a thrice-weekly farmers market. GETTY IMAGES

4 Catch a flick at Foreign Cinema, where the old movies flickering on the terrace just add to the ambience as you dine on, say, tandoori-spiced Poulet Frites ($29) or a Grains & Greens dish ($27) that includes favas, haricot vert, hummus and quinoa tabbouleh. Chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark turned this former cinema setting into one of the city’s most beloved restaurants in 2001. The result is two decades of Fellini, “Amelie,” oysters and magic. (Psst, they do brunch, too.)

Details: 2534 Mission St., http://foreigncinema.com

5

Shop the Ferry Building: This San Francisco landmark was a transportation hub when it first opened in 1898. By the 21st century, the underused build ing had gotten a new lease on life. Transformed into the Ferry Building Marketplace, it’s home to three bustling farmers mar kets and dozens of much-loved vendors and restaurants. Grab a box of Recchiuti’s signature salted caramels here, Baja fish tacos and Cubano sandwiches at Cholita Linda or wood-fired bagels at Daily Driver. Savor a pint at Fort Point Beer or join the (very long) line for porchetta sandwiches at the Roli Roti food truck, which visits the farmers markets on Thursdays and Saturdays. Bonus: Charles Phan’s original Slanted Door, shuttered for a remodel, will reopen in 2023.

Details: 1 Ferry Building; www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

The Sheng Jian Bao — or SJB — dumplings, center, are especially popular with China Live’s dim sum crowd.

COURTESY CHINA LIVE

An epicurean awakening spreads in a laid-back landscape

BY MARTHA ROSS

The Tri-Valley may have its own wine country in Livermore Valley, but for a long time, the sleepy downtowns of San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton and beyond were eclipsed — at least gastronomically — by other East Bay hot spots. In recent years though, the Bay Area’s fastest growing region has found itself the happy recipient of not just an influx of new residents craving food that satisfies their global palates, but an explosion of exciting restaurants to sate those appetites in newly bustling city centers.

1

Focus on the flatbread, Indian style: Topping pizza dough with Northern Indian curry flavors has become a popular move at several Indian eateries here, but the Naughty Naan at Curry Up Now takes it to another level. The small Bay Area chain is known for its playful takes on Indian street food, so if you head for San Ramon’s City Center Bishop Ranch, you’ll find Curry Up Now’s chefs slathering traditional Indian flatbread with a rich, spicy tikka masala, chicken or paneer and a light sprinkling of melty mozzarella to tie the flavors together.

Details: City Center Bishop Ranch and other locations; www.curryupnow.com

Wilderness. Owners Lisa and Lothar Maier and winemaker Brent Amos’ recent awards haul from the 2022 California State Fair includes a best of show for its 2019 Sangiovese, a mediumbodied red with the aroma of cherry and other fruits. Take in the view, sample a flight ($25) with a crisp 2021 Estate Verdelho, perhaps, and a light, fruity 2021 Estate Rosé. Hungry? The winery’s small plates menu offers charcuterie and flatbreads with tempting toppings.

Details: 1828 Wetmore Road, Livermore; www.laspositasvineyards.com. Find maps and details about more Livermore Valley wineries at www.lvwine.org.

for its adventuresome flavors — blue cheese and pear, for example, and arbequina olive oil. But I will drive any distance for a cup of the aromatic lavender honey ice cream.

Details: City Center Bishop Ranch and other locations; https://saltandstraw.com

and generous servings of chicken, pork sausage and plump shrimp.

Details: 680 Main St., Pleasanton; www. oyopleasanton.com

4Warm up with

2

Sip sangiovese with valley views: Most Livermore Valley wineries boast charming tasting rooms, but Las Positas Vineyards offers a particularly soul-nurturing setting. The Mediterranean-style winery’s large patio offers expansive views of historic vineyards, sycamore trees and the arroyo and hills leading to the Ohlone Regional

3

Slurp up lavender and honey sweetness: The TriValley sealed its status as a Bay Area dining destination when San Ramon lured more than 20 sensational eateries, including Charles Phan’s Slanted Door and cult ice cream maker Salt & Straw, to its gleaming new City Center. There’s a reason for the long lines at the latter. The Portland, Oregon-based company is known

South American fare: Even on a drizzly day, Oyo’s dining room in Pleasanton’s picturesque downtown still bursts with warmth and energy, thanks to its vibrant colors and bold South American cuisine — chickpea stew, silky pumpkin soup, calypso ceviche and more. Owner Maurice Dressels drew on his Guyanese heritage to create Oyo’s menu, which also boasts Iberian, Caribbean and South Asian influences. Don’t miss the restaurant’s show-stopping Paella Oyo, which arrives in an individual cast-iron pan, sizzling with fresh corn, peas and peppers

5 Journey to Yafa: From the garlicky, citrusy hummus to the chicken shawarma, the dishes at Dublin’s cheerful, fast-casual Yafa Hummus are based on decades-old recipes. The owners’ grandfather, a Jordanian chef named Afeef Awad, developed them during a 1951 sojourn to the ancient Mediterranean port city of Jaffa — or Yafa in Arabic. Order a juicy shawarma wrap with garlic sauce or a gyro, its shaved, seasoned beef wrapped in pita and topped with a tart tzatziki. Echoes of Awad’s menu come through in the falafel, too, which you can order in more modern style — as sliders.

Details: 7012 Amador Plaza Road in Dublin and other locations; www.yumvee.com

Left: Curry Up Now is known for its Indian street-food inspired fare and its fusion dishes, including burritos and naan pizza. CURRY UP NOW

Right: Teddy Kuan, 2, of San Ramon, stays cool in the shade as he finishes his ice cream at City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF

The Seafood Paella at Oyo brims with mussels, salmon, scallops, chorizo and more.

RANDY VAZQUEZ/STAFF ARCHIVE

Designed to tempt palates

A restaurant’s appeal extends to its artfully curated aesthetics

BY KATIE LAUER

Ameal at Bombera serves up plates of Chicana heritage, blending ancestral traditions with a dash of Oakland history.

But it’s the physical design of the restaurant, constructed inside an old fire station that was board ed up for decades, that showcases what Bombera is all about — before any wood-fired Mexican cuisine can touch diners’ lips.

Chef Dominica Rice says that was intentional.

Long before she opened the rustic fire house doors in the city’s Dimond neighborhood in May 2021 — two months after ending her 10-year run at Cosecha, a cafe in Old Oakland — she knew she wanted to create a space that honors its architectural bones, her menu’s Mexican mercado origins and a lasting investment in community.

“I used to live in that neighbor hood, and I never even knew that was there — right in front of me the whole time, but it was just so hidden,” Rice says. “For this space, we wanted to highlight what we see as our standards of beauty — family and indigenous beauty. Our research has always been, ‘What are we doing in California?’ What grows really well here, what are

The art, decor and even the barware at Walnut Creek’s LITA conveys a glitzy Miami vibe.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Restaurants across the Bay Area have embraced art and de sign, transforming what was once simply decoration into a larger aesthetic that helps define their dining experience.

These design choices can be as simple as a nod to its location — such as the calico cat mural paint ed above a doorway at Shepherd & Sims in Los Gatos — or an ode to the people who inspired and preserved culture through food, clearly illustrated in the pixelated murals of Black slaves and farm ers at one of Oakland’s newest fried chicken spots, Kowbird.

Rice wanted to meld both of those elements at Bombera.

“I want my spaces to be beauti ful, but I don’t want people to for get that there we are in Oakland,” Rice said, explaining how the building’s “function-over-form” blueprint taps into the region’s in dustrial roots. “People are always asking me, ‘What part of Mexico does this food come from?’ and I always answer, ‘Oakland.’ Chicana food is indigenous to Oakland, too, and we wanted to find a way to show this.

“We wanted that feeling, but also for people to be able to focus on the food and not crazy paint ings of mariachi or Frida Kahlo selling mezcal.”

As guests munch on heirloom blue corn tortilla quesadillas or spoon up a bowl of pozole verde under Bombera’s vaulted ceilings, cathedral windows and papel pic ado streamers, eyes are naturally draw in to the restaurant’s sole mural on otherwise clean, white walls: a portrait of two indigenous women from Arizona’s native Pima Indian tribes.

A saturated, tropical color palette and glamorous window treatments add to the ambience at LITA.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

the farmers doing and how can we support them?”

The art — painted by local Colombian-American artist Jessica Sabogal — honors the heritage of Rice’s husband, Chicano historian and professor Carlos Manuel Salomon, the journey Rice’s Mexican ances tors made to tend Northern California’s farmland a century ago and the restaurant’s current residency on the original homeland of Ohlone people.

The kitchen’s open layout allows the fragrance of boiling pots of garlic beans and lavender Fabuloso cleaner to waft into the eatery as soon as the morn ing’s prep begins. Soon after, neighbors and friends can commune on a simple front patio over a margari ta, horchata or a bag of chips — without any expecta tion of racking up an expensive check.

It’s Adam Winig’s job to listen and compile all those different inspirations and ideas into an ar chitecturally sound and budget-friendly plan. The co-founder of Arcsine, an Oakland design firm, says their industry’s goal is to help restaurants visually narrate their menu and atmosphere, whether that’s at

“I think that a restaurant experience needs to deliver to all senses,” Winig says. “It’s not just about sitting in a chair and eating something that tastes good. It’s about sitting in a chair that’s comfortable, with a temperature that’s right, with a sound level that’s right, with lighting that accents and helps you see what you’re eating, but isn’t too bright, and where the flow feels good.”

That may be especially important in a place like the Bay Area, where many residents have travelled the culinary world and discovered fine dining in every neighboring zip code.

Additionally, the rise of the “Instagrammable mo ment” in recent years seems to have simultaneously sparked new opportunities for restaurants to attract new customers, while challenging owners to decorate unique and genuine dining rooms that can hold up alongside their peers’ colorful murals, elaborate in

Dominica Rice’s Bombera restaurant pays homage to its Mexican and indigenous roots, as well as its mercado origins in its decor, from the dining room to the patio.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Shepherd & Sims or Meso Modern Mediterranean on San Jose’s Santana Row.

stallations and artistic artifacts.

“Whether you like it or not, that has impacted design a bit — people kind of want that wow factor,” Winig says. “I think it’s competition, and the bar has been raised, kind of across all levels. People expect a fully curated experience that they can remember for a little while and really takes them away from anything they could create at home on their own.”

Undeniably at the lavish end of the spectrum, LITA in Walnut Creek was designed to transport diners to Miami, Florida, only minutes from home.

Guests often take advantage of the tropical backdrop’s bold blue bar, lush greenery, towering ceilings and gold accents, dressing to the nines and taking photos in between bites of jerk chicken, mushroom empanadas and lobster corndogs.

“I think that a restaurant experience needs to deliver to all senses. It’s not just about sitting in a chair and eating something that tastes good.”

Adam Winig, co-founder of Arcsine, an Oakland design firm

Inside Bombera, sunlight illuminates an image of Tonantzin, the Aztec and Mexican deity.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Co-owner Rolla Ghaben said each intricate detail is essential.

“Everything was aesthetically put together to make it Caribbean Latin, but also to make it look sexy, beautiful and bring that cul ture in there, too,” Ghaben says.

“I want to go to a space where I feel like I’m out of Walnut Creek for a minute. But for us, it wasn’t

Left: Creating a Cuban-Latin escape was top of mind for LITA co-owner Rolla Ghaben.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

just about feeling somewhere else; it was about coming in to LITA and having a different experience to what you would feel anywhere else downtown.”

Ghaben — who operates LITA alongside her two brothers, David and Mike Ghaben, and extended family members Sam Ghaben, Celina Gonzalez and Sofia Ghaben — says they used unexpected delays during the COVID pandemic to take their time connecting with food and design consultants in Florida, including visiting in-person and shipping all the furniture and decor direct from the southern Sunshine State.

“It all goes together — the food, aesthetics, service, management, team, ownership,” Ghaben said.

“We wanted to be different, and we wanted to be the sexiest place on the block. The designer killed it and brought Miami to Walnut Creek, literally.”

The artwork at Oakland’s Bombera includes Anthony Carmona’s mercado-inspired Las Hamacas, above, and Momoca Usagi’s colorful paper flowers, below. RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

PENINSULA BUCKET LIST

The munching is multicultural in the cradle of tech

BY ANDREA POTISCHMAN

The Peninsula’s bustling cities and Silicon Valley’s tech headquarters may be known as a globally famous hotbed of innovative ideas. But nestled within this unique region lie diverse communities with traditions, heritage and food from around the world. From modest taquerias and KFC — that’s Korean fried chicken, not the white-suited colonel’s — to a swanky market hall, the obvious conclusion is: lucky us.

1 Indulge in the delicious torta:

The traditional Mexican sandwich reigns supreme at La Casita Chilanga. What this holein-the-wall hot spot lacks in the way of ambience, it more than makes up for with its traditional Mexican sandwiches. La Milan, my favorite of the 11 offerings, combines thin slices of wellseasoned beef with — deep breath — pickled peppers, fresh tomato, queso fresco, refried beans, onions, avocado and a spicy mayo spread on toasted telera bread. At roughly the size of a dinner plate, this sandwich ($11) comfortably serves two and elevates lunch to a whole new plateau.

Details: Four locations, including 761 El Camino Real, Redwood City; https:// lacasitachilanga.com

2 Go (baby) green at the farmers markets:

Hydroponically grown baby arugula, beet tops, mizuna, mustard greens and tender lettuces have become my obsession — enabled by Magnolia Produce, which has stands at the Palo Alto farmers market on

Saturdays and Menlo Park market on Sundays. (Get there early. They almost always sell out.) Magnolia founder Peter Bigsby has more than three decades of experience growing these exceptional greens. My whole family can taste the difference between these and the usual soil-grown varieties. Magnolia’s greens are sleeved with roots intact, so they stay fresh and crisp until ready to eat.

Details: Find information on the Palo Alto market at www.pafarmersmarket. org; and the Menlo Park market at www. localharvest.org.

3 Belly up to the

breakfast bar: The newly opened Little Sky Bakery has a cultlike following, thanks to founder Tian Mayimin’s artisanal, naturally leavened breads. The offerings result from what the self-taught baker calls “micro-innovation” experimentation. But it’s a lesser-known menu item, simply called the Breakfast Bar ($14 for two), that’s so irresistible. This dense, seedy, bricklike bar looks intimidating — until you take a bite, that is. Oats, almond butter Bonchon’s

chicken is slathered in a super-spicy sauce made from fiery Korean red peppers. BONCHON

and teff are the backbone. Tart cherries, coconut, apricot and prunes add sweetness. And sesame, poppy and sunflower seeds provide satisfying texture. The result is indulgent, healthful and totally delicious.

Details: Find Little Sky at Bay Area farmers markets and its new brick-and-mortar at 506 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park; https:// littleskybakery.com.

A Little Sky Bakery pop-up at Stanford University offered loaves of sweet and savory breads.

DAI SUGANO/STAFF

4

Explore the new(ish) State Street Market, a fun, upscale, community-focused food hall with ample outdoor seating and a diverse mix of tasty bites and sips. Order food at your table via a QR-code based menu and have it delivered moments later by the roving wait staff, with offerings that range from Bao Bei’s soft-shell crab baos ($11) with kimchi to Little Blue Door’s Cal-Indian favorites, such as rotisserie cauliflower with curry ($18). Got a young vegetarian? Banks & Braes does an Impossible chicken nugget kids’ meal ($10). Resident bar Murdoch’s shakes up craft cocktails and grazing boards.

Details: 170 State St., Los Altos; http://statestreetmarket.com

5

Go full KFC for a winner-winner chicken dinner:

Bonchon has nailed flavorful, Korean fried chicken with a modern twist. It was the dream of founder Jinduk Seo, who imagined a fried chicken restaurant that replicated the flavors of his hometown. The flagship South Korea location opened in 2002, and there are 370 locations world-wide today. What makes Bonchon’s chicken so incredible is the double fried, paper-thin, killer crunchy, crispy skin, combined with any of the four equally addictive vibrant flavors: soy garlic (my favorite), spicy, honey citrus and crunchy garlic.

Details: Bay Area locations include eateries in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Mateo, Newark and San Jose; https://bonchon.com.

WINE COUNTRY BUCKET LIST

No need to break the bank to dine in the lap of luxury

BY AMBER TURPIN

You might assume that dining out in Napa or Sonoma Valley only entails rich meats and heavy cabernets — and that’s certainly available. You can also indulge in luxury experiences at, say, Thomas Keller’s Regiis Ova Caviar & Champagne Lounge in Yountville or legendary places like Paul Hobbs’ Katherine Lindsay Estate near Sebastopol, where a newly launched tasting experience by chef Sam McKenzie will blow your mind. But there’s so much more to sample and enjoy in Wine Country — much of which won’t blow your entire paycheck in one go. Here are five fun culinary experiences to check off your list next time you head north.

1 Love that lox: The destruction of the Michelin three-star Restaurant at Meadowood by the 2020 Glass Fire was just one more terrible notch on the belt of a horrible year. But chef Christopher Kostow, who helmed the culinary mecca for years, made some lemonade out of those sad lemons when he opened Loveski Deli earlier this year. Kostow and his wife, Martina, opened their self-styled “Jew-ish” concept inside the popular Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa. Expect chewy, Montrealstyle sourdough bagels (try the crusted nutritional yeast variety), interesting schmears (yellow chive and fermented onion) and matzoh ball soup ($10-$12) with a twist — fresh herbs and lemongrass. And the drool-worthy deli sandwiches are fantastic. Don’t miss the Loveski Reuben ($20) with hot corned beef, Swiss cheese, white kimchi and gochujang dressing.

Details: Oxbow Public Market, 610 First St., Napa; www.loveskideli.com

2 Mix it up: After a day of wine tasting, you’ll want a change of pace — and luckily, cocktail culture is legit in Wine Country. When you tire of the noble grape, duck into the basement bar at St. Helena’s Goose & Gander, where the ambience envelops you like a leather-scented hug. The drinks are spot on, with many leaning in a whiskey direction. Try a Walter’s Manhattan, a classic nod to original owner Walter Martini, who built this Craftsman-style bungalow in 1923.

Details: 1245 Spring Street, St. Helena; https://goosegander.com/

3

Slice it splendidly: Calistoga’s fame grew out of its therapeutic mud and water, both of which you can partake of to this day. One spot to do that is Dr. Wilkinson’s Backyard Resort & Mineral Springs, a historic property that underwent a massive reboot during the pandemic and reopened last year. While much was changed — in

The new Bear restaurant at Napa’s Stanly Ranch Auberge Resorts offers memorable fare from brunch through dinner, including colorful seasonal appetizers and mouth-watering steaks. STANLY RANCH AUBERGE RESORTS

good ways — the opportunity to consume, soak and luxuriate in pure Calistoga spring water has remained, starting with the giant, beautiful hydration station in the lobby.

But that’s not what this foodie list item is about. Head for House of Better, the Southwestern-in spired cafe on site, where the menu ranges from fish tacos to posole to flatbreads — and pie. Not just any pie. This special slice ($6.50) is apple with green chiles, walnut streusel and a cheddar-butter crust, served with whipped cream and red chile honey drizzled on top.

Details: 1507 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga; https://drwilkinson.com/house-of-better

4

Discover plant-based perfection: The town of Healdsburg has so much deliciousness crammed into its tiny downtown, it might deserve a foodie bucket list of its own. But if you truly want an experience, go directly to Little Saint, Single Thread’s casual offshoot. Tucked inside the former Shed space, Little Saint includes a mercantile, a coffee shop, music venue, bar and restaurant — with food that’s not only entirely plant-based, it’s astounding. Vegan phobic? You won’t be, after you taste the cashew ranch dressing served with the tempura zucchini.

Details: 25 N St., Healdsburg; www. littlesainthealdsburg.com

5 Get a Bear

hug: The newest Auberge property in Napa is Stanly Ranch, a historic 712-acre ranch surrounded by vineyards near the Napa River. The luxurious hotel opened in April, and the resort’s signature restaurant, Bear, leaves a major impression. You can’t go wrong at any meal here, but if you’re brunching, don’t skip the savory buckwheat waffle ($26) topped with wild salmon gravlax, hollandaise and trout roe.

Details: 200 Stanly Crossroad, Napa; https://aubergeresorts.com/stanlyranch

Above: Healdsburg’s Little Saint is a vibrant, plant-based restaurant and gathering place owned by Jeff and Laurie Ubben.

BRENDAN MAININI

Christopher and Martina Kostow opened Loveski Deli earlier this year at Oxbow Public Market.

KELLY PULEIO

For every food, there is a festival season!

From the great pumpkin fest to an artichoke-a-palooza, food festivals are a Bay Area tradition. Here’s just a sampling of what lies ahead in 2023.

Seafood & Sips Mendocino: Jan. 27-Feb. 5, 2023. This 10day seafood-centric celebration unfolds at locations throughout Mendocino, from Fort Bragg and Mendocino to Ukiah and Hopland. The festivities typically include a cioppino feast, a cookoff and special seafood pairings at wineries, breweries and restaurants. www.visitmendocino. com

San Joaquin Asparagus Festival: April or May 2023. Yes, there are midway games and pony rides, but this Stockton festival is all about the stalk, complete with deep-fried asparagus, asparagus ice cream, asparagus churros and more served up at food carts along Asparagus Alley. www. sanjoaquinasparagusfestival.net.

Bottle Rock Napa Valley: May 26-28, 2023. Napa’s legendary festival is as much about gastronomy as it is about music. The 2022 fest included Metallica, Pink and 80 other bands performing on five stages, gourmet food, wine and beer stalls and culinary demos that paired up celebrity chefs and rockstars. www.bottlerocknapavalley.com.

Fremont Burger & Brew Fest: May 30, 2023. Sample burgers, sliders and brews — of course — from Bay Area breweries and food booths, with a lineup of live entertainment that includes music and a Burger Throwdown cooking competition. http://www. burgerandbrewfest.com

Artichoke Festival: June 1011, 2023. Check out the daily cooking demos and try artichokes prepared every which way, including fried, grilled, mixed into sausage and flavoring ice cream, at this annual festival held at the

Monterey County Fairgrounds. https://artichokefestival.org

Gravenstein Apple Fair: Aug. 12-13, 2023. Celebrate the sweetest fair in Sonoma County with this Sebastopol celebration of all things Gravenstein, plus local food, arts and crafts, kids activities, farm demonstrations and craft cider, craft beer and wine. www.gravensteinapplefair. com

Italian Family Festa: August, 2023. This Italian-centric celebration unfolds at San Jose’s History Park with food, music, crafts, bocce, a grape stomp and a wine tasting garden. www. italianfamilyfestasj.org.

Pittsburg Seafood & Music Festival: Weekend after Labor Day, 2023. After a pandemic hiatus, the festival and its organizers are gearing up for a 2023 comeback, with seafood booths, wine, beer and live music. www. pittsburgseafoodandmusicfestival. com

Salsa Festival: September 2023. After a pandemic delay, the festival is scheduled to make a comeback next fall, with live salsa music, salsa dancing and salsa tasting, plus a tequila tasting and food stalls. www.redwoodcity.org

HalalFest: Fall 2023. This Fremont celebration showcases food booths serving halal Pakistani, Middle Eastern, Arab, Mediterranean, African and American fare, plus global arts vendors and children’s activities. www.halalfest.com

Corks, Forks, Rhythm and Brews: October 2023. This Alameda Point festival features

California wineries, distilleries and breweries, chefs and gourmet food and benefits the Boys and Girls Club of Alameda. https:// corksforksonthepoint.com

Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival: October 2023. Join the 51st annual festivities for gigantic pumpkins, live music, fabulous pumpkin-centric food and drinks and more. www.pumpkinfest. miramarevents.com

Cindy Tobeck stands on top of her third-place 1,736-pound pumpkin during the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in 2019 in Half Moon Bay. ARIC CRABB/STAFF ARCHIVES

Michael Costanza, of the Sons of Italy, tends to his ravioli at the 2022 Italian Family Festa at San Jose’s History Park. KARL MONDON/STAFF

Chef-owner Michele Belotti serves tortellini en brodo at his Belotti Ristorante in Oakland.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF