Berkeley, California's 'gourmet ghetto'. Or maybe you won't. The
restaurant is as inconspicuous on the street as it is prominent in the
gourmet guides. We navigated by counting the street numbers; when it
looks like you're at 1517 Shattuck Avenue, stop. That camouflaged
store front with the wisteria? That's it.
We ate upstairs in the Café: the second-label restaurant. My general
feeling is that second-labels have all of what I value most in a
restaurant-delicious food and drink-without making me pay for the
atmospherics which I value a lot less.
For an right-coaster, the atmosphere in the dining room is both
comforting and a bit unsettling. It's comforting because the staff has
that perfect left-coast balance of informality and competence: smiling
pretty people who know what they're talking about. The unsettling part
is that we've become used to the best restaurants having a certain
attitude that suggests that, while they're glad we're there, they are
not entirely sure we're worthy of the experience.
We passed up the $24. tasting menu of Garden Lettuce Salad, Hand-cut
pasta with tomatoes, basil and Bellwether Farm ricotta and a meyer
lemon sherbet with candied mint. The apps were loaded toward the
seafood and garden side. I had Monterey Bay squid roasted in the wood
oven with cherry tomato salad, ($12.) mostly because I've never had
roasted squid or even thought about roasting it and this seemed like
the place to give it a try.
The squid hit the sweet spot between tender and firm in a way that
I've never even imagined, much less tasted. The wood-oven taste was an
excellent stand-in for the usual grill flavor and the salsa was more
like a roast cherry tomato in (blended?) olive oil. The flavor of the
tomato skin had migrated to the oil and the result was lightly herbed.
My companion, a serious non-foody with a professed squid aversion ate
about half and fought me for bread dipping rights.
pasta with tomatoes, basil and Bellwether Farm ricotta and a meyer
lemon sherbet with candied mint. The apps were loaded toward the
seafood and garden side. I had Monterey Bay squid roasted in the wood
oven with cherry tomato salad, ($12.) mostly because I've never had
roasted squid or even thought about roasting it and this seemed like
the place to give it a try.
The squid hit the sweet spot between tender and firm in a way that
I've never even imagined, much less tasted. The wood-oven taste was an
excellent stand-in for the usual grill flavor and the salsa was more
like a roast cherry tomato in (blended?) olive oil. The flavor of the
tomato skin had migrated to the oil and the result was lightly herbed.
My companion, a serious non-foody with a professed squid aversion ate
about half and fought me for bread dipping rights.
Of course, the realities of profit margins and modern dining customs
mean that there's a lot more wine than beer on Chez Panisse's drink
list. There were four local drafts and six bottles-half Belgian, half local.
I ordered a pint of Drake's Amber Ale ($6.) and the service of this
otherwise tasty beer was the only low point in the lunch. The beer
was served in the near-frozen zone in a frosted glass. This amber is
yummy, but lightly built; light fruit, light roast, light malt and all
that lightness was subdued, no, beaten into submission by the low
temperature.
My cousin-companion ordered grilled Hudson Ranch guinea hen breast
with green beans. We weren't surprised to find out that these folks
know how to roast a bird. What was surprising was the ribbons of fried
potato done up in a neutral cooking oil that tasted more like potatoes
than the deep frier.
I had Half Moon Bay sand dabs with pepper salad and herb mayonnaise.
The dabs, which are flatfish like flounder were plump, lightly breaded
and perfectly, suck-the-bones, succulent. I ordered a bottle of La
Chouffe, (33 cl, $$7.75) the spicy, bready, velvety belgian ale and
asked for a room temperature glass. The beer may have been a bit too
big for the fish, but when you put the mayonnaise in the pan, the
scale balanced out very nicely indeed.
For dessert, cuz had Almond Ice Cream with bittersweet chocolate
sauce, ($8.75). There are scarcely words for the nutty complexity that
they teased out into that ice cream-enough to make you believe in ice
cream again if you ever had doubts. I had the interesting, but less
overwhelming Black Mission Fig tart with a Sauternes zabaglione. ($9.25)
The puff pastry was well-fatted and the figs moderately interesting.
Sauternes sabayon however, turns out to be one of the great ideas of
West Coast cooking, the grapey, concentrated flavor surviving and
starring in the middle of the eggy sauce.
Service is included at 17% and the bill came to $116. Not so cheap for
lunch, but a great bargain for great theater
otherwise tasty beer was the only low point in the lunch. The beer
was served in the near-frozen zone in a frosted glass. This amber is
yummy, but lightly built; light fruit, light roast, light malt and all
that lightness was subdued, no, beaten into submission by the low
temperature.
My cousin-companion ordered grilled Hudson Ranch guinea hen breast
with green beans. We weren't surprised to find out that these folks
know how to roast a bird. What was surprising was the ribbons of fried
potato done up in a neutral cooking oil that tasted more like potatoes
than the deep frier.
I had Half Moon Bay sand dabs with pepper salad and herb mayonnaise.
The dabs, which are flatfish like flounder were plump, lightly breaded
and perfectly, suck-the-bones, succulent. I ordered a bottle of La
Chouffe, (33 cl, $$7.75) the spicy, bready, velvety belgian ale and
asked for a room temperature glass. The beer may have been a bit too
big for the fish, but when you put the mayonnaise in the pan, the
scale balanced out very nicely indeed.
For dessert, cuz had Almond Ice Cream with bittersweet chocolate
sauce, ($8.75). There are scarcely words for the nutty complexity that
they teased out into that ice cream-enough to make you believe in ice
cream again if you ever had doubts. I had the interesting, but less
overwhelming Black Mission Fig tart with a Sauternes zabaglione. ($9.25)
The puff pastry was well-fatted and the figs moderately interesting.
Sauternes sabayon however, turns out to be one of the great ideas of
West Coast cooking, the grapey, concentrated flavor surviving and
starring in the middle of the eggy sauce.
Service is included at 17% and the bill came to $116. Not so cheap for
lunch, but a great bargain for great theater
