Roadhouse a delicious bridge of past, present
A recent revisit shows that it is as good as ever, and it is clear that in our fast-moving world, this restaurant offers a much-needed perspective.
In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Home section.
Few Bay Area restaurants are as special as Bull Valley Roadhouse, located in the tiny town of Port Costa at the end of a winding road that deadends at the bay.
When you enter, you might feel like you’re walking into the 19th century. There are rotogravure portraits to the right, the Victorian bar to the left and all kinds of taxidermy, pictures and other bric-a-brac all around — as if the place has been running continuously for more than 100 years.
But in fact the restaurant opened in 2012, and it’s been on my Top 100 list since then.
We have Earl Flewellen and Samuel Spurrier to thank for recapturing this piece of history. They’ve created a restaurant that could easily have been a cliche but that, in fact, feels entirely authentic.
They started with a small cafe on the first floor of the Burlington hotel, and when the hotel was going to be closed they took on its operation, eventually buying it and refurbishing the 19 rooms. They also redid the restaurant.
Everything was going well until last year when, during the staff holiday party and a rain storm, the restaurant flooded. Staff and townspeople banded together to save it. As is often the case in the face of tragedy, they came back stronger than ever.
A recent revisit shows that it is as good as ever, and it is clear that in our fast-moving world, this restaurant offers a much-needed perspective.
The food crafted by coowner David Williams is designed to be served family style. You’ll find carefully sourced produce in every dish, whether it’s the wedge salad ($15) with pork belly, carrots, radish and cherry tomatoes with house-made Ranch dressing; the Caesar ($15) made with little gems; or the baby chicories ($15) with blood orange, cara cara, radishes and Green Goddess dressing.
The larger plates, which are easily shared, range from buttermilk fried chicken (with a bowl of pinquito bean chili, sweet pepper jam and biscuits, $28) to the Prather Ranch 13-ounce New York strip steak (accompanied with grilled asparagus, shiitake mushrooms and herb butter, $55).
Williams buys a hog weekly and works it into many of the dishes, including a pork chop ($42) with fingerling potato salad and bacon jam.
The dinner menu includes gentle references to the past. When diners sit down, they are given warm towels to clean their hands after their journey. The signature pork stew ($28), made with tomatillo and guajillo chile, is no doubt spicier than what would’ve been tolerated a hundred years ago, but each bowl is topped with lime, referencing the time when many of the workers on the ship had scurvy, cured by citrus.
The bar specializes in pre-Prohibition cocktails — a nod to the fact that every building in this small town was built prior to 1920.
It’s a restaurant that’s close to my heart, but it still feels current — a living bridge between centuries.
14 Canyon Lake Drive, Port Costa; (510) 787-1135 or www.bullvalleyroadhouse.com. Brunch Sunday; dinner Thursday-Sunday.