Limewood new at the Claremont
Dining Scene
Room with a view: Fairmont’s Claremont Club & Spa has introduced a new restaurant to replace the brasserie by star chef Dominique Crenn that had only a fleeting engagement in the Berkeley hills. Billed as a “casually elegant” space, Limewood Bar & Restaurant will inaugurate dinner service Aug. 30, with lunches to follow a week later, Sept. 6.
The new chef, Joseph Humphrey, brings Wine Country cred to this position, having served as executive chef of the threeMichelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood and the Auberge du Soleil. His inaugural menu — more affordable than the one at Crenn’s Antoinette — features the bounty of NorCal waters, farms and ranches: Monterey Bay squid; heritage pork; seasonal squash, corn, tomatoes and melons. Details: 41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley; 510-549-8585.
The Rio Olympics spurred interest in our suggestion to sample local Brazilian fare and prompted readers to chime in with two more favorites: The homey Bacalhau Grill, in business for 60 years in San Jose’s Little Portugal neighborhood (1555 Alum Rock Ave.), came highly recommended for its “amazing food” and “Old World charm.” All three meals are served here. You could start with linguiça and sweet bread in the morning, come back at lunch for salt cod croquettes or Portuguese-style steak and pork chops. At dinner you’d have to narrow your selection from about 20 entrees, including fried Spanish mackerel, red snapper, marinated rabbit and octopus and eel stews (seasonal). In San Francisco, Minas Brazilian Restaurant (41 Franklin St.) features feijoada, ribs in guava paste, shrimp flamed with cachaça, and many stews popular in Brazil. We imagine all are best washed down with a caipirinha.
Two “sandwich environmentalists” will expand their Washington statebased Homegrown Sustainable Sandwiches to the East Bay in early 2017. The shops will open in the former La Boulange spaces in Lafayette and Danville. Stay tuned for sammie details.
The food truck-turned-brick-and-mortar Koja Kitchen — Korean-Japanese fusion — has widened its offerings to the Peninsula. You can now find the Koja sandwiches on fried garlic rice buns, Korean Buffalo wings and kamikaze fries in downtown San Mateo at 150 South B St. Other locations are in San Jose, Emeryville, Berkeley and S.F.
The East Bay is getting its first automated fast food spot with the arrival of eatsa on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue. The location, the lowercase company’s fourth, is no accident: eatsa CEO Tim Young is a Cal alum, and the concept has budget-conscious, time-strapped college student written all over it. Order a hearty salad, a burrito bowl or a bento bowl from the quinoa-centric menu ($6.95) via the app, then pick up your fare three minutes later from one of the glass-door “cubbies” inside. Details: Open 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. 2334 Telegraph Ave., www.eatsa.com. Contact us: Eat Drink Play Editor Jackie Burrell jburrell@bayareanewsgroup.com Dining Scene Linda Zavoral lzavoral@mercurynews.com Executive Features Editor Lisa Wrenn lwrenn@bayareanewsgroup.com Advertising Contact Mary Jo Mann mjmann @bayareanewsgroup.com 831-566-0125