Southern Comfort Kitchen plans Castro Valley eatery
OK, East Bay residents, you have crab fries and etouffee in your future, and not just at food truck festivals.
The highly rated Southern Comfort Kitchen food truck will be opening its first brick-andmortar in Castro Valley.
SoCo Kitchen’s owners — three brothers with Louisiana roots — are just now starting the design and planning work, so they are looking at early 2018 before the roux darkens at 3571 Castro Valley Blvd., a former Pizza Hut.
If you haven’t come across this trio yet, they have a full lineup of food truck events just ahead, including Street Eats in Castro Valley, San Lorenzo and Stoneridge; Off the Grid in Hayward, South Shore Alameda and the Oakland Museum; Food Truck Mafia at Bishop Ranch; and lots more. Find the full schedule at www.southerncomfortkitchen.net.
Caramel apple alert: Schurra’s reopens
San Jose’s legendary candy store, Schurra’s, is reopening just in time.
For many San Joseans, it wouldn’t be autumn without a caramel apple from the circa 1912 confectionary on The Alameda.
Owner Brian Mundy announced that they would be back in the retail business starting Oct. 3. He and his staff had focused on Schurra’s wholesale side and the website during the summer.
Officially called Schurra’s Fine Confections — and the name is pronounced shur-ray’s — the store is located at 840 The Alameda. 408-289-1562; www.schurrasfineconfections.com.
Oakland’s Clove & Hoof butcher adding a soda fountain
What goes with a good old-fashioned butcher shop?
How about an old-time soda fountain — one updated for modern tastes?
That’s the plan of butcher-owners John Blevins and Analiesa Gosnell, who in December hope to be serving housemade root beer and seasonally inspired phosphates next door to their Clove & Hoof Butchery and Restaurant in Oakland.
As it turns out, the building they’re located in at 40th and Broadway was at one time home to a pharmacy with a soda fountain.
The concept of Clove & Hoof may hearken back to yesteryear, but the couple specializes in meat that comes from farms that use humane methods in raising animals and shun antibiotics and hormones.
You can follow the soda fountain progress at http://cloveandhoofoakland.com.
Chef-driven wine, whiskey bar joining San Pedro Square
Wine, whiskey and small plates. That’s the concept behind the new upscale lounge that will join San Pedro Square’s restaurant-rich lineup in downtown San Jose in October, taking over a prime spot formerly occupied by a nonculinary tenant, BlackArrow.
District is the third location for a Bay Area group that has owned and operated District San Francisco for a decade and District Oakland since 2012.
It’s a wine bar with a sophisticated approach toward food. Executive chef Bob Cina, formerly of Chez Henri and Hammersley’s in Boston, has created a menu of shareable plates (Moroccan-spiced lamb meatballs, glazed bone marrow, lemongrass mussels), house-made charcuterie (duck rillettes, bourbon wild boar salami) and small bites (Gorgonzola-stuffed figs, sriracha deviled eggs) to complement the libations.
Those include 60-plus craft whiskeys from around the world and 40 wines available by the glass, bottle or flight (plus a 300-bottle reserve list), all curated by wine and spirits director Caterina Mirabelli, a sommelier who is a native of Rome and a veteran of Los Angeles’ Michelin-rated Providence restaurant. A dozen craft cocktails and nearly 20 craft brews round out the list.
HMR Architects and Bellusci Designs handled the renovation of this historic space. A wine and whiskey tower will showcase an original turn-of-thecentury stained-glass window from the building, and vintage movies will play on two large projection screens in the main dining room. Between that room, the bar, lounge and patio, there will be seating for 100.
District’s opening in the South Bay will represent a homecoming of sorts for part of the group. Chris Vance and Ryan Vance, co-owners with Jon D’Angelica, are Peninsula residents. Chef Cina and sommelier Rachel Kaiser live in San Jose.
District’s opening will give the square a full complement of restaurants between the San Pedro Square Market and the street’s new condo development. The lounge will join Spaghetti Factory, Firehouse No. 1 gastropub, 71 Saint Peter and the Old Wagon Saloon & Grill on that stretch.
Details: The October opening date hasn’t been set. District, 65 N. San Pedro St., will be open Monday-Friday from 4 p.m. and Saturday from 5 p.m.; the closing times will range from midnight to 2 a.m. www.districtsj.com.