July Dine Downtown deals return to San Jose
The meal deals are back. Friday through July 28, more than 20 downtown San Jose restaurants will offer special multicourse dinners, chefs’ specials and food-wine pairings for Dine Downtown Restaurant Week. And the sponsoring San Jose Downtown Association uses the term “week” loosely because you actually get 10 days’ worth of deals.
The promotions offer a chance to sample new places or rediscover old favorites at tempting prices.
Participants include 71 Saint Peter, Cafe Stritch, District, Élyse Restaurant, Enoteca La Storia, The Farmers Union, The Grill on the Alley, Hawaiian Poke Bowl, Il Fornaio, The Fairmont’s Lobby Lounge, Loft Bar & Bistro, Mezcal Restaurant, Mosaic Restaurant and Lounge, Nemea Greek Taverna, Nomikai Social Food + Drinkery, Olla Cocina, Ozumo Santana Row, Scott’s Seafood Grill & Bar, SP2 Communal Kitchen, Supergood Kitchen and Sushi Confidential.
What’s on the menu? We got an advance peek. Supergood is pairing Vietnamese-style catfish with Burmese tea leaf salad. Il Fornaio will showcase heirloom tomatoes in its appetizer course. Braised lamb shanks star on the Loft’s prix fixe menu. At nearby Mosaic, it’s ginger-smoked seabass. And the Grill on the Alley’s new executive chef, Brendy Monsada, who was formerly with Left Bank in Menlo Park, will be serving seared scallops with sweet corn puree and prosciuttowrapped grilled nectarines.
DETAILS >> Find details, menus and parking validation information at www.sjdowntown.com/ dine-downtown. Tables can get snapped up quickly on these nights, so make reservations right away.
S.F.’S acclaimed Tartine Bakery coming to Berkeley
Hold on to your butter knives, bread lovers. San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery has announced its first location in the East Bay. This summer, James Beard awardwinning pastry chef Elizabeth
Prueitt and her husband and co-owner, Chad Robertson, will open a cafe and bakery inside Berkeley’s historic Graduate Hotel.
According to Berkeleyside, Tartine has a history with this location. In April 2018, when chef Chris Kronner took over Henry’s at the Graduate, Tartine provided all the breads. When it opens this summer, Tartine will join Henry’s as another place to dine at The Graduate, offering breakfast and lunch service, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Berkeleyside says.
No word on the menu yet, but we can imagine the tempting morning buns, cookies, scones and sandwiches responsible for those hour-long lines at the original Mission District location will be among the tasty selections. And, of course, the breads, from rustic whole grain crusty country loaves to buttery, perfectly flaky croissants. Alice Waters is a fan.
The baking duo opened the first Tartine at the corner of 18th and Guerrero streets in 2002, and it quickly shot to fame, garnering book deals, international acclaim and a
James Beard award for Prueitt, for outstanding pastry chef, in 2008.
Eight years later, they opened the massive Tartine Manufactory, also in the Mission District, as well as their own coffee roastery, Coffee Manufactory, in Oakland’s Jack London Square. Since, Tartine has opened locations in San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles and Seoul, South Korea. The Berkeley location will return Tartine to its roots, a small, sunlit neighborhood cafe and bakery with long lines out the door.
Stay tuned for details on the opening date. The Graduate Hotel is located at 2600 Durant Ave., Berkeley. For more information on the hotel, go to www. graduatehotels.com.
After 23 years, Stanford’s closes in Walnut Creek
Stanford’s Restaurant and Bar, a mainstay at Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza for nearly a quarter century, has closed its doors.
A note on the website reads: “We are thankful to have hosted so many of your celebrations and to have been a part of this wonderful community.”
The steakhouse, which opened in 1996, was part of a chain based in the Pacific Northwest. For years, the brick facade housed a darkly lit restaurant filled with deep booths that attracted families celebrating everything from special events to just plain Saturday nights.
A 2005 Contra Costa Times review, on the eve of the restaurant’s 10th anniversary, found Stanford’s stuck in a visual and culinary time warp, but still delivering on the promise of wellaged steaks cooked properly: “The meat has the telltale tang of proper aging. It’s a very good steak, served up with decent garlic mashed potatoes.”
Recently, the restaurant indicated on Facebook that Broadway Plaza renovations had perhaps affected business. “Stanford’s is open: A little construction (and a big wall) won’t stop us from serving,” the post read.
Restaurants Unlimited, the parent company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, according to published reports last week. It still owns several Stanford’s and other restaurants in Oregon and Washington.
The company’s five other Bay Area properties line local waterfronts: Kincaid’s in Oakland and Burlingame; Skates on the Bay in Berkeley; Horatio’s in San Leandro; and Palomino along San Francisco’s Embarcadero.
CREAM ice cream shop opens in Milpitas
CREAM nation is expanding yet again.
The company that specializes in ice cream sandwiched between freshly baked cookies opened a new shop Saturday at the Great Mall in Milpitas.
You get to customize your cool creation by first selecting cookies from among several choices, picking an ice cream for the filling and finally, picking a topping such as sprinkles, nuts or gummy bears.
CREAM also now offers ice cream tacos, sundaes, milkshakes and floats.
The first CREAM — the acronym stands for Cookies Rule Everything Around Me — was opened by the Shamieh family in Berkeley in 2010. With the Milpitas opening, there are now 18 stores in Northern California. There are also stands at SAP Center in San Jose and Oracle Park in San Francisco.
DETAILS » The new CREAM store is located inside the mall next to Old Navy and Valliani Jewelers, near the Jollibee entrance. 447 Great Mall Drive; www.creamnation.com.