Pitmaster brings barbecue to Sunnyvale golf course
Two men with local roots have teamed up at the city of Sunnyvaleowned Sunken Gardens Golf Course.
They’re not teeing off, though they probably can whenever they want.
Chef-pitmaster Ryan Pang and restaurateur Kris Zankich III now own and operate the Old Greenwood BBQ at the Gold Rush Saloon — a clubhouse with award-winning barbecue where golfers are starting to schedule their tee times around the restaurant’s hours.
Old Greenwood is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily for takeout, delivery and outdoor dining, with 20 socially distanced tables and plenty of shade on the 5,000-squarefoot patio (with more space to come).
The meals come with culinary cred. Pang, a Sunnyvale native, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, then came back home to run smokehouses and other South Bay and Peninsula restaurants (Armadillo Willy’s, QBB, Higashi West, Maggiano’s). He also competes throughout California with his Bad S. BBQ team, winning titles at events including the Silicon Valley BBQ Championships.
Zankich is a Los Gatos native and great-grandson of Croatian orchardists who settled in the Sunnyvale area in the early
1900s. After working for years as a contractor he launched the Gold Rush Eatery, a food truck popular on the South Bay food festival circuit, then took over the golf course restaurant and bar space.
“I decided that a golf course is a captive audience and you can’t help but to get hungry on holes 7, 8 and 9 smelling the smoker puffing away,” Pang says. “So Kris and I joined forces, after years of friendship, as we saw the huge potential in a cool old spot where we could build on what he had started.”
The menu is a mashup of both worlds. From Pang’s smoker come brisket, ribs, pulled pork and chicken, with sides of collard greens with bacon, beans, coleslaw, potato salad and freshly baked cornbread muffins. From Zankich’s food truck lineup you can order an Asian chicken salad, loaded tots, hot links and Harris Ranch beef burgers — including the Gold Rush Burger, a riff on Linda’s Parisian, a local favorite.
New to the menu are Caleb’s Crispy Cracklins, cooked to order. “I don’t know anyone with fresh fried cracklins … in four flavors,” Pang says.
This being a clubhouse for golfers, naturally there are cocktails and beer for those who are just coming off the course. Nineteen beers are on tap, along with draft root beer from Devil’s Canyon Brewery in San Carlos.
As for the moniker, Old Greenwood has many meanings here, Pang says. There’s the historic angle: Old Greenwood was a nickname for Caleb Greenwood, a fur trapper who came West before the Gold Rush. And the golf terms: green and wood. And the barbecue aspect: Using old greenwood to smoke. “What could be better?” Pang says.
DETAILS >> 1010 S. Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale; www.oldgreenwood bbq.com
Bay Area’s only Lithuanian restaurant is closing
You have until July 31 to savor your last borscht and a slice of that honey cake.
Mama Papa Lithuania, the Bay Area’s only Lithuanian restaurant, is closing its doors in Alameda after seven years. But it is not because of the coronavirus pandemic or the other challenges plaguing California restaurants. It’s because of politics.
Owner Vaidas Sukys is running for a parliament seat in Lithuania, he said by email. The election is in October, and rather than scramble to find the right owner to carry on the restaurant’s golden reputation for goulash and potato dumplings, he is closing up shop.
Sukys announced the news July 7 on the restaurant’s Facebook page: “We appreciate all of our loyal customers and are so glad we have had the ability to share our Lithuanian cooking and hospitality with those who have dined with us. We have been able to set the example that lesser known cuisines can be well accepted in our local community, and possibly other Lithuanians might find the courage to continue on similar culinary journeys.”
Comments flooded the page from people in the Bay Area and across the world from Canada to Europe. “I’m so sad to hear this,” wrote Jessica Bomben. “I love the food and the cozy vibe. Your goulash is one of my favorite foods ever.”
And this: “I am so sorry you will be closing,” wrote Lin Look. “My 95 year-old Lithuanian mother really loved your bread, and she said she could see the rye waving in the wind when she ate it.”
As Sukys told the East Bay Times in 2013, Mama Papa Lithuania was the only restaurant west of Chicago serving Lithuanian cuisine. It still might be. In his farewell, Sukys alluded to opening a restaurant once he settled in Lithuania — parliament member or not.
“For those who really find they miss the food, we highly suggest a flight over to visit Lithuania at any time and you will refresh Mama Papa Lithuania memories with an even bigger variety of local dishes,” he wrote. “Who knows, you might surprisingly see the Mama Papa Lithuania name there too.”
Until then, you can order takeout, delivery or even enjoy your meal in their beer garden. Make reservations by calling 510-522-4100. Find more information at www.mamapapa lithuania.com.
California Fish Grill opening another location
California Fish Grill is in South Bay expansion mode, just a few months after opening the chain’s first location in San Jose.
A second restaurant for this city is scheduled to open this summer in North San Jose. The site off Brokaw Road was formerly home to Panera Bread.
The Irvine-based company founded in 1998 set its sights on the Norcal market a couple of years ago, opening restaurants first at Daly City’s Serramonte Center and then Walnut Creek’s Orchards center before the early 2020 opening in South San Jose.
The new location will make four total in the Bay Area; there are two in the Sacramento region.
Sustainable seafood tops the menu here. Wild-caught choices include ahi tuna, sockeye salmon, pollock, swordfish, ono and calamari. And the Grill works with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch to ensure that the farm-raised seafood it serves — trout, catfish, shrimp, tilapia and sea bass — comes from certified sustainable operations.
Flame-grilling is the cooking method of choice here, with a selection of seasoned olive oil, garlic butter sauce, chimichurri sauce or Cajun spices. But the restaurant also offers battered and fried classics, salad bowls, rice bowls and seafood tacos.
DETAILS >> 1706 Oakland Road, San Jose; www.cafishgrill.com
Jack London Square brewery closes for good
Owner Stephen Mcdaniel launched his Independent Brewing Co., fittingly, on the Fourth of July seven years ago.
This past Fourth, he announced “with much mixed emotion” the permanent closing of the Oakland venture.
“The challenges of COVID-19 and an inability to find common ground on continuing our lease into the future have made it impractical to continue operations. We are currently evaluating our future as a company,” he wrote on Facebook.
The brewery was the first to establish itself in the Jack London Square area, at 444 Harrison St. Today, the area is home to a growing craft-beer scene that includes Federation Brewing, Original Pattern Brewing, Oakland United Beer Works and Beer Revolution.
Over the years Independent hosted art shows and concerts (including “block-rattling metal shows, fantastic funk, classic and experimental rock, punk, hip hop, rap, spoken word and mellow jazz,” Mcdaniel said on Facebook). In 2018, Independent brewed and sold a beer — Resilience Butte County Proud IPA — to benefit survivors of the Camp Fire.
In his farewell, he wrote: “We are proud to have been one of the founders of the Jack London Brewing District. We have made many friends and faced countless challenges.”
He capped it with a thankyou to customers, fellow brewers and the Jack London Square community.
“Stay safe, Oakland! Cheers!”