Cook’s Seafood set for new location
Since way back in 1928, Cook’s Seafood has been selling fresh crabs and frying up orders of fish and chips on El Camino Real.
This year, its 90th in business, will mark the first time the restaurant operated by the Crumrine family is expanding outside Menlo Park.
A new Cook’s Seafood will open this spring in Pleasanton, in the Bernal Plaza just east of Interstate 680.
Cook’s combines a restaurant with a fresh fish market. The top seller in the market has been crab. In the restaurant it’s the fish and chips — and it’s a big hit with customers because the battered fish is Alaskan halibut, not the more common cod or haddock.
“That’s what we’re known for. You can’t find that just anywhere,” manager Olaf Guadarrama said.
If you East Bay fish lovers would like to try out the seafood before the local opening, Cook’s opens at 11 a.m. daily (except Sundays) and serves until 8:30 p.m., and on Fridays till 9, at 751 El Camino Real. The market opens earlier, at 9 a.m.
Meantime, follow the grand opening progress at www.cookspleasanton.com.
Galpão Gaucho brings Brazilian steak to Cupertino
At Galpão Gaucho — the newest Brazilian steakhouse in the region — 17 types of meat are roasted on a 15-foot-long grill imported from Brazil. It’s in the third churrascaria in this small chain after Napa, which opened in 2016, and San Antonio, Texas, the flagship, in 2015.
The restaurant took over the massive, long-vacant Elephant Bar space on Stevens Creek Boulevard.
If you’ve never indulged, here’s the modus operandi of the Brazilian churrascaria-style steakhouse: You fill up on cured meats, cheeses, salads and marinated vegetables at what seems like an endless salad bar, then you sit down to a feast of grilled meats served tableside by wandering waiters. You flip up a card on your table to indicate you’re ready for more.
The all-you-can-eat price is $37.95 at lunchtime and $57.95 at dinner. (If you want just the apperizer/salad bar and hot sides, that’s $28.95 any time of day.) Children ages 7 to 12 get 50 percent off those prices, and kids 6 and under eat for free.
Details: The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and from 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner at 19780 Stevens Creek Blvd. www.galpaogauchousa.com.
Italian Homemade Company expands to Berkeley
Pasta, piadini and caprese have returned to 2905 College Ave.
San Francisco’s Italian Homemade Company has taken over the former A.G. Ferrari digs in
Berkeley’s Elmwood district.
It’s the first location outside the city for the deli-market that serves up mix-and-match plates of pasta in North Beach and on Union Street. It’s a fast-casual arrangement: You pick a house-made pasta — maybe fettuccine, gnocchi or a filled one like ravioli or tortellini — then select a sauce. There are six choices: Marinara, pesto, white (bechamel cream, butter), butter and sage, Bolognese and pasticciata (Bolognese with bechamel cream). And typically a daily special.
Several piadini, made with yeast-free flatbread and topped with salumi, cheese, veggies and more, are available, along with stuffed flatbreads, salads and lasagna. And you can add homemade meatballs or sausage to just about anything.
Desserts are homemade too; there’s panna cotta, tiramisu and crostata.
For years, this restaurant space had been home to A.G. Ferrari, a noted Bay Area chain that dates back to 1919 in San Jose, 1921 in Berkeley’s Elmwood.
Italian Homemade Company is open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Details: www.italianhomemadecompany.com.
Sweetgreen brings its salad, grain bowls to San Mateo
Sweetgreen, a restaurant that specializes in customized salad and grain bowls, has expanded its Bay Area presence.
The newest location opened today in San Mateo, at the corner of East 3rd Avenue and El Camino Real. It’s the sixth in the Bay Area for the chain founded a decade ago in Washington, D.C.
Sweetgreen’s menu changes more often than the seasons, and the emphasis is on sustainability and from-scratch preparations. Highlights of the latest Bay Area menu are bowls of Curry Chickpea (with roasted chicken, organic spinach, quinoa, veggies, in a curry yogurt dressing); Winter Squash and Blue Cheese (with kale, apples, roasted squash, umami walnuts, in a balsamic vinaigrette); and Rad Thai (citrus shrimp, salad greens and vegetables, with a spicy cashew dressing).
You can also customize your own salad or quinoa bowl, with nearly 40 ingredient choices (from miso-glazed vegetables to roasted steelhead) and 17 dressing selections.
The San Mateo location will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 1 E. Third Ave. www.sweetgreen.com.
Send restaurant tips to Linda Zavoral at lzavoral@bayareanewsgroup.com.