N. California: Berkeley/Sonoma county report

Antonius, Lucantonius, and I took a quick trip to Northern California last week, to Sea Ranch on the Sonoma coast, with another night in the town of Petaluma. Our trip was bracketed by two excellent lunches in Berkeley – at Chez Panisse Café and Sea Salt.

Here’s the first installment. I hope Antonius can add his own impressions and some photos later.

Part 1 – Lunch at Chez Panisse

I ate at Chez Panisse many times when I lived in Berkeley and of course wanted to bring Antonius here. For our lunch we first of all ordered the pizza of the day (with pancetta, leeks, and rosemary) to come right away, for Lucantonius’s sake. Naturally we had to have some too. It was an amazing, fabulous pizza – especially the quality of the crust.

Antonius and I then decided on three other items, all to be split between us. First, baked Sonoma goat cheese with garden lettuces. This appetizer is always on the menu at the café – one of their signature dishes. The cheese is coated in olive oil, dipped in bread crumbs and then baked, resulting in warm, creamy and tangy cheese inside the crunchy bread crumbs. Since our waitress knew we were splitting everything, the cheese was served in two separate rounds.

Second, we had a pasta dish: bucatini with local albacore tuna, black olives, hot pepper and tomato. This was terrific – outstanding fish, perfectly al dente pasta, a bit of a kick from the hot pepper, and a generous amount of olive oil in the sauce.

For our final course we split grilled Sonoma duck breast with wild nettles and shoestring potatoes. Since we were already quite full (too much of Lucantonius’s pizza at the start, no doubt) we were glad that the duck was only two slices each. The meat was beautifully rare. The wild nettles, which I’d never tried before, were an excellent, slightly bitter green (and not at all prickly). The shoestring potatoes were so thinly shaved that they were more like potato chips – really addictive.

Chez Panisse is impressively child-friendly. Children get a glass full of crayons as soon as they sit down, and are encouraged to draw on the paper covering the table. Our waitress also offered to have a simpler, off-menu pizza made up for Lucantonius, though he and we decided to stick with the listed “bacon pizza”. Afterwards, our waitress brought out spoonfuls of the two ice creams of the day for him to try (plum and mint chocolate chip) but he uncharacteristically said no to any dessert.

Antonius and I were also too stuffed to manage anything more than an espresso each, though the desserts at the neighboring table (ginger crème brulée; fresh berries and nectarine) looked lovely.


[Next installment: Acme Bread and Cowgirl Creamery]

Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café
1517 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709-1516
www.chezpanisse.com

Chez Panisse

Over the years I've read things about Alice Waters and by Alice Waters and I've seen her a number of times on television; if memory serves me well, she was on Sarah Moulton's show a lot back in the days when the Food Network had something to do with good food. In addition, Amata used to be a regular visitor to her establishment in Berkeley and has told me a lot about the place. On the basis of all that, I've long been an admirer of Ms. Waters and long have wanted to visit Chez Panisse. I finally got the chance to make that visit and my expectations were more than exceeded.



First off, the bread is an outstanding sour dough loaf from Acme (more on that bakery anon):


As Amata mentioned above, we split three dishes to make a full Italian-style antipasto/primo/secondo meal structure but added to that some of the pizza that Lucantonius got.

Superlatives get wearisome, so I'll try to be brief. The pizza with house-cured pancetta, leeks, cheese and rosemary was outstanding. For a long time I was the lone wolf crying in the pizza wilderness of LTH that pizza is -- traditionally anyway -- about the bread, and this pizza was built on excellent, properly handled bread. The toppings are in no way 'silly' or California fad stuff; as I've said elsewhere on this board, her combinations are completely in the spirit of traditional Mediterranean culinary aesthetics. This was the best pizza I've had since I was last in Naples and Northern Campania a few years ago. In this, I'm not surprised, given the praise that Pigmon and Bill/SFNM and Amata have had for the pies at Chez Panisse.




The baked goat cheese appetizer was simple and completely delicious.


I generally do not order pasta in restaurants, where it is more often than not hideously abused. After the pizza, there was no doubt in my mind that they would know what they were doing with the pasta and again, expectations were exceeded. Al dente bucatini with a beautifully constructed sauce; in all honesty, this dish was very much like what we make in my family but then crowned with beautifully fresh tuna. Excellent.


More superlatives: the duck was perfectly cooked and delicious; the potatoes were... well, salty, crunchy, non-greasy fried potatoes: What more could one want? The nettles were both interesting and delicious and furthermore set up a nice contrast with the other flavours.


The service was impeccable and -- a nice touch, to my mind -- the tip was included (17%). Lucantonius had a great time drawing and the long meal ended up being not challenging for him, thanks to the availablility of paper and crayons.


I had a glass of Alsatian white (Hugil [sic on menu for «Hugel»]) to start with, which went nicely with the pizza that somewhat resembles a flammekueche. My second glass of wine was the 'house' Zinfandel, which was a little busier than I generally like with food but was really quite complex and tasty; I saved some for savouring after the meal. We also had an espresso each (no, not Lucantonius) and that was excellent too.


One of the best meals I've had this year, without doubt. Alice Waters understands Mediterranean -- Provençal/Italian -- ingredients tremendously well and the food here is conceived with intelligence and prepared with skill. A large meal like this was also surprisingly light, for there is no reliance on extra doses of fat for flavour and substance here: just quality ingredients and brilliant cooking.

Antonius

Spelling note added.

Beautiful posts, Amata and Antonius. Your description of Chez Panisse, with its simple elegance along with staying true to "traditional Mediterranean culinary aesthetics" is dead-on.

I've since eaten there a few more times over the years and have come to the conclusion that they are one of the few places anywhere that successfully juggle progressive culinary ideas along with being true to these traditional Mediterranean aesthetics.

Often times when I dine out at similarly progressive restaurants, I feel like a research lab rat being prodded and probed so to speak with some chef's latest and newest untested concoction. At Chez Panisse, one only needs to look at your photos to see that they are the real deal.

Glad you tried it.

Thanks.

Part 2 – Acme Bread, Cowgirl Creamery
(all photos by Antonius)

Since we’d had a hefty lunch at Chez Panisse, and since we knew we were headed to the least chow-y part of Sonoma county (the downside of splendid isolation is, well, there aren’t too many restaurants), we made a couple stops along the way to pick a few things up for a picnic supper that night in our room.

First, we went to Acme Bread in Berkeley, where we purchased a baguette and pain epi. Acme, considered the best bread in the Bay Area, was started in the early 80s by a Chez Panisse alumnus and supplies Chez Panisse and many other restaurants with bread. Their main store is so small that only a couple customers can fit inside at a time; it’s in a small complex on San Pablo Avenue with Alice Waters’ Café Fanny and Kermit Lynch, a wonderful, cave-like shop for French wines. We descended into the cool dark of Kermit Lynch and admired the offerings, but we were in a locavorian* mood and held off till we could buy something made nearby.

Antonius forgot to take a picture while we were inside Acme and we didn’t feel like waiting in line again. Here’s Acme from the outside:



Next we drove west for about an hour to the dairyland of West Marin county and the village of Point Reyes Station, home of Cowgirl Creamery cheese.




The tiny Cowgirl factory is part of a complex called Tomales Bay Foods, where one can purchase a variety of picnicking supplies. We sampled a bit of Fra’ Mani salametto, one of the artisanal salumi being produced by Paul Bertolli, formerly of Oliveto. But the salametto was only sold in entire sausages, more than we needed for that evening, and it seemed a shame to waste any of it. Instead, we got a few slices of roast pork loin, two Cowgirl cheeses – their triple cream Mt. Tam and an experimental raw milk cheese labeled “Eric’s Folly”, plus a small round of Pug’s Leap goat cheese.** Also one tomato (the $2 tomato Antonius mentioned elsewhere), a bottle of Seghesio Pinot Grigio, and two ice packs to stick in our insulated neoprene tote bag.

A few hours later (two hours of driving, plus quite a bit of beach time along the way) we arrived at the Sea Ranch lodge and watched the sun go down from the bar. What a relief not to have to drive any further along the sheer cliffs of twisting Highway 1, just to get some dinner!



Back in the room we laid out the cheeses, which were excellent, as was the bread.



The segments of the pain epi were just right for making sandwiches. The sliced pork was fine, though perhaps not worth $5.40 for four thick slices, but our porkivorian son enjoyed it. And the “tomato of gold” turned out to be fantastic.

Coming up: tri-tip by the beach

*Thanks to Vital Information for introducing the word ‘locavore’ to many of us.

** Pug’s Leap, in Healdsburg, does not have a web page. But here is a description.

Acme Bread
1601 San Pablo Ave
Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 524-1327

Tomales Bay Foods (Cowgirl Creamery)
80 4th St
Point Reyes Sta, CA 94956
(415) 663-9335
www.cowgirlcreamery.com
10-6, Wed – Sun

Amata wrote:*Thanks to Vital Information for introducing the word ‘locavore’ to many of us.

And thanks for showing us how good it can be! (If one cannot eat local in Northern California, one cannot eat local, no?).

Again, thanks for the great report.

Rob

The picnic shopping was great fun and the picnic itself was great. A few notes (apologies for all the superlatives):

• Acme Bakery's bread is excellent and it's too bad that there is no bakery like Acme here. They obviously supply some of the high quality restaurants in the area and, with three baking crews, turn out an array of outstanding breads around the clock. We had four different breads in the course of the stay and each one was at the same high level of quality.

• The Pug's Leap goat cheese was really great. Alas, their production is quite small, it seems, so...

• Cowgirl Creamery. I think there are a lot of folks here who agree that their main cheeses are outstanding. The Mt. Tam we had on the chunks of Acme bread were as good as bread and cheese get. I also thought the experimental raw milk tomme was very, very good.

It was fun to see the actual little 'factory'.

• The Seghesio pinot grigio was really a very nice wine and I would gladly buy it again... But, like virtually all California wines, I find it very overpriced. Still, put a bottle in front of me and it won't turn to vinegar.

• The tomato: also overpriced but really good (though not better than the best ones from our own garden this summer -- could I get $2 for each of them? If so, Dikzak, the squirrel, is in really big trouble...).

• The roast pork was quite nice but the taste of Fra' Mani salametto was really good. Too bad only whole ones were for sale.

• Boy, those sunsets up in Sonoma were something. Definitely best to wait to eat after sundown, so as not to miss the show.

Antonius

Antonius/Amata,

Thanks for the great images of Cowgirl Creamery. My wife and I spent a week on the Sonoma Coast right around the same time, and fell in love with their Redhawk - a knockout washed-rind triple crème that does very well with the local *plonk*. I've found it at Whole Foods and am waiting for the appropriate "gosh I miss vacations" moment to pick one up.

BTW, did you stop at any of the oyster farms north of Point Reyes Station? August is not the best time - the oysters had a milky flavor that was not entirely to my taste - but the idea of shucking your own oysters straight out of the bay appeals to the inner hunter-gatherer in me.




Oh, and no questions about those sunsets...



- Fillay

Hi fillay,

Nice pictures! No, we didn't stop at any of the oyster places, though they did look tempting and quaint alongside Tomales Bay there. I think Jonah has mentioned those oyster shacks in another recent thread, too.

The summer heat waves in California may have had an effect on the taste of the oysters when you and we were out. The day we headed from Oakland Airport up to Sea Ranch it was 102 degrees as we crossed the San Rafael bridge... and a refreshing 64 degrees when we got up to Sea Ranch. (No fog up there, either.)

Amata

I am excitedly reading these posts as Mr. X and I are headed to San Francisco and Sonoma County next month. It's nice to pick up tips and I look forward to sharing our finds.

The GP wrote:I am excitedly reading these posts as Mr. X and I are headed to San Francisco and Sonoma County next month. It's nice to pick up tips and I look forward to sharing our finds.

I just returned from a week-long stay in the area.
Unfortunately, no food pix but here are a few hi-lights:
San Francisco
Foreign Cinema - Combination French bistro/movie house.
Aziza - Moroccan cuisine.
Sonoma
The Girl & The Fig - French country food?
Roshambo Vineyard - Hands down the coolest, most unconventional vineyard you can visit
Santa Rosa
Willi's Wine Bar - Small plate wine bar
Syrah - California/French bistro

fillay wrote:BTW, did you stop at any of the oyster farms north of Point Reyes Station?

Fillay,

I've been to Johnson's Oyster Company in Point Reyes, a very cool place where they grow the oysters on rebar hanging off barges. It's been a bunch of years, at least 4-5, but I remember laughing at the fact that oysters were dead cheap, but if you wanted to buy an oyster shucking knife, so you could eat them on the spot, it was $12.

At the time it was run, maybe still is, by a 60's hippy type fellow, he and I had a nice conversation which started as he had about 20-lbs of beautiful salmon smoking away at the side of one of the sheds.

The whole area is incredible, plus the lighthouse at Point Reyes is worth a visit, and a trek down and up about 8-million narrow stairs.

Nice oyster and sunset picture!

I had an incredible breakfast at a little coffee shop, with mismatched chairs inside and a few benches out, in Point Reyes proper. They made their own everything, or bought it from within 20-miles or so. The name escapes me at the moment, when I think of it, I'll post.

A and A, terrific posts, great pictures!

Enjoy,
Gary

Amazing artwork by Luca - really that's beautiflu!

G Wiv wrote:I've been to Johnson's Oyster Company in Point Reyes, a very cool place where they grow the oysters on rebar hanging off barges. It's been a bunch of years, at least 4-5, but I remember laughing at the fact that oysters were dead cheap, but if you wanted to buy an oyster shucking knife, so you could eat them on the spot, it was $12.

I drove past Johnson's on a rainy day a few years back and balked at either slurping a dozen oysters on the spot or schlepping them back to our hotel in Glen Ellen. This time we stopped at Hog Island, one of the "glitzier" places up past Tomales Bay (glitzy meaning they have an oyster bar in the new Ferry Terminal Market in SF). The oysters weren't exactly cheap at a buck apiece for medium sweetwaters. And while use of the shucking knife and glove was free, there was some confusion about the cost of using the picnic table itself - based on the signs I think we were supposed to pay $10 a head but lucked out with a cashier on her first day who let us in for free.

The GP wrote:I am excitedly reading these posts as Mr. X and I are headed to San Francisco and Sonoma County next month. It's nice to pick up tips and I look forward to sharing our finds.

GP - I would also highly recommend the Underwood Bar and Bistro, about 12 miles inland from Bodega Bay in Graton. This wonderful, friendly tapas place just got written up in this month's Food and Wine as one of the top wine experiences in the country. Not only is their wine list filled with well-priced local treasures - many of which you would be hard pressed to find on retail shelves - but it's a favorite with local winemakers. My wife and I happened to be seated next to Bill Hunter from Chasseur Wines when we were there in early August, and got to eavesdrop as he poured his pinots and chardonnays for visiting relatives. For wine geeks like us, the appropriate sentiment would be "WE'RE NOT WORTHY"...

- Fillay