As part of his ongoing collaboration with the world’s top culinary talent, Manresa’s David Kinch has invited Alexandre Gauthier of La Grenouillère (The Frog Pond) to join him for two “late summer harvest dinners” Sept. 11-12. The 31-year-old Gauthier is from La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil just outside of Montreuil-sur-Merin in the north of France. He received his first Michelin star in 2007.
Articles by Stett Holbrook
Located on The Alameda in San Jose, Wine Affairs is a wine bar and retail shop that focuses on eclectic and small production wineries you’re not likely to find elsewhere. The bar also offers a wide range of wines by the glass dispensed from a high-tech machine that preserves the wines with nitrogen. The lineup of wines changes periodically and allows you to try before you buy. Certified sommelier Chris Kay is the shop’s wine buyer.
The menu at Bistro Elan is French at its roots but with a California sensibility given its reliance on local and seasonal produce. The kitchen sources most of its produce from the California Avenue farmers market right out the front door. The result is a short but instantly likeable menu that reminds me anew of why we’re so lucky to live and eat in Northern California. There’s a brief but well-chosen (and reasonably priced) wine list that’s strong on both California and French wines.
Big Basin Vineyards is one of my favorite Santa Cruz Mountain wineries. While pinot noir has become the region’s marquee wine, Big Basin’s Bradley Brown is making a name for syrah with his luscious single-vineyard designated wines. (His pinots aren’t too shabby, either.) Not only are the wines beautiful to behold, but so is the winery itself. ALSO: Roamin’ the Rhones, Saturday–Sunday, Aug. 21–22: Burrell School, Hunter Hill, Loma Prieta, Poetic Cellars and Vine Hill; Hunter Hill’s vineyard dinner, Sunday, Aug. 22.
Chef Glenn “Gator” Thompson of Bayonne restaurant in downtown San Jose is on a mission to show the world that it’s possible to make healthy Southern food without sacrificing flavor. He hopes his cooking will serve as an example to his overweight brethren in the South that one of the country’s most distinctive regional cuisine need not be hazardous to your health. “This is a restaurant to get the word out and give back.”
Pessagno , the Monterey County winery, sent me 2006 and 2007 vintages of syrah, pinot noir and zinfandel sourced from two eastern San Benito County vineyards. The wines are poster children for the lavish, concupiscent California style—ripe, fruit-driven and boozy.
Pessagno Winery, the Monterey County winery, sent me 2006 and 2007 vintages of syrah, pinot noir and zinfandel sourced from two eastern San Benito County vineyards. The wines are poster children for the lavish, concupiscent California style—ripe, fruit-driven and boozy.
Sante Grill aims to “revolutionize” fast food with its lighter, nonfried, less calorically dense menu. The restaurant isn’t out to save the world through its food, but it’s just trying to make fast food doesn’t taste like fast food. And on that score that restaurant does pretty well.
Milpitas’ one and only winery, Big Dog Vineyards, opens its doors to the public for wine tasting and a live concert on Saturday, July 24, and a day of more wine tasting on Sunday, July 25.
One of the best places to experience birria is east San Jose’s aptly named La Birrieria, even harder to pronounce than the restaurant’s namesake dish. La Birrieria is 100 percent Mexican. The tidy, family-run restaurant is located next to a liquor store off South White Road and can be easy to miss. Inside, the wood-paneled walls, handwritten signs and family photos give the place a welcoming, friendly appeal. But most appealing of all is the birria.
