Category Archives: Dining Outside

Dining in Los Angeles, Part I: Splendid Italian Cuisine at Bestia

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The fantastic Margherita at Bestia.
The fantastic Margherita at Bestia.

A server who traded Southern California for Northern California recently remarked to me that they like their restaurants loud in Los Angeles.

He wasn’t kidding.

Having dined at Bavel in Los Angeles two years ago, and its sister restaurant Bestia in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago, I can concur, as these are among the noisiest restaurants where I’ve ever dined. We’re talking a volume where you need to practically shout at your dining companion across the table to be heard. Dine outside at either establishment though, and you will fare a bit better, as the clamor will still be high, but more manageable.

Even so, I will gladly put up with the din to enjoy the superlative Middle Eastern specialties at Bavel, and the exceptional Italian fare at Bestia.

It's always loud and crowded at Bestia.
It’s always loud and crowded at Bestia.

Both restaurants are owned by Chef Ori Menashe and his Pastry Chef wife Genevieve Gergis. They opened Bestia in 2012, followed by Bavel in 2018, and their very casual Saffy’s in 2022.

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San Mateo’s Bonjour Bakehouse Expands With Indoor Seating

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Pastries from Bonjour Bakehouse.
Pastries from Bonjour Bakehouse.

It’s been an eventful past six years for the family-owned Bonjour Bakehouse in a warehouse area of San Mateo.

Bordeaux, France-native Francois Bernaudin was executive pastry chef of La Boulange in San Francisco before founding Bonjour Bakehouse in 2019 at Kitchentown, the food incubator hub in San Mateo. Three years ago, Paris-born Ingrid Sarlandie, a mechanical engineer who worked in executive management in Silicon Valley but had a lifelong passion for baking, joined the business.

For years, the bakery operated a pass-through window there with seating on the sidewalk. But last month, it added indoor seating for 40 with bistro tables and a communal table that afford views of the production kitchen.

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Gourmet Getaway to the Mendocino Region, Part IV: The Boonville Hotel and Offspring Restaurant

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Sun Gold tomato Margherita pizza at Offspring.
Sun Gold tomato Margherita pizza at Offspring.

Offspring is a fitting name for Chef Perry Hoffman’s second restaurant, an inviting pizza and pasta joint in teeny Boonville in the Anderson Valley.

After all, it was the success of the Boonville Hotel and Restaurant across the street, where he’s also chef, that gave birth to it.

Yet it’s also a name that applies profoundly to him, too, as this descendant of veritable culinary royalty knows a thing or two about the creating a lasting legacy.

Chef Perry Hoffman.
Chef Perry Hoffman.

His grandparents were famously, Don and Sally Schmitt, who bought an old stone building in sleepy Yountville in 1978, the French Laundry. They worked hard to turn it into a true destination, a process Hoffman witnessed from the time he was 5 years old when he’d roast peppers and cut baguettes to help out at the restaurant. It was the tender start to his own storied career that culminated in becoming the youngest chef in the United States to receive a Michelin star when he was 25 at the helm of Domaine Chandon’s Etoile restaurant in Yountville in 2009.

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Gourmet Getaway to the Mendocino Region, Part II: The Historic MacCallum House

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Pan-seared duck breast with sweet potato chips at the MacCallum House Restaurant.
Pan-seared duck breast with sweet potato chips at the MacCallum House Restaurant.

At 144 years young, the MacCallum House in the heart of downtown Mendocino still exudes charm and quaintness.

It’s been many years since I’ve dined at this restaurant-inn that was originally the family home of Daisy MacCallum, gifted to her by her father William Kelley when she married his bookkeeper. So, when I was invited recently to stay and dine by the owners, I jumped at the chance to revisit this lovely historic Victorian.

Daisy MacCallum was a student of horticulture, who planted thousands of roses on the property. With a expansive green lawn surrounded by trees and flowers, it remains a lush, verdant property, the kind that beckons you to take a load off at one of the Adirondack chairs to relax for a long spell.

The MacCallum House is a historic Victorian.
The MacCallum House is a historic Victorian.
The historic barn, which now has guest rooms.
The historic barn, which now has guest rooms.

Nineteen rooms are available in the main house, separate cottages, or in the historic barn, which is where I stayed.

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Redwood City’s Donato Enoteca Reopens After Renovation

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Several types of pizza are offered on Donato Enoteca's new menu, including this pan pizza topped with house-smoked swordfish.
Several types of pizza are offered on Donato Enoteca’s new menu, including this pan pizza topped with house-smoked swordfish.

After a month-long interior refresh, the popular 16-year-old Italian restaurant Donato Enoteca has reopened in Redwood City — better than ever.

There’s still a large patio dining area with herb planters, an open kitchen, and a handsome dining room but one that’s brighter and more contemporary looking now. There’s also a new circular white marble bar, especially conducive to the after-work crowd looking to kick back with cocktails and small cicchetti or bite-sized noshes. There are also new evocative black-and-white photos on the walls of Italian ingredients by local photographer Nadia Andreini.

The biggest change, though, is the arrival of Chef Marco Bertoldo, a native of Italy’s Veneto region, who has worked at Michelin three-starred Ristorante Le Calandre in Italy and was the executive chef at Poesia in San Francisco.

Through the passway to the marble-topped bar.
Through the passway to the marble-topped bar.
New artwork on the walls.
New artwork on the walls.

Chef-Owner Donato Scotti may be stepping back from overseeing the kitchen on a day-to-day basis, but he’s still very much a part of the restaurant. In fact, he was there last week greeting tables, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.

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