Table & Travel

More and more lately, Cal foot­ball games seem to be start­ing at 4 p.m. Food wise, it’s an awk­ward time, far from lunch and too early for din­ner. What we’ve been doing is pick­ing up a sand­wich at Gen­ova Del­i­catessen on Tele­graph Avenue then eat­ing it when we get to Memo­r­ial Sta­dium an hour or so before the game starts.

Gen­ova is an Oak­land insti­tu­tion. It was opened at 50th and Tele­graph by Ital­ian immi­grants Lorenzo Balbi and Peter Tira in 1926. Orig­i­nally, it was a gro­cery store and ravi­oli fac­tory, which catered to this pre­dom­i­nantly Ital­ian area called Oakland’s Temescal dis­trict. In 1951 Dominic De Vicenzi came to work there and mar­ried the owner’s daugh­ter. In the mid-1960s a sec­ond store was opened in Wal­nut Creek, which is now run by De Vicenzi’s nephew. Due to “ fam­ily dif­fer­ences,” the two busi­nesses are sep­a­rate enti­ties with Dominic own­ing the Oak­land deli and another in Napa. In 1995, the deli moved from its orig­i­nal loca­tion to Vern’s Shop­ping Cen­ter, a strip mall on Tele­graph near 51st Street. It’s across the street from Piz­zaiolo, which cooks fab­u­lous pizza from local ingre­di­ents in their wood-fired oven.

Along with fan­tas­tic sand­wiches, the deli also sells imported Ital­ian foods, pasta, and wine. In the back is a bak­ery and salad/antipasti bar. The sig­na­ture sand­wich is the Ital­ian Combo—a freshly baked roll filled with mor­tadella, galentina, cotto salami, dry salami and pro­volone cheese and cov­ered with fresh veg­eta­bles. Molto bene!

When we were in the Bay Area this week­end, Vicki and I made plans to have Sun­day brunch with my son Matt, the recent Cal grad, who lives in Berke­ley, just off Tele­graph Ave. I thought we’d park by his house and walk up to a place on Tele­graph, Cafe Milanese, that I’d seen online. But Matt said it was just a stu­dent place and sug­gested we go to Le Note, a lit­tle French bistro on Shat­tuck Avenue.

It was an excel­lent choice, and we were soon sit­ting on a sun­lit patio behind the main restau­rant, perus­ing a menu filled with so many inter­est­ing choices it was hard to choose. Matt chose Les Oeufs, fried eggs with pota­toes and two spicy mer­guez sausage, which has roots in north Africa. Vicki’s Oeuf a la Coque, con­sisted of two per­fectly cooked soft boiled eggs and out­stand­ing chunks of sautéed new pota­toes. It came with thinly sliced whole-wheat toast for dip­ping into the bright orange yolks of the eggs.

I had the Omelette de Pommes de Terre, a won­der­ful omelet lay­ered with sliced new pota­toes, carmelized onions, toma­toes, and emmen­thal  cheese, and accom­pa­nied by sweet grilled Proven­cales tomatoes—excellent!

The menu also fea­tured pan­cakes, which we couldn’t pass up, so we shared a oat­meal pan­cake cov­ered with a rib­bon of rasp­berry coulis. The fla­vor was divine, the tex­ture light and airy.

Matt was right on the money with this rec­om­men­da­tion, I think it’s one of the best places in the East Bay to have break­fast. I can’t wait to return for din­ner after brows­ing a menu that fea­tures fish, pasta, grilled meat, along with some veg­e­tar­ian dishes.

La Note Restau­rant Proven­cal.
2377 Shat­tuck Avenue, Berke­ley, CA
510.843.1535  info@lanoterestaurant.com

On our recent trip to Italy, Vicki and I vis­ited a delight­ful lit­tle vil­lage called Vol­paia in the hills high above Radda in Chi­anti. The hills and val­leys along the nar­row wind­ing road were filled with vine­yards in autumn color. We parked near the out­door restau­rant La Bot­tega di Val­paia and asked for a table. We were told that the only table avail­able was a small one near the entrance so we took that even though there were many empty tables toward the back over­look­ing the val­ley. We asked about those tables and were told they were reserved. We were seated next to two very loud Ger­man men and knew this would not be a pleas­ant lunch so we got up and removed ourselves.

We walked up to the vil­lage and found a very pleas­ant place to eat, Oste­ria di Val­paia,with quiet ter­race seating—this was more like it! I had a dish of sautéed chicken breast with mush­rooms and olives in a lovely wine-based sauce.

Vicki had an excel­lent plate of ravi­oli and we also had a two con­torno, won­der­ful vegetables—zucchini, red onions, car­rots— that were lightly grilled to retain some of their crisp­ness, and I couldn’t resist a bowl of deli­cious sautéed potatoes.

After lunch we walked around the vil­lage, which has a win­ery right in the mid­dle of what looks like res­i­dences. There was a lovely view of the from the north­ern wall and a got a great pho­to­graph of a house sur­rounded by trees in a myr­iad of fall colors.

View Larger Map

This week­end Vicki and I went down to the Big Game, Cal vs. Stan­ford. On the way down we made our favorite mid-point stop at the Flour Gar­den Bak­ery in Auburn, CA where we bought sand­wiches and cook­ies to eat at the game. I got a mar­velous black for­est ham on foc­ca­cia and Vicki, chicken salad—a good alter­na­tive to game food.

After a sat­is­fy­ing game that saw Cal win, 36–16, we checked in at our hotel, Mar­riott Court­yard, at the Oak­land air­port. We had a nice big room with two queen beds—Vicki thought it looked like it was brand new, though accord­ing to Trav­e­loc­ity it was built in 2001. We were tired and for din­ner were eye­ing Yoshino, a Japan­ese restau­rant across the street from the hotel; no dri­ving. We ral­lied, how­ever, and got back in the car for a fifteen-minute drive to Sahn Maru restau­rant on Tele­graph Avenue in Oakland.

SAHN MARU

Located in north Oakland’s Temescal area in the Korean dis­trict, Sahn Maru is one of the out­stand­ing Korean restau­rants in this area. We entered a well lit room that was about a quar­ter full of din­ers and were imme­di­ately greeted and let to our table. The atmos­phere was large and open, the walls on one side dec­o­rated with beau­ti­ful Korean art­work. The tables are very unique, the tops con­sist­ing of a sin­gle piece wood, cross cut from a large pine log.

We started with Duk Bok Gi, a sauteed rice cake served with a sauce of soy and scallions—delicious! We’d been led to Sahn Maru by a short review in Oak­land Mag­a­zine, which touted its Black Goat Stew, Heuk Yum So Tang, so I ordered that for my main course. It came in a bowl with sesame leaves and a mus­tard and bean paste broth, and a sesame, mus­tard, and chili dip­ping sauce. The meat was excel­lent, ten­der and fla­vor­ful, really great with the sauce. Vicki chose braised pork with sweet pota­toes and dates and it was also out­stand­ing. It takes a lit­tle get­ting used to pick­ing the pork off the bones, but the fla­vor of the pork with the sweet pota­toes was excellent.

Black Goat Stew

As always, our meal came with ban­chan, those lit­tle side dishes. Here’s what we had:

Kim­chi, sweet­ened yams, mar­i­nated bean sprouts, sauteed spinach, anchovies, pick­led radishes, broc­coli, tofu.

By the time we left, about eight, the place was pretty full. It was gen­er­ally a young crowd and most of the din­ers were asian, with a sprin­kling of ang­los. Every­one was enjoy­ing themselves.

Sahn Maru has excep­tional food and a great atmos­phere, it’s a great part of the East Bay restau­rant scene.

Sahn Maru. 4315 Tele­graph Ave. Oak­land, CA 94701. (510)653‑3366.

Last Octo­ber, my son Matt and I ate at an awe­some Korean restau­rant in Oak­land after a Cal foot­ball game. Sura is located in Oakland’s Temescal Dis­trict (4869 Tele­graph Ave, Oak­land, CA 94609) an area where there are many eth­nic restau­rants. We entered an ele­gant din­ing room, which was very open, airy, and filled with Asians. As we walked by a table occu­pied by two din­ers, I couldn’t believe the num­ber of ban­chan side dishes that were in front of them. We sat down and were imme­di­ately brought a bowl of Korean egg whites, which was tasty, but not like what was to come.

The menu is sub­stan­tial and fea­tures many inter­est­ing tra­di­tional Korean dishes, most of which I’m not famil­iar with. Matt was born in Korea and has eaten at many good Korean restau­rants so he was able to explain a few things. We set­tled on the all-you-can-eat bar­beque, which fea­tured beef, chicken, and pork belly. Each table has a dome-shaped cooker that is heated by a gas flame under­neath it. The meat is cooked on this dome until it siz­zles and is done. 

The drill is to place the meat on the grill in the mid­dle of the table with tongs, then turn it and cut it into more man­age­able pieces with the scis­sors you are given. When the meat is done it is placed in a piece of let­tuce along with some gar­lic, jalapeno, and gochu­jang, rolled up and eaten—fantastic! All of the meat was great, but the pork belly was won­der­ful when just done—don’t let it cook too long! The thin pieces of beef and chicken were also superb; I ate until I was very full then watched Matt put away about twice the meat I had; poor, starv­ing, col­lege stu­dent! Together we did a pretty good job, though, there wasn’t much left. 

Ban­chan. Photo cour­tesy Shan­non I.

Sura is a won­der­ful restau­rant and I highly rec­om­mend it. A good indi­ca­tion of how good the food is was that it was filled with so many Asians—I imag­ine mostly Korean. Glanc­ing around the room after we sat down assured me that I was the only cau­casian in the restau­rant. All of the staff that helped us were very pleas­ant and we had a nice chat with our Korean host­ess who, it turns out, was born in the same Korean city as Matt, Jeonju City.

Sura is a very classy Korean restau­rant and a lit­tle pricier than most oth­ers I’ve been to, but the food is worth it and I’m look­ing for­ward to going back very soon.

Sura. 4869 Tele­graph Ave. Oak­land, CA 94620.
(510) 654‑9292

Vicki and I were excited about going to din­ner at Sezmu last evening. It’s received a num­ber of rave reviews and best of all, it is only two blocks from our house! When I first moved to the neigh­bor­hood the spot where Sezmu now resides was occu­pied by the Great Har­vest Bread Com­pany, renowned through­out Reno for its freshly baked bread. Then about two years ago they moved to Plumb­gate, a yup­pie lit­tle shop­ping cen­ter at Plumb Lane and Arling­ton Ave. Next came Bec’s, a frozen cus­tard place that didn’t last very long. About six months ago I noticed there was a sign in the vacant spot indi­cat­ing that a restau­rant was going to open there. Finally, in Novem­ber I drove by in the early evening and saw peo­ple eat­ing at small tables—Sezmu had finally arrived!

Sezmu is on the east side of a fairly unat­trac­tive build­ing on Mt. Rose Street. It’s a small space, but they’ve done a great job with the fur­nish­ings and décor. The west wall is cov­ered with large fab­ric squares lit from below with lights embed­ded in the top of the long ban­quette. The remain­der of the walls are the orig­i­nal red brick with win­dows all around and a high beam ceil­ing. Seat­ing is at small tables along the two walls, along with bar seat­ing on the oppo­site side and two tall tables near the kitchen.

The three-tiered menu is not huge, but is cer­tainly inno­v­a­tive and wide-ranging. The wine list is exten­sive and var­ied with both inex­pen­sive and more pricey bottles—we chose a nice sauvi­gnon blanc from New Zealand, which we enjoyed with the fresh home-baked bread.

The first menu tier con­sists of sev­eral small bites includ­ing house mar­i­nated olives, sweet potato chips, and almond stuffed dates with bacon bits. The is fol­lowed by a num­ber of small plate appe­tiz­ers. We started with crispy fried cala­mari on a bed of pick­led veg­eta­bles. It was wonderful—perfectly crisp cala­mari that went well with the unusual Thai basil sauce and the spicy/tangy veg­eta­bles. Next came the Beet Study, beets pre­sented in three dif­fer­ent ways—all of which show off the vegetable’s fab­u­lous fla­vor. Finally, seared diver scal­lops with cau­li­flower puree, red curry, and almond-raisin salad. This was heaven, beau­ti­fully cooked scal­lops, with inspired accom­pa­ni­ments. We both agreed that these were the best scal­lops we’ve ever had.

We decided to split an entrée and set­tled on the pork chop that comes with parsnip-pear puree, chard, and orange gas­trique. This was a pork chop to make you com­pletely rethink any pre­vi­ous ideas you may have had about pork: it was full of fla­vor, moist, and delight­ful with the veg­eta­bles that lay under­neath. Other entrees on the menu included beef, fish, lamb, chicken and pasta—all very inno­v­a­tively pre­pared, with a true pas­sion for the food itself. Dessert con­sisted of a ru-laced crème brulee, gin­ger­snaps, and roasted pineap­ple. Accom­pa­nied, of course with a cou­ple of espressos.

The ser­vice too was out­stand­ing; our server was help­ful, knowl­edge­able, and even found time to stand and chat with us. The food came quickly, but not too … and there was always some­one there when we needed some­thing. The seat­ing is cozy, which enabled us to have a won­der­ful con­ver­sa­tion with the two cou­ples seated next to us—longtime Reno res­i­dents who were also thor­oughly enjoy­ing their meal.

The chef/owners of Sezmu are the hus­band and wife duo of Larry Dun­ning and Kristi Hoff­man. Dun­ning is the for­mer owner/chef of Truf­fula in Tahoe City and exec­u­tive chef at Squaw Valley’s Plump­jack Café and the West­side Café in Tahoe City. Evi­dently, Chef Troy and Coleen Can­nan, the own­ers of LuLou’s Restau­rant, wanted to get Larry and Kristi to Reno so they helped them find the Mt. Rose Street location.

Sezmu is just what Reno needs; cre­atively pre­pared food with an empha­sis on fresh­ness and the use of organic ingre­di­ents, pre­sented in an out­stand­ing man­ner. Its menu gives the diner an oppor­tu­nity to eat a vari­ety of light plates or have a more sub­stan­tial entrée. It’s every­thing that an inno­v­a­tive upscale neigh­bor­hood restau­rant should be. By the way, the name Sezmu comes from that of the Egypt­ian deity of wine and oil presses.

670 Mount Rose St. Reno
327‑4448