The executive chef of the Tavern at Lark Creek has a few spring developments. His wife, Sadie, gave birth two months ago to Evan Wright. Besides his new fatherly duties, he still hits the Marin Farmers market every Thursday. “All the produce coming into the market really inspires me. I’ve added a shaved vegetable salad — what could be more a harbinger of spring,” he explains. After he saw the short-season green garlic in the market, he decided to feature it in a lentil soup also enhanced with fennel and thyme. Shaved Spring Vegetable Salad (serves 4 people) Jumbo Asparagus, shaved length …
Chef Sean Canavan is leaving Left Bank Brasserie, Larkspur after two and half years, after service on May 8 to open the new Bluestem Brasserie in San Francisco. Thomas Bunker, chief operating officer of Left Bank, says there are three likely candidates to succeed Canavan, one from the Bay Area. Stay tuned. Lifehouse’sGreat Chefs & Wineries celebratory black tie gala fundraiser in support of people with developmental disabilities is slated for Saturday at Fireman’s Fund in Novato. A few tickets are still available. Last year $350,000 was raised from this event. The dinner dance is preceded …
When Steve Vinchini sits down, at the piano bar in Marin Joe’s lounge he has some friends with him. No, not the customers, although it's clear he is well liked. His pals are Frank, Dean, Andy and Tony, as in Bennett. Born in Petaluma into an Italian-American family, Vinchini grew up in Occidental. Today, he lives in Petaluma. When he was 21, he began playing piano, with a country western band, the Northlanders, at his uncle’s bar in El Cerrito, the It Club. In those days, his friends were more likely to be Johnny Cash, than Johnny Mathis. Vinchini, 58, a stocky man with wavy, thick hair and …
In Corte Madera, chef Scott Howard of Brick & Bottle, who lives in Novato, is very enthusiastic about the cooking of Ed Vigil at Vin Antico Urban Trattoria in San Rafael. “It’s my favorite place,” he exclaims. He also likes Charlie Hong Kong in Mill Valley, where they prepare organic, healthy Asian street food, including brown rice bowls, pad Thai. “The other night my daughter had a pizza at Boca Pizzeria and I had a bruschetta with grilled eggplant and the beet salad. Everything was very good,” says Howard. Yucatan-born Miguel Pascual has been the chef at Ristorante Fabrizio in Larkspur for …
Several years ago, the owner of the shopping center that housed Corbet’s Ace Hardware for 54 years, told the Corbets he was going to sell the property. Since then the popular hardware store has moved farther down Magnolia Avenue, leaving the space empty. How has that affected nearby businesses? Suzanne McGoldrick, owner of Table Café since 2004, says the loss of an anchor tenant like Corbet’s has not been good. “People would shop there and then stop by here,” she explains. “The shopping center used to be called 'Where Corbet’s is,' now it’s 'the dead zone.' ” But McGoldrick is not sitting on …
If there is one thing that sets Marin chefs and San Francisco chefs apart, it is how and where they source the ingredients they use in their food. It would be rare to find a San Francisco chef going regularly to the farmers market for vegetables. But in Marin, two local chefs trek to the Thursday and Sunday markets on a regular basis. Chef Aaron Wright, of the Tavern at Lark Creek, lives in Sonoma with his wife, Sadie, who is expecting their first child and worked in Larkspur. A California native, he cooked at several high profile restaurants in Seattle before cooking in Calistoga, then the …
Like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day is big business for restaurants. Chefs stress over their menus and weeks before the big day – this year it’s the big weekend, because the sweetheart’s holiday falls on a Monday – restaurant reservationists are plinking away at their terminals. But unlike many other (legal) holidays, the day for lovers or at the very least heart-shaped boxes stuffed with chocolates, is not a break from work. Unless a recipient gets stood up on the big day and eats the whole box of chocolates, and then there is the possibility of Marin General drama. In any case, phones are …
An ex-boy friend once said, “No matter where we go, dinner is $120.” That probably was an exaggeration, but dining out with appetizers hovering around $12, entrees near $20 and dessert $10 and a modest bottle of wine running $35, the tab could easily hit $120 with the tax and tip. Now, imagine cocktails discounted, beer at 1980 prices and appetizer-sized plates for around $5 or $6. To take advantage of the Happy Hours in Larkspur and Corte Madera, diners have to be willing to dine early and usually only at the bar. One or two establishments are also offering discount food late, in order to …
Chef Sean Canavan of Left Bank restaurant, Chef Bruce Hill of Restaurant Picco, Pizzeria Picco, all in Larkspur and Zero Zero restaurant in San Francisco, plus Chef Scott Howard of Brick & Bottle in Corte Madera all shared their plans for 2011 with Patch. “Early in 2010, our executive chef, Roland Passot urged each individual chef of the Left Bank restaurant group to create their own menu within the French brasserie theme. This was so each store could be more in tune with their location and the demographics of each,” explains Canavan. He went on to say that there is a difference between the …
Folks not staying home to watch the famous New Year's Eve Ball descend from the flagpole atop One Times Square, can have some good vittles and fun in Corte Madera or Larkspur restaurants. Both the Tavern at Lark Creek and Left Bank Brasserie in Larkspur have special multi-course menus. At the Tavern the 3-course menu for $59, with many choices, includes a chicken saltimbocca and a New York steak. Dinner will be served from 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. The bar will be open maybe until 12. At Left Bank, Chef Sean Canavan has created a 4-course menu priced at $62, served from 4 p.m.-11 p.m. The bar will …
