The Burlingame Voice

Sunday Sweets

I finally got a taste of Salt & Straw ice cream, but I didn't walk over to the Avenew to get it.  On flights to and from Boston on Alaska Air, it was the dessert in First Class.  Chocolate on the way out was...just chocolate.  Returning with the Meyer Lemon Custard with Blueberry Jam seemed more in line with their claim to artisan ice cream, but it was nothing special.  What say you Voice readers?  I hear the new ownership at Preston's is knocking it out of the park.

 

The New Old Post Office is coming along

Now that the construction fencing is down around the new old Post Office, the renovations are starting to sparkle, especially at night.  I have it from a reliable source that the interior polishing is a good as what we see on the exterior.  It's been about two and a half years since groundbreaking which seems quick given how other project bog down.  Here's the old new door into what will be the new restaurant.

Parklets on the chopping block?

Parklets arrived in B'game about four years ago as we noted here.  They were a good idea at the time and helped keep some of our local eateries in business.  That was then, this is now as the city council moves to reign them in.  I don't think many people believed they would still be around four years later and that the $250 per month "cleaning fee" would be insufficient to actually keep the areas around the parklet clean.  That is just one issue.  The impact on street parking, visibility for safe driving (the Rocca parklet being exhibit A) and visibility for storefronts adjacent to the parklets are also drawing council attention.  I would add one more.  The businesses that didn't cover up the orange hydro barriers are contributing to the Make Burlingame Ugly Again (MBUA) trend along with cheesy plastic bollards, floppy crosswalk signs, perpetually empty newspaper boxes, signage overkill, et al.  Add you least favorite street detritus here _____________________.  The Daily Journal is reporting on the council meeting where all of this was discussed

Originally, the parklets were a vital function of maintaining restaurant business during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they’ve become overbearing for retailers who make important contributions to the city’s sales tax, Mayor Donna Colson said. 

“I don’t want to jeopardize our balance with hard businesses and restaurants, which are also fun, but are frankly destroying the [Avenue] right in front of the restaurants,” she said. “It’s pitch black, filthy, dirty, they’re not covering the cost, we can’t keep it clean. … I think it’s just a matter of balancing it.”  Currently, 30 parklets in the Burlingame Avenue downtown and the Broadway Commercial district are occupying 63 parking spaces, with 13 extending beyond their business frontages.

The proposed new rules will likely gut the program.

Under the draft ordinance, roofs, trellises and tent shade structures will not be allowed and structural elements will not be allowed to extend beyond the top of the walls to allow for better visibility to adjacent businesses. Curb gutters must be kept unobstructed and furnishings cannot be stored in the parklet when not in use.

Without roofs, the heaters will be much less effective on cold days and diners will be much warmer on sunny lunch hours.  Moving everything out and back in each day probably will motivate restaurants to pull the parklet plug.  We will know by October when the new rules kick in.  It's fun to see the DJ use Bgame in a headline though I prefer it with the apostrophe.

August 2024 Update:  The new rules went into effect at the end of July and many parklets have been removed.  The city notes that we are down to 14 active parklets complying with the new rules.  In other news, the FLiRT variant of Covid is increasing to seriously high levels in the Bay Area at this moment.  Here is a photo of a parklet being disassembled.

 

Jazz at the Grill

Broadway Grill continues to be a beacon of live jazz in B'game.  The Monday night jam at Max's Opera on the Bayfront hosted by KCSM DJ Chris Cortes is good too, but the Grill has much better food and ambiance.  Wednesday night saw recent Grammy winner Jamie Davis bring a swinging quartet to the restaurant.  That swelled to a sextet after another tenor sax player and trumpeter sat in for the second set and other notable guests took a turns at bass and guitar.

Davis is the vocalist for the Count Basie Orchestra which just won a Best Large Jazz Ensemble Grammy last month for their latest album.  Great stuff and you can't complain about the (non-existent) cover charge.  Check out the Grill's music calendar here.  Music is generally happening three nights a week or more.

Kuma Nori: Something special in a Burlingame strip mall

An SF Comicle food critic has once again drifted south to B'game for a Sunday section restaurant review.  They seem to like the downscale "strip mall" view of B'game's scene.  Back in November 2021 it was Soleil Ho reviewing Kaiseki in our one-and-only strip mall.  She (I think) has moved on to much more important woke reporting at the Chron, but Cesar Hernandez visited Kuma Nori several times and has written a balanced review:

Chad and Monica Kaneshiro are some of the most singular chefs cooking on the Bay Area’s Peninsula. I constantly fantasize about the plump garlic shrimp and salty-sweet fried chicken plates from Diamond Head General Store, the restaurateurs’ casual Hawaiian spot in San Bruno. I was sad to see their Hawaii-inspired brunch restaurant Morning Wood close because it had one of the best loco mocos I’ve ever had.

The good news is that the Kaneshiros are back with an intimate Japanese restaurant called Kuma Nori, located in a Burlingame strip mall. Refined comfort fare is the specialty at Kuma, which is loosely defined as a shokudo-style restaurant, a genre of casual hole-in-the-wall spots in Japan. If the categorization seems open-ended, that’s intentional; the chefs don’t want to be put in a box.

Decadent comfort with massive portions is where Kuma dazzles. The piquant mentaiko crab pasta ($35) was a masterful remix that tasted like a spicy vodka sauce swirled with shiso oil and umami-rich fish eggs. Those little beads of roe clung onto the spaghetti like sequins. The secret to achieving such flavor is a concentrated dashi in the sauce. 

You can click through to read further details on multiple dishes.  Kuma Nori doesn't take reservations and has 27 seats, so perhaps waiting a bit to let the Chron crowd visit would be wise.  Or pop up to San Bruno and check out the sister restaurant. 

ลาก่อน Narin Thai: 30 years of excellence

ลาก่อน is Thai for "goodbye".  As of tomorrow, that is what we will be saying to Martin and Crystal, owners of Narin Thai on Park Rd.  After thirty-plus years of excellent food, excellent service and excellent prices, they are retiring.  Narin is the quintessential Mom & Pop business.  Martin cooks and Crystal handles the front.  That's it--just the two of them for lunch and dinner six days a week for more than thirty years.

I can try to tally the number of Spicy Basil Chicken and Yellow Curry Prawn dishes I have had.  Thirty years is 1,500+ weeks--with weekly ordering, it's probably about 2,000 Spicy Basil Chickens, since I ordered two at a time.  I generally called ahead to see if the fantastic brown rice was available that day and if not; Crystal would whip it up for me.

ขอบคุณ Crystal and Martin--Thank you.  Truly a "Best of Burlingame" business.

Backhaus: Sweet introduction

According to the show of hands local realtor Raziel Ungar asked for at Friday's hosted event at Backhaus, I am one of the last people to clue into our newest bakery.  That's probably because most people are having lunch around the time I am finishing breakfast and from what I hear, Backhaus can be sold out by then.  Raziel is one of the most active realtors in town and loves to bring his clients together for events like movies and pie giveaways.  His latest event brought about 100 people to Backhaus for a talk and tasting with co-owner Anne Moser.

Anne gave us the story of how she and her husband Robert started baking at home, then moved to Kitchentown, onward to the B'game Farmer's Market and the CSM market, then to a space on 3rd Ave in San Mateo and now to a larger, more flexible space here at 261 California Dr.  The space was our first movie theater, George Roy's Photoplay that opened in 1913, according to Russ Cohen's article in this quarter's Burlingame Historical Society newsletter.

After extensive, and I mean really extensive, Q&A that Anne handled with ease, Raziel asked for a show of hands as to who had bought bread and pastries from Backhaus at each step of the journey.  When he finally asked for a show of hands as to who was a first-timer on Friday, I was in the tiny minority that raised their hands.  Raziel is a big supporter of Copenhagen as well and his annual pie event at Thanksgiving is a B'game tradition.  Baking sounds like an arduous task since each day starts at 3am so that the goods are ready for the 7:30 opening.  After tasting the Country Bread at the event, I may have to get up early to snag some.  Here's Raziel and Anne making the pitch.

Dine B'game: The old, the new and the future

It was a big week for Burlingame dining news starting with a nice piece in the Daily Journal about CJ's Deli celebrating 25 years of local sandwich making.  

CJ’s came under new management in 2017 when Gus Kiniris — a longtime restaurateur and manager at community staple Westlake Original Joe’s — purchased the shop from its original owners, the Winters family.  After purchasing the establishment, Kiniris slimmed the menu down to streamline the ordering process — but retained the well-loved staples.

“There were 60 items. Guests would walk in, first-timers … and [get] kind of overwhelmed by the menu,” he said. “So I changed the menu a little while back, dropped it down to about 15 signature items, the top items that have sold over the last 20 years.

And CJ's has been holding the line on prices--$9.99 and $10.99.  That's rare and gratifying to see.  Next up was the opening of Backhaus--not to be confused with someone's ADU.  The first location in San Mateo has been getting rave reviews for some time, and this piece in the DJ describes the addition of the new B'game location last Tuesday.  In addition to baked goods, breakfast will be served on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  CEO Anne Moser noted

“When we found this space, we decided if we move our pastry team over here, we then have space still for a kitchen to do the sit-down food for people that we want to do, and then our bread team can take over the other location,” Moser said. “So we still bake everything and make everything within our two locations.”

The new storefront building has a long history in the community, originally as Burlingame’s first movie theater, and the Backhaus team is excited to “bring new life to the space” for the Bay Area community.

I have heard the "first movie theater" claim before, but I think it needs more research.  Neither my 1928 nor 1941 city directories list the address, but by 1952 it was The Tropics cocktail lounge.  The Peninsula (later Fox) Theater on the Avenew opened in 1926.  Early in my time in the Bay Area (which started in 1981) the Backhaus building was Route 66 which I really miss.  Here is a fun blast-from-the-past out of the DJ archives.  I'm glad to see it put to good use now.

Continuing on into the future, the talk of a new, upscale restaurant in the partially preserved Old Post Office was confirmed by a press release from the developers, Dostart and Sares Regis, this week. Bacchus Management Group have signed a lease for the historic space that was the classic PO lobby.  Bacchus operates Spruce, Selby's and the Village Pub so expectations are running high for the yet-to-be-named B'game operation.  We are just past two years into construction as noted here.  The lease is for 8,000 square feet, but I was unable to get an estimate of how many indoor and outdoor seats that will translate into.  Rendering are getting better every year--check out how realistic this one is from Dostart!  The marble walls are accurate and notice the outdoor seating!

Filling up at Twelvemonth

The makeover of the historic Steelhead Brewery space (once an early tire shop as part of B'game's Auto Row) has captivated locals' interest for more than a year.  We watched the patio take shape last June here.  I finally got around to checking out the new restaurant, Twelvemonth, with my regular dinner companion.  It's a huge space and has been very tastefully redone, especially the new bar with windows out to the patio and Lorton Ave.  The bar feels like an indoor/outdoor space even though it is not, and the mix of seating and soft drums and bass background makes for a very relaxing vibe.  There's a great cocktail list while the wine list is a work-in-progress with a Central Coast core.  Naturally, I went BYOB and corkage was a reasonable $20.

As a certified seafood lover and no stranger to beef, lamb, pork, etc I am pleased to report that my main concern about going to a vegan restaurant was resolved.  With the house salad, the mushrooms (the night's winner) and two other plates, the two of us were satisfied.  No doggie bag, but no regrets either.  On the plus side, restaurants with meat and seafood on the menu have had to deal with the effects of the Inflation Production Act and we are seeing entrees moving past $40 into the $50 range in town.  Not at Twelvemonth.  In an era when the term itself is confusing, I would call it "affordable".

The main dining space has been fully refreshed with a new ceiling, lights, etc.  The row of two-tops in front of the kitchen are a bit tight which is odd given how much space there is overall.  The hard surfaces make for a noisy meal and the staff is still settling in, but the restaurant looks like it will be around for a while and the bar/patio is likely to be a go-to spot for our long outdoor season.  Here's the bar.

 

Retro Cool Ice Cream in B'game

Mercury News reporters Linda Zavoral and Jessica Yadegaran put on some miles (and possibly some pounds) while building a list of the 10 beloved Bay Area ice cream shops, from the classic to the eclectic.  From Orinda and Pleasanton to San Jose to B'game where they noted Preston's celebrated its 75th anniversary last year:

RETRO COOL: Preston’s Candy & Ice Cream, Burlingame

The vintage signs outside and the checkerboard floor inside are reason enough to put Preston’s on any list of beloved ice cream parlors. It’s a look that transports you to yesteryear. New owner Javier Santiago, a career chocolatier, bought the iconic shop recently from longtime owner Irene Preston and vowed to keep making her customers’ nostalgic favorites — honeycomb, peanut brittle, pecan turtles — while making a name for himself with his contemporary chocolate bars under the Javier Confectionery brand.

Santiago is also keeping the ice cream tradition alive. The shop scoops 20 to 30 flavors of Loard’s ice cream ($4.95 for a small cone or cup, $5.95 medium), and he’s making the often-requested Presti Bars ($5.65), ice cream sandwiched between two freshly baked cookies and covered in chocolate. The bars come in several flavors, including vanilla, burgundy cherry and espresso.

The scoop: The top seller is the Mint Chip ice cream, and it’s easy to see why. Preston’s makes the mint chocolate candy, then Loard’s uses that to create this custom flavor for Preston’s.

My first paycheck job was at Friendly's where I was a short order cook, washed dishes, mowed the lawn and, yes, scooped a lot of ice cream.  Black raspberry was my favorite.  I'll have to stop into Preston's and see if they have some!  Kudos to Javier on a nice press hit.