The Burlingame Voice

B'game Rating: #38

The wizards at the San Francisco magazine have rated all 101 cities and towns in the Bay Area and we came out at number 38.  By combining scores for Education, Diversity, Health, Transit, Affordability, Public Safety, Culture and their own fudge factor "Editors' Rank", they arrive at Albany being the best place to live in the Bay Area.  Six years ago we were labelled as a sort of Utopia by the same magazine, so let's dig in a bit deeper.  Here are the scores

I get the good scores for Education and Transit.  Our public schools are quite good in spite of occasional issues with administrators at BIS and BHS and there are a lot of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher.  I also get how we land near the bottom in Affordability since we have always been an expensive place to live--it is more a result of the other criteria than an input on its own.  But how is B'game in the bottom half on Health?  They use physicians per capita, air quality scores and percentage of residents without health insurance.  With a major hospital in town and doctor's offices surrounding it, we must rate pretty high on the first one.  I hear at the meetings on the SFO runway noise that some residents also smell jet fuel fumes, but I doubt our air quality is below the median.

The real head-scratchers are Public Safety on the downside and Culture on the upside.  B'game has recently returned to "full strength" with 40 sworn officers and crime rates (aside from car break-ins mostly at Bayfront hotels) are pretty low.  Oakland ranked just ahead of us at 57!  And they do mean Oakland, California!!  There must be some spreadsheet error somewhere at the magazine.

I also cannot fathom how we got to number 15 in the whole Bay Area on Culture when the critieria are artistic venues per capita (we've got none other than the tiny art museum on the north end), the number of residents who list their occupation as "artist" (on Open Studio weekends we have a couple), and liquor licenses per capita.  I guess if one considers drinking with muzak playing "culture" we do OK.  While #38 isn't bad, I can't take much heart in the overall subjective nature of it all.  You won't catch many B'gamers moving to Colma (#18) or Pacifica (#22) or Belmont (#24).  I bet we just stay put.   
 

Drive-in Reality on the Bayfront

I suppose it is appropriate that the old Burlingame Drive-in, home to many a night of virtual reality viewing through car windshields, would become the home of the Facebook Oculus virtual reality (VR) business unit.  The Daily Journal is following up on the SF Business Times' piece and television newscasts with a story today about the proposed lease

Mayor Michael Brownrigg expressed his enthusiasm over the social media titan’s announcement.  “No more ‘Boring-game,’” declared Brownrigg, who said the decision is further indication of the city’s viability as a hub of industry.

Under terms of the agreement approved by the commission, Facebook will be the sole occupant of the 767,000 square feet to be spread across two five-story buildings, one seven-story building, one eight-story building and a two-story amenities building.

Furthering that transformation will be other developments in the area east of Highway 101, where adjacent to that site, interest has been expressed in developing property owned by the State Lands Commission into a hotel. North of the proposed site, sports entertainment enterprise Topgolf is slated to move into the city’s driving range.

A proposal has also been filed to build the SFO Technology Center, slated to house more than 239,000 square feet of office space, about 11,000 square feet for a restaurant and more than 8,000 square feet of retail space at the former Hyatt Cinema site.

You should click through to read the fine print about traffic and the usual platitudes about "alternative modes of transportation".  Pardon me for not being quite so enthusiastic about a million plus new square feet of Bayfront development without a traffic plan already in place.  And exactly what are the alternatives?  The Broadway overpass is done and functional at the current load, but probably not much more.  Any Anza access is years away.  Facebook better try to put a pier in for ferry service!

Flights Takes Off on the Avenew

The corner of B'game Avenue and California across from the train station is a very visible, very desirable spot for any business.  With Limon on one side and the new Flights on the other, visitors are immediately offered some good choices to eat, drink and socialize as they get into downtown.  Flights follows in the jetstream of Nathan's, Cafe Marimba, Left at Albuquerque and most recently Straits as the corner location of the Ave's dining scene.  It is the third establishment by the owners after a very successful introduction in Campbell and a sister restaurant in Los Gatos.  They also have a signed lease on Castro St. in Mountain View so this concept restaurant will be familiar to some out of towners.

After dining there twice I can imagine it will have a good run on the Avenew with a refreshed bar area (they took down the wall that blocked the view of the train station as shown below--a great move).  There is a cool airplane hanging from the ceiling that has a back story of being Pablo Escobar's drug running plane before it was captured.  With the staff in flight attendant attire and a call button on each table and team service, the scene is set for something a little different.  All food and drink comes in "flights" of three--three sliders, three glasses of sauvignon blanc, three manhattans, three shrimp dishes--you get the idea.  It's not trying to compete with Parc & Howard, for example, on the wine list or Ecco on the food.  It's geared for fun and sharing and watching sports on TV while being in the center of the action.  Welcome to B'game!

A Bit of Music on Our Quiet Avenue

The lack of entertainment on the Avenue continues to plague our otherwise vibrant downtown.  We have no lack of eateries and we seem to be able to attract bakeries even when the newest one (Panotiq) barely lasted three months--Dynora is coming soon.  But without any regular clubs or bars hosting frequent music, we have to get out and support those that offer something for the ears.  I was pleased to hear the semi-regular Thursday night gig at Barracuda with Sam Peoples on keys and Lynne Billig singing.  They were joined by guitarist Michael Sims from L.A. to provide a but of music for our entertainment drought-stricken Avenue.  Lynne told me they would be on the Avenue proper busking under the pergola next month.  In meantime, wouldn't it be great if the City put one-one hundredth of the effort on development to include some entertainment development?

Here's the Thursday night band.

Ecco's Star Server Departs

Ecco is a stalwart survivor in the tumultuous B'game restaurant scene.  Some might find it a bit too traditional, but plenty of us think it is the go-to stop for a great meal and great service.  Chef/owner Turaj has turned out a well-balanced menu with consistent quality for decades--and that is saying something these days.  A key part of my dining experiences there has been waiter extraordinaire Paul Carrere.  Paul has the perfect balance of familiarity and distance that makes dining a pleasure.  He knows it.  I know it.  For the first time on Tuesday night we talked about it so we both know the other knows it.  The reason to talk was Tuesday night was his last night at Ecco after 17 years.  Paul and his wife are moving to Las Vegas and I have to wish him well, but with a wistful smile that a piece of old B'game is going with him.  Ciao and arrivederci, Paolo.

More Coffee and Juice, Really?

The most fun thing about gathering items for the Voice are the man-on-the-street conversations that occur when people see me taking pictures of seemingly mundane things.  That happened last night as I was taking this photo of the sign announcing the arrival of Joe & The Juice at the former Plant location on the Avenew.  Last night's woman-on-the-street version went like this

"Ugh.  Don't we have enough of these kind of places already?  Why can't they put a great restaurant in there instead?"

As much as I like the name, I just nodded my head, said "Really!" and thought it probably won't even last as long as the Plant did.  We'll see.

And there is still no regular entertainment venue anywhere in sight..............
 

Dining Bookends: Millbrae and San Mateo

The foodie news this week was the release of Michelin's 2018 Bib Gourmand winners.  The Bib is the "affordable" level below the first Michelin star--"affordable" being in the eyes of the diners.  Michelin puts it at or below 40 bucks a head before tax and tip.  B'game has previously had a starred restaurant in Rasa as I noted here and it appears to be still going strong.  But this time around we got shut out of the Bib.

Millbrae has two-- Wonderful and new entrant Royal Feast.  San Mateo picked up one as Pausa on E. Fourth Ave. got the nod.  I've eaten at Pausa twice and can verify that not only is the food excellent, but owner Steve Ugur has assembled a lovely Italian wine list and knows his stuff.

It's been a common complaint over the years that B'game plays second fiddle in the fine dining arena.  Maybe it's the rents on the Avenew.  Maybe it's the reluctance to move off the Ave., although the new Park & Howard Bistro is getting some good reviews (I haven't been yet).  I love eating in B'game, but it has been more tempting to turn south on El Camino lately.

Opening the Asian Box

It looks like Asian Box is finally open.  I noted that The Melt closed down around April 19th of 2016-- nine months ago.  I'll never understand what takes so long to switch from one type of pretty simple restaurant to another.  Here is the sign indicating today's and tomorrow's sales are going to a really good cause.  See you there.

 

Whither Panotiq?

Things have been pretty heavy lately with the incursion of a bunch of too-big developments, a ridiculously expensive and socialistic Measure R and an overarching feeling that the country is going in the wrong direction.  So let's lighten up just a bit and ask, "When is Panotiq actually going to show up on the Ave?"  This sign is getting to be a joke and with that pricey real estate, the joke must be on some poor soul.

I could ask the same about a couple of other restaurants-going-into-spaces-that-were-already-restaurants, but Panotiq is at the top of the delayed list right now.

Dining out Loud

We follow the local dining scene pretty closely since it is so volatile and drives other city policies like permits, parking and traffic.  Dining out last night in San Mateo at 31st Union, we ran into a group of B'gamers who had also ventured into downtown San Mateo.  The food at 31st Union was great and I was pleased to see they had Burlingame Il Piccolo coffee on the menu.  I commented to my dining partner that all was good except the noise level which I found troublesome.

My partner said "You should hear Limon's noise level!".  As we walked out of the restaurant the other B'gamers were leaving too.  Comparing notes, I commented on the noise and one of ladies in the other party said "You should hear the noise at Limon!".  It might be time for both restaurants to add some softening wall covering, perhaps a rug or two on the concrete floors or more acoustic tiles.  I would love to patronize both places regularly--but it might have to be mid-week only.  Limon did a nice job opening up the space where Kabul used to be.  Here is a photo of their soft opening last month.  Check 'em out.