When it rains, it pours. After many months of hype and multiple readings of opening day tea leaves, three hotly anticipated restaurants are launching within days of each other in downtown Walnut Creek. It’s a serendipitous culinary bonanza in Contra Costa’s dining core, one that may leave local diners dizzy deciding what to hit first. So, without further ado, here’s the breakdown on the debut trio.
Marufuku Ramen:
This San Francisco-founded cult ramen chain has been stretching its fried octopus tentacles east, starting with Oakland’s Temescal district and followed by a new shop in Dublin’s Ulfert’s Center opened earlier this year. Now comes Walnut Creek, which officially launches for lunch and dinner this Wednesday, May 27. The food menu will be familiar to that at other locations, the headliner being Marufuku’s Hakata-style pork tonkotsu and chicken paitan ramens featuring richly flavored, long-simmered broths.
The ramen is complemented by yakitori skewers and a variety of starters such as takoyaki, chicken karaage, and gyoza. Unlike several other locations, Walnut Creek has a full bar with signature cocktails emphasizing Asian flavors alongside imported beer, premium sake—look out for the popular rainbow sodas served in illuminated transparent pouches introduced at the Oakland location last year. The former Extreme Pizza venue on Cypress Street underwent a comprehensive contemporary Japanese transformation that includes a bamboo-lined back patio and dramatic front signage lettered on a large slab of cross-sectioned tree trunk over the entrance.
Doppio Zero:
The San Francisco-born upscale-casual southern Italian restaurant chain started its expansion plans in the South Bay but has set its sights on the East Bay in recent years. That started with a successful location in Concord’s Veranda shopping center and continues with its move to take over the high-profile North Main Street vacancy previously occupied by Nora Haron’s SanDai and for four-plus decades before that by Peter Chastain’s beloved Prima Ristorante.
Making its debut Wednesday evening with free pizza, pasta, wine, and live music, from 6-8:30 p.m., Doppio certainly shares more of Prima’s culinary DNA with a focus on fresh pastas and authentic wood oven–fired Neapolitan pizzas, plus classic Italian starters, salads, mains, desserts, and a full bar. You can check out the opening menu and a behind-the-scenes tour of the newly renovated space from co-owner Gianni Chilorio.
It’s a proven formula from a restaurant group accustomed to operating in large-scale suburban settings, which should help the new owners successfully fill what is a big, high-profile vacancy downtown. And Doppio Zero isn’t done yet in the East Bay: the restaurant group confirmed plans to open another big outpost in downtown Livermore. Opening ETA still TBD.
Mensho:
Last but not least, another hot ramen shop opened softly this Sunday next door to Doppio Zero—and business was brisk with lines stretching down North Main Street. Started by Japanese ramen master Tomoharu Shono, Mensho also first made waves locally in San Francisco before expanding to Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue a few years ago.
Shono is known for incorporating more unorthodox ingredients—duck, seafood, matcha tea, spicy garlic—not typically seen in ramen, in addition to offering several vegan options. That holds true in Walnut Creek, which received a cozy modern-Japanese transformation from its previous incarnation as The Essence Indian restaurant. One especially notable inclusion on the opening day menu in Walnut Creek: lobster miso ramen with grilled lobster tail and claw, smoked nuts, whipped butter, and fresh mochi noodles. Other ramen highlights include wagyu truffle shoyu, spiced lamb G.K.O. (garlic knockout), and a vegan walnut tantanmen. Sushi, “don” rice bowls, a handful of starters, and beer and sake are also served.
New Details on Mixt Walnut Creek
Speaking of downtown, it marked something of a sea change when old-school Genova shuttered its last Walnut Creek deli earlier this year, followed shortly by the news that it would be replaced by new-school healthy salad-and-bowl concept Mixt. The co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco–based chain, Leslie Silverglide, revealed a few details to Dish about plans for their newest East Bay restaurant. Firstly, Silverglide said they had been looking to open in Walnut Creek for 15 years before finally signing a lease for the corner location in the shopping center at the intersection of S. California and Mt. Diablo Boulevards.
Scheduled to open mid-July, Mixt Walnut Creek will offer “abundant” in-house and patio dining, along with pickup and delivery via its app. The debut summer menu, says Silverglide, will emphasize “fresh, sustainable ingredients” prepared “in-house from scratch” and include customer favorites such as the Peachy, Elote, and new Valkyries 2.0 salads and bowls.
Western Flyer Expanding Food Menu, Fire and Craft Nears Lafayette Opening
After successfully launching his new custom brewery and tap room earlier this year in Lafayette, Logan Jager says he is slowly ramping up operating hours and food offerings headed into the summer. Starting June 2, Western Flyer will be open on Tuesdays with the eventual goal to be open seven days a week. He will add lunch starting this Thursday serving steak, chicken tinga, carnitas, birria, and chile verde available in both taco and salad form, with seafood options coming soon.
In a similar beer-centric Lafayette vein, we heard from Aaron Steward on his long-planned craft beer and pizza concept located next to the Whole Foods off Mt. Diablo Boulevard. After navigating a “long highway of delays and pauses,” Steward says that Craft and Fire should be opening as soon as July with artisan pizza and a rotating selection of 28 craft beers with an emphasis on award-winning breweries.
Celebrate Lamorinda Wines this Sunday at Local Vines
This Sunday, Lamorinda’s homegrown winemaking community will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the region’s official designation as a distinct AVA winegrowing appellation. Happening at Lafayette’s new Local Vines tasting room dedicated to highlighting area wineries, the Lamorinda Wine Growers Association “AVAnniversary” will take place from noon to six and feature ten local wineries and one cider producer. Tickets are $25 and include five tastings and a commemorative wine glass, with nosh available via the Cousins Maine Lobster food truck.
Small Bites from Around the East Bay
- Oakland’s Joodooboo and Popoca (plus, former Emeryville Public Market vendor Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement) are among the inclusions in the Michelin Guide’s new crop of recommended restaurants in California.
- Yoko Kumano and Kayoko Akabori, founders of Oakland’s excellent sake-centric Japanese shop Umami Mart, just released Everyday Sake, a brand new guidebook for choosing, pairing, and serving sake.
- Dublin’s new Asian mega grocery store H Mart has been a hit, but not everyone is happy about it.
- Meanwhile, grocery store prices are still rising.
- Milky Flakes, the mysterious new downtown Walnut Creek concept coming to the corner of North Main and Cypress streets, is live on Instagram, posting a cryptic coming soon message with a blurred-out image that looks like ice cream.
- New frozen yogurt shop, Cuppa Yo, is now open in Danville.