Goop Kitchen Comes to the East Bay

Gwyneth Paltrow’s clean-living ethos is now available for delivery in the East Bay. Goop Kitchen, the take-out meal component of the Oscar-winning actress’s wellness and lifestyle brand, is now operating out of Oakland shared-kitchen operation Adeline Food Hall (although the company is advertising it as “Berkeley”). Available for pickup and delivery in Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville, all items on the Goop menu are made without gluten, seed oils, processed additives, refined sugars, or corn. Additional Bay Area locations have opened in San Jose, Sunnyvale, and San Francisco, where a sit-down restaurant is also in the works.

Rancho Cantina Inches Closer in Downtown Danville

Rancho Cantina’s new Danville location could be open by the end of the month. At least that’s the goal for owner Nico Tzikas, who told Dish he’d love to open by the Fourth of July, a big day in the city’s downtown. The Danville resident, who owns Rancho Cantina in Lafayette with his wife, Alice, is taking over another Mexican concept, Cocina Hermanas, which shuttered earlier this year. He says he’s just waiting for final approval from the fire inspector, a process complicated by the fact that, as in Lafayette, the Danville kitchen will be centered on a wood-fired grill. About twice the size of the Lafayette location, Rancho Danville will feature a similar menu of ranch-to-table dishes “inspired by the original table fare of the Golden State’s Spanish and Mexican Californios” and an expanded bar highlighting tequila and mezcal cocktails.

Divan Opening Soon on Berkeley’s Fourth Street

Also expected to open by the end of the month is Divan. Serkan Sozen told Dish that he and his partners’ new modern Turkish concept is on pace to debut in mid-to late June on Berkeley’s Fourth Street. Sozen co-owns the high-end Turkish restaurant Taksim in San Francisco’s SoMa district, along with hit Mediterranean brunch spot Lokma in the Richmond District. The team has completely transformed the space adjacent to Tacubaya with an upscale contemporary rebuild featuring an open kitchen, a full bar, and a covered outdoor patio. Check out renderings here.

Beloved Chef Sarah Kirnon Popping Back Up in Oakland

A familiar friend is back in town. Sarah Kirnon, who departed for her family’s native Barbados last year after a decade spent running her famed Afro-Caribbean destination Miss Ollie’s in Oakland, is hosting a pop-up dinner on Saturday, June 20. Holder’s House, the pop-up concept that Kirnon operated before moving out of the country, will serve a $125 five-course prix fixe dinner at Gold Palm. The Uptown venue shuttered as a full-time restaurant earlier this year, but owners Shirin Raza and Daniel Gahr have kept the beautiful historic venue open for private events. That prix fixe price includes a welcome cocktail, a glass of wine with dinner, and a digestif with dessert—and Kirnon’s famed fried chicken is promised to be among the five courses.

More Openings on the Way in Lafayette and Antioch

A reading of the Instagram tea leaves suggests that Mt. Diablo BBQ will be opening soon in Lafayette. The barbecue restaurant replacing the shuttered Horn Barbecue on Mt. Diablo Boulevard has fired up its social media presence, with the latest post featuring a sign that reads “It’s BBQ Time!” From the Ingram family, the veteran restaurant clan behind a string of barbecue restaurants in the South Bay and Central Coast, Mt. Diablo promises to be open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving low-and-slow-smoked brisket, ribs, tri-tip, chicken, and more.

And over in Antioch, the gone-but-not-forgotten Mac’s Old House appears to be on pace for a midsummer relaunch. The old-school roadhouse, known for its affordable Italian family-style meals headlined by a sub-$20 prime rib dinner served with soup, salad, bread, pasta, and veggies, closed late last June. The new owners, however, are renovating Mac’s 100-plus-year-old home and revealed in a comment on the restaurant’s Instagram that they plan to reopen in “early July.”

Small Bites from Around the East Bay

• Sip, savor, and stroll your way through downtown Walnut Creek at Thursday’s annual Walnut Creek Uncorked event.
• Rumors are swirling that beloved Walnut Creek sandwich shop Morucci’s is opening a new location in Pleasant Hill. Dish is on the case.
• Sample a Stag Hill Chardonnay Brown Butter Strawberry Swirl ice cream at Lottie’s Creamery, the second sweet collaboration between the award-winning creamery and Local Vines that highlights Lamorinda wine producers.
• E-40-backed Oakland restaurant Lumpia Company was recently burglarized.
• There are East Bay connections to the planned new string of Jollibee restaurants coming to the Bay Area.
• A new Hayward restaurant specializes in Vietnamese broken rice.
• The Montclair Beer, Wine, and Music Festival takes place this Saturday.
• Fair-trade, organic chocolate shop Xocolate Bar closed its last location in Berkeley.

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.

Calicraft Rooftop Bar Opens Friday

Calicraft Brewing Co. is on track to unveil its new rooftop bar in downtown Walnut Creek this Friday. Calicraft Upstairs marks a departure for the hometown brewery, as rather than a sprawling beer garden, it is being billed as a neighborhood cocktail bar. Perched atop Va de Vi Bistro and Wine Bar overlooking Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Upstairs will offer, yes, 20 taps pouring Calicraft beers. But there will also be a signature cocktail program with a curated spirits list that includes house-made vodkas and gins concocted weekly in an onsite micro-still. Masterminded by brewmaster Thomas Vo, drinks will include a Japanese-influenced Tokyo Cosmo and a “Caprese” featuring Calicraft tomato and basil vodkas mixed with clarified tomato water and garnished with a caprese skewer (think a clear bloody Mary). The food program from culinary director Jeffrey Amber will consist of “fun small plates” that include roasted shishito peppers served with miso aioli; Foxy Nachos with kettle chips, salami, olives, peperoncini, fontina, aged balsamic, and Parmesan; and a variety of savory sourdough waffles, including a corn-dog waffle served with smoked cheddar, beer cheese, and mustard.

Calicraft, which started as a contract brewery before launching its taproom and beer garden in Shadelands in Walnut Creek in 2016, is in full-on expansion mode. In addition to acquiring Heretic and its Fairfield brewing, distilling, and taproom facilities last year, Calicraft recently debuted a massive new beer garden in Davis and is in the process of launching an expansive new Shadelands HQ, complete with sweeping covered outdoor seating and a two-story facility with a bar, restaurant, and barrel-aging room that’s set to debut in April. Meanwhile, the downtown Walnut Creek project hints at Calicraft’s ambitions to be more than just a local brewery, but a bigger player in the Walnut Creek (and beyond) drinking and dining scene, says founder Blaine Landberg.

“I think this is the transformative project that starts to express our original vision for Calicraft,” he says. “What I hope the vibe is and that people take away from it is that our brand is about inclusion, creativity, and pushing things forward: This is our big leap beyond just craft beer. … And this location specifically plants our Calicraft flag in the middle of Walnut Creek. Being right in the center of downtown has such meaning for us, not just as a brand but [for] what we want to bring to the community at large.”

The French Spot Debuts in Walnut Creek/Concord

A couple weeks after it looked like its debut would be delayed to next year, artisan bakery and pastry shop the French Spot unexpectedly launched its first East Bay location over the weekend. Husband-wife team Vincent Attali and Maria Zapata have run their acclaimed flagship in San Francisco for several years but have wanted to expand to central Contra Costa County where they live and raise kids. Their second shop is located in Oak Grove Plaza near Trader Joe’s on the Concord-Walnut Creek border, and will offer the pair’s pastries, pies, cakes, sandwiches, and popular lineup of croissants that includes plain, ham and cheese, and ube mochi–filled Ube Mochicro varieties. The Concord location will also have more of a focus on fresh-baked breads—including baguettes, sourdoughs, and country loaves—as well as an expanded lineup of pies and custom cakes by Zapata. When we spoke earlier this year, Attali—who has worked at Las Vegas’s three-Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon and New York’s two-Michelin-starred Daniel, among other high-end restaurants and pastry shops—told us that unlike many bakeries and coffee shops, the French Spot will bake throughout the day to ensure a fresh product whenever you come in.

“You’ll be getting a croissant from an hour or so ago; we stagger our bread, so you’ll get a nice fresh loaf of bread,” he says. “All those sweet, buttery smells of a bakery—that’s all happening when you walk in there.”

Soft opening hours this week will be Thursday and Friday (8 a.m.-2 p.m.), and Saturday and Sunday (8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.). Also look out for the French Spot’s upcoming Christmas preorder menu, which will include a homemade bûche de Noël yule log.

Local Vines Opens Wednesday Highlighting Local Lamorinda Wines

It’s been a long time coming, but Local Vines debuts in Lafayette this Wednesday, fulfilling the vision of local winegrowers for a venue that highlights fruit from the Lamorinda American Viticulture wine-growing area. The tasting room, located on Mt. Diablo Boulevard near the Headlands Brewing taproom, primarily pours wines and ciders from local Lamorinda producers, of which there are a surprising number, including Crane Terrace Winery, Deer Hill Vineyards, Los Arabis Vineyards, Meadow View Winery, Mount Diablo Cider Company, Raisin d’Être Vineyards, Rancho Del Hambre Vineyard, Reliez Valley Vineyards, Stag Hill Vineyards, and Thal Vineyards. It was the owners of the latter, Larry and Esther Thal, who spearheaded the project and started work on transforming the former NAPA Auto Parts site into Local Vines more than six years ago.

The couple, who started growing grapes 30 years ago “purely accidentally” as a way to mitigate erosion on their Lafayette hills property, are emblematic of the area’s kind of homegrown, backyard winemakers organized through the Lamorinda Wine Growers Association. The tasting room, says Larry Thal, is a way to platform these wineries, whose smaller production size and inventory makes it more difficult to find placement in restaurants and grocery stores. In addition, Local Vines offers a complete 2,500-square-foot winemaking facility in the basement, with two dedicated veteran winemakers in residence, to help make the leap from quality grapes to quality wine. The hope, Thal adds, is that the venue will help facilitate more of the 100-plus grape growers in the region to become bonded wineries, thus further increasing the profile of a fledgling Lamorinda AVA with acres of potential.

“Our weather is very similar to Napa and conducive to producing consistently good wine,” says Thal. “One of my personal favorites up in Napa is Hall vineyards. We would aspire to make wines as good or better than they do at significantly less cost. We’ll never produce the quantity that they do, but that’s the high standard that we want to achieve.”

For food, Local Vines will offer standard light wine-tasting fare such as charcuterie to start. However, one half of the venue will soon be occupied by Germinate Kitchen, a commercial shared kitchen set to open in the first quarter of next year. Once it arrives, the kitchen—separated by a glass wall and run by two experienced restaurant industry vets—will be able to provide additional food for the tasting room as well as afford opportunities for private events, classes, and one-off food and wine experiences. Local Vines will be open from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, with expanded hours and an official grand opening likely in the new year.

Small Bites from Around East Bay

The San Francisco Chronicle goes in-depth on Cafe Ohlone’s new café project inside UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. ‘Ammatka Cafe will offer dishes such as “rose hip jam sandwich with smoked duck and Mt. Tam Triple Cream cheese; a sundried tomato wrap with pesto made from watercress grown at the university’s indigenous community learning garden; and a brownie made from pattih, or chia, flour.”

A look inside Berkeley wine pioneer Kermit Lynch’s first new wine shop in 53 years in Larkspur’s Marin Country Mart.

Standard Fare is shuttering later this month; however, it will be replaced in west Berkeley this spring with Bolita, a Mexican pop-up known for its artisan masa made with heirloom nixtamalized corn.

Two new Asian eateries are coming to Pleasanton’s Stoneridge Shopping Center: Maruwu Seicha, a modern Japanese matcha café known for its matcha soft-serve ice cream and gelato, and Korean street food specialist Master Shin.

Berkeley’s Latin-inspired chocolatier Casa de Chocolates is expanding to Park Boulevard in Oakland, while Jungdon Katsu—whose Danville location was shuttered following a fire in October—just debuted a new brick-and-mortar restaurant in Emeryville.

Shemroon Cafe, a Persian café with Turkish coffee, Persian tea, and Middle Eastern sweets, opened in Orinda Theatre Square.