Toby Tullis

Lottie’s IS your Grandmothers Ice Cream

October 4, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

By now, anyone who has read more than two of my articles knows that I am a sentimental softy perhaps born in the wrong era. I work in technology, but close my eyes and see the 20s. I see coal-fed trains cutting through the center of town across the sandlot where boys with big cuffs and t-shirts play ball. I see deep-welled Ford pick-ups with wooden running boards hauling milk in lead bottles. I see long counters with stools populated with people sipping straws while they peer at the man in the lab coat and bowtie pulling the handle of the soda spritzer. I see hand-turned cylinders spinning larger cylinders of ice and rock salt. I open my eyes and taste that ice cream, here and only here.

Part of me feels like I have been looking for Lottie’s since my own contingency of friends in the 80s would go the Wilders house on our block and take turns spinning the ice cream. Little did I know that Deb Phillips was doing the same thing in Los Angeles.

Lottie’s is owned by Deb Phillips and Ceaser Angobaldo, and like so many of the places I find to write about, was established on the foundation of passion. “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” (Thanks Dad. Great advice)

Lottie is Deb’s maternal Grandmother and the exact person that belongs in the “happy place,” I see when I close my eyes. She baked, that’s what she did. Then she taught her daughter, and then she taught her granddaughters. The best part is, it stuck with all of them. The girls are all involved in food—be it preparation or education, they have not strayed from Grandma’s lesson.

After some time in the culinary program at DVC (the reason that we got her from LA), Deb realized that she needed something more focused than “food” preparation and eventually found herself at Penn State University, taking a short course on ice cream; learning the technical and machine side of the business. On April 23, 2013 she opened her doors in Walnut Creek and began to share her life’s passion with consumers.

Here’s why I choose Lottie’s. I have never considered myself to have a sweet tooth. I don’t seek dessert. I will pass on cake more often than I will accept it. I bought Blowpops from the ice cream man instead of popsicles; however I have a need (not desire) to visit Lottie’s on a regular basis and my wife and child help reap the benefits.

They make everything just past the counter, on-site, every day. They pasteurize their own ingredients, right there. They cook their own praline peanuts and toffee right next to the batches. This is why they make only four or five flavors daily.

One thing they do that will not be seen, and not be talked about but will allow the consumer to understand why, on quick inspection, their scoops may look smaller than the competitors’, is they literally pump less air into the process. Trust me, this matters! What we get in return is flavor that will (it did for me) blow minds! What else we get are people without a sweet tooth changing their song for the first time in their lives.

When I look at a plastic, never-been-changed flavor board that says “ginger ice cream,” I usually get a mammoth scoop of something that has a faint suggestion of something ginger, deeply buried. But when I look at the hand written (that day) chalk board at Lottie’s that says “ginger,” the hair stands up on my arm and I seriously have to ask myself if I’m ready for this.

Deb says it best: “When you narrow the focus within, you can be infinitely creative.”

Lottie’s Creamery

1414 N Main St, Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Phone: (925) 472-0723

Fresh Millions~ I am Bowl-ed Over!

September 1, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

I begin in the middle. I want to stop before I have started this month to acknowledge my time here with you. This marks the 13^th month that I have been writing for Alive. I am not one to acknowledge a milestone on credit, so hence the 13 months as opposed to the more popular one year mark.

My time with you has been spent well. I have continued to hone my writing craft and used my time with you as a Swiffer to my experiences in the restaurant game. So much so that I turned the Buson Burner up under my manuscript on the topic and have been fortunate enough to partner up with Eric and Alive Book Publishing to make the book dream a reality. Stay tuned for release dates and availability.

Okay, down to business.

I walked into Fresh Millions in San Ramon exactly ten days and two dining experiences after my co-worker. Twice she came back into the office saying, “Toby, you have no idea how right in your wheel house this place is!” As usual (except with wagers on The Bachelorette) she was correct.

So I went, and immediately felt that I had seen this place before. After the necessary research needed to order at the counter flawlessly, and after my selections were mentally ticked, I allowed my thoughts to wander back to where I had seen this healthy oasis. It had to be on one of those food network shows. The type of competitions that have entrepreneurs appeasing to the generosity of the food moguls that have come before them, in the hopes of securing the start-up capital to their dreams; the next “Chipotle” that will have mini-mall shoppers lining up. I was so convinced of this, that by the time I ordered from the jovial young lady at the counter, I was sure that she was the owner and I had seen her pleading with Gordon Ramsey….Suffice to say, I was wrong.

This is a pop-up (true to the definition). It wasn’t there yesterday, I swear, but now the second one is open in Dublin, and this is a franchise. “Join our team,” is not an invitation to work the wok. This is the answer to the question that has loomed over so many of us: “Isn’t there something besides McDonalds?”

Here’s the deal: It’s fast, cheap, healthy and good.

If you recall, I am the, “let’s slow down at all costs,” guy, but mostly because quality seems to suffer, the faster we go. In relationships, business, technology, food…I digress. But not here.

Fresh Millions refers to the endless possibilities of the create-your-own menu and it does not disappoint. For the person whose tie is already flying behind them in an extra hurry to get through life, there are pre-set menu items, but for my under $10 you can’t beat the make your own salad or bowls.

Bowls: Start with your base: Noodles, Brown Rice, White Rice or Spinach. Add you sauce: Teriyaki, Sweet and Sour, Spicy, etc. Add your protein: Chicken, Beef, Shrimp, Bacon or Eggs. Then dive into their “mix-ins”! Over 40 prepared fresh, some organic, additions they throw into your bowl by the handful…not pinch. Then simply take a number. I have deduced that your raw bowl goes back to the kitchen in the searing hot wok waiting to blend your textures and flavors. Is there really a faster, fresher way to cook than by wok…NOPE! Help yourself to a complimentary glass of fruit infused water and wait the meager four minutes (give or take) for your creation to arrive at your table piping hot and mounded over the bowls edge.

Substitute “bowl” with “salad” and add dressing choice.

I think “millions” refers to the people and money that will flock to this place.

San Ramon: 2550 San Ramon Valley Boulevard, Suite #B2, San Ramon, CA

Dublin: 6599 Dublin Blvd, Suite F, Dublin, CA 94568

Mi Casa is My Home

August 1, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

A short time ago I happened to mention to a friend that I have not had a good pupusa in a long time. Let me back track. How does a suburban boy, brought up in the mean streets of Danville, come to have a hankering for such a traditional South American dish? Why, working in the food industry, of course. The front of the house may be serving steak, burgers, seafood, pastas, or whatever identity any given restaurant may hold, but be assured that the back of the house is eating Mexican, El Salvadorian, Guatemalan, or any other fare that makes up the heritage of most of the work force.

Tamales and Pupusa were staples in “bring your lunch to work,” as not only are they tasty, but their inexpensive ingredients go a long way. And, they instill a sense of communal eating. They also travel well and keep for long periods of time as breaks in the kitchen may be few and far between. But I digress.

Thinking, naturally, I would have to travel to San Francisco to indulge in this growing obsession, I was very surprised when my friend told me to meet him at Mi Casa in Walnut Creek.

This corner home has been transformed into the perfect representation of the colorful eateries south of the border. Small and unassuming, you are greeted at the front by a zen fountain and walk in directly into the small, yet full, bar. The Dining rooms is split in two with a series of small tables that can easily be configured to accommodate any number of large parties, and just past the sliding glass doors lay the patio with brightly colored umbrellas and flags. I knew at once, that this place is authentic.

In 2007, Argentina Maldonado decided that she had sat on her family’s recipes too long and opened the doors of her family establishment, intent upon delivering authentic Mexican and Central American cuisine.

There is no reason that Argentina should not be home balancing the books and popping in the restaurant from time to time to say hello, but she is there, every day, taking your order and making suggestions. The smile on her face as she works the floor would suggest that this is new, but it is not; she is merely thrilled that you are there in her home away from home.

We started with the tortilla soup—a mild broth which allowed the textures of the individual ingredients to burst through, accented by huge chunks of fresh avocado. Next, we had the cactus salad. This dish has single-handedly kept me up at night; it has been the wager on inner office bets, and has had me planning full meals around the take-home order. The salad is made of real cactus, viscous and healthy, combined with black beans, veggies and spices that you could not pull apart with a chemistry degree. The only way to describe the cactus salad is, “cathartic.”

Then the pupusas. Three standard choices: Bean, Loroco (an edible vine flower) or Reveuelta (combination of bean, cheese and pork), all served with the orangish salsorojo and shredded pickled cabbage, stuffed inside a thick corn tortilla. Unlike my experiences in many kitchens, these come pre-assembled for your enjoyment and cut into quarters.

The best thing that ever happened me is when our company took office space just a half block away from MiCasa. The saddest thing that ever happened is when we moved to San Ramon.

We still make the trek back there when one of us in the office wins a friendly cactus salad and pupusa bet and we have taken to creating bets just to insure we get to go. I won a bet recently centered on the television show The Bachelorette (don’t judge me).

Argentina has created a space to share her passion and properly calls it, “My Home!”

Mi Casa, 2195 N Broadway Walnut Creek, 925 937 8800

Fuddruckers: A Corporate Throwback

July 3, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

I absolutely love all things Americana. Visual reminders of the way things used to be at their most ideal. Small town living where the produce was grown by Mr. Brown and delivered daily to the one café in town to sustain the miniscule population and where Mrs. Thompson dons her apron while making fresh pies for the 4^th of July picnic at the lake. Where the flatbed Chevy is filled with happy kids that just got out of school for the summer and somewhere the iconic sounds of Mel Allen calling the Yankees game can be heard squeaking out of the transistor radio “How about that…”.

But this place, Fuddruckers, has had me in a mental quandary since the first time I ate there. On paper, this franchised corporation is everything I should repeal. Huge warehouse style eateries involved in massive service of hamburgers, located predominantly in (or near) shopping malls. There is no Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Brown here….but wait! Perhaps there is—if only in spirit.

What drew me to Fuddruckers and propelled into the internal mental debate between right-and- wrong, is exactly what propelled me to begin this column. The business side of this establishment is not only unique, which is a huge accolade these days, but brilliant as well.

Let’s pop the hood of this early model Ford and see what I’m talking about.

First off, anybody that has managed a restaurant before knows that one of the only costs that you can affect on a daily basis is labor. As a manager I used to constantly walk the tightrope of servers to clients to find the proper balance of money going out to money coming in without sacrificing service or reputation. Fuddruckers does without the servers entirely. You walk in and scope the huge printed menu on the wall and step to the ALWAYS lively and positive cashier to make your way through options. Pay then sit. I know this is not unique, but this is not “fast food.” The quality and décor help tremendously. On each table is a roll of brown (recycled) paper towels. Again, Brilliant! This not only allows the diner to use as much or as little cleaning accoutrement to their meal but allows the minimal bus staff to peer over the whole dining room from one vantage point and see which tables are running short, without having to x-ray vision the small metal boxes that host the single ply sheets that launch out 15 at a time.

Their patented, “Build Your Own, Market Fresh Produce Bar,” in the middle of the dining room is a burger-fixens bar fit for a king, and it’s replenished regularly. All farm fresh produce—never frozen (nothing is frozen here)—of tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, peppers, etc. This cuts back on the kitchen staff having to assemble with little to no care with the pre-conceived appropriate amount per burger. Pile it on!

State of the art-touch screen soda fountain. Kids line up just to use it because it is so “Jetsons.”

The menu selections are rare, exciting and healthy. Where else can you get a fresh Bison or Elk burger? And, if you haven’t, you should. The dessert counter is done in the soda fountain décor of yesteryear and across the room from the main course activity as to not interfere. The brilliant part about this is that you can’t leave the building without passing the counter.

But it is the décor in general for me. Checkered table cloths, rich exposed wood, corrugated metal siding (easy to clean), light fixtures with soft light instead of anything resembling fluorescent, real wood chairs and tables like at grandma’s house, and an antique Queen-Mary housing extra sauces!

Whoever designed the Fuddruckers concept and business plan did it right, it is only a shame that I will never meet them because they are probably at their home in the Hamptons. And my quandary begins again.

4910 Dublin Blvd., Dublin, CA 94568 (925) 551-8052

Denica’s Real Food Kitchen: Cookies to Tacos~ A Love Story

June 1, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

The time is early in the young child’s life but even just removing the simple cake from her easy bake oven, she senses that the connection is larger. She is a first generation child of immigrants from Spain. Immigrants that embody the American Dream and will slowly and methodically pass all that they know on to this curious kitchen inhabitant. Her mother will teach her how to cook and the importance of customer relationships through her own successful bridal shop. Her father will take over later and finely hone her business skills in his own successful communications company. And in the between time, she will devour reading material on cooking and food.

She is Denica Freitas, and her story is a fairy tale.

At 25 she will take weekend classes at California Culinary Academy of San Francisco and essentially work herself into a successful cake shop that caters and delivers pasties all over the Bay Area. I imagine her secret ingredient is passion.

Across town is a boy. He has come up through life donning an apron since the age of 15, taking any and all restaurant jobs from the Bay to Hawaii, which will not only mold his signature sense of floral attire, but ignite that same passion for desserts as Denica’s. He will find himself the owner operator of a very successful cookie shop in Castro Valley that ships his delicacies around the world. On paper he is a competitor. In a fairy tale, he is the prince. This is a fairy tale. The boy and girl fall madly in love. A love that is equaled only by their passion for food and in 2000, they combine forces and open Denica’s.

This restaurant comes to my attention by my wife. Since the day I met her, she has told me about this place, and literally, her face lights up when she speaks of it. The feeling is something she can’t explain, almost as unexplainable as what took me so long to get there myself. But I went, and I am in love with the love you feel here.

The restaurant is not spectacular in itself; a counter in front of an elevated yet simple menu, in front of a display case of pastries; a wall covered in mismatching frames displaying her family on various trips as you might find in her hallway at home, and a menu serving fresh, homemade, very healthy breakfast (all day) and lunches—salads and bowls, sandwiches and burritos, omelets and quesadillas, and of course desserts!

But it is the secret ingredient that a young Denica found so long ago that is palpable in this place—a live ingredient that has grown and invisibly made its way over every nuance. The ingredient is…passion. When she met her husband, James “The Cookie Man,” she doubled her wattage for life. Individually, they possessed enviable amounts of personal passion; enough to affect others on smaller scales and create successful businesses, but together their hunger for life, adventure and food, as well as the love for their five children, has created what can only be felt, not written about.

In 2005 they expanded the business next door by knocking out a wall and creating the Taco Lounge and of course have been met with success. Success is in their DNA. The food is delicious. It is flavorful and healthy. It can be vegetarian or not, but it is hearty. There is something about the walls here that make you want to be nicer to the people around you. The kind of happy that comes from a homemade chocolate chip cookie and a fountain soda or peering at the smiles of their kid’s faces on the walls. The kind of inspiration that comes from the Freitas’ personal motto~”Dream it, think it, do it, repeat.”

Denica’s Real Food Kitchen ,6058 Dougherty Road, Dublin, 925-829-6200

Ike’s Place

May 4, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

Allow me to begin with a quick acknowledgment of my lack of geographic exploration. I realize that Alive Magazine reaches the better parts of the Tri-Valley area as quickly as I realize that for the last eight months my boundaries have seldom left the Danville area. Not very Ponce de Leon of me. By way of explanation I can only offer that (obviously) this is my backyard, and with a potential fussy seven month old in the car, traveling outside the comfort zone of town can be daunting. But alas, you the reader should not feel overfed or neglected, and so I offer you my word that the next articles will be written outside Danville until I have covered all the cities in our circulation. On to business!

Have you ever witnessed a food movement—something so large and influential that, like a zeppelin, seems to silently move into town in the dead of night and redefines your food beliefs? I have.

Meet Ike. Everybody I have talked to says this is the best sandwich they have ever had; but why? First, you strap the standard list of deli ingredients to a box of dynamite, then step the mandatory safe distance away, then BOOM…blow the standards all over a mountain of unorthodox sandwich fillers like mozzarella sticks, onion rings, or jalapeno poppers. Next, go ahead and sauce up your creation with mind twisters like cranberry sauce, Sriracha, marinara, or coleslaw. Finally, for good measure, put it all on freshly baked bread lathered in Ike’s Dirty Secret Sauce (a mayo/garlic concoction) prior to baking. This is Ike.

Ike first opened in the Castro District and quickly angered the neighbors by serving over 1200 customers a day. Since then he has opened eight more locations to serve the masses, and the numbers have not dwindled. Thankfully he found his way to the Trader Joes shopping center in Danville.

I hope by now that you have come to rely on me offering my monthly reports worthy of praise for more than the food. As stated, I enjoy dissecting every nuance of a restaurant, and yes, while the sandwiches here are beyond extraordinary, an isolated incident on my first visit compels this article.

It was busy, of course, and my wife and I approached the counter confused. The menu boasts well over 200 unique variations of this American staple and we settled on a #49 and #214. The helpful teen behind the counter rang us up for a #49 and two #14’s. I should have caught it but didn’t until the card was charged. There would have to be a manager involved to facilitate the refund and we were in danger of creating a pile up. This had the potential to get ugly. In seconds, the bright aura of the girl in charge sauntered to the counter, made a quick analysis of the situation, gathered the correct information and refunded my card while informing me that they would like to purchase our sandwiches for the (three minute) inconvenience. I had no time to refute. It was done. She thanked us “so much” for coming in and in 10 minutes my wife and I were having our taste buds ripped from our mouths. You cannot teach this type of customer service, especially to a person that is spending their whole shift “in the weeds.” Sold for life!

As an ode to you, my readers, I want to buy you an Ike’s. Drop me a line to let me know you’re reading every month and I will select five random people to deliver a voucher for a free Ike’s. My only advice is to bring an umbrella if it’s raining because you might be waiting outside.

Drop me a line at tobintullis@yahoo.com with the subject Line: “Ike’s” … I will reply!

Jules Thin Crust Pizza

March 29, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

When your first child eats dirt you rush him to the hospital. When your second child eats dirt you flush their mouth out. When your third child eats dirt you wonder, “Do I really need to feed him lunch?”

Six months ago my wife and I came into possession of our first little bundle and yes he is our Faberge egg. With a modest amount of the “rush to the hospital” mentality paired with my wife’sprevious triumph over gestational diabetes, we are very concerned with what our little one considers food, and so much so that our own dietshave changed dramatically in the seven months of diabetes taming and the six months of breastfeeding. Throw the movies “Food Inc.” and “Forks Over Knives” on the education pile and we inadvertently built an atomic organic bomb. The nicest thing about waking up in this new food conscious world is we are not alone. We have Jules!

The irony to the beginning of this article, and becoming food conscious, is we are actually trying to get closer to the dirt. But what about burgers, chips, sodas, and PIZZA? They can’t take my pizza! Easy chicken little; there is a local answer for your pizza quandary.

Ten years ago, local talent Heather and Jeff Clapp and friends/Pennsylvania residents Jen and Jeff Ordway were in sitting in a local eatery in Rockridge, pontificating the need for farm fresh food. After much research and deliberation they had created the foundation that would become Jules Thin Crust Pizza and eight years ago the very first restaurant would open in Doylestown Pennsylvania.

Five years would pass before Heather and husband Jeff, after raising a brood of their own, would discover the overwhelming need for Jules to come out west. With permission from the Ordway’s, they began shopping cities, and happily landed in the Livery Shopping Center in Danville (and soon to be Rockridge where the seed was planted.)

Long before my wife and I were paying such acute attention to our own perception of food, we wandered in out of sheer desire to add a new pizza regime to our repertoire. We were bowled over by every nuance from the clean “California Concept” décor to the oddly shaped pies.

Leaving no stone unturned the research for the business model included trips to NY and Italy to perfect the vision. The Skateboard shaped pies that result in square pieces of pizza are derivative from Italy where every bite has the same amount of toppings as the last.

Then the attention was promptly swung in the direction of the cornerstone of the business model, the local farmer! Organic doesn’t do the description justice. The owners of Jules Pizza care about the mom and pop farms putting their hearts into the soil so they can provide food for our tables. They follow a 100-150 mile maximum for delivery of their ingredients, and every given Saturday you can find the Clapps at our local farmers market finding out what the next weeks specials are going to be. Heather and Jeff have an outstanding relationship with Farmer Shawn of Terra Bella Farms in Pleasanton and Happy Boy Farms near Santa Cruz. Some show stoppers are: Every topping is Gluten Free, Zero nitrates, Gluten Free crusts available, and the “by-the-slice” options are ridiculous!

Baseball Card Stats aside, here is how I feel about this place. When you eat here, you feel better. You feel better about your health, the example you’re setting for your kids, the energy you get from that “healthy full,” and better about helping farmers. But here’s the kick—you taste buds don’t know any better. There is no doubt that this is just good pizza…period. We went into Jules looking for a local pizzeria, and left feeling like we took a small trip to Italy while helping a local farmer sustain their business. There are many reasons to love Jules.

820 Sycamore Valley Rd W Danville
(925) 743-2790

Round Table Pizza in Alamo Plaza: A Salad Bar for the Ages

March 6, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

The closest I ever came to being killed was when I drove my friend home to California from Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He had just been honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne, and we were taking the long way home. Somewhere around Oklahoma the hunger began to set in, but I knew exactly how to fix it. I pulled into a shopping mall parking lot, located the first person I could find and pulled up next to him. I leaned over my friend (still in fatigues) and asked the nice gentlemen, “Do you know where we can find a salad bar and chardonnay?” My friend didn’t talk to me until Arizona.

While the thirst for chardonnay has long left me, my hunger for a good salad bar has never waned. Most of my adult life has been in pursuit of this Lego building block way of eating, and so the fact that my years of tireless research have yielded the one true local oasis that deserves to be written about is not the surprise here. The surprise here comes from the location.

Many years ago, I was the manager at Blockbuster Video in Alamo Plaza. The many food options in the plaza never left me for want, however having discovered the Excalibur of all salad bars at Round Table Pizza applied the blinders for much of my tenure and constantly astounded me at the fact it was in a pizza place.

Owner operator Pierre Nader Soltan was the man back then and he still is today. Then he was serving a pimple-faced me in khakis and blue polo and now he welcomes (near weekly) my wife, my child and myself to partake in his artistic creation.

Marvel at the fact that this table fit for kings is all but eight feet long. My years of R&D have led me to salad bars that took up 100’s of square feet that couldn’t hold this bars ladles.

Allow me to compartmentalize a visual for you. First THE VEGGIES: Always fresh, he has the standards: Broccoli, peas, avocado, mushrooms, beets, onions (red and green), baby carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers (red and green), beans (garbanzo and kidney), fresh cut jalapeños, and kalamata olives (pitted of course). Sidenote: any of Pierres toppings may change daily based on his artistic mood. Then, THE CHEESES: Shaved parmesan, feta, blue, shredded cheddar and cherry mozzarella with basil. Next, THE CRUNCHIES (which is such an integral facet of any salad bar): Crushed walnuts and peanuts, crispy Chinese noodles, sunflower seeds, croutons, and real bacon (no bits here). Now, THE MEATS: Real Cubed Chicken, bay shrimp, imitation crab meat, and cubed ham. I have seen deli sliced turkey, salami, and more on any given day. And now the Pièce de résistance, the SALAD MIXES: Marinated olives and peppers, dolmas (who does this?), potato salad, corn and bean salsa, three bean, marinated artichoke hearts, gherkin pickle and pepperoncini, macaroni salad, and roasted garlic cloves. There are always additions and subtractions in this category. Top it all with THE DRESSINGS: Eight of them! All your standards as well as Oriental and Jalapeño Ranch. I mean really, this spread is royalty.

Couple this with arguably the best pizza in the area and there really is no reason any person/family shouldn’t make a day of their visit. Luckily, on that end, Pierre has installed a very large projection screen for sporting events, created a low leather chair and coffee table setting in front of the TV and put high tables behind so there isn’t a bad seat in the house. He has also walled in a private dining room area with another large screen for private parties and has enough gaming machines to keep the kids busy.

If ever I ask if you want to get a salad, just assume we are going to Round Table in Alamo because you deserve the best!

Rocky’s is the New Norm!

February 5, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

Thirty years ago I attended daycare at the Danville Bowl where the bar is now, and the feel and smell of the building is the exact same. Not the same as in, “please clean this place,” but the same as in nostalgic and oddly comforting. Sure the bar has invaded the space where there used to be a giant slide and a heavy woman named Dodo (hand to god) would serve us cinnamon graham crackers every Wednesday night while our parents did what mid-week bowler parents do, but other than that everything else has remained the same. Until now.

The often forgotten area that I reluctantly referred to as a “restaurant” in the past, has finally been handed over to somebody that can actually do something about it. This is very exciting news for us in Danville.

Justin Walsh, aka Norm of Norm’s Place in downtown Danville, has sunk his teeth into his first expansion project with the know-how of successful dining in our tiny town. Rocky’s place, named after the recent family blessing of an awesome little spit fire, extends the reach and similar racing motif that we have all grown familiar with at the parent restaurant, with a unique flair for the bowler.

As an ode to understanding his audience, Norm has crafted his menu with the “I’m using my hands but I’m hungry” bowler in mind and a liberal use of appetite-guttering finger foods and sandwiches built to enjoy while you concentrate on picking up that spare. For me, the salads at his original location set a precedence that has yet to me matched locally, so why try to re-invent the bowling ball? He has brought over three of his most famous creations to fit the bill. As a tip of the hat to our competitive eating society, Norm offers “The Home Wrecker,” a 20” all beef Angus hotdog drown in chili, cheese and onions alongside a mountain of fries served on a platter. This will comfortably serve four bowlers (not known for the smallest appetites) but is offered as an eating challenge to beat. (Norm’s own recorded time? Inquire within.)

Two things strike (pun intended) me about Rocky’s: The construction and the catering. Finally this forgotten appendage to the thriving bar has gotten a facelift that it desperately needed. The wall with the two-way door that felt more like the entrance to a strip mall beauty salon is gone. Norm has opened up the space to become part of the ambiance that is The Bowl. At the same time, he has splashed colors of life and his calling card of corrugated metal to bring the space into the “now” while sharing the intoxicating smells from the grille with the lanes. But the coup de grâce is the catering menu. Separated into regional flavors, Rocky’s offers Country, Italiano, Pub Grub, Mexicali, Southern Comfort, Santa Maria and Touch of Class catering menus to draw in birthday parties, corporate events, or whatever your “eat-in-bulk” needs are. Norm’s wife, Cindy, heads up the catering charge and can be contacted for on or off-site needs.

I am a huge proponent of Norm and his business savvy. Always have been. He has paved the way for other grilles in Danville to emulate in the hopes that they may get a crumb of the success he has achieved, and I for one am elated that this Danville Icon chose the Danville Bowl, a place of equal importance to so many of our pasts, to work in his restaurant talent. You don’t have to be a bowler to want to hang out at a place where everybody knows your name, but if you know you’re headed there anyway, for crying out loud, don’t eat first! Rocky’s will take care of you once you’re there!

Rocky’s Place
200 Boone Court, Danville
Catering – Cindy Walsh
rockysplaceevents@gmail.com
925-872-4473

Sakura

January 14, 2013 by Toby Tullis Leave a Comment

There is an anomaly in the dining out universe. Have you ever noticed that when we encounter a positive dining experience our first reaction is eagerness to share the details with the people closest to us while simultaneously planning our return visit, except when it comes to sushi? With sushi restaurants it seems to be this covert operation of research and development. Hours of sampling and analyzing. Picking that one restaurant that you will call “your sushi restaurant” but like a poker player with pocket Kings, you keep it close to your chest, only to dole out the information when the situation calls for it. An important date or out of town family member will benefit from your research but you’ll be damned if your going to tell the guy in accounting; you don’t want the whole world to know!

Today I will share with you “my sushi restaurant.” Sakura in Crow Canyon Commons, San Ramon is my Japanese home away from home. No other place I know greets you like Tony does, and he has been doing it for over 17 years.

I didn’t realize how special it was until my 3^rd visit, and here is why. My first visit was the research part. Fish focus heavy and Sakura nailed it. At the same time I got to meet the gregarious character behind the bar named Tony, who (in hindsight), paid close attention to our names upon introduction.

The second visit was developmental—a bit more daring in the fish selection. A real “let’s open this thing up and see what she’s made of” outing. Again…nails, and Tony, who had us repeat our introductions from the first visit months prior with little to know fanfare. The third visit was well over a year later. I walked into Sakura at 7pm on a fairly busy night.—“TOBY-SAN”—a genuinely excited Tony yelled from behind the roll he was constructing. Game-Set-Match!

No matter how much time passes between my visits, it’s always the same sprinkled with the knowledge he gained from my life on the prior visit. “TOBY-SAN, how is your wife?”; “TOBY-SAN, how old is your baby now?” He is incredible. Fifteen plus years in the business and I have never seen such light in another human soul so effortlessly shared with hundreds.

Okay, what about the fish? Tony does what true Sushi Chefs have been doing in Japan for generations. Every morning before you have even thought about your snooze button, Tony makes his way to the fish market to find out what is fresh. If it’s good, he buys it, then trucks it to San Ramon and prepares it with the artistic ability reserved more for those with brushes rather than knives. Knowing there is nothing I won’t try, he seems excited to peel back my head and drop previously un-heard of creations directly on my brain. I have had an oyster with layers of flavor and texture that would have Narsai David quitting his job for lack of anything better to write about. I have had Bonito fish that transform me into a samurai and my wife a geisha. I have had whole pickled baby octopus that looked as though it may actually leave my plate in a mad dash for the sanctuary of the ocean. And Tony always has OO Toro!

I always ask Tony how business is, and with an obvious heavy heart his last three responses have been, “Not good Toby-San. Not good.” This will not happen on my watch. Sakura is a goldmine of everything we look for in a dining experience. The Oakland A’s call this place home. A friend of mine, in her mid-twenties, has celebrated her birthday there every year since she was eight.

I’m not suggesting you should go — I’m telling you! Support the things that make this area so special before we wonder “what happened?”

Sakura Japanese Cuisine
3151C Crow Canyon Place, San Ramon, CA Tel.925-277-1628