If I owned a car dealership, Forbes Mill would be my car out front on risers, slightly tilted to attract the passer-by, but quite possibly without any pricing stickers because deep down, I have such an affinity for her, I wouldn’t want to see her go.
Forbes Mill is where I finely tuned my management skills. Prior to the Steakhouse, I was the food and beverage director at Ruby Hill Golf Club and was a sweat-equity partner in a bar and grille in San Francisco, but Forbes Mill was (pardon the expression) the meat and potatoes of my time in the trenches.
Opened 2003 in Los Gatos by three gentlemen in the Marie Calendars family, Forbes Mill didn’t get to Danville until 2006, riding the mighty coat tails of her predecessor. Therein laid the challenge. I arrived on January 1, 2007 to introduce Forbes to the community that raised me, and for the next three years I proceeded to make that challenge the focal point of my life.
When Forbes set up shop in the back of the Danville Livery, the challenges were mighty. Number one: Everything in the Livery is wood colored, set back from the street, in…you guessed it…the woods. Hard, if not impossible, for any passerby to see the building out of the corner of their eye and allow themselves to be drawn in. Number two: They opened on the platform of, “the place to get Kobe Beef.” This brought the curious elite of Danville in droves, concentrating on just one of the many menu items and splurging to indulge, but quickly deducing that to go to Forbes Mill was an expensive experience and to be done only once in a while. Well, “once in a while” doesn’t pay the rent, so the next three years of my life was getting people to understand just how much more is available there on any budget.
Yes, the tables are covered in white linen, and yes, the wine list makes Napa blush, and yes, you can still create a bill there that might cut the kids’ college education short, but wait…there’s more!
Forbes offers the best lunches for the money than anybody in town. They have combo plates that are directly in the price wheelhouse of any lunch; all while being served to you by a professional server. Your bill won’t reflect that. And their salads were invented and created by a knowledgeable executive chef, so it’s not just your standard, “Caesar,” or “Mixed Greens.”
The bar is amazing! Granite tops with space between stools, tear-drop blown glass lights and a back bar that you would find in Vegas with two televisions for the sporting event of the day.
The colors, sights and sounds of Forbes were a delight to go to everyday, and often I miss the energy. The lights are low, and on any given evening there are professional servers scurrying about spewing knowledge and finely tuned skills at every table. The murmur of fellow diners in the open dining room does not overpower the clinking of crystal wine glasses and even if you are there to spend $25.00 a person (which you can do) for dinner, you feel as though you valet parked your private jet.
Call ahead to make reservations for your special occasion and the management will make sure that you get a wonderful, take-home, personalized menu acknowledging your day.
As I stated before, my personal choices have led me to greener pastures and I am all but a vegetarian. The reason that I can never full go vegan or veggie is that I understand that as primal man, sometimes you just need a steak. I made the decision long ago that when that primal urge arises, the only place I will go is Forbes Mill Steakhouse—and no, it won’t cost me an organ. Just go!
200 Sycamore Valley Road West, Danville
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