Courtesy of Taverna Sorrentina
Taverna Sorrentina Brings Tableside Show to Danville
Taverna Sorrentina, the new Italian restaurant with a focus on coastal Italian cuisine and showy dishes prepared tableside, is now open in Danville. The flashy new concept comes from a trio of native Italians who worked for years at Danville’s Locanda Ravello and takes over the downtown space at 100 Railroad Avenue previously occupied by Isola Osteria. Sorrentina’s opening menu offers apps such as calamari, burrata and prosciutto, salmon and tuna tartare, and manzo tonnato (thinly sliced cold roast beef with a tuna aioli sauce). Pastas include rigatoni carbonara, linguine with fresh Maine lobster and Manila clams in lobster bisque sauce, and cacio e pepe finished tableside inside small wheels of flame-fired pecorino Reggiano cheese.
Courtesy of Taverna Sorrentina
Pan-seared salmon, braised short ribs, and a 16-ounce bone-in rib eye (also prepared tableside) make the entrée list, while desserts include a ricotta cheese cheesecake, flourless chocolate cake, and tiramisu. Sorrentina also has beer and wine, with an emphasis on Northern California and Italian labels, plus a full bar with signature cocktails. During its soft opening this week, Sorrentina will be open from 5–9 p.m. for dinner only. Starting next week, the restaurant will be open Tuesday to Thursday from 3 to 9:30 p.m. with a 3–5 p.m. happy hour, with lunch and dinner service Friday to Sunday.
Meadowlark Dairy Draws Close in Livermore
Courtesy of Meadowlark Dairy
It looks it won’t be long before Livermore area residents will have easier access to Meadowlark Dairy’s towering soft-serve ice cream cones. The beloved Pleasanton institution’s second-generation owner, Jesse Takens, told Dish that he is aiming for a December soft opening inside the former Bank of the West building on Second Street in downtown Livermore. It will mark the first expansion in the history of Meadowlark, whose history dates back to 1919 as a Pleasanton dairy farm. According to Takens, the Livermore shop will offer a menu similar to Pleasanton: soft-serve ice cream in a half dozen or so flavors, along with basic groceries like sodas, milk, cheeses, and chips. Unlike Pleasanton, there will be no drive-through option, at least not to start, but they have added a processing side in order to sell pints and gallons to-go.
The French Spot Bakery Delayed in Concord—But Holding Thanksgiving Pop-Up Pies for Pickup
Alas, artisan bakery and pastry shop the French Spot is having a rougher go of it in Concord. Co-owner Vincent Attali says he and his wife, Maria Zapata, were hoping to have already opened the East Bay expansion of their acclaimed San Francisco pastry shop in Oak Grove Plaza near Trader Joe’s but have struggled to line up final inspections with the city—resulting in months of delays. It’s been a source of great frustration (and expense) for the couple, who live and are raising their kids in the Martinez/Concord area and had expected to be offering scratch-made bread and baked goods, pastries, pies, custom cakes, and sandwiches by the end of the summer. Attali has worked at Las Vegas’s three-Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon and New York’s two-Michelin-starred Daniel and learned under the tutelage of his father, a French trained pastry chef, while Zapata worked with chocolatier Jean-Marie Auboine in Las Vegas and was a pastry chef at Esin Restaurant and Bar and Social Bird Kitchen and Bar. The good news is that East Bay residents can get an early taste of the accomplished pair’s work: Preorders are now live for Thanksgiving pies that will be made in San Francisco but available for pickup in Concord on Wednesday, November 26. Click here to see the menu and to order.
Steven Kent Winery Launching New Wine Lounge
Acclaimed winemaker Steven Kent Mirassou is launching a new wine lounge in downtown Livermore. Located on a Second Street property that dates back to the 1880s, Steven Kent on 2nd will offer Steven Kent library wines and current selections that aren’t available at the winery’s existing tasting room on South Vasco Road. The intimate lounge will be primarily an outdoor tasting venue serving wines by the glass and bottle with small snacks, according to details posted on social media. It will operate as a pop-up through the end of the year (once its state alcohol license clears) before establishing regular opening hours by the spring. Sixth-generation winemaker Mirassou, who opened Steven Kent Winery in 2016, has established a reputation for producing top-quality and top-rated cabernets from Livermore grapes with a more recent focus on cabernet franc.
Former Walnut Creek Restaurateur Charged with Robbing Three San Francisco Banks in One Day
Former Walnut Creek restaurateur Valentino Luchin got the New York Times treatment, but not in the way he might once have hoped. The veteran Italian chef who ran popular Venetian-style osteria Ottavio for six years downtown made headlines back in 2018 when he was arrested for robbing an Orinda bank—two years after closing Ottavio. He was arrested again in September and charged with robbing three banks in one day in San Francisco. The Times details Luchin’s sad personal descent after struggling with mounting debts due to that failed Walnut Creek venture. The restaurant business is not an easy one.
Small Bites From Around the East Bay
Less than two years after taking over the former Lalime’s space in North Berkeley, lively pizza lounge Three.one Four has closed “for the time being” due to “ongoing financial headwinds and overwhelming debt from the opening.”
Three-story 39,000-square-foot food hall Castro Valley Marketplace seems to be hitting its stride and got some love in SFGate.
Acclaimed Oakland roaster Red Bay Coffee is closing its sprawling three-story headquarters in the Fruitvale neighborhood—a move that comes a year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This is so 2025: Pickle Athletics, an “indoor pickleball social club with courts, sauna, lounge, and a wine bar and kitchen,” just debuted in Oakland’s Temescal District.
Dining and Cooking