Pizza Champ, Three Twins Delivers, and Sakoon in Mountain View
Tony Gemignani did it! I met him five years ago at the Alameda County Fair, when I dragged Chefs Mike Yakura and Guy Ferri there. We all did demos.
Before our “act,” out came Tony spinning pizzas all over the stage to music.
They say in show business never follow an animal act or little kids. I might add champion pizza tossers. He was a terrific entertainer and his pizza was yummy.
I met Gemignani backstage. I told him, “You should be in North Beach rather than Castro Valley!” And now with the opening last Saturday of
Tony’s Neapolitan Pizza at 1570 Stockton Street at Union, he is! Between Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday night, he says they produced 800 pizzas.
You can check out Tony’s pizza lesson on You Tube.
Before opening in North Beach, Gemignani has been co-owner, with his brother Frank, of a very successful restaurant in Castro Valley called Pyzano’s for several years.
When I stopped in briefly to his new North Beach place on Saturday, I mentioned I had recently dined at Keste, the new pizza rage in Greenwich Village. Gemignani immediately said, “Oh, yes, my friend Roberto.”
His partner Bruno DiFabio, who was massaging some pizza dough, asked me how the pizza was at Keste and I said, “Fantastic.”
No one in the Bay Area – maybe the country – is doing what Tony is doing with the art of pizza making.
First, he has four ovens: one wood-fired, two glass brick (double-decker), and a high-temp electric. Each oven requires a different flour for a different style pizza.
Two of the flours he uses he brings in from Naples by the pallet: 5 Stagioni and San Felice.
And in a wonderful mix of superstition and good luck, he produces only 73 of his award-winning Margherita pizzas per day.
Why, I asked?
“I won the World Competition on San Antonio Day, my name day in Italy, which is always June 13, or 6-13. So I added the six and the one and included the three to equal 73,” he explained.
This postage-sized shop serves eight flavors of only certified organic ice cream. But you won’t get bored, because the flavors change pretty often. The choices are cups, cones, pints, and quarts.
Because there are always sorbets and vegan choices made from rice milk, I could have gone that way. Okay, so half a cup of their ice cream is 210 calories – on the other hand, that’s less calories than a burrito.
But everyone knows that you HAVE to judge an ice cream manufacturer by their vanilla and chocolate ice creams. The Madagascar vanilla had the right amount of vanilla and was luscious and silky in texture. The other half of my cup was bittersweet chocolate, which I could eat everyday. My main complaint with most ice creams is that they are too sweet. This brand is just right and ORGANIC.
It’s really a contradiction that the Left Bank mini-chain is on the one hand celebrating 15 years at its five Bay Area locations and in the same breath closed two of them (Pleasant Hill and San Mateo).
What’s up with that? I have my own theory, but thought I’d ask Ed Levine, co-founder of the Left Bank group.
He said quite frankly, “Those two stores just didn’t do enough business. In fact, they’ve been losing money for a while. San Mateo relied primarily on private dining, it was up to a third of our revenue and that collapsed this year.”
As far as Pleasant Hill (which I enjoyed last year when writing about it for Diablo magazine), Levine explained, “There are so many home foreclosures in that area and that made it a difficult market.”
On the bright side, the Left Bank Brasserie will be celebrating their 15th anniversary by featuring the original menus from July 3 through 12 at the Larkspur location. The initial menu was created to reflect “Cuisine Grandmere” and features the simple traditional French cooking for which Left Bank is known. Starters range from $3.75 to 7.95, salads and sandwiches $4.25 to 9.75, and entrees $9 to15.50.
Left Bank Brasseries also operates
LB Steak, a modern American steakhouse with a French twist. LB Steak is located at Santana Row, San Jose's one-of-a-kind neighborhood that blends a distinctive mix of living, shopping and dining experiences.
Castro Street in Mountain View is restaurant row on steroids. And now there is a promising newcomer.
Sakoon, which opens tomorrow offers diners a blend of traditional and contemporary flavors representing a host of Indian regions. Executive chef Sachin Chopra is manning the stoves and creating dishes like a trio of samosas, tandoori halibut and seabass tikka.
Named for the Indian word for "peace," Sakoon’s décor focuses on an image of Buddha in hand-carved wooden panels. A waterfall cascading into a pool of lotus petals adds a serene note.
Even though I know who wins the big enchilada on Top Chef Masters, (email me if you are curious: graceann@yummyletter.com),
I caught up with shows two and three recently.
First, there is the annoying product placements – I mean, could “cooking from a vending machine” be more insulting?
Second, it’s just plain boring, without any of the verve of the up-and-coming chefs that helped to make the original series a hit. I think the “masters” show little personality and little attitude. Face it – they are really there to promote their restaurants.
And what is most telling when it comes to the executive chefs is that, other than Rick Bayliss and a few others, I wonder how many actually still work the line.
Since so many people are out of work and we’re in a recession, why not challenge these chefs to cook a great meal for a family of four for a pittance; cater a daughter’s wedding on a budget; go to a homeless shelter and cook something great out of donated food for 300 to 600 people, like they used to do at the Haight-Ashbury Food Project every, single day. Now THAT would hold my interest.
Tony Gemignani did it! I met him five years ago at the Alameda County Fair, when I dragged Chefs Mike Yakura and Guy Ferri there. We all did demos. 
I was cruising around the Haight-Ashbury looking for a place to lunch. You know, something light, healthy, maybe vegetarian. And then I spotted 
Sakoon
Even though I know who wins the big enchilada on Top Chef Masters, (email me if you are curious: 