Teatro Zinzanni Brunch, Spicy in Foster City, Another Mary’s Pizza Shack
Come September, the popular show and dining venue, Teatro Zinzanni – and yes, the food is very good – is adding a three-course brunch show. This is really cool, because not everyone wants to schlep to the City at night.
The show will be called Teatro Zinzanni Breve (breve means brief) and will run 90 minutes plus brunch. It will run from noon until 2 p.m. on select Saturdays beginning September 26. The price of the new matinee show has not been determined.
One of my favorite restaurants is Spices II Szechuan Trenz (291 Sixth Ave., 415-752-8885) from owner Jack Wang. The original Spices is located nearby (294 Eighth Ave.
Once I fell in love with some of the dishes at Spices II, I never went down a couple of blocks to number one.
I dream of their pork kidney dish with numbing spice oil. Tender, cooked rare-ish, it is enlivened with Szechuan pepper oil. (Those peppers reputedly have a numbing quality.)
The last time I was there I had the squid, cut like pine cones with chili oil, dried red chillies and chili flakes. This dish was easily the spiciest dish I have ever eaten. With my chopsticks, I extracted a piece of squid and shook it to remove some of the chillies. Being fair-skinned, I knew that I was rapidly turning as red as my hair.
Now, I hear that Wang, who also has a Spices
III in Oakland (369 12th St., 510-625-8889), is opening on the Peninsula in Foster City.
This fourth in his mini-empire is nameless so far, and is a departure from the first three. It is located in the former Portofino at 929A Edgewater Blvd.
Wang says he has been working on this restaurant since March and expects to open August 14. Part of the departure from the others is that this one will be 150 seats, be white tablecloth, and have a full bar.
I chased Wang between his three restaurants for a week to secure an interview about Foster City. When I finally did reach him, I found him so interesting that he will be the subject of my Cook’s Chat in the August issue of Northside San Francisco, the magazine owned by my Yummy partner, Susan Dyer Reynolds.
Transplanted Italian-American New Yorker Mary Fazio opened Mary’s Pizza Shack in 1959. I love her story: she took $700 and her pots and pans and began making her home-style recipes in a veritable shack at Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma.
Fifty years later, Mary’s is still family owned and boasts 18 stores in Northern California.
Cullen Williamson, who married into the family and who is now listed as the owner, says that Mary’s is stepping into the fast-casual segment by spring of next year.
They haven’t locked in a location yet, but it will be in the Sonoma Valley. The concept is that customers will order at a counter and runners will bring the food.
As far as food, the menu will concentrate on 30 items instead of the 120 on a traditional Mary’s menu.
The new spot will have 50 seats and will be price sensitive. The working name is Rostini Italian Kitchen. And yes, there will be roasted chicken, roasted vegetables and brick oven pizza.
No one got all the answers right on last week’s Yummy contest. Thanks to all of you who tried! In the meantime, here are the answers to last week’s quiz:
1. What cookbook won the James Beard Award for best cookbook in 2008?
Answer: Fat by Jennifer McLagan
2. What cookbook was the best selling cookbook of 2008?
Answer: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics
3. What is the name of what is considered to be the oldest cookbook in Western culture?
Apicus (about Roman cooking) from the 4th or 5th century
Don’t miss a free cooking demonstration with chef Christian Hermsdorf of Bar Bambino, my new favorite eatery in the Mission. He’ll make their famous mini meatballs and I’ll talk about Mission history.
After years spent immersed in California cuisine at Avenue 9, then French cuisine at Citron, Hermsdorf found himself being drawn to a simpler expression of ingredients at Bar Bambino. Join us at Bloomingdale’s in San Francisco at 2 p.m. on July 19. Come hungry!
The show will be called Teatro Zinzanni Breve (breve means brief) and will run 90 minutes plus brunch. It will run from noon until 2 p.m. on select Saturdays beginning September 26. The price of the new matinee show has not been determined. 
near Clement St., 415-752-8884).
I dream of their pork kidney dish with numbing spice oil. Tender, cooked rare-ish, it is enlivened with Szechuan pepper oil. (Those peppers reputedly have a numbing quality.)
Fifty years later, Mary’s is still family owned and boasts 18 stores in Northern California.
Apicus (about Roman cooking) from the 4th or 5th century
Don’t miss a free cooking demonstration with chef Christian Hermsdorf of Bar Bambino, my new favorite eatery in the Mission. He’ll make their famous mini meatballs and I’ll talk about Mission history. 