Foodie Friends 62006
For Those Foodie Friends of Ours
By Tom Luther
Foodie Editor
New Finnegan’s: old Americana ambiance in Novato
So where do you go to hang out in Novato? This was the question many people asked. There was no there, there. (Remember that old quote about Oakland?). Now there is a there in Novato. Finnegan’s the name and hangin’ out is the game.
Opened just in time for the Novato Art, Wine, Food and Music Festival June 10th and 11th, the new Finnegan’s was a welcome sight for the cool folks of Novato needing a social diversion. It was so successful that the overflow crowd spilled onto the street, thereby attracting the attention of the local gendarmes. They knew the place only too well as the old Bit O’ Honey, another kind of hangout – for the biker folks – and the source of much unwanted attention. This time it was the local social set and they wanted no part of a riot. So everyone agreed to a peaceful solution and the place was closed at 7.
Such an infamous opening is the setting for a Hemingway novel – maybe Tom Wolfe? Or a song by Chris Isaack. How about Jimmy Buffet’s tune Margaritaville? This is a Jules Broussard kind of place. This place has Cheers written all over it. Or a melodramatic scene in Sex and the City? The place could easily be a setting for a boy meets girl chic flick.
The room is so visually stimulating once you’re past the bland, blend in with the rest of the street exterior that you get the feeling that you’ve just entered the twilight zone. It reminds me of so many bars from my college days back East from way back when – but this place is only a few days old – so where am I? Penn State? Michigan? Notre Dame? Villanova?
Novato? How can this be? My mind has a hard time with this so I go back outside to get reoriented. Looking in the big window next to the door I see lots of people at the long bar along one side of the room and in the booths along the other side of the room. Walking back inside the noise of the voices drowns out my thoughts and I decide to sit and have a drink and ponder what this place reminds me of.
The prodigious wood – the floor, the bar, the back bar, the booths reminds me of so many bars all over the country that will stimulate all those who enter. “This is the intent of Finnegan’s design,” says Henry Hautau, co-owner of Finnigan’s and Kitchen across the street. “My grandfather and uncle owned a bar in Burgen County, New Jersey called P J Finnegan’s, which is just across the George Washington Bridge from New York City. I grew up there and went to college at Villanova. I wound up in the stocks and bonds business and always wanted to have a small bar like the one my grandfather had – so here I am. My son is named Finnegan as well.”
The menu is California casual American grill meets Irish pub including appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pasta, fish, steak and desserts. A few of their specialties include ‘Smoke House Wings’ (Remember Buffaloes don’t fly) says the appetizers menu; BBQ Pork Po’Boy on the sandwiches menu; Fish and Chips (Guinness Beer battered Atlantic Cod) on the entrée menu and IPA Ice Cream on the dessert menu.
“Our wine list will feature wines by the glass and be a mix of local Marin and Sonoma and Napa wines as well as other California regions,” adds Mark Edwards, gm and managing partner. “We will have unique wines on our list such as Heslip, a local Novato winemaker who makes excellent Sangiovese, Syrah and a blend of the two known as ‘Melange a Trois’ on the label. Our wine prices will be very reasonable, in the $6 - $12 range.”
“Our team of restaurant industry experts is led by Lance Taylor, Executive Chef,” says Edwards. “Lance is from Byram, New Jersey and worked at the famous Grafton Inn in Vermont and the Boarshead Inn, Virginia, one of the only four star and four diamond establishments in the U.S. He also contributed to a cooking team at the famous James Beard House. He was working in the catering business with Sylvia Andrews of Delicious Catering in San Rafael when we met him,” Edwards tells me. “Front of the House Manager is Gerlinde Durakovic whose background includes Insalata’s, Left Bank and Seafood Peddler in Marin and Waterfront and Chaya Brasserie in SF.”
“Jason Hoffman, Executive Chef at Kitchen, our restaurant across the street, also contributes his expertise to our team,” reveals Edwards. “Jason’s background includes La Folie, Waterfront, Cliff House, Azie, in SF and Insalata’s in San Anselmo.
Hoffman tells me that when he became the chef at Kitchen he felt like he was at home. “I realized my ideal is this size restaurant – about 45-50 seats in an intimate room that is not ostentatious. I enjoy being creative and making our customers happy. We have regular customers, so it must be working. Some of our more popular menu items are the scallops, Carolina prawns, calamari and the rib eye steak,” he adds.
This makes Grant Ave. and old town Novato the new scene for people watching in Marin. Not to mention dining from casual chic to elegant including some of the best coffee and breakfast places around the county. I’ll see you foodies there.
A new award winning Marin wine
At the ‘Taste of Sausalito’ event during the Caledonia St. Festival I discovered a new winemaker who calls Marin home. His name is Steve Marsh and Bridgeway Cellars is his soon to be famous label. His Sonoma County Zinfandel won a Gold Medal (94 points), at the prestigious California State Fair. His Bridgeway Napa Valley 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon won a Gold Medal at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
“I established Bridgeway Cellars three years ago to produce and market “Fine wines at affordable prices,” explains Steve Marsh. “With all of the wines, I attempt to achieve true varietal and regional character, overall balance, and a moderate price point – around the $20 range.”
Bridgeway Cellars is operating under a negociant model, purchasing bulk wine and blending to achieve the desired characteristics. Blending, final cellar treatment, and bottling is completed at the Laird Family Estate winery in Napa. Consulting winemaker is Alison Green Doran, who first learned winemaking as a teenage apprentice to Andre Tschelicheff. She served as winemaker at Firestone Winery for many years, before returning to her native North Coast and establishing her consulting practice. Her other clients include Jade Mountain, Acorn, Crane Family, Hill Estate, Romeo, Nelson Estate, and Levendi.
“I have been a wine consumer, wine collector, and home wine maker for 30 years,” says Steve Marsh. “Although my first job out of college was as a tour guide at the old Inglenook Winery and I was accepted to a masters program at UC Davis to study winemaking (after a degree in Biology from UC Santa Cruz), I decided that a career in the wine industry was not particularly attractive. For most of the last 20 years I worked in finance related occupations, the last twelve as a business appraiser. (I have an MBA from UCLA with an emphasis in finance.) Although I considered opportunities in the wine industry at several points in my career, I was always scared off by the daunting economics of the industry – it’s very capital intensive with relatively low returns. Eventually I reached a decision that it was time to follow my passion and Bridgeway Cellars was born.”
He also makes a 2003 Syrah Central Coast that is 70% Syrah, Paso Robles 15% Syrah, Santa Barbara County 11% Syrah, Sonoma Valley 4% Viognier, Napa Valley. The Cabernet Sauvignon is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 9% Petit Verdot, Napa Valley, 6.5% Merlot, Napa Valley, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, Bennett Valley. The Zinfandel is 100% Zinfandel, from a selection of Sonoma County vineyards, all over 80 years old. The vines are dry farmed and head pruned, with very low yields.
Contact him at 339-1300 or look him up at his website www.Bridgewaycellars.com
The dirt on Zinfandel
Zinfandel was for many years somewhat of a mystery grape, as far as its origins are concerned. Recent research in Croatia and at the University of California at Davis, using DNA profiling, has proved Zinfandel is a clone of the Croatian variety Crljenak. While it had been theorized that Zinfandel's genetic twin, the Italian Primitivo, was the source, this grape also originally mutated from Crljenak. Further research may indicate the very first plantings migrated from Albania or Greece.
The foodie world is a mysterious world.