Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
Bird Dog has now been open a week, and judging by the crowds it’s filling a need. It feeds the younger VC crowd so the food is very reasonably priced. But it must also be expecting some IPOs so the wine list includes some astronomical prices. Anyway, Bird Dog has converted the Mandarin Gourmet space at 420 Ramona into a very attractive room, with high relieved ceilings, judicious use of wood, and comfortable spacing. Noise level can be energetic but the ceiling height and design moderate the volume and spread.
The menu is limited, at least for now, with six appetizers (all raw), five mains, four vegetable sides, and three desserts. appetizers range from $11 (wood-grilled avocado, which doesn’t sound raw to me) to $18 (big eye tuna) while mains, if you can believe it, range only from $15 (chicken thigh) to $26 (Wagyu ribeye). There are no vegetarian mains at this point. The portions are smallish but I hesitate to label them tapas. Given that the menu is basically Californian colored withJapanese (and Thai and Vietnamese) that would make sense.
The wine list, on the other hand, is quite large and unusually unusual. There are a lot of French bottles to complement the many California ones (along with a smattering of Italians and Germans and just a couple of Spanish, Austrian, and South Africans). I thought the selection of California Pinot Noirs to be especially well-chosen, ranging from the Central Coast through Russian River to a fine group from Anderson Valley, from which the most Burgundian of the California Pinots emerge. When is the last time you had your choice of six different Chenin Blancs, or seven Gamays (five from France and one each from the U.S. and Italy)? There are some downright bargains, like a French Muscadet or white or red Saumur in the low $30s, even a Cahors for under $40, which the Cheverny might have been also. There is a smattering of older vintages (really, such as 1990s and even a magnum of 1975 something that, for $565, I would not order, even just for the experience). The IPO sections include probably a dozen Sine Qua Non bottles (like who in their right mind would by $1600 for a recent vintage of Grenache?) and a multidecade vertical of Mayacamas Cabernets. Corkage is $25 per bottle, maximum of two.
I have not eaten at Bird Dog yet but I will look for a chance when my travels have settled down.
Monday, November 9, 2015
It’s a bird. It’s a dog. It’s Bird Dog.