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M. Hauser, updated 4-Apr-2013 News: 3/13 Steins Beer Garden and Restaurant opened (895 Villa) to big crowds 3/13 Vaso Azzurro chef opened own restaurant: La Fontaine, 186 Castro 3/13 Temptations (288 Castro) remodeling; ownership transfer notice to “Park Balluchi” 2/13 Olympus Caffe & Bakery replaced Neto, 135 Castro 2/13 March Sunset Magazine has downtown-MV restaurant feature pages 32-34 by Max Hauser When the Essadki brothers sought a second location for their popular San Jose restaurant Morocco’s, they chose Old Mountain View. Morocco’s MV (873 Castro Street) opened in July for dinner and weekday lunch, prompting testimonials on OMVNAtalk. Morocco’s features 150-year-old family Moroccan recipes in a white tablecloth setting. An unusual practice that you should know about is the European-style 15% “service charge” on bills. Signs on tables alert diners to it, but the practice is unusual here and has surprised a few people. Another Morocco’s novelty is live entertainment most nights. This includes jazz, blues, Flamenco guitar, pop, international, and belly dancing. The Mountain View Voice’s calendar announces the entertainment, as does the Web site http://www.moroccosrestaurant.com/mountain-view/  Beet & potato salad. by Max Hauser Agave: A Fiesta del Mar Grill is planned at 194 Castro, former Babbo’s and King of Krung Siam. It’s a new venture of the Casa Feliz group, which owns both Fiesta del Mar restaurants locally and is also part of a larger restaurateur family whose branches operate several distinctive upscale Bay Area Mexican restaurants including La Fiesta (240 Villa), Vive Sol, and Palo Alto Sol. B’Zu Café is the new name for the former Ristorante Zucca at 186 Castro. Brief remodeling followed an employee buyout and Zucca owner Praveen Singha’s retirement. Such menu changes as occur will be slow, the new managing owner told me; she plans to continue Zucca’s Mediterranean- Greek focus. I stopped by a couple of times after the re-opening and enjoyed a good-value, upscale grilled lunch special. by Fharzana Elankumaran I came to Mountain View for the first time back in 2009 when my husband and I were house hunting. We weren’t able to find a suitable place for us back then, but we fell in love with Old Mountain View so much that we were determined to live here sooner or later. We moved to this beautiful neighborhood a year and a half ago and I have loved living here every single day. They say that you should do what makes you happy for a living. I love to cook. Period. I have a very strong culinary background in Bengali and South Indian cuisines. I am from Bangladesh and my husband is from South India. While I was trying to figure out what I can do with my skills, knowledge, and passion for cooking, I started to write a cookbook. My family and friends call asking me to give them recipes or explain to them how to do certain things in the kitchen. Often, they tell me how much more illuminating it is to see a demonstration than to receive directions on paper, which led me in the direction of hosting my own cooking classes. I started my boutique cooking school ‘I Heart Curry’ (iheartcurry.com). by Carol Lewis May and June offer wonderful things to do in and around Mountain View with family, friends, guests. Right now it’s the start of wildflower season in the area. Russian Ridge and other open space preserves offer wonderful vistas of fauna and flora. Roaring Camp offers two great trips: an hour-long train ride through a Santa Cruz redwood forest where you can see an abundance of wildflowers, and a longer one, a trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and back. Both offer great scenery and a neat experience on a real steam train. Roaring Camp is located adjacent to Henry Cowell State Park, the home of a spectacular grove of huge redwoods. You can also walk along the stream in the park or in the shallow waters of the stream. There are places to swim or sit on the wide stream banks and enjoy a picnic. Children delight in wading in the foot deep waters or throwing pebbles in the clear, cool steam waters. There is also a great Italian Restaurant, The Oak Tree Ristorante, a few blocks from the entrance to the park with wonderful outdoor seating. by Carter Coleman The former Asian market at 340 Castro Street is now owned and operated by a husband and wife dynamic duo, Juan and Ann Origel. by the Editor & Assistant Editor Our fall was enlivened by an entertaining OMVNATalk discussion that some of you may have missed. Proximity to Halloween may have had some connection to ‘Spidergate’. We thought we would add our little bit. First, the authors would note that until they moved here, they had never seen so many spiders. Do we have the perfect climate and ecosystem here for these sometimes too friendly 8-legged creatures? Our first week here the editor, visiting a disused shed in the back yard, returned completely entangled in the spider webs that are so difficult to remove because of the amazing strength of spider silk. Some of us welcome our spiders; others don’t appreciate their bug-controlling efforts. Black widows (see below) eat cockroaches and flies in large quantities, thus saving your home from these pests, analogous to the Thai practice of having cobras in your garden to control the rat population. If you don’t appreciate the spider webs around your house and yard, you can try to eliminate them, but you may have little luck, as spiders have evolved to be great producers of spider webs (except for those like wolf spiders and jumping spiders who’ve adapted to other hunting techniques). CLICK HERE to read more. by Elizabeth Sarmiento Mountain View has city-wide Wi-Fi, OMVNA summer parties, Summer Night Movies, and Thursday Night Live, but that’s not all–starting this summer, a new home energy savings program is available to all Mountain View residents, and it’s free! Energy Upgrade Mountain View (EUMV) is a City-sponsored initiative offering free home energy [...] Check out the talented dancers we have in the neighborhood! by Deb Keller, OMVNA At-Large #1 Thanks to a generous donation from the Tied House, we’re having a party! The Tied House is donating Fog City Amber to a summer party set for June 18, 5:00-8:00 PM. CLICK HERE to read more. |
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