Ok, I just couldn't live with myself keeping this place to myself especially considering that I can't make it out there too often... A couple of weeks ago I had the best dinner I'd had since moving here from the east coast. In was in a small Italian restaurant on route 9, a little south of Boulder Creek, far away hiden behind the Santa Cruz Mountains... We were there on a Saturday night, one of the nights they have fixed price dinners (Sun, Mon, Tue are a la carte nights with the new chef Mario). The owners Joe and Fran are the chefs, and Joe also went around the tables, checking on everyone's dinner. We got there a little after 6:00pm and the 5 course dinner was started with complemetary wine tasting. After trying three different wines we decided to go with a forth one that was personally recommended to us by Joe (I was with people that have known him for years) and it was wonderful. The five course dinner consisted of a choice of Italian apetisers (they are brought to your table on a large tray, about 5-6 choices) with wonderful bread with cloves of garlic and olive oil, second course was a choice of soup or pasta or this Italian dish called (damn, I forget) but it's based on Italian rice with many variations. Third course is the main course. There were 6-8 choices on the menu ranging from veal, pork and steak to pastas, seafood, etc, and 3-4 daily specials. (Not very big on vegetarian entrees though). Then came an after dinner salad and the dessert course, also a large tray brought to your table to choose from. This is not the place to go to if you are in any sort of a rush. We got there a little after 6 and left about 9:15 (we had reservations which are absolutely required, the place was packed, and we were seated right away). It was the most wonderful, leasurely dinner I'd had in months. The cost for the 5-course extravagansa is an incredible $28.00 per person. For 6 people with tax, tip and 2 bottles of excellent wine the total bill was $270.00 pretty unbelievable by any standards. What's the name of this wonder, you ask? It's called Squizi's. Give it a try next time you want to go somewhere real special.
San Francisco Bay Area, CA