Food & Drink: Going coastal Food & Drink: Going coastal (August 03, 2005)

From down home to deluxe, Coastside restaurants offer many options for summer dining From down home to deluxe, Coastside restaurants offer many options for summer dining (August 03, 2005)

By Jane Knoerle

Almanac Lifestyles Editor

These long summer evenings are a great time to go over the hill. A 30-minute drive takes you a world away to Half Moon Bay.

The little town is quiet and sometimes misty at night, after the beach crowd heads home, but you'll find a surprisingly lively restaurant scene.

After compiling personal preferences and recommendations from friends, we are listing a few of the many good restaurants worth a drive over to the coast. Cetrella Bistro and Cafe and Pasta Moon are two of my favorites, but there are many other options, from Navio at the ritzy Ritz-Carlton to down-home Duarte's.
Cetrella Bistro and Cafe

845 Main Street Half Moon Bay 726-4090

"Farm fresh" takes on new meaning at Cetrella, the handsome Mediterranean restaurant housed in the historic former Half Moon Bay Growers Association building.

Owner Paul Shenkman has established a close working relationship with local growers, and proudly lists their fruits and vegetables on the menu. There is a fritto misto of Giusti Farms' artichokes and local squash. Local heirloom tomatoes are paired with imported mozzarella. Home-grown apricots, filled with ricotta cheese and local squash blossoms, are stuffed with goat cheese.

Farmers also come to sell their fresh produce at the Coastside Market held Saturday mornings in Cetrella's parking lot.

What a treat it was to dine at Cetrella last week after spending several days in land-locked Indiana. For a first course we ordered oven-roasted sardines stuffed with raisins and pine nuts ($9). Sounds weird, but they were superb. I found myself picking up every crumb of the fish's crunchy crust.

Spaghetti with fresh seafood, tomato and white wine, featured on the weekly prix fixe dinner special ($24.95), was light, flavorful and satisfying. It was loaded with seafood, including mussels and sweet giant prawns in the shell.

My guest loved the roasted halibut with summer squash, wild mushrooms and a white corn sauce ($24).

We shared a luscious fresh peach tartin with ice cream, scraping up every bit of buttery caramel.

Cetrella's signature dish is zarzuela, a Catalonian shellfish stew ($25). It's said to be more complex and subtler than cioppino and is filled with clams, mussels, shrimp and cracked Dungeness crab in a tomato and saffron broth.

Cetrella hosts a series of wine-lovers dinners. The next one, a five course "A Taste of Provence" wine tasting and dinner, takes place Tuesday, August 16. Cost is $85 per person plus tax and tip. For reservations call 726-4090.
Pasta Moon

315 Main Street Half Moon Bay 726-5125

Organic produce from local growers has been a staple of Pasta Moon's menu since it opened 17 years ago. An open kitchen and wood-burning oven bring the warmth and coziness of an Italian ristorante to this local favorite.

The menu changes seasonally and is a blend of rustic and light contemporary dishes. It is always based on the freshness of local produce, which is the essence of Italian cooking, according to Pasta Moon's owner Kim Levin.

On a recent foggy evening we started our dinner with the fresh peach salad, made with watercress, goat cheese, bits of hazelnut praline and a prosecco vinaigrette. It tasted like the essence of summer.

Wood oven-roasted wild king salmon ($26) was served on a bed of English peas and baby summer squash in a saffron rock shrimp broth. The salmon was so good it didn't need the added rock shrimp flavor.

My guest liked the toasted almonds and roasted fresh apricots served with her roast chicken ($21).

The pasta special was house-made linguini with porcini and morel mushrooms, prosciutto, green and white asparagus and porcini mushroom cream ($20).

If the rest of the meal had been a flop, the strawberry shortcake ($8) would have made the trip worthwhile. Sweet, ripe berries, a shortcake that was not too sweet or doughy, and whipped cream -- the best shortcake ever.

Pasta Moon is open daily. Lunch is served Monday through Saturday, with brunch on Sunday.
Cafe Gibraltar

425 Alhambra El Granada 560-9039

We've heard good things about Cafe Gibraltar from Almanac staff members, including one who lives in Montara. That's where the cafe had rather humble digs before moving to a more spacious location down the coast. The new location, on the east side of Highway 1, also offers a partial view of the ocean.

Cafe Gibraltar specializes in hearty Mediterranean dishes. Algeria, Italy, Spain, France and Greece are all represented on the ambitious menu. The cafe also offers a weekly prix fixe dinner from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday for $20. Last week's special featured soup or salad, and an entree of wood-roasted salmon, lamb shank with tomatoes and chickpeas, or an Algerian-style vegetable couscous. Dessert was either a sorbet or fig galette (tart). The regular menu offers several Moroccan-style tagines.

Cafe Gibraltar is open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday and is closed Monday.
It's Italia Pizzeria

40 K Stone Pine Center Half Moon Bay 726-4444

It's Italia is tucked into the Stone Pine Center just off Main Street. This is no cheese and pepperoni pizza palace. The pizzas include the Half Moon Bay (artichoke hearts, caramelized onions, shiitake mushrooms and Italian sausage; $8.95, small) and the Flower Market (pears, prosciutto, Gorgonzola, and caramelized onions; $12.95, small).

It's Italia also features house-made gnocchi, risotto, and 12 pasta dishes, including seafood ravioli served with prawns and scallops ($14.95) and wild mushroom chicken pasta ($13.50). Chicken marsala, chicken piccata and lemon caper salmon are also menu regulars.

Desserts include a Main Street fruit cobbler served with vanilla ice cream ($5), and affogato -- espresso drizzled over vanilla ice cream, topped with white chocolate whipped cream ($5.50).

It's Italia is a favorite with staff writer Marjorie Mader and her husband, George, who like to end a busy week with a Friday night drive to the coast. They like the roasted vegetable lasagne and fresh vegetables baked in a phyllo dough with a tomato sauce. The strawberry shortcake, made with a hint of ginger and lots of heavy cream, is a favorite.

It's Italia is open daily for lunch and dinner.
Barbara's Fish Trap

281 Capistrano Road Princeton-by-the-Sea 728-7049

You gotta love Barbara's Fish Trap. It's located in a little red building on stilts, hanging over the sea, and featuring a cozy, glassed-in front patio and a dining room with fish nets dangling from the ceiling and windows. You sit at tables covered with red and white checked oilcloth or perch at picnic tables outside.

Barbara's is famous for two dishes: New England clam chowder and fish 'n chips. It also has a Dungeness crab sandwich, salmon burgers, seafood tempura and both shrimp and crab Louis.

I have neighbors who eat at Barbara's almost every week. It's the kind of place that invites regulars. It is open daily at 11 a.m. and there's always a line out the door. Prices are reasonable, and no credit cards are accepted.
Navio, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel

1 Miramontes Point Road Half Moon Bay 712-7000

If you feel like "puttin' on the ritz," what better place than the elegant Navio restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel? Navio resembles the hull of a ship and the nautical feeling is emphasized with a sleek mahogany bar and models of sailing vessels. Every table has an ocean view.

Navio is dedicated to presenting coastal cuisine and relies on local farmers for many of its ingredients. A signature dish is Dungeness crab salad with artichoke carpaccio, pickled chanterelles and baby celery.

The Navio six-course dinner tasting menu is $85. Last week's menu featured salmon sashimi, Maine lobster tail, seared foie gras with rabbit apricot stew, braised veal breast with carrots and chamomile, summer truffle and strawberry salad with robiola cheese, and eucalyptus ice cream and milk chocolate-flavored sponge cake with chocolate cream and hibiscus jelly for dessert.

A la carte entrees, such as salmon with Half Moon Bay artichokes or Alaskan halibut with eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms, cost $34.

Navio is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Duarte's Tavern

202 Stage Road Pescadero 879-0464

This landmark restaurant started out as a tavern back in 1894. In 2003 it was chosen by the James Beard Foundation as an American classic. Today the fourth generation of the family operates the restaurant.

Duarte's is best known for its artichoke dishes (including cream of artichoke soup and artichoke omelet), deep fried calamari, crab cioppino, and cracked Dungeness crab. Cream of green chile soup is another favorite.

Some folks say Duarte's olallieberry pie is the nation's finest. The July 1 issue of Life magazine published an article calling olallieberry at Duarte's the best pie in America, according to an article in the July 18 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Three generations of Duarte women have baked the famous pies. Today, three cooks turn out dozens of pies daily, including apple, peach, and blueberry.

Weekends are big at Duarte's. People like to take their kids and dogs for a romp on the beach, then head back to the friendly tavern for a down-home dinner with the best the coast has to offer.

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