Kathleen Hill: New Year’s food news, from crabs to Spam
Murphy's Irish Pub is wide open
Contrary to what you might have read in this column last week, Murphy's Irish Pub is wide open. Some of us had found it closed occasionally.
So my giant apologies to everyone involved. I corrected and apologized for erroneous information on the Index-Tribune's Facebook page, Murphy's Facebook page, as well as my own Facebook page and made seven statements of corrections and apologies on two radio shows on Saturday. Fortunately it looked as if many people found the 4 p.m. Dublin New Year's celebration after all.
According to partner Bob Smith, Murphy's is open with their full menu from 5 to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, with Locals Night specials on Tuesdays and Trivia Night on Wednesdays. 454 First Street East, Sonoma. 935-0660. Sonomapub.com.
Salt & Stone adds Happy Hour
Kenwood residents and those from Sonoma who have ventured north on Highway 12 to Salt & Stone in Kenwood (or south from Santa Rosa) are loving it. On Tuesday, Jan. 2, the LaMonicas launched a great-sounding Happy Hour menu, which is now available 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Watch for $5 well cocktails, mostly $5 pints on tap from Ballast Point, St. Florian's, Bear Republic, Henhouse, Moonlight, Lagunitas and Stella Artois. Lots of fine bottled beers and a crisp apple cider. A glass of red wine is $6 and white is $5.
All Happy Hour eats are $6 and include crispy curry calamari, a half-pound of steamed PEI mussels, blackened fish tacos, peel-and-eat prawns, Kennebec fries, crispy duck confit spring rolls, grilled flatbread, a cheese and charcuterie plate, and a quarter-pound house-ground burger with cheddar and aioli on a brioche bun. Plus oysters three ways. Check it out where Kenwood Restaurant used to be, 9900 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. 833-6326, 5 to 9 p.m. daily.
Pot in restaurants
And we are not talking pots in the kitchens.
Now that recreational marijuana sales are legal with at least three stores in Sonoma County, Lisa Mattson posed some interesting questions and thoughts on Facebook Monday in which she brought up the effect of pot smokers' leftover odors on their clothes and hair overwhelming restaurant customers at nearby tables in other states where she has tried to dine.
She wonders whether chefs have considered the effect on customers' dining and wine-tasting room experiences and the effect of staffers smoking pot on breaks, not that they all abstain now.
What are your thoughts and experiences?
Dungeness crab is back, and pricey!
After delayed and halted crabbing seasons, crab fishing is back on track on California's north coast, with crabs looking (unofficially) larger than in recent years – perhaps since they have been in the ocean longer to grow. Over New Year's weekend they were priced at local markets at $12.99 a pound, much of which is shell. If you indulge, you can always boil the shells to use in soups or sauces.
Some families' traditions include crab on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and some Sonoma Market customers said they were going to bite the bullet and use some of the meat in soup and the rest in salads the next day –stretching a local specialty.
Winter spiff-ups
Some restaurants take a break in what used to be Sonoma's slow time (winter) to do deep cleaning, sometimes painting, carpet cleaning and more and, in some cases, to give their hard-working staff a little down time.
Glen Ellen Star will be closed from now through Thursday, Jan. 11, and will reopen for dinner service on Friday, Feb. 12. Ari Weisswasser, Erinn Benziger Weisswasser and friends look forward to seeing everyone again then.
The Swiss Hotel will closed on Sunday, Jan. 7, and reopen on Friday, Jan. 12 at 11:30 a.m. for lunch, and at 5 p.m. for dinner.
The Girl & the Fig will close Monday, Jan. 8, and reopen when they are finished with their touch-up.
The Fig Café & Wine Bar in Glen Ellen will remain open Wednesday through Sunday nights. Santé at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn will be closed through Jan. 16, but the 38 North lounge will be open with Santé-level bar food, all reasonably priced. Hint: try the French onion soup.
Guy Fieri's New York closure
Santa Rosa area resident, Guy Fieri, apparently served his last meal at his Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve, according to Eater New York.
Fieri opened the restaurant in 2012 and suffered a scathing review by the influential Pete Wells in the New York Times. But Guy's was one of the country's highest grossing restaurants in 2016, well after Wells' negative review.
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