Kathleen Hill: Cliff House redux, ripe strawberries and more

Watmaugh strawberries open

Yes, they are back, in case you are not on social media and didn’t know.

The Watmaugh stand opened last weekend and actually had some berries left at the end of Sunday. Some of us waited a few days to go there to avoid lines.

The owners suggest you call ahead to their cell number – 916-207-2870 — to check if they are open. They also encourage everyone to buy only what you can eat or otherwise use since “they spoil fast,” which does not necessarily mean they are organic, but more likely that they are picked ripe.

They also sell other vegetables grown at related farms and will eventually have some grown here. 1120 Watmaugh Road, Sonoma. Open approximately 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Cliff House rises again

Many of you remember the end of 2020 when Sonoma residents Mary and Dan Hountalas took down their Cliff House sign in San Francisco and relinquished their restaurant back to the National Park Service because they couldn’t agree on a new lease.

And many more of us miss their food, the sumptuous buffets, and the view hanging over the Pacific Ocean.

This month the Hountalas’s son-in-law, Ralph Burgin, turned up at the Marin Center Sunday Farmers Market with “Cliff House Classic,” offering a short menu to start with.

Asked if he met his wife Vickie Hountalas at the Cliff House, he told an even better story.

In 1988 Ralph was living and working in London with Anton Mosimann, a famed Swiss chef who earned a two-Michelin star rating for the Dorchester Hotel in London. Chef Mosimann sent Ralph to a management course in Lausanne, Switzerland. Vickie was sent by her father for the same course, but her flight was delayed in Denver and she arrived a day late.

When she finally got to the classroom, there was only one empty seat left, right next to Ralph. And now they have been married 30 years, live near Novato where they have three kids and rescue animals, and he grows about 1,500 tomato plants a year.

He said, “The outdoors, the direct contact with like-minded people in a place that grows just phenomenal products — being in the middle of all that quality and using it to make tasty dishes just makes me happy.”

Burgin started at the Cliff House in 1998, worked as general manager for 22 years and then became chef de cuisine at Sutro’s restaurant in 2015.

Ralph’s Cliff House Classic menu is topped with their prize-winning Bloody Mary mix, organic margarita mix and a popover baking mix.

Their famous clam chowder is only $7.50 per 16-ounce container, and you can get their ranch or Caesar dressing for $9.95 for 16 ounces. I can’t wait to try the pound of braised organic carrots or roasted Brussels sprouts for $7.95 each, and their saffron risotto with asparagus and lemon mascarpone for $9.95 a pound.

Potato salad with egg and celery is $8.95 a pound, and the red beet salad with champagne vinegar costs $9.95. Worth the trip, I am sure, as must be the chocolate chip, cherry and oat cookie at $5.75.

Is this just the start of a new Cliff House? The classic sign is stored secretly.

While you are at the Marin Center Farmers Market, you might try The Farmer’s Wife’s sandwiches and get a half or whole rotisserie chicken cooked by French chefs who drip-roast the potatoes by letting the hot chicken grease fall and drip on them below.

Last chance for Tailwags & Handbags

Midnight tonight is the last chance to get your luncheon ticket for the virtual Tailwags & Handbags to help Pet’s Lifeline, Sonoma’s only no-kill pet rescue center that works tirelessly to find forever homes for cats and dogs in need of family.

Guests can even pull together home parties to sip, sup and shop for jazzy or just plain perfect donated handbags, jewelry, and even sunglasses, and enjoy a delightful Girl & the Fig lunch at your home or someone else’s on Friday, April 30.

The VIP ticket includes a sneak peek in person for the entire auction as well as a lunch for two of a local cheese and salami plate, with Fig Food condiments, a bottle of wine, spring pea chopped salad with rhubarb dressing, a grilled flatbread, a warm lentil and chickpea salad with curry essence, harissa rubbed cauliflower or wood roasted chicken, salsa verde and a strawberry trifle with hazelnut brown sugar crumble, delivered to your door. $225.

The take-home lunch for two consists of the same salad, flatbread, and the cauliflower or chicken choice with a toffee crunch cookie at $150.

Oak Hill Farm reopens Red Barn

While you can purchase all sorts of produce from Oak Hill Farm and others at the Friday morning farmers market near Depot Park, you can also enjoy slightly different vegetables and flowers and more at the Red Barn, right across Highway 12 from B.R. Cohn winery. The Red Barn is a cozier, quieter locale that even has a picnic table in front in case you need to sit right down and nibble your purchases.

Otto (“Mose”) and Anne Teller always respected the “First Peoples” who lived on the land hundreds of years before they acquired it, and committed their acreage and lives to sound, sustainable and environmental practices.

I first knew them in San Francisco, but got to know Anne much better here in Sonoma through Oak Hill and the many cultural, political and environmental causes they supported. Anne helped organize the Sonoma Land Trust and the Teller/Bucklin property was the first dedicated land, meaning it will never be developed.

We lost Mose more than 20 years ago and Anne (and her hat) in 2019, but her family carries on their organic agricultural practices. Anne’s daughter Arden Bucklin Sporer, who coordinated the San Francisco school gardens around the Bay Area for many years, and Kate Bucklin now oversee the vegetable and flower gardens and sell on Saturdays with the help of Justine Filipello.

Since it was all once a cattle ranch, the famous Red Barn actually functioned as a milking barn at one time, so enjoy your quiet time there. You will find Hakuri turnips, radishes, asparagus, arugula, Little Gem lettuces, sugar snap peas, and lots of flowers such as ranunculus, agrostemma, peonies, bachelor buttons and sweet peas. 15101 Sonoma Highway, Glen Ellen 996-6643.

‘Shark Tank’ winners Truffle Shuffle at Corner 103

Truffle Shuffle’s two founders, Jason McKinney and Tyler Vorce, who say they cooked at the French Laundry, have indeed introduced a food-related shuffle that actually got a “deal” on last Friday’s “Shark Tank” show on ABC.

Hundreds of people have “cooked” at the French Laundry or Chez Panisse who could have been unpaid interns, interns who paid to be there, or actual staffers, but no one answered my specific question as to what McKinney and Vorce did there. You do have to be good at the art and trade to even get in the kitchen door, but the Corner 103 press release refers to them, without naming them, as “Michelin Star trained chefs.” They haven’t won a Michelin star, but the French Laundry has.

Basically, Truffle Shuffle has created some truffle salt products, and after loads of sales, have netted $6,000. On the show, self-proclaimed “Mr. Wonderful” and “Chef Wonderful” Canadian Kevin O’Leary and Mark Cuban got into a discussion of whether their value was in their product (O’Leary) or in the “experience” they offer (Cuban) via their $90 virtual classes. Cuban prevailed and gave them the best deal.

Had Corner 103 had told us in time, you could have signed up for Truffle Shuffle’s virtual class, and a kit that included two flat iron steaks, frites, and some truffle with caramelized onion jam to replicate the Zoom class that takes place tomorrow.

Should you be interested in creating a similar meal, Corner 103 recommends their 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon or 2018 Malbec to accompany the dish.