After a long hiatus, Laurie and Wes Kendrick are back in the restaurant business at Table 34, formerly Wild Sage Café. Their many local fans, and I count myself as one, couldn't be happier.
What happened serves as a cautionary tale for newcomers to the business. Buoyed by their success at the original Warm Springs Road location, they opened a second restaurant on Sahara Avenue, and soon after, a series of problems began.
Eventually, they were forced to close both locations, but this story has a happy ending. The original landlords missed them so much, they decided to offer them a second chance, though for the moment, the Kendricks are employees, not owners. Perhaps they will own this restaurant again one day. Let's hope so.
The restaurant is now larger and more attractive than ever (the redesign is by well-known local architect Roger Thomas), and the kitchen, always top-notch, rarely misses a beat. That's Laurie greeting customers at the podium, while her brother Wes, a large man always seen in chef's whites, mans the stoves with his capable team.
Design appointments include travertine tables and hard wooden chairs, a simulated hardwood floor, and an abundance of earthy colors. What used to be an outdoor patio has been enclosed under the roof, and is now a sit-down bar. The cranberry walls are partly hidden by a troika of giant mirrors with glossy black frames that majestically extend the restaurant's space.
Table 34 serves lunch and dinner, and I almost prefer the lunch, when the chef does terrific sandwiches and pizzas to go along with his homey soups, opulent salads and indulgent entrées. I'm still dreaming about a salami pizza with olive tapenade and roasted garlic I ate last week. It was one of the best pizzas I've had in years.
Kendrick is a protégé of Wolfgang Puck, and the thin-crusted, creatively topped pizzas Spago is famous for obviously influenced him. Our pizza came to the table thin and crisp, artistically topped with slices of sizzling salami, shards of crunchy garlic and a smear of pungent black-olive tapenade.
Purists might prefer the pizza with mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and basil, but an Italian sausage pizza with roasted peppers and garlic is good enough to convert anyone but a die-hard vegetarian to its conceit.
My favorite lunch is a BLT, made with the added pleasures of avocado and watercress between thick slices of lightly toasted sourdough bread. The kitchen also does a fine, sloppy hot pastrami and Swiss on pumpernickel (the sandwich is a little heavy on the mustard, though, so have them go light if you don't fancy too much), and a nice apple-smoked ham and Tilamook cheese with Dijon on herbed foccaccia, as well.
My favorite lunch entrée, by coincidence, is the only one not available on the dinner menu. That would be chicken potpie with root vegetables and a side of mixed greens, a fairly classic puff-pastry top encasing a velouté of white and dark meat chicken, and an abundance of hearty vegetables. Think Franco-American, not the company that brings us Beefaroni but the cultural hybrid.
Dinners tend to be quieter and slower than lunch, even when the restaurant is full. Evenings, the menu takes a fancier turn, to fare like smoked oysters with barbecue sauce, caramelized shallots and crostini, or house smoked salmon on potato galette with parsley shallot cream, a page from the house of Puck but nonetheless worthy.
Soups like apple-butternut squash puree and New England clam chowder are rustic and filling (though I wish someone in this town would do a New England clam chowder like the real thing and not thickened with flour), while salads, like Riesling poached pear with Belgian endive and a walnut oil vinaigrette, manage to be creative and tasteful: nice, light set pieces that entice the palate for what follows.
No matter how often I am tempted by the chef's oven-roasted half duckling with wild rice pilaf and port wine-cherry reduction, or his classic rack of lamb with potato-fennel gallette and brandy peppercorn sauce, I always come back to the herb-roasted chicken, a dish I just can't resist for its crisp skin, moist flesh and wonderful apple-sage dressing.
Another entrée worth a try is braised beef pot roast with herb spaetzle and bordelaise sauce. Pass on the seared Atlantic salmon with cauliflower puree and lemon-dill butter, however. It's a clever idea, but who would want to eat insipid, farm-raised salmon when we are so close to the Pacific, where salmon swim wild and taste good.
Every dessert is made on the premises, and all of them are completely delicious. One I can't resist is the house lime tart, a wedge with a Graham-cracker pecan crust, and a light filling reminiscent of grandma's custard. The fluffy lemon cheesecake and a vanilla bean crème brûlée are not to be missed, either. You can start that diet tomorrow.
Everyone deserves a second chance, and so far, Laurie and Wes Kendrick are making the most of theirs.