When Demian and I found out yesterday that the Bacchus Group (the force behind The Village Pub, Pizza Antica, and Spruce) had just opened up the Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village, we could not resist. As we learned upon entering the restaurant, neither could half of Palo Alto.
Around 8 p.m. on a Friday night, it was packed to the gills with yuppie academic and business types – recession, schmecession. Although the MBC doesn’t take reservations, you can call 30 minutes ahead for a table. Expect to wait longer, though, before you can be seated. Last night, a space at the bar opened up before our table did, so we gladly took a seat there – ultimately, it may have been more roomy than the cozy booths and tables (none of which seemed to accommodate more than four people…tops).
I’m very much a fan of the decor – lots of exposed wood, white marble, clean lines. New American, like the food. Comfortable and (business) casual – although, as Demian astutely pointed out, it’s unlikely that they’d turn away a dude in shorts and Tevas…and Demian didn’t feel too out of place in his graphic tee, zip up hoodie, and jeans.
Food was excellent, for all the same reasons the food at The Village Pub is excellent – seasonal ingredients, classic yet clever flavor profiles. In addition to complimentary bottled water, I opted to take my dinner with a glass of Kabinett Riesling (cold, sweet and refreshing), while Demian had an outstanding vanilla milkshake (!), intense in vanilla bean flavor and totally drinkable thickness. For appetizers, Demian selected the very popular golden, roast beet salad with shaved fennel and yogurt dressing. Even I, who hates beets, thought this salad was delicious – beautifully sweet golden beets, nice crunch of the fennel shavings, and refreshing, slighty sour tang of the yogurt. I chose the grilled shrimp, pancetta, and frisee salad and was very impressed by the hot, flavorful shrimp. The creamy dressing was also so good that I used my fatty pancetta to sop it up. For my entree, I ordered the penne with whipped cauliflower, caper berries, pinenuts and raisins – this was good. First of all, it came out piping hot (just the way I like it). I really enjoyed the combination of the sour caper berries, sweet raisins, nutty pinenuts, creamy and not too salty cauliflower puree, and al dente pasta. This is the new comfort food. Demian was less impressed by his pork shoulder dish, which featured – to his horror – brussel sprouts. We were both expecting the meat to be much more tender and moist than it was, but it may just be the nature of roasted pork shoulder (versus something like braised pork or pork loin). Finally, dessert. When Demian and I didn’t order anything to drink with dessert, our waiter/bartender insisted that we try (on the house) this muscat dessert wine. I’ve never been a fan of dessert wine – usually it’s too sticky sweet or too alcoholy. This wine was the best thing I’ve ever tasted – sweet but not syrupy, full of ripe peach flavor (my favorite fruit!). I could drink this all day, any time of day. I would come back just for that wine. Unfortunately, it very much surpassed my dessert. I had high hopes for my sour cherry bread pudding, but was disappointed that the top of pudding was so hard to chew. Demian ordered the house specialty, which is a very nice carrot cake with a not-too-sweet caramel sauce. I’m not a fan of carrot cake generally, which I usually find too sweet and sugary – this was a much lighter, subtler version of this favorite American treat.
As for service, I was very pleasantly surprised, especially since this is a relatively new restaurant, and it’s only to expected that kinks would need to be worked out. I found the hostess, wait staff, and bartenders very gracious and attentive, despite how busy the evening was. Our water glasses never went empty, and I have to give some major brownie points for the complimentary glass of dessert wine – clearly this guy had been paying attention to what I was eating and drinking that night to know that I would love this wine. There was something of a wait between our appetizers and main courses, but the fact that the entrees came out piping hot (and mine, at least, absolutely perfect) made up for that fact entirely. After a hard week, I found the entire dining experience totally therapeutic. I will definitely be back for more “sessions.”
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