It is with much sadness that Le Continental announces the closure on August 10th, 2013, of the Bella Vista restaurant in Woodside, CA, operating since at least 1945 as the Bella Vista (in a roadhouse that dates back to 1927). One of Le Continental’s readers notified me a couple of days ago and the news was announced in the Almanac yesterday.
Here is an ad for the restaurant from the San Mateo Times, August 8, 1945:
As far as I know, the only remaining classic Continental restaurant in the greater Bay Area is the Iron Gate in Belmont.
Acting on a tip by Peter Morruzzi, last May I met some friends at Old Trieste, a 50-year-old Italian restaurant in San Diego. After my visit it has become a new favorite for me for the good food, but also for the wonderful old-fashioned service and elegant original decor and atmosphere. Thanks, Peter!
Old Trieste was opened in 1963 by Ramiro ‘Tommy’ Tomicich, who was born in Trieste, Italy. In those days the dress code of dresses for ladies and jackets and ties for men was strictly enforced. Over the years Tommy hosted celebrities and politicians including Frank Sinatra, Anthony Quinn, and Dr. Seuss. In 1998 when Ramiro ‘Tommy’ Tomicich passed away his son Larry Tomicich took over running the restaurant that he has worked at since he was 13 years old. Larry greets you at Old Trieste when you walk in the door – talk about good ol’ fashioned service!
Owner and maître d’ Larry Tomicich. Image from Old Trieste’s facebook page.
The interior is lovely and appears mostly original from 1963. There is a curvy bar with great low-back vintage bar stools covered with sparkly blue Naugahyde, a dining room surrounded by booths with white tuck ‘n’ roll (all the tables are booths!), white linen tablecloths, vintage framed art on the walls, and chandeliers. The walls even have original wood paneling tiles, alternating with decorative mirrors with inlaid gold patterns (that were so popular in the 1960s), and red drapes.
Old Trieste dining room. Image from Old Trieste’s facebook page.
The menu is classic Italian / Continental fare. All tables receive the house special appetizer of fried zucchini. Specialties include veal and filet mignon, each offered in several different preparations, chicken livers Treistina, cannelloni, and seafood. Dinners come with pasta and soup or salad. I had the house special of chicken cannelloni and medaglione Romano (steak medallions with a mushroom sauce) and both were excellent. My photo came out very dark (I prefer dark restaurants) but here it is anyway because I want you to see that they still use vintage restaurant ware (from Syracuse China?).
You really need to visit Old Trieste on your next visit to San Diego if you like a classy, old style restaurant experience with perfect service in a vintage dining room that takes you back to another time, before cell phones and the internet (wait, this blog is on the internet!). Seriously, get dressed up, go to Old Trieste, and wish them a happy 50th anniversary!
Old Trieste
2335 Morena Blvd, San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 276-1841
Open Tue-Fri 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-9:00pm, closed Sunday and Monday
In my last post I profiled a classic Continental restaurant in San Diego, The Imperial House. Let’s continue the Continental cuisine focus by visiting the historic Bella Vista restaurant, in the fog-shrouded redwood forest south of San Francisco, just north of the quaint little town of Woodside. Several years ago I was on a weekend excursion with my girlfriend along Skyline Boulevard when we happened upon the Bella Vista. We were fascinated but it was closed so we returned later for the full fine dining experience. I don’t know why but I didn’t return for many years until a couple of years ago I dined there with friends and it exceeded my expectations for food and service, all with incredible views of the South Bay Area. I just went back with a friend last week and we had a marvelous meal, though the view was just of the fog.
image by G3Miller on Panoramio.com
The restaurant started life as roadhouse in 1927, though details of it’s original name could not be found by your intrepid researcher. However, I did find out that it was called the Bella Vista Sky Lounge in the 1940s and 1950s, after what is now the main dining room was added to the original restaurant (which became the cocktail lounge and adjacent banquet room). A review in the San Mateo Times’ Bright Lights column by Lloyd Johnson in 1959 had this to say:
After our last Wednesday evening
Bella Vista Sky Lounge “12′
courser” with owners Nick and
Yvonne Sanisel, we can see why
“Stu” Adams of Bardelli’s and
the Giants’ Horace Stoneham make
the trip up the mountain
to 13451 Skyline boulevard.
Besides being almost at the
top of the world, the club’s food
is clear out of it. Frog legs saute
Bella Vista prepared with wine
was our selection. Add assorted
hors d’ouevres, tossed green salad
and turtle soup to the above,
plus dessert and coffee, and this
“buck” was well spent. Yep,
there’s a cocktail lounge and
banquet space, plus a panoramic
view that’s second to none.
In 1965 the restaurant was renamed simply Bella Vista and owned by Bob and Jetty Hogan, who sold it the present owners, the Ward family, in 1977.
Bella Vista cocktail lounge, image by Bella Vista’s Facebook page
You enter the restaurant through the cozy cocktail lounge with a fireplace (which wasn’t lit on my recent visit on a Tuesday night), past the bar and into the dining room set among the redwoods with incredible views. When you make a reservation ask for a view table if possible, or at least the main dining room because there is another back dining room which may not have the same views.
Bella Vista dining room, image by http://bvrestaurant.com
The menu is traditional Continental, with emphasis on French classics, some Italian dishes, and American classics like Oysters Rockefeller and Steak Diane, which is prepared and flambéed at a station in the dining room (not tableside, but the steaks are displayed at the table before preparation). Other flambé options are a Steak au Poivre Flambé (Pepper Steak) and Cherries Jubilee. The dessert menu also offers four varieties of souffle, which are the same souffle with different sauces.
Waiter preparing Steak Diane
Steak Diane
Our meals came with very tasty side vegetables: a potato dish, some pureed carrots, and excellent green beans that tasted like they came out of a local garden. I had the huge lamb shank, which had ultra-tender meat that fell off the bone, served with a delicious rich red wine sauce. I didn’t even need a knife. My friend had the steak Diane, which he said was very tender and cooked to perfection (medium rare).
Lamb Shank
Service was excellent. The waiters wear tuxedo jackets and bow ties, and know the menu. The presentation was classic and classy, with white linens, a single fresh rose in a vase at each table, and the restaurant’s custom plates.
Going to this restaurant is not only like stepping back in time, but it also makes you feel like you are on a vacation to the redwood forest, yet it’s only about a 40 minute drive from San Francisco and a 50 minute drive from Oakland via the San Mateo bridge. The food is great, yet pretty expensive but the views and atmosphere of the restaurant make it worth a splurge.
UPDATE: The Imperial House is no longer a Continental restaurant as it was in 2013 when I posted this. It has been a fine dining steakhouse for several years. Thankfully, the decor has not changed. For more info please visitImperial Steakhouse.
San Diego’s last holdout for classic continental dining in a perfectly preserved dining room, the Imperial House opened in 1969 (it is still owned by the same family) in a mid-century apartment building overlooking Balboa Park in the Banker’s Hill neighborhood (my old neighborhood). It was great returning there recently to dine with friends from San Francisco who were in San Diego at the same time as me. My last visit to the Imperial House to dine was back in 2003, though I have visited the bar a few times since then.
On entering the restaurant from their private driveway (I wish more restaurants had one…it seems more classy than entering from a sidewalk), you are greeted by original maître d’ Felix Galindo, ‘the man who rolls his R’s’, who escorts you past the medieval armor in a glass case into the beautiful dining room of red booths and high-backed chairs, tables with starched white linen tablecloths, chandeliers, wood walls with framed paintings, and Olde English style windows overlooking Sixth Avenue and the park.
The menu is classic Continental, including French and American specialties such as mock turtle soup à l’anglaise au sherry, filet mignon Oscar, roast rack of lamb jardinière, chateaubriand bouquetiere for two, and steak Diane, which is prepared tableside. Also prepared tableside are flambé dishes like spinach salad flambé, bananas flambé, cherries jubilee, and café diablo for two. Steak and seafood entrées round out the menu. You might start with an appetizer such as escargot bourguignonne or oysters Rockefeller.
Escargots Bourguignonne
We had too much Mexican food for lunch (which is always great in San Diego, by the way) so we didn’t have room for main dishes, but instead opted for appetizers, salads, and dessert. We had both the spinach salad flambé and the Ceasar salad, prepared tableside.
Felix Rinaldi prepares Caesar salad dressing by hand.
For dessert we had bananas flambé (bananas Foster) with dark rum, brown sugar, butter, banana liqueur, cinnamon, and some 151 for pyrotechnics. Served over vanilla ice cream of course. Delicious!
The entire meal experience was lovely, with some pop vocal classics playing softly in the restaurant (Dino, Sinatra, etc.). However, I would ask for a table in the back if entertainment is in progress in the bar because in the front of the dining room it may be possible to hear noise from the bar. The service was perfect, with the waiters dressed in black jackets and bow ties (as seen in the photo). There are dinner specials nightly through the week, such as prime rib on Friday and Saturday, as well as a swell $60 3-course dinner for two including a bottle of wine.
There is a happy hour in the bar with free hot food on Tuesday through Saturday. On Thursdays through Saturdays there is a popular piano player (Rick Lyon) performing classic rock songs to a synthesized backing track, and they serve food in the bar late on Fridays and Saturdays (10pm-12am). They also have a popular dinner theater called Mystery Cafe, which is performed in a room behind the bar (not in the main dining room).
Imperial House
505 Kalmia Street, San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 234-3525
Open 4:00pm-10:00pm Tuesday thru Thursday, 4:00pm-1:30am Friday and Saturday
Dinner hours are limited so call first (I assume they are approx. 5pm-10pm Tue-Sat).
