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Madera in Menlo Park

At last, with Menlo Park’s Madera, the high rollers of Silicon Alley has a restaurant to call their own

by Stett Holbrook on Aug 12, 2010
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OVERHEARD at Menlo Park’s new Madera restaurant: “Only $100 million?”

“He was the ex-CEO of Adobe.”

“Yes, but is it vested?”

“Once my attorney settles this frivolous lawsuit, we can move on.”

Walking into the comfortable, luxurious restaurant past the gleaming Lexuses, BMWs and Mercedes Benzes lined up by the valet attendants, one enters a world where Silicon Valley’s high-tech high rollers come to eat and drink and be seen doing it.

Madera is located in the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel complex on what was a dirt lot at the corner of Interstate 280 and Sand Hill Road. Sand Hill Road, as you may know, is main street for Silicon Valley’s venture capital firms and during the dotcom boom it boasted real estate prices higher than Manhattan. The boom turned to bust, and Silicon Valley is still limping along through the recession, but you wouldn’t know that at Madera. The restaurant is a place to toast your winnings or at least try to appear to those around you that you are a winner.

If you sit inside the restaurant, there’s a moment an hour or so before sunset when the waitstaff throws open the curtains to reveal a quintessential peninsula view of rugged, oak-covered hill cloaked in thick, late-day yellow light tumbling to the west. Jasper Ridge and Windy Hall loll in the distance. The restaurant was built just high enough so you only catch a glimpse of 280. Instead, your eyes alight on the glory of a Northern California chaparral in late summer. It’s a dramatic sight.The deck that wraps around the restaurant and the bar is easily the most glorious in Silicon Valley. The beautiful people, generally excellent food and wine and stunning views add up to a heady dose of NorCal luxury. All that’s missing is a hot tub and some naked people for the complete California experience.

In keeping with its celebration of the California good life, chef Peter Rudolf’s menu takes its inspiration from seasonal, mainly local produce to create a Cal-Ital lineup of delicious food. Late summer is a particularly good time to eat in the Bay Area, since almost everything is at its peak and Madera does a good job of showing off our local bounty. By all means, start with the silken chilled Brentwood white-corn soup ($11), a sublime bowl of liquid summer paired with a tomato-buttermilk mousse and bits of laughing-bird shrimp, a Caribbean farmed shrimp that’s raised in an ecologically sound manner. I loved the marinated artichoke and burrata salad ($14), too. The nutty, buttery richness of the artichokes was well matched with the sweet, cream-filled mozzarella cheese and crisp sugar-snap peas. But then dirt clods would taste good with burrata.

The pork-belly starter ($15) is superb and could stand in for a light entree. It’s served with a partridge egg, fried green tomatoes, big beautiful Romano and cranberry beans and sweet-and-sour tomato agro dolce. The tartness of the tomatoes balances out what would be an exuberantly rich dish. And don’t miss the Niman Ranch lamb meatballs with piquillo pepper and preserved-lemon tomato purée ($11) from the lunch menu, savory meatballs with an upmarket version of ketchup if there ever was one.

The kitchen renders seafood dishes particularly well. The seared sea scallops and Brentwood (eastern Contra Costa County) corn and pasilla pepper tamal teased out the sweetness of both the shellfish and the corn, and I loved the earthy funk of the huitlacoche (corn fungus) served with it. I’m a fan of any white tablecloth chef who serves the ingredient.

The juicy, pan-roasted halibut ($36) is another gem; the perfectly crisped fish is matched with maitake mushrooms, sugar-snap peas, smoked zucchini and a toasted coconut-basil sauce.

The standout of the night, however, was the roasted Beck Birds Farm squab ($36), a dish that straddles summer and fall with its hearty, satisfying flavors. Squab may just be a fancy word for pigeon, but this is a special bird, especially with the wild rice, baby cabbage, fava beans, sherry relish, summer truffles and foie gras jus that also come with it.

From the lunch menu, the blackened-salmon sandwich ($18) is good but better is the sybaritic Sand Hill burger. It’s grilled over oak and shingled with bacon and a slab of white cheddar and served with house-made pickles. Then again, at $18, it’d better be good. I loved the grilled Hawaiian walu ($23), a cousin of the mahi mahi. The meaty, snowy white fish is tailor made for a wood-fired grill.

Desserts shine, too. The sugar-dusted beignets ($10) are wonderfully light with a rich, almost soufflélike interior. Good, too, is the moist macadamia nut with coconut ice cream ($10) and the outstanding chocolate and Earl Grey tea–flavored soufflé tart ($12).

The money capital of Silicon Valley never really had a restaurant to call its own. Now it does.

Madera
2825 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
Daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner



by Stett Holbrook on Aug 12, 2010
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