It's not a dream, it's The Kitchen
I hesitate to describe one of California's finest and most expensive dining establishments as all-you-can-eat.
That usually conjures up a rib joint with slabs of meat dreary and dry for $14.95, a Chinese food buffet with 200 items (including French fries) or a pizzeria in a college town catering to we'll-eat-anything students.
But The Kitchen Restaurant is, truly, all you care to eat.
It just so happens that everything on the menu is some of the best food from the best sources you may ever encounter, prepared with great skill and flair, all for a fixed price of $125 (more on the price in a minute).
Overall: 4 stars
Service: 4 stars
Ambience: 4 stars
Food: 4 stars
Value: 4 stars
The Kitchen is more than a great restaurant. It is a great business, an example of how to function at the highest level.
Why is The Kitchen great? Not because it aspires, which it does, but because it insists.
If you're not happy about that soup or if you happen to be a vegetarian or if, for some odd reason, you'd like a grilled-cheese sandwich with your filet, your request is taken care of without question – and without any of that eye-rolling attitude.
Before dinner, which is at a set time for all 54 guests, you're free to wander into the kitchen, duck into the wine cellar, ask questions of the staff members as they tend to last-minute prep work.
But why, in an economy that has yet to stop tanking, with daily headlines about layoffs and bailouts, would I be writing about a place that will set you back $250 before you and a loved one order wine?
I'm writing because it's worth it, there's a good chance you deserve it, and because if you love food and have yet to try it, I suggest you consider going.
Since it opened 17 years ago as the brainchild of chefs Randall Selland and Nancy Zimmer, The Kitchen has always appealed to food enthusiasts, those home chefs who read Saveur magazine and "On Food and Cooking" for the fun of it. It's been a destination for folks who see fine dining as theater, as a celebration.
But The Kitchen, especially now, can be an escape, if only for the time you're inside this dreamlike place.
No matter who you are, whether the fixed-price menu is chump change or 18 months of pocket change squirreled away in a jar, you will leave nearly four hours later, as I did on a recent Sunday, knowing how it must feel to wine and dine and mix and mingle as if you were the president of the United States.
The food is so good, so thoroughly described ahead of time, so thoughtfully prepared and presented right before your eyes, that the experience tends to overwhelm.
You may find yourself asking, "Is this really happening?"
The evening begins the moment you park and walk toward the door, where staffers are waiting, happy to see you.
At your table, everything is taken care of. The wine list is spectacular. Our server, Kristin Baginski, had a star's presence, moving with the posture of a dancer, appearing and disappearing as if to music. When asked, she knew so much about the food she might have prepared it herself.
Our chef, Noah Zonca, is the successor to Selland. Just 32, Zonca started at The Kitchen out of high school, bypassed culinary school and worked his way up. His ongoing monologue about what's cooking is funny, informative and so richly detailed it seemed phantasmagorical.
When I asked him a few days later by phone about the ingredients, Zonca said, "I can buy anything I want from anywhere in the world and no one is going to question it. It's an amazing experience."
About second helpings (and thirds): "We want to give you whatever you want for your money. If you want each course 10 times, feel free to do so."
About beauty on the plate (Zonca draws diagrams for how the food is to be plated): "As with anything , the visual is just as important as the flavors. It's a matter of art. You want to see that plate and you want your mouth to water with the visual."