After pandemic shutdown, Grossman’s reopens for noshing – J.

In March 2020, I used to be very excited to enterprise to Santa Rosa to attempt Grossman’s Noshery & Bar, the Bay Space’s latest Jewish deli. My hopes had been dashed, nevertheless. The restaurant was open for one full day earlier than having to close down. Driving all that approach for takeout simply wouldn’t be the identical.

Now, due to vaccinations and outside eating, the enterprise lastly was in a position to occur. And it was definitely worth the wait.

Grossman’s is the seventh restaurant belonging to the Sonoma County couple Mark and Terri Stark. Having their newest place shut down after in the future isn’t even essentially the most tough factor they’ve weathered; they lost their first restaurant, Willi’s Wine Bar, within the Tubbs Fireplace in 2017 (although it’s since reopened in a brand new location).

The Starks met whereas working for the California Café Restaurant Group in Palo Alto, he as a chef and he or she as catering supervisor, and based the Stark Actuality Restaurant Group in 2004. With over 500 workers, they’re one of many bigger employers in Sonoma County, selling many staff from dishwashers to cooks who stick with them for years. Their eating places have usually gained awards and mentions on best-of lists, they usually have provided medical health insurance to their full-time workers from the start, a rarity within the business 20 years in the past.

The concept for Grossman’s was “simmering” for a very long time, mentioned Mark. His spouse is taken into account “the sandwich queen,” he mentioned, and “this type of idea was behind her head for a very long time.” (Terri is the Jewish one within the pair, however on a Hawaii trip three years in the past Mark mentioned his seaside studying was “Encyclopedia of Jewish Meals” by Gil Marks.)

Grossman’s Noshery & Bar — the identify comes from Terri’s household — has a full bar, with cocktails similar to “Weekend at Bubbie’s” (although whose Bubbie ever served them a tequila drink with passionfruit and habanero?) and “Celery Collins,” made with horseradish bitters and Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda. It’s open each day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and has an ample patio exterior.

Along with the gadgets one would look forward to finding at a Jewish deli — pastrami and corned beef, knishes, latkes, and so on. — Israeli dishes on the menu embody hen schnitzel, sabich (an Iraqi eggplant sandwich) and falafel, together with an Ashkenazi dumpling part that features hen kreplach (with soy butter, scallions and gribenes), potato vareniki (with lemon brown butter and smoked trout roe) and veal & shitake pelmeni (with bitter cream and dill). The dumpling part, which Stark recommends with a shot of vodka, was impressed by a go to to the Russian restaurant Kachka in Portland.

The Starks did loads of analysis earlier than opening Grossman’s, touring to New York in fact, in addition to different locations. They ate numerous variations of doable menu gadgets, together with the black and white cookie. Theirs has a whiff of lemon. Conventional? Under no circumstances.

“We all the time walked away going, ‘I don’t get it’ and ‘You all wish to endure,’” mentioned Mark. “We determined, let’s simply make it style good.” That they did. Additionally worthy of point out are their rugelach and babka, each great variations of the shape. Their hamentaschen are uniquely their very own, although very completely different from the standard form, with fillings like strawberry hibiscus and blackberry thyme.

It’s value noting that the chef within the kitchen at Grossman’s, Matt Weinberger, can also be Jewish, and is utilizing some household recipes, as is its basic supervisor.

The lox and the pastrami — which is nearer to the Montreal type of smoke meat — are each smoked in-house, they usually bake all their very own breads. Actually, the downtown place on Wilson Road that homes Grossman’s has such an enormous kitchen the couple is ready to use it to bake the breads for all of their eating places.

They’re making their very own bagels, too, which have a little bit of Brooklyn water in them. Sure, it’s a gimmick; Stark is aware of it’s not the water that makes New York bagels so exhausting to copy. Besides, they crammed up a couple of plastic water bottles with New York water to carry again to the West Coast to create their sourdough starter.

Whereas it could have been great to attempt many extra dishes on the menu, from the dumpling part particularly, significantly fulfilling had been the pastrami, the rugelach, the latkes and the knish, which is housed in what looks like puff pastry and filled with farmer cheese and caramelized onions.

“We’re attempting to interpret Jewish delicacies with Sonoma merchandise and a wine nation mindset,” Mark mentioned. “We’re not attempting to not offend anyone.”

With a little bit of humor, he mentioned their philosophy was repeated “like a mantra” to the 70 individuals they educated final 12 months earlier than opening, and it went one thing like this:

“Lots of people won’t agree with what we’re doing. They’re going to argue and be opinionated, however don’t take that as a adverse, it’s only a dialog. We ought to be afraid once we’re not getting the dialog. In the event that they’re participating with us, that’s good, which means they prefer it.”