Leslie Sbrocco: …creative plant-based cuisine in Pacific Grove…
Kerrie Smith: The truffle salt that they put on that, oh, my gosh.
Leslie Sbrocco: …and bold Brazilian flavors in Santa Cruz…
Bhavya Mohan: You can just, like, taste the cheesiness.
Leslie Sbrocco: …on a special Monterey Bay Area edition of “Check, Please!” And now, the secret menu is out.
[music playing]
Leslie Sbrocco: Hi, I’m Leslie Sbrocco. Welcome to a special edition of “Check, Please! Bay Area.” Today, we’re venturing down the coast to explore the scenic Monterey Bay area. We have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots, and the other two go check them out to see what they think. Joining me at the “Check, Please!” table today are firefighter Matt Murphy, researcher Bhavya Mohan, and creative director Kerrie Smith. Welcome, everyone. Are you ready?
Matt Murphy: Absolutely.
Kerrie Smith: Let’s do this.
Leslie Sbrocco: As a firefighter, Matt looks forward to the end of his long shift when he can finally kick back and enjoy a leisurely meal at his favorite brunch spot. It’s a contemporary Mexican eatery offering rich, indulgent breakfasts that get his weekends off to a great start. Nestled in quaint Carmel-By-The-Sea, it’s El Bistro by the Sea.
Judith Avila: El Bistro by the Sea is a Mexican restaurant with international flair. By the Sea listo. I love to cook. It’s my love language. Birria.
Customer: The chilaquiles are bomb, dude.
Judith Avila: [speaking in Spanish] Growing up, I was always surrounded by food. My parents are both excellent cooks. And they always taught me that simple things taste the best. But, they should be made with love, with dedication.
Judith Avila: Vamos. Vamos, vamos.
Jose Luna: [speaking in Spanish] We try to make everything as fresh as possible. The tortillas… the salsas… we roast the tomatoes. We roast the chiles as well. This is the bread we use to make the French toast.
Judith Avila: [speaking in Spanish] French toast is one of my favorite foods. And anything that’s dessert can be filling for French toast.
Judith Avila: For the cinnamon roll French toast, this is cinnamon and sugar.
Judith Avila: [speaking in Spanish] Tiramisu is my favorite dessert of all. Crème brûlée is a delicious French dessert. I take pride in creating perfection in every dish. The idea is when you taste something it tastes as good as it looks.
Judith Avila: I love to see the people, the first impression when they see the plates, and taking pictures, and happy with the meal. It’s emotional for us. We enjoy that.
Jose Luna: [speaking in Spanish] I think all of us here give everything we can to make it better. And now, the chile is done. It’s also delicious! Everything we do together, we do with a lot of love.
Judith Avila: Hey. [Laughs]
Leslie Sbrocco: Alright, Matt, you’re a brunch guy, right? So, you get off on the weekends and that is your dream meal. Okay, why is this place so special to you?
Matt Murphy: Well, number one, it is less than a block away from one of our fire stations. So, I can just walk right down into El Bistro by the Sea. They have indoor-outdoor seating. You can bring your pets with you. I love the vibe. Great place.
Leslie Sbrocco: So, what do you get? I mean, you must be starving when you get off your shift, right? You want something big and hearty.
Matt Murphy: Give me all the protein, give me all the carbs. [All laugh] First thing we always start with, we always get an order of the cinnamon roll French toast. It’s two super thick slices of brioche bread just grilled to perfection. There’s a healthy portion of cream cheese frosting. Everything’s topped with, like, fresh berry medley, mint garnish on top of it all. They do have syrup on the side. We don’t even use it.
Bhavya Mohan: Oh, my God, that French toast. [All laugh] It was ridiculously good!
Leslie Sbrocco: Everybody take a moment and honor the French toast.
Bhavya Mohan: Oh, my God, it was… I mean, first, we had to share because I don’t have a firefighter’s appetite. [All laugh] So, this was a family affair. We got the crème brûlée French toast.
Matt Murphy: Oh, awesome.
Bhavya Mohan: Which sounds like it had similarities. The berries and the whipped cream, and it’s, like, soaked in cream. So, same family, but this one had the caramelized sugar right on top. So you feel like you’re cracking into that piece of crème brûlée, but it’s on your French toast! Ah, so, so delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: Did you have anything in the French toast family?
Kerrie Smith: All aboard the French toast train. Okay? Like Oprah says, I want to eat bread every day! Like, I had the same one, the crème brûlée French toast, and it was divine. Every bite was just so creamy, delicious, carb-a-licious, I loved it. Matt, thank you! [All laugh]
Matt Murphy: One interesting thing about the restaurant is they have this thing called the secret menu.
Leslie Sbrocco: Have you heard about this?
Kerrie Smith: Yes. I’m obsessed.
Matt Murphy: Yeah, and it’s on their Instagram page, if you go to their highlights.
Leslie Sbrocco: It’s a secret menu, by the way!
Matt Murphy: Uh… [Both laugh] My wife and I ordered the honeymoon latte. It’s just a latte sweetened with honey. If you haven’t tried it before, it’s definitely worth a try.
Leslie Sbrocco: Yeah.
Bhavya Mohan: We got the chilaquiles. And we were like, “These are the best chilaquiles we’ve ever had.”
Leslie Sbrocco: Because chilaquiles are tough!
Bhavya Mohan: I know!
Leslie Sbrocco: Right? You do not want a floppy chip.
Bhavya Mohan: You don’t want it floppy, you don’t want it too crisp because you want that perfect level of sauciness, and they nailed it. Like, the red sauce was perfect, the texture was perfect. It had crema drizzled over the top and it was just presented so beautifully. There was watermelon radish, like, artfully draped over it, and the chilaquiles themselves just tasted divine.
Kerrie Smith: Were we there at the same time? Because I ordered the exact same thing, the chilaquiles, as well. And I love that we could pick our own sauce, we could pick our own meat. I got the birria, which was amazing. It was two things that just go really well together. Verde was not too spicy, but it gave it a little kick.
Leslie Sbrocco: Did you have anything to drink?
Kerrie Smith: Oh, yes, you cannot go to brunch and not have some sort of brunch sidekick. So, I had the watermelon michelada. And you get to choose your beer, which I like. And then, you’re getting the tomato flavor, a lot of garnish, and then the slight sweetness of the watermelon.
Leslie Sbrocco: That sounds delicious.
Kerrie Smith: Really lovely.
Leslie Sbrocco: Did you have anything to sip alongside?
Bhavya Mohan: I don’t drink coffee, but my husband got the horchata latte, and I had a little taste of it, and I was like, even for a non-coffee drinker, this is delicious. It’s that beautiful horchata flavor. It was very sweet, which maybe is why I loved it so much. It was very nice. I also got the chile relleno omelette, which was very decadent. You have the chile relleno, so the chile stuffed with tons and tons of cheese, battered, then in the omelette. It was just, like, exploding with cheese. It was delicious, I think, because there was so much cheese in it.
Leslie Sbrocco: You’re a cheese lover.
Bhavya Mohan: I do love the cheese, but I needed a little spice. But I feel like before I could even think to ask, someone came by and he was like, “Oh, can I bring you some extra salsa?” I feel like he read my mind and then I just, like, doused it with that. And then it was perfect.
Leslie Sbrocco: It was perfect.
Bhavya Mohan: Yeah.
Leslie Sbrocco: Okay, talk about some options for lunch.
Matt Murphy: They have classic American fare like hamburgers, and sandwiches, and stuff like that. I’ve gotten their pastor burrito, very traditional style pastor. Crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. It’s a huge burrito, they cut it in half. I usually only get half of it down, even with my appetite.
Leslie Sbrocco: So, it’s big.
Matt Murphy: Yeah, it’s very good. Yeah.
Kerrie Smith: Because they have so many menus — there’s a regular menu, there’s a seasonal menu, there’s an Instagram menu — it’s, like, a little bit overwhelming. So, we were definitely relying on the waiter to help us. And the service was fantastic. They have these, like, fancy headphones, they were talking to each other. “Do we have this? Do we have that? Do we have that?” And that was great!
Leslie Sbrocco: Like a Secret Service agent.
Kerrie Smith: [laughs] Totally! Totally. So, yes, we felt very taken care of and I can’t wait to go back again, truly.
Leslie Sbrocco: And did the rest of your family enjoy it?
Bhavya Mohan: Oh, my God, they loved it. They’re already like, “Okay, next time we’re in Carmel, we’re going back.”
Leslie Sbrocco: Alright. Are they missing anything? Did they make the right choices?
Matt Murphy: All excellent choices. And I’ve got some new ideas to order now, next time I’m there, too.
Leslie Sbrocco: See? And now, the secret menu is out.
Matt Murphy: Now, it’s out.
Leslie Sbrocco: It’s out, it’s over. Alright, if you would like to try El Bistro by the Sea, it’s located on Mission and 5th in Carmel-By-The-Sea. The average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $60.
Leslie Sbrocco: Kerrie always loved the idea of plant-based eating, but until recently, had never found any vegetarian menus that truly wowed her senses. That all changed when she discovered an innovative eatery with a special focus on all things fresh and foraged. Located in Pacific Grove, it’s Julia’s Vegetarian Restaurant.
[music playing]
Martin Gundersen: Julia’s Vegetarian Restaurant is a place where you go for great flavors and tons of options, whether you’re vegetarian or not. We’re connected with nature because we’re talking about plants. We’re talking about art. We’re talking about an experience for everybody.
Recipes here at Julia’s start with Italian, South American influence, Argentina in particular. That will always be the core of what we are. We live close to Salinas and tons of farms, so we’re getting locally-sourced vegetables that haven’t been out of the ground too long. They each have their own flavor, there’s no reason to hide their flavor. You should go ahead and showcase them.
I enjoy cooking with mushrooms the most. There are a lot of different meat substitutes and ways that you can add proteins to dishes, but to capture the umami, mushrooms really fit the bill well. I have an assortment of mushrooms here. These are exotic mushrooms. These are the Cordyceps mushrooms, lion’s mane, and these are baby blue oysters. And then, we actually bread the baby blue oysters and turn them into something similar to calamari, which is what we serve for our mushroom sampler.
The yellow coconut curry is a well-guarded recipe. This is something I can’t really tell you exactly how to do, but I can tell you, I use a mild curry because not everyone wants a spicy curry. And then, we’re using root vegetables. It’s savory, it’s sweet, it warms up your soul.
Server: California, also vegan cheese
Customer: Thank you!
Martin Gundersen: So, there’s this thing that happens here. A carnivore will come with their vegan friend and they tell us, “I’m not vegan, but I love your food.” It’s the highest form of compliment.
Leslie Sbrocco: Okay, how did a non-vegetarian become such a fan of Julia’s?
Kerrie Smith: Julia’s came about because… don’t you feel like mushrooms have just been, like, the biggest obsession over the last few years?
Leslie Sbrocco: I love mushrooms, in any way, shape, or form.
Kerrie Smith: Exactly, and I had no idea how flexible and creative you could be with mushrooms. That’s initially what piqued my interest, is that I wanted to learn more about what this innovative restaurant could offer. There’s different styles of food that you can get, from Mexican-inspired food to Indian-inspired cuisine, and so they really play with their menu.
Leslie Sbrocco: You’re a pescatarian, right?
Bhavya Mohan: Yes.
Leslie Sbrocco: So, did you know about this restaurant?
Bhavya Mohan: I didn’t, and it’s like, so my jam! I had never heard of it!
Leslie Sbrocco: That’s awesome!
Bhavya Mohan: I was like, “Oh, my God, how was this under my radar?” This is, like, exactly the type of place I love. It did not disappoint.
Leslie Sbrocco: So, what did you have?
Bhavya Mohan: So, I started off with the buffalo cauliflower wings, which were so good. You have these pieces of cauliflower that have been, like, super-fried, tossed in this delicious buffalo sauce. They have two spice levels, I went for the lower one and I actually thought it was just perfect. And they serve it with a vegan — shocking — a vegan ranch dressing that tasted so good. It was like, we polished it off. It was just absolutely wonderful.
Matt Murphy: So, we started with the mushroom sampler. It came with baby blue mushrooms that were deep fried. There’s lion’s mane mushrooms that were sautéed, as well. And then, they do Cordyceps mushrooms that are fried crispy. We got the vegan ranch, as well. I’ve never had vegan ranch, so I couldn’t tell the difference. It was delicious. It was great.
Kerrie Smith: That is my go-to! I’m so glad you tried it. It is hearty and satisfying, and just trying new types of mushrooms, and you can share it with a big group or you can gobble it all to yourself. It’s so delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: Any other appetizers that you started with, or did you move right on?
Matt Murphy: We moved right on after that. I got the yellow coconut curry. It’s loaded with squash, and yams, and vegetables, and it’s got a great amount of spice and flavor to it. It was a very large portion. It comes with a bunch of brown rice on the side. And I got to say, most of my eating revolves around the protein first. So, I was a little nervous going to a vegetarian restaurant.
Leslie Sbrocco: You were afraid you’d wither away!
Matt Murphy: Yeah, and I was — I was nervous about being hungry two hours later, you know?
All: [laughter]
Matt Murphy: But uh, I was very surprised that I was not left hungry at all afterwards.
Leslie Sbrocco: You didn’t want to go get a burger?
Matt Murphy: No, no, no, no.
All: [laughter]
Bhavya Mohan: My favorite entrée was the smokehouse pizza, which I feel like, as a vegetarian, it’s hard to get barbecue-style pizzas. So, I was very excited to see this on the menu. And so, you have the barbecue sauce, the mozzarella cheese, button mushrooms, and then my favorite part of it is that they had seitan bacon. Seitan is a gluten-based plant meat. People always tell me if I ever eat bacon I would love it, but I don’t eat pork. So, I was very happy with my fake bacon on the pizza and it was really delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: And are you a pizza fan there?
Kerrie Smith: I was going to ask you guys if you tried the pizza because it is something that you absolutely have to try! And I do bring my kids, and they’re not so adventurous, so they have a normal cheese pizza that you can get. And I tell you, the truffle salt that they put on that, oh, my gosh, we were, like, stealing slices from the kids because it was so good! And the freshness of their dough, and what I love is that you can do vegan cheese or you can just do regular cheese. So, there’s kind of an option for everybody.
Leslie Sbrocco: It’s not a vegan restaurant.
Kerrie Smith: Exactly.
Matt Murphy: My wife ordered a pizza and it looked very delicious. I had a slice of it, it had artichoke hearts. It was a white sauce pizza, but very good.
Leslie Sbrocco: Did you get the real cheese or the vegan cheese?
Matt Murphy: We got the real cheese, yeah. [All laugh]
Leslie Sbrocco: Anything else that they missed so far?
Kerrie Smith: What did you get to drink? Because I love a kombucha. It’s so healthy, it makes me feel good, and they make it all there, and they have some really interesting flavors. And this isn’t your store-bought kombucha, so it’s not very sweet. So, prepare yourself for that. It is tangy, delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: Goes well with the food.
Kerrie Smith: Totally.
Leslie Sbrocco: What about dessert?
Kerrie Smith: They do have a whole bakery case. We got to try a vanilla and strawberry cake last time we went, it was pretty good. I like my desserts on the sweeter side, though. Like, I want to be, like, swimming in icing. So, it’s not…
Leslie Sbrocco: Really? With crème brûlée French toast?
[All laugh]
Kerrie Smith: Sorry! So, it’s not that, but it is that lighter, kind of more healthy style dessert, which I really appreciate.
Child: I like it!
Bhavya Mohan: We tried an empanada. It had a candy cap mushroom filling.
Leslie Sbrocco: A little bit sweeter.
Bhavya Mohan: It’s a little bit sweeter, yeah. It has kind of a slight maple flavor, so it’s one of those things where — I totally agree with you. Like, it wasn’t sweet enough for me. I need more sugar in my dessert, but it felt like an experience. Like, “Oh, now I’ve tried this candy cap mushroom that I didn’t know was a thing.”
Leslie Sbrocco: You can take that one off the list.
Bhavya Mohan: Exactly.
Leslie Sbrocco: And what about service?
Bhavya Mohan: They were so lovely. The moment you walk in, all the staff, they were so attentive, just super, super sweet. A lovely experience.
Leslie Sbrocco: You agree with the service?
Matt Murphy: Absolutely, yeah. We got seated right away, we got served right away. Throughout the ordering process, they were very informative on like, “You can order this with vegan options or vegetarian options.” It was a great experience overall.
Leslie Sbrocco: See? Look at you!
[All laugh]
Leslie Sbrocco: She’s over there going, “Discovery made. Check.” Good. Okay. If you would like to try Julia’s Vegetarian, it’s located on Forest Avenue in Pacific Grove. The average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $55.
Leslie Sbrocco: From pão de queijo to feijoada, Bhavya’s a big fan of traditional Brazilian fare. Luckily, she’s found a warm, welcoming café that feels like a slice of São Paulo right in her own backyard. Located in Santa Cruz, it’s Sampa Brazilian Kitchen.
[music playing]
Natasha Malia Reber: Sampa Brazilian Kitchen is owned and operated by me and my two brothers.
Como tá tudo? How is everything? Good?
Sampa is short for São Paulo, which is kind of a nickname. You can get everything in São Paulo because it is a big city and the food there is amazing, amazing, and it’s where we’re all from.
Our food is traditional Brazilian food. The recipes come from our family—our mom and our uncles and aunties.
Our portions are huge, our plates are really big, and I’m a big eater as well. Like, I love to eat.
Customer: Who knows the recipe to this? I want this.
Natasha Malia Reber: Brazilian flavor is close to the Mediterranean, so there’s a lot of garlic and onion, like more that kind of vibe, which—we were colonized by Portuguese, and the rest of South America was colonized by Spanish.
So I think that makes Brazilian cuisine different than the rest of South America.
Customer: That’s good!
Natasha Malia Reber: São Paulo is very famous for pastéis. Looks like an empanada—you can put anything in it. So here we put some cheese, we put chicken, we put meat. It’s a thin dough that we deep-fry, which—anything deep-fried is delicious, of course.
People sometimes expect Brazilian food to be spicy just because, you know, other cultures—Latin culture is. It’s not, but we have the best spice thing on the side, which is called malagueta. It’s a Brazilian pepper that is a very small, tiny little pepper. And then we blend it, we make our own. And then you can throw that on any dishes or anything and it’s delicious. Like, it’s really good. I mean, it’s amazing.
Customer: Can you blow a kiss?
[All laugh]
Natasha Malia Reber: We like the vibe to be more like you walk into our home. It’s very laid-back, casual, like you’re eating in a friend’s house.
You guys are good? Alright, alright.
The thing that makes me the happiest is to be with my brothers and to make my parents proud that we’re doing this.
And then all the Brazilians—the Brazilian community in the Bay Area—they’ll come, and then they find us, and they’re like, “Oh, my God, a Brazilian place!”
Do you need anything else?
Customer: No. Whatever he says.
[All laugh]
Natasha Malia Reber: I think you’re good! Alright, sounds perfect. So it’s… it’s good.
Group: Saúde! Tchin!
Leslie Sbrocco: Now Bhavya, why do you love Brazilian food? Is it the vibe of this place? Is it the food? What is it?
Bhavya Mohan: It’s all of the above. I mean, I think you walk in, it feels like family. It’s the most just welcoming environment.
And what I so appreciate is, as a pescatarian, sometimes Brazilian food can be a little tricky—
Leslie Sbrocco: It’s often meat-driven.
Bhavya Mohan: Meat-driven. But I feel so taken care of here. We have a family full of folks with dietary restrictions, and I think they have something for everyone.
Leslie Sbrocco: And I love Brazil. I’ve got family in Brazil and friends, and we travel there a lot. I love Brazilian food. Tell us what you start with usually.
Bhavya Mohan: So I love to start with the pão de queijo.
Leslie Sbrocco: Right. Cheese bread, basically.
Bhavya Mohan: I mean, I’ve talked about my love of cheese.
[All laugh]
They start with a tapioca flour and it’s filled with that mozzarella and Parmesan.
And it’s just like, in every single bite, you can taste that cheesiness.
So I love that texture—
Leslie Sbrocco: That kind of bouncy texture.
Bhavya Mohan: Yes! It reminds me of mochi, you know, that squishy—
with the squishiness. But then it has the crustiness on the outside, and oh, it’s so good.
Kerrie Smith: Give me more of that sauce! They have the homemade hot sauce. That was my favorite. I just dumped it on there. It was just like the delivery device. It was so good.
Leslie Sbrocco: What else did you have?
Kerrie Smith: The Sampa Explosion. Okay, they call it that for a reason.
There are three different types of flavors. One is that cheesy bread—
Leslie Sbrocco: Pão de queijo.
Kerrie Smith: Yes! So good. And then you also had a chicken-flavored one and then a beefy one. And then I love that it came with all these different sauces. Oh, my gosh, I loved it!
Matt Murphy: So we ordered the picanha, and it’s a Brazilian cut of steak. It comes from the top of the rump of the cow. So, the love handle of the cow, if you will.
Leslie Sbrocco: The love handles!
Matt Murphy: Super tender, super flavorful cut of meat. They cook it to order, so we got ours medium-rare.
Delicious steak, and it comes with a side of this fried flour, which is super delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: Farofa.
Matt Murphy: Yeah, and it comes with rice, as well. I got fries on the side, you could also get a salad, and a big bowl of black beans on the side, as well.
Very delicious.
Leslie Sbrocco: Very Brazilian. And people are used to Brazilian steakhouses—
Kerrie Smith: Yes!
Leslie Sbrocco: Right? Where you go and you turn your card, “Yes, I’ll have more meat,” “No, I’ll—” right?
Bhavya Mohan: Not me.
[All laugh]
