Table Food+Drink

Table Food+Drink

Richard and Terumi Mazzera Answer Their Customers’ Requests

By Mindy Flanary and Joyell Nevins

Gather ‘round the Table for conversation, class, and modern American cuisine in Fairbanks Ranch.

Table Food+Drink is the restaurant formerly known as Cesar, a second location to the Berkeley flagship restaurant, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Richard and Terumi Mazzera opened the Rancho Santa Fe Cesar two years ago, and while the community loved the place, they were requesting a different style of food. Table Food+Drink is the Mazzeras’ answer to their customers’ requests.

So this past December, the restaurant shut down and opened its doors a few weeks later with a new name and new menu.

“Renaming your restaurant is like renaming a child,” Richard said.

They chose Table Food+Drink to keep it simple and cultivate the idea of community. Indeed, when we were there, there were several laughing groups enjoying themselves.

The restaurant boasts high ceilings and a blue-green color palate. You can sit outside on the small but heated patio, or inside at a high-top table or corner booth (our favorite). There’s even a large private room that you can reserve.

The bar goes across one whole wall – plenty of liquors available for their creative cocktails. We highly recommend the sangria, our waitress’s favorite to sip. It is made to order each time with Moscato, brandy and a bit of port. The cocktail wasn’t overly sweet, but still refreshing.

At the back of the bar, two televisions continually play old movies, generally themed to the menu of the night. On an Italian night – spaghetti western. Japanese specials? Break out the old samurai films. Of course, Richard notes that all of this is trumped if the Warriors are playing.

But on Halloween, the movie has to be “The Wizard of Oz.” All of the staff dresses up as characters from the film. Last year, a drink special was offered to any customers dressed as characters from Oz. This resulted in a group of six grown men with ruby slippers and gingham dresses bellying up to the bar!

Much of the restaurant was not just designed, but built, by the owners. Richard personally built the tables and laid the tiled backsplash along the bar. If you want to hear a funny story, ask him why there is a solid square among the mosaic pattern hidden in plain sight.

There are plenty of starter options to begin your meal. Our favorite, hands down, is the tuna poke. While not on the

regular menu, it’s offered as a special almost every day. The yellowfin is diced finely and mixed with garlic, tobiko caviar and siracha aioli. The flavor explodes in your mouth. They serve wonton chips, but Mindy was eating it right off the spoon!

The caviar also provided an interesting crunch on the Hamachi crudo. Now that is a dish only offered on “Terumi Tuesdays,” when Terumi makes a special izakaya menu, including her own ponzu sauce. The miso soup was unexpected with a thick broth and large manila clams.

Other themed nights include Taco Thursdays (who says tacos can only be on Tuesdays?), and an upcoming Italian night on Wednesdays. Try brunch on the weekends with a build-your-own benedict with options for your base, vege, protein and sauce.

For the regular menu, popular dinner items include the Southern-style buttermilk fried chicken and steak frites. We enjoyed the sandwich of the day with melted Gruyure cheese and smoked ham. The bread dough is brought in from San Diego-based Sadie Rose Baking Co. and baked in house daily.

Appetizers range from a whole steamed artichoke to spicy chicken wings and beef and barley soup. We would stay away from the roasted cauliflower. It was served with a fermented black garlic vinaigrette that’s more of a paste, and some other flavors we thought clashed with the vegetable.

Any trip to Table has to conclude with chocolate and sour cherry bread pudding. Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It is served with a buttered brandy sauce and homemade, thick whipped cream. We savored ours with a cup of Mr. Espresso coffee – you know it’s good when even the decaf is rich and satisfying. Other desserts on the menu include bananas foster (a little too liquidy for us), chocolate mousse, local berry crisp and crème brulee.

The Mazzeras’ restaurant experience spans several decades. This venture is the sixth restaurant Richard has opened personally and the fourth for Terumi. They still maintain Cesar in Berkeley, but are content living here in Southern California.

And if you miss some of the original Cesar menu down here in RSF, they still will serve paella. You can order a family-style pan; just be sure to give 48 hours notice. The Valencia Spanish classic is a rice dish including seafood, chicken, chorizo, and vegetables like peas and sweet peppers.

Table Food+Drink is located in the Del Rayo Shopping Center. Hours are 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, visit the website at www.tablefooddrink.com.