WillowStreet Blog!

AND NOW… FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Do you love to watch sports on TV? Who doesn’t? There is nothing like the Baseball playoffs and Fall Classic. Then there’s the NBA and the NHL featuring our own Sharks. There’s the thrill of big time college football and of course the NFL. I love it. Unfortunately, I also love great food. And there in lies the challenge. And while there are plenty of places to watch sports. You might want to think twice about eating at them. I mean, how many things can you deep fry? Wouldn’t be great if there were a place where you could enjoy the game and the meal. A  place you take the kids without covering their ears. A place where there’s no fighting in the parking lot and no watered down well drinks.  A place with great food and service along with a terrific value menu that’s as good as the game…a place like Willow Street. At Willow Street Westgate we’ve added new TVs, the NFL Ticket and an under $10.00 Sports Menu with items from classic burgers and a meatball sandwich to coconut prawns and even fire fries. That’s right fire fries. Halftime has never been this entertaining! So come pay a visit to Willow Street Westgate. Catch a game, grab a bite. We can’t guarantee a win but we can guarantee a tasty meal. Best of all, you can actually tell your wife where you’ve been. Willow Street Westgate, that’s the ticket.

SOMETHING’S COMING…SOMETHING GOOD

…it’s hard to believe that it has been nearly twenty years since the original

Willow Street Wood Fired Pizza opened in downtown Willow Glen. Twenty years of “Dancing on the Avenue.” Twenty years of Willow Glen Little League. And twenty years of sharing our passion for pizza in the town that we call home. When Willow Street opened, the Sharks had just taken to the ice and the Tech Center was still a dream. Today, Willow Street Willow Glen is in the process of getting face lift…actually a full make over is more like it. If you’ve driven by Willow and Lincoln lately, you know that there are some changes being made. Changes that will make downtown all the more attractive and convenient .Construction has begun on the new Willow Glen Town Square (www.willowglentownsquare.com). When completed, the Square will boast everything from landscaping to a public plaza along with fountains, shops, restaurants, offices and yes, more parking. Willow Street is delighted to be the centerpiece of the project. We’ll be undergoing a complete remodel resulting in more seating a larger patio and a great new feel. Not to worry, Willow Street will still offer the kind of menu and service that has made us a Willow Glen tradition for nearly two decades. Opening of The Square is set for early 2012 but in the meantime there’s bound to be a little dust and perhaps few inconveniences. Know that we are doing all we can to make this transition as smooth as possible. We’ve added free valet parking at lunch and dinner and made picking up a take out order as easy as ever. How’s it going so far? Very well, thank you very much. With our food and your loyalty, this year will fly by…the best is truly yet to come.

“Parts is Parts” Part One

Remember the old commercial; I think it was for a chicken place, “Parts is parts”? The idea was that there wasn’t much difference between products. Parts were parts and ingredients were ingredients. And thirty years ago, there may have been some truth to the adage…but not today. Yeast is no longer just yeast and cheese is certainly not just cheese. Take mozzarella for instance. Visit ten different restaurants and you’re likely to taste ten different styles of mozzarella. Visit Willow Street and you’ll taste one that’s fresh. As in made daily. Not because it’s easier or cheaper. It just tastes better. And we should know, because if there  is one  thing  our staff is good at, it’s tastings, many, many tastings. Now, if your only taste of mozzarella came from the deli case at the supermarket, you haven’t tasted real mozzarella. The cheese that you ate, with the consistency of a superball and a shelf life that would make a cockroach envious, is nothing like the real deal. Simply put…there are few flavors as unique and subtle as fresh mozzarella. Traditionally made from buffalo milk (water buffalo that is), mozzarella has a rich history that has inspired some pretty cool, if questionable, legends. Take the one about Marc Antony and Cleopatra sailing down the Nile on barges pulled by said water buffalo, eating sumptuous meals and feasting on cheese. You guessed it, mozzarella. If fact, Caesar’s envoy took such a liking to the treat, it’s said that he sent water buffalo back to the boss in Rome. The Italians then took the cheesy baton and ran with it. And the rest, as they say, is history. So the next time you’re on your way from Rome to Naples and spot a water buffalo, take a moment  to  thank Marc and Cleo. And if you can’t make it to the old country, stop by Willow Street and taste our fresh mozzarella on our Fresh Tomato Bruschetta our Arugula and Fresh Mozzarella Salad or on our famous Margherita Pizza. Real. Good.   Willow Street…all things being equal,we’re not.   Wanna learn more? Check out www.instructables.com/id.Great-Mozzarella-Cheese. 
 

Wine Icon to visit Willow Street Los Gatos!

Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard will host a wine tasting and book signing Wednesday, June 16 from 6 until 8 p.m.  Mr. Grahm will be pouring wines from selections of his excellent hand crafted wines. Tasting tickets are 5 for $10.00. Come …meet, greet and enjoy! 

Randall Grahm Receives 2010 James Beard Foundation Award

Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology Recognized as Beverage Book of the Year

NEW YORK, NY – The James Beard Foundation’s 2010 Beverage Book of the Year is Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology. Grahm’s book was awarded the honor in an evening ceremony held at Espace in New York City, where winners of the foundation’s broadcast media and journalism awards were announced. Considered the nation’s most prestigious recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries, the awards recognize recipients for excellence in their fields.

Randall Grahm is the visionary, irreverent winemaker and President-for-Life of Bonny Doon Vineyard based in Santa Cruz, CA.  A prolific writer, Been Doon so Long is Grahm’s first book.  It is a collection of his eclectic writings on wine – poems, satiric literary parodies, essays, polemics and speeches, and was published by University of California Press.

In accepting the award, Grahm thanked his editor and publisher, an academic press, for taking the risk of publishing Been Doon So Long, a truly genre-bending book, containing a certain amount of frankly pretty edgy material, and an ungodly number of long, byzantine footnotes.

This is the second James Beard Foundation award for Grahm. He received the award for Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year in 1994.

A maverick in most regards, Grahm established Bonny Doon Vineyard in 1983 in the bucolic northern California hamlet of Bonny Doon. Best known for Rhône-style blends, Grahm produced his first vintage of flagship wine, Le Cigare Volant in 1984.  An hommage to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Le Cigare Volant firmly established Grahm as the leader of the Rhône Rangers movement in the United States.  In 2001, Grahm led the industry charge converting all of his wines to screw cap closures, and since 2008, all his wines have featured full disclosure ingredient labeling.

Today, in a scaled back operation, Grahm describes himself as a terroir-seeker. His newly purchased property currently under development in San Juan Bautista, is farmed biodynamically, in a fashion Grahm describes as “old-fangled.” He acknowledges that while the subtext of his book is one winemaker’s quest for terroir, the real work now is turning his words into deeds.

To learn more, please visit www.beendoonsolong.com and www.bonnydoonvineyard.com. 

We have The Cup!

Spring Specials

Download full-size PDF here: Spring Specials

Wine Tasting Wednesday May 19th, 2010

Check out our newly improved Wine Tasting Event Wednesday April 22 at Willow Street

Featuring KENWOOD Vineyards and Valley of the Moon Wines

Wednesday, April 22, 2010 at the Los Gatos Location (Note: rescheduled to April 22 due to weather.)
Outside on the Side Patio from
6 PM to 8 PM
5 Tastings for $10

Weather permitting, dress accordingly

If you would like to pre-order wine please email Cherie Long at cherielong413@hotmail.com

Download full-size pricing PDF here: WineTasting4.21

Please RSVP on our Facebook page if you’d like to attend.

Beef from Creekstone Farms Impresses top NY Chefs.. and is proudly served at Willow Street!

Restaurants want to know they’re serving quality, natural and humane beef to their patrons.

A great article from the Dining section of the New York Times highlighting the superiority of Creekstone Farms (as well as Niman Ranch) beef.

From farm...

...to meat packing plant..

... to burger

Here is a slide show of the Creekstone Farms plant, one of the most sophisticated meat packing plants in the United States.

Willow Street Willow Glen remodel

All of us at Willow Street would like to happily confirm the renovation plans for our Willow Glen location as part of the overall Willow Glen project construction plans.

If current plans stay on course ground will break on the construction of a new retail and office space at the corner of Lincoln and Willow Street which will be know as “Town Center” in June of this year.

Town Center will be a state-of-the-art multi-story complex with a 2 level parking garage. It will house many of the same businesses located on the corner of Willow Street and Lincoln Avenue as well as providing space for new businesses.

Willow Street Pizza’s remodel is scheduled to be the first phase of the construction project. This remodel will include a new bar area and an expanded patio. This project will also greatly improve the parking situation and is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

The Willow Street Pizza remodel may be finished as early as the holiday season this year.

For information on the Downtown Willow Glen project please view our blog post here.