L}I NIl\t.foC ross- cultu ral cuisine delightsNew Cloverdale eatery runby SRJC grads masters flan,samples from Asia, Greece

By JEFF COXFoR Tr{E Fnp-ss pnryrocnar

A coupleofyoungsters/ f, who trained at the San-

f$ff;Junior college

opened Crossroads restaurantin Cloverdale last January,and you know what? They aredoing a bang-up job with a vari-ety of cross:cultural dishesthat would make more experi-enced chefs proud.

The chefis Shawn Cook.Nicole Greaney rrrns the roomand waits on tables out front.They are trying to make foodfun, and in the process arequite ambitious. Their menucharacterizes the food as "Fh-sion cooking: Traditional andexotic entrees with a Mediter-ranean and Asian influence:also featuring American andItalian dishes."

Five-course dinners are of-fered on Friday and Saturday.On Friday evenings, whenthere's live music at the Clover-dale Plaza, the restaurant givesdiscounts on its special appetiz-ers.

Wednesday is won ton night.On Thursday nights, seniorsget 10 percent off.

There's a children's menu.but it's predictable: Mac andcheese, chicken strips, burgersand fries. (Woutdn't it be greatto have sligh0y more adventur-ous items with great kid ap-peal, Iile a broiled lamb chop,Wiener schnitzel, hashbrowns, fruit salad or Spanishrice?)

The restaurant is a clean.weil-lighted place, with abrushed aluninum ceiling,wall alcoves filled with knick-knacks, glass bricks, interest-ing Asian and European pho-tos and artwork, a zigzagcounter with eight stools and ametal filigree screen. The colorscheme is oyster sheil whiteand blond natural wood.

Sorne pleasant touches: Afresh bouquet of red-orangemontbretias and yellow sun-

flowers on the counter, andchopsticks with a chopstickholder in the shape of a ftiend-ly litfle wha]e so you don'thave to lay the business end ofthe sticks on the table.

The wine list consists of sixwhites and seven reds, pricedfrom $L4 to $32, but includesnothing exciting. The menupromises that new selectionsare coming, however. If youbring your own, corkage is $9.

Greaney kept everything run-ning smoothly when I wasthere. Her service is unpreten-tious and homey - if she hastime, she may chat a bit as shewaits on yor:r table. She spokeabout the vagarids ofrunninga restaurant in Cioverdale andhow many folks in.the townaren't yet aware of their restau-rarlt.

That's too bad, because byand large the food is very goodand the prices are moderate.It's the kind of restaurant thatshould draw a crowd ofregu-Iars - you can eat well therewithout brealcing the bank.

For example, take the Viet-namese Cha Gio ($6.50 ***;.

These are deep-fried Imperialrolls and are a cut above theusual fried rolls, which oftenare overcooked. thick andtough, or too greasy. Here therice paper wrappers are friedto a iight golden color, they'renot greasy at all, and they arethin and easy to eat. They arefilled with a mixture of mush-rooms, bean thread noodles,ground pork, garlic, shallots,bean sprouts, grated carrot,and a splash offish sauce,sliced into eight pieces, thenserved with a spicy-sweet cleardipping sauce.

Finally, here's an authenticGreek Salad ($8 ***) - that is,no lettuce, just peeled andsliced cucumbers, tomato wedg-es, sliced raw red onion, kala-mata olives and crumbles offeta cheese, tossed in an oliveoil and baLsamic vinaigrette.It's nicely presented as a slicedsalad, although in Greece onetypically finds the tomatoesand cucumbers diced. Still, thefresh ineredients carry the fla-vors of high sum.mer proudly.

Sandwiches can be routine,TURNTO CROSSROADS, PAGE 5

FUru DIil!ruGRestaurant Crossroads, 1 ,|6 E.First St,, CloverdaleWhen: Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.Dinner 5 t0 9 p.m. Tuesdaythrough Saturday.Reservations: Call 8944667.Price range: Moderate, wilhmost entrees from $11 to $17.Kid-friendliness: **Wine Iist: *Ambiance: **Service: **Food: **%Overall: **%

t-t** - Extraordinary*** - very good** - Good* - Not very good0 -- Tenible

Shawn Cook is the owner and chef at Crossroads in Cloverdale. He runs the restaurant along with fellowSanta Rosa Junior College Culinary School graduate Nicole Greaney.

JEFF KAN LIE / lhe Pr6 Demwat

The restaurant is a clean,weli-lighted place, with abrushed aluminum ceiling,wall alcoves filled with knick-linacks, glass bricks, interest-ing Asian and European pho-tos and artwork, azigzagcounter with eight stools and ametal filigree screen, The colorscheme is oyster shell whiteand blond natural wood.

Some pleasant touches: Afuesh bouquet of red-orangemontbretias and yellow sun-

about the vagaries of runninga restaurant in Cloverdale andhow many foU<s in the townaren't yet aware of their restau-rant.

That's too bad, because byand iarge the food is very goodand the prices are moderate.It's the kind of restaurant thatshould draw a crowd ofregu-lars - you can eat well therewithout breaking the bank.

For example, take the Viet-namese Cha Gio ($5.50 ***1.

CROSSROADSCONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

so I was glad to see tlree inter-esting-looking choices on thismenu. Skipping over the An-gus burger and Malibu chickensandwich (chicken, pineapple,cheese and teriyaki sauce), Ichose the Earbecue ChickenSandwich ($8 ***;. A tenderand juicy grilled chickenbreast is topped with meltedjack and cheddar cheeses, ba-con and barbecue sauce, andserved on a toasted Kaiser roll.It comes with a little metal potof ketchup, crinkle-cut F?enchfties, and thin slices of onionand tomato. It's outstanding.

Four noodle dishes are divid-ed into two Italian and twoVietnamese creations. For Ital-ian, the shrimp scampi ($12**7:) consisted of angel hairpasta tossed with diced tomato,chopped parsley and onions,with broccoli florets and carrotand zucchini coins on the side,along with nine shrimp swim-ming in a shallow dish of melt-ed butter. All that was fine, butI missed a hefty handful of gar-lic in there; an ingredient I as-sociate with good scampi.

The Vietramese selectionwas MiXao Gion ($11.50 ***),a fresh-tasting chow mein. Itsbase was crispy mai fun noo-dles topped with tiger prawns,bean sprouts, bamboo shoots,cauliflower florets, zucchini,scallions, carrots, and mush-rooms, lightly sauced.

Something went wrong with

DINI i l IGthe Greek Chicken ($11 *%), thecenterpiece of which is twopieces of braised chickenbreast. hrstead of renderingthe meat tender and juicy, thebraising pulled out all the juiceand much of the flavor, leavingthe meat tough and dry. Dicedtomatoes, cherry tomatoes,rosemary leaves, lemon, kala-mata olives and wine saucecouldn't rescue the chicken,but the idea of this dish is agood one. It was served with agood rice pilaf.

Things were back on fackwith the Chefs Special Salmon($14 **lA). The preparation ofthe dish varies with the moodof the chef, but this night itwas pan-roasted. It was cookedhard and fast, so it was firmand flaky; but it wasn't over-done. If there was a problem, itwas wittr the 50 capers (I count-ed them) sprinkled over thetop. These sow little pills arebest used sparingly. Five or sixwould have been fine.

The night's special was aNew York Steak ($18.50 ***),seasoned with lots of blaek pep-per and grilled medium rare,then topped with saut6ed mush-rooms and sliced green bellpeppers. Delicious roasted redpotato wedges and bell peppersand zucchini accompanied thesteak.

You'll never have a betterflan than chef CooKs Citrus Flan($4.50 ****), a four-star effortthat is worth the frip to Clover-dale. The melt-in.your-mouthcustard is coated with a citrussauce that adds tang and briskflavor. Flans can be too loose,

no lettuce, Just peele{t anctsliced cucumbers, tomato wedg-es, sliced raw red onion, kala- .

mata olives and crumbles offeta cheese, tossed in an oliveoi] and balsamic vihaigrette.It's nicely presented as a slicedsalad, although in Greece onetypicaliy finds the tomatoesand gucumbers diced. Still, thefresh ingredients cany the fla-vors of high suurmer proudly.

Sandwiches- can be routine,TURNTO CROSSROADS, PAGE 5

too firm and rubbery, cookedtoo hard so the caramel burns,or prey to a host ofother trou-bles. But this one was perfect.

To sum up: A sweet little res-taurant run by a talentedyoung chef who, I suspect, willmake his mark in a granderkitchen some day.

Jeff Cox writes a weeklyrestdurant reuipw mlurnnfor Q.Youcanrea.ch hirn atjefcox@soni.c.net.

tckk* - Ex$aordinary*-t-* - Very good** - Good* - Not very good0 - Tenible