For some time now I’ve been meaning to provide an update on the ELCO Yards project, and I will, later in this post. However, there is more restaurant news, so I’ll lead with that. For those who are starting to think of this as a restaurant blog, that is not at all my intent. However, it appears that Redwood City’s reputation as a great place to dine out has spread, and restaurateurs are flocking to the city. Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps because around the start of summer is a good time to open a new restaurant, there continues to be a lot of action on that front, and I know that many of you are interested in knowing what new options are being presented to us.

First up, a really intriguing new place just came onto my radar: Pizzeria Cardamomo, a true gourmet Italian pizzeria from Lake Como, Italy (really!). This new place, which is replacing the short-lived Sushirrito at 2053 Broadway (in the section closed to vehicles, on the corner where the alley leads to the Main Street parking lot) has a fascinating story.

It seems that Chef Momo (Momo Farouq) grew up in Morocco, but at age 16 he made his way to Italy. There he started at the bottom — as a dishwasher — in the restaurant business, and over time worked his way up the chain, picking up cooking tips as he went along. After ten years he managed to secure a small space in Como, where he started a take-away pizza business. Seven years later he purchased a larger space across the street, and opened “CardaMomo”: a gourmet pizza restaurant.

Twelve years after that — in 2018 — he married a woman from California. The fact that she has a good job here in Silicon Valley combined with the limitations that the COVID lockdowns put on travel (which apparently made it difficult for Chef Momo and his wife to spend time together) caused Momo to decide to move to America. Just last February he closed his restaurant in Como for good, and moved to the states with plans to open the same restaurant in the Bay Area. He secured space in, of all places, Redwood City, and is now working to retrofit it for his needs. According to his recent post on Instagram, he anticipates opening in September. This new restaurant will be serving “pizza, hot and cold hors d’oeuvres, as well as our desserts.”

Next, I haven’t tried it yet, but Nomadic Kitchen, Redwood City’s newest Turkish restaurant, is already open for business at 2086 Broadway after what seemed to be a pretty short remodel:

At the moment they are rated five stars on Yelp, but they only have six reviews and for all I know those reviews could all be from friends and relatives. But I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and thus I plan to give them a try. I’ve never tried Turkish food, and I certainly am curious. According to the business owners, Nomadic Kitchen is a “family run restaurant known for its juicy kebabs, freshly made bread, pides and mezze. And of course, don’t miss the kunefe for dessert!” I like a good kebab, and the pides — which, apparently, are a form of pizza made with Turkish flatbread — sound great. Mezzes, apparently are appetizers made from a wide variety of ingredients (such as olives, vegetables, feta cheese, mussels, fish, cured and seasoned meat), and kunefe apparently is a cheese-filled, deep-fried pastry. Yum…

While I was surprised to discover that Nomadic Kitchen is already open, having monitored their progress I was a little less surprised to see that Varam, a restaurant serving “premium Indian cuisine,” has also opened. As soon as I saw that they had opened their doors, I determined to give them a try, and so this week when I was out walking (early in the day; I was well aware that it was going to be hot!) I pretty much ended my walk with a trip to Varam for an early lunch.

Although Varam appears to serve a more limited menu at lunchtime, I still had some nice choices. I opted for two kinds of biryani (chicken, and vegetable), which were accompanied by a small salad, a spicy mix-in for the rice, raitha (a yogurt-based side dish; I also tried mixing it in with the rice), papad (roasted lentil crisps), naan, and a small helping of paneer that I believe they’d cooked in the tandoor. I also had a berry lassi to drink, plus several glasses of water, for which I was most grateful after a couple of hours’ walk.

The food was very good, as is the decor and the general atmosphere. Given the limited lunch menu (which was smaller than what they list on their website; I’m guessing that they are still getting their feet under them, and will be expanding it) I’m already planning to go back for dinner, with its more extensive menu. While I don’t claim to be an expert in Indian cuisine, I can say that I enjoyed both the food and the very attentive staff. So give them a try!

As long as I’m still on the subject of restaurants, I managed to peek into a couple that are not quite open yet, but look to be very close. First, The Baker Next Door (which isn’t really going to be a restaurant, but will be very much in the food service business):

Next, Limón (a Peruvian restaurant, in the old Arya steakhouse space on Theatre Way):

Finally, DasBierhauz Biergarten:

DasBierhauz looked so close to opening when I went by that I was betting they were planning to open on July 4, when downtown was full of people. I think I would have lost that bet — I don’t think they actually did open on that day — but in any case I can picture them opening almost any second now (if they haven’t already), so pay attention to the old Café La Tartine space on Theatre Way if this seems like something you might enjoy.

Before lunch on that day (while it was not yet uncomfortably hot) I took a spin through the ELCO Yards project, and was impressed by the amount of progress the work crews are making. Most of you have probably seen the brick facade that is being applied to the office building out on El Camino Real, since all you need do is drive by:

The brick portion of the facade (which consists of pre-made panels which were bolted into place from the rear) is pretty much complete, except for a bit at the back on the Lathrop Street side of the building. Looking closely at the white horizontal members that span the large openings you can see the brackets that are ready to hold the glass panels (with metal framing) that will fill those openings.

Ultimately, this particular building will look something like this:

Over on Main Street, the ELCO Yards building that will stand at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets will have a very different, more industrial look. Much of the building will be clad in glass, although a portion will be somewhat barn-shaped and will be clad in glass and metal so as to look as if it is made up largely of louvers:

At the moment, the glass is rapidly being applied to the main part of the building:

The curvy building (also along Main Street, but just to the north of the above) has not yet had any glass applied, but the brackets that will hold that glass appear to be in place, so it likely won’t be long now before that building’s nearly all-glass skin is applied:

I just love how all of these buildings have their own unique character; this should be a very interesting neighborhood to stroll through once it is complete. No cookie-cutter buildings here…

Finally, the fourth building currently under construction — this one located on the west side of Main Street at Cedar Street — is lagging the other three; its concrete structure is still being formed:

Ultimately, two taller (one six-story, one seven-story) residential buildings will join these four office buildings to make up ELCO Yards’ main campus. Recently some work has been going on near where one of those residential buildings will stand (at El Camino Real and Maple Street) but after some observation and thought I’ve come to realize that what is being worked on is not the building itself, but a portion of the plaza that will front the building at that corner and that will hold a piece of public art of some sort:

This triangular area spans Redwood Creek (which emerges from beneath El Camino Real at this point, and is exposed to the open air just behind where that worker is standing) and will be just a portion of a larger public plaza that will stand at the head of a public walkway that’ll run between the creek and one of the residential buildings. In the following rendering, the triangle is just the small bit running off the lower left corner of the image:

Here is another  rendering showing the creek walk itself, along with some of the 252 apartments that will be contained within this one building (its neighbor will have another 249):

I’m really looking forward to the day that I can walk along this path. Previously, there was an Acura dealership on this property, situated such that the public couldn’t walk along that side of the creek. As for the near side of the creek, that is where Maple Street runs, and there is no sidewalk between Maple Street and the creek. So the best one could do is walk along the sidewalk on the far side of Maple Street. And given the ample flora that covers the fence blocking access to the creek itself, this one exposed section of the creek has long been very difficult to even see, much less enjoy. For now, I content myself with the bit of the creek just past Lathrop Street that runs through the property containing the triangular building at 1180 Main St. (the following shows the Maple Street side of that building):

On the subject of Maple Street and the ELCO Yards project, as I surmised, Redwood City’s recycled water pipeline, which runs along the east side of Highway 101 and ducks beneath the freeway at Walnut Street, now runs beneath Walnut all the way to Savers (at the corner of Walnut and Stambaugh streets), at which point it makes a slight jog over to Maple Street, which it then runs beneath. If you’ve been wondering about the recent work going on beneath Maple Street just west of Middlefield Road, that is what is happening: the recycled water pipeline that will supply the portions of the ELCO Yards project with non-potable water (for landscaping, toilet flushing, and other uses where drinkable water isn’t actually needed) is just about to be extended to the corner of the ELCO Yards project itself.

I presume that 1180 Main Street will also be hooked up as the water line goes by (for years now all new downtown projects have been required to be plumbed for recycled water, in anticipation of the recycled water someday being extended to those projects). So this large, newly-developed portion of the city, at least, will use relatively little drinkable water when compared with other parts of the city.

---

While at the library this week I saw a flyer for a free, easy (flat, and only about 3/4 mile, round-trip) sunset walk on Bair Island at which participants will not only get to observe some of Bair Island’s flora and fauna, they’ll also hear about some of Bair Island’s history. This walk, though, is taking place tomorrow, Saturday, July 6, from 7 to 8 p.m. If you are reading this in time and it interests you, head to this link at EventBrite for free tickets. For many of you, though, you’ll be seeing this too late. Fortunately, the organizer of this event — the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge — is apparently organizing other events like this on future dates, so we have other opportunities. Go to that same link, and then scroll down to the section titled “More events from this organizer.” And note that back up near the top of the page there is a prominent blue “Follow” button you can click to get notified of future events (eventbrite login required).