|
Ladies dressed in long, satin gowns, tuxedoed gentlemen and champagne cocktails: this is the picture I imagined when I walked into a post-lunch (albeit empty) Tarragon on Murphy Street in Sunnyvale. Chef Steve Morvay said the picture in my head was probably due to the fact that a Frank Sinatra tune was playing in the background. No matter. Tarragon is lovely to the eye.
Owner Dottia Bilic says she and her husband, Tony, spent $2 million remodeling Tarragon before they opened it in July 1998. The design team was led by Chuck Thompson, who Bilic says was Pat Kuleto's right-hand man. Kuleto is the man whose Los Gatos and Burlingame restaurants bear his name. The Sunnyvale restaurant has a bar with a brass railing that cost $100,000 and a Terrazo strip down its long, winding center that cost $40,000. She says, "Craftsmen had to come out of retirement to get this place built."
Bilic says when she and Tony were dating they frequently went to fine dining establishments in San Francisco. So when they opened Tarragon, she says, "We were striving for a city feel, without having to drive there. We wanted the ambiance of the city. But not the prices."
Chef Morvay, who arrived just months ago, has re-done the menu while keeping prices modest. On New Year's Day, he says, "There was a lot of prime rib left over. So I cut it up into rib-eye steaks." It was so popular that now it's a regular menu item priced at $16.50 for a 12 ounce cut and $22.50 for 18 ounces. Morvay serves it up with asparagus. He disdains the less expensive side dish of sauteed green and yellow zucchini, saying, "You'll never get that here."
What you will get is live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights. Bilic says, "We rotate ensembles so customers don't get bored." Although the musicians perform in the bar area, front tables have a bird's eye view because Tarragon has tiered seating, with small tables for two and on up to larger, cozy booths.
The Bilics bought Tarragon because, Dottia says, "My husband wanted to bring something nice to Sunnyvale. We also own bars and gentlemen's clubs." Those would be the Kit Kat and the Candid Club. The couple also owns Paul & Harvey's, which is next door to Tarragon.
Bilic says, "Tarragon is popular. A lot of important Silicon Valley people come here." She says they have regular customers from NASA, Lockheed, Intel, Cisco and Affymetrix. It's also popular for banquets because, tucked upstairs, is a hall that can be rented out for weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events. Bilic says, "We're Sunnyvale's hidden treasure."
Tarragon is located at 146 Murphy St. To make a reservation, email dottia @dinetarragon.com or call 408.737.8003.
|
Photograph by Cera Renault