Photograph by George Sakkestad

Kajsa Kilger, chef at The Basin, prepares a garden vegetable soup featuring free-range chicken.

The Basin serves comfort food with a touch of class

By Suzanne Cristallo

Sophisticated and cozy, high-tech and funky: The Basin in Saratoga is all that, plus it offers solid food reminiscent of middle America all dressed up for the next century. Located at the mountain end of Big Basin Way in what once was Mandarin Chef, the corner building with an oak tree-shaded court for outdoor dining has been extensively remodeled, has indirect lighting and is enlivened by hot drums and a good horn.

Opened officially on March 22, the restaurant offers a long bar with a menu including 30 signature martinis, a fully supplied back bar and scores of California wines and minibrews.

"All I wanted was a bar I couldn't get thrown out of," jokes Jon Mittelhauser, 28, who co-founded Silicon Valley's Netscape with Bill Foss and now shares The Basin partnership with him, executive chef Eric Tosh and restaurant veteran Joe Wagner. The foursome met on a golf course a while back and found they shared a vision for a restaurant they believed a technically oriented business community should have: state-of-the-art meeting facilities and "comfort food."

The comfort food is Tosh's inspiration. A Los Gatos resident originally from Michigan, Tosh, now 29, came west to attend the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. After graduation, he set out to hone the skills he started developing at 15 with chef positions from Napa Valley to Bangkok, Thailand.

The Basin is his opportunity to gussy up the food of his growing years in the midwest, resulting in entrees like the grilled Kansas City strip steak smothered in rosemaryed mushrooms with "garlic smashers and onion fritz." There's macaroni with Grafton cheddar cheese cream and prosciutto de Parma and the Basin meatloaf, made from Niman Ranch, premium dry-aged, Angus beef and complemented with garlic smashers and lots of gravy. These Angus steers are humanely treated, grown without hormones and fed nothing but natural foods. "It's not your plain old meat loaf," grins Erica Thomson, Mittelhauser's fiancée and a food fan. "It's hoity toity beef!"

The produce is guaranteed fresh, grown partly on two acres in Willow Glen and delivered "unwashed and still breathing" the day its picked by Los Gatan Brian Gardiner, a minifarmer and supplier of local eateries. "The flavors are very intense," he notes.

Entrees run a la carte from $10.95 to $25.95 for steak. Starters and bar snacks, like the homemade all-beef corn dogs, run $5.25, with sandwiches and pizzas under $10. Root beer floats and ice cream sandwiches round out the menu.

The food comes with a mental picture. "I wanted a place to hang out--a meeting place to do business and have incredible food--a fun place that would serve busy people without time to cook a couple of times a week," Mittelhauser notes.

"I want to appeal to all generations and to make something for my hometown that I'm proud of," says Karen Foss who, like husband Bill, grew up locally.

The restaurant also features the Atomic Lounge, a conference room outfitted with big-screen TV and state-of-the-art wiring for high tech equipment. It seats 30 in addition to the 95 indoor and heated outdoor accommodations.

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The Basin, 14572 Big Basin Way, Saratoga. Open for dinner Mon.-Thurs. 5-10 p.m., Fri. 4-11 p.m., Saturday lunch and dinner 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. lunch and dinner 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. 867-1906.

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