Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

California Cafe General Manager Jack Aknin, left, and Executive Chef Miles Neal sample from the restaurant's extensive wine list.

California Cafe makes light of power crunch with new dishes

By Suzanne Cristallo

Eating in the dark may be considered romantic, but in California lately, it's a threat. Folks at the California Cafe in Los Gatos, however, are doing something to raise consciousness in their customers about the need to conserve the state's limited energy supply.

General Manager Jack Aknin says his company is running an "Unplug and Lighten Up" marketing campaign in several of its Bay Area restaurants. It involves offering menu items that require less energy to cook, plus the chance for customers to win $75 toward their next gas and electric bill. The promotion is a concept of the Cafe's public relations department in Corte Madera, at the home office of Constellation Concepts Inc.--the new owners of 31 properties, including five California Cafes that are now in eight states.

"A lot of it is just to have some fun with the whole idea," Aknin explains, while at the same time ensuring the lights are turned off at night. He says the Cafe's appropriately named spring menu includes "Light for Spring" appetizers, such as chilled oysters with pepper vodka granita--a flavored ice; and marinated artichoke with tarragon aioli--a strongly flavored garlic mayonnaise. "Oven-less" items of tamari (dark soybean sauce) tuna sashimi salad and fettuccine with spring vegetables are also available.

Dishes are prepared by Chef Miles Neal, a 13-year veteran of the California Cafe chain. Customer reactions to the foods have been good. "They're interesting to a lot of people," Aknin says, as well as being appropriate for spring and the energy problem.

Desserts on the "Short Circuit" menu are the Rolling Blackout Fudge Cake and Kilo Lime Pie. From the full service bar, "Electric Elixirs," such as the Stage Three Alert or Day Glow, may be ordered to enhance the theme.

The California Cafe reopened in October 1998, after an extensive renovation of the Old Town shopping center. What had once been a familiar, if not crumbling, '80s look in the old restaurant was replaced with a sculptured, retro modern look with lots of wood and color. It was a look not readily accepted by many of the restaurant's former regulars.

"Some (of the old) customers moved away from us," recalls Aknin, 39, who was with the restaurant before its closing and returned as general manager. "They preferred the early '80s look." But the restaurant weathered the growing pains, including a change in ownership, and since then has rebounded, he says.

"We won back a lot of the people we lost and had a record year last year. The highest volume of business in our region was in Los Gatos." Aknin attributes the growth mainly to an increase in corporate trade.

While planned blackouts have not affected the restaurant yet, there was an unintentional one recently that made the restaurant acutely aware of its vulnerability. "Someone hit a pole across the street," Aknin relates. "It was 7:30 on a Saturday night, and the whole restaurant went out. We were the only ones hit in the whole area." Instead of groping through the power outage with candlelight and tepid soup, Aknin says they offered customers the choice of sitting it out in the dark or leaving. "They left," he says.

Meanwhile, the word is: while conservation is a serious matter, "we don't think it should dim the spirits of our guests."

---

California Cafe, 50 University Ave., Los Gatos. Open daily for lunch at 11:30 a.m. Dinner is served until 10 p.m. Mon.-Thurs, until 10:30 p.m. Fri. and Sat. and until 9:30 p.m. Sunday brunch begins at 10:30 a.m. 408.354.8118.

---

Photo: Carmen Rutlen takes her dog for a run and her cockatoo for a fly at Vasona Park

Moryt Milo: Power outages bring out frustrations

Affordable solar power looms on horizon

Obituaries

Picture from the Past

Sports Briefs

Los Gatos to host CCS track finals

Gatos baseball, softball teams lose at CCS

Ellis, Blair help A's hold Little League top spot

Courtside women win berth in tennis nationals