Photograph by George Sakkestad
Michelle and Joseph Masek celebrate 25 years of fine food in Saratoga.
By Suzanne Cristallo
Patrons of La Mere Michelle partake of French food with a reputation developed over a quarter-century in Saratoga. In April, they may take part in the 25-year celebration with owners Joseph and Michelle Masek, who will offer an anniversary menu of special dishes along with a prix fixe five-course dinner for $30.
Other things are happening at the restaurant to entice Sunday diners. On Sundays in April, the food and music of the world's sophisticated cities will create an atmosphere reminiscent of Paris, Madrid, Budapest, Saint Petersburg or Vienna. Tables will be arranged to seat eight, mixing singles, couples and small groups together. On Sundays in May, the works of great composers will create the atmosphere.
"Good food is the specialty of the house," says owner Joseph Masek, 75, who has been in the restaurant business since he was a boy of 10, working after school in his family's restaurant in Prague. The seventh child of eight and the fourth son, he did what was natural for all of his family for generations. Innkeeping had been the way of life for his forebears for more than eight centuries--since the year 1182. The restaurant in Prague had been owned by a Masek--which means meat handler--for100 years and was sold just six years ago by Masek's only remaining brother, who continues to work in the profession.
In 1937, Masek left his family and started on a career that spanned nearly 25 years and several countries before coming to the United States, always in the restaurant business.
With his wife, Michelle, whom he met and married in Canada, Masek spent another 10 years running a Harvey's Casino restaurant, working at the famous Jack's and Tadich Grill restaurants in San Francisco and La Hacienda in Los Gatos, and designing and opening two local Velvet Turtles.
In 1972, a Sunday drive into Saratoga launched the Maseks on another phase of their restaurant career when they took over the lease of an old bookstore on Big Basin Way and turned it into La Mere Michelle. Today, in the building they have owned for the past 10 years, Michelle is hostess and bookkeeper, Joseph cooks, bakes and buys, and son Marc continues the family tradition as night chef.
"The food you eat here is not prepared until you order it," Joseph Masek says.
La Mere Michelle, 14467 Big Basin Way, Saratoga. Open for lunch Tues.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and dinner, 6-10 p.m. Sunday brunch, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m., and dinner, 5:30 p.m. Closed Mon. Guitar and singing by Mr. Clifford Fri.-Sat. eves. 867-5272.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.