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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Three-year-old Mogan Brost enjoys her soup at her mother's Los Gatos restaurant, A Matter of Taste.
In Los Gatos, great dining is often a 'matter of taste'
By Suzanne Cristallo
Libby Brost is a great believer in going with the flow. As a result, the caterer has been able to follow one appealing opportunity after another to where she is today--owner of A Matter of Taste on E. Main Street in Los Gatos. It's a lunch room, a weekend dinner place and a home and garden accessories, gift and design shop.
"In this place, you can say you're doing one thing, but it could end up being something entirely different," she says.
The Los Gatos resident started as a chef soon after graduating from high school in Campbell. She cooked for the executive staff of Pacific Valley Bank and their VIP guests, creating tasty luncheons for up to 20 guests. She decided to do some catering on the side, but another caterer reported her to the county for cooking out of her home. This led to her need for a commercial place. The building at 35 E. Main St. had just been rebuilt after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and needed tenants. Brost settled in.
Since the place had storefront space, Brost began offering food to go. Small tables were available for those choosing to stay. Weekday lunches evolved, followed by weekend candlelit dinners, a new chef, more staff, a wine list and expansion to the building next door to handle the accessory items and now the home and garden design work.
"It all just evolved. Nothing actually was set out," she explains. "It took off from what appealed to me."
What appealed to Brost is also appealing to customers. The small restaurant is chock-full of French country atmosphere--exposed brick walls, a creamy wrought-iron chandelier, an ornate turn-of-the-century bar, white-washed pine floors and lots of fresh blossoms gathered in a wall basket.
Chef Sherry Horst--a graduate of San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, with time spent as an apprentice in France and with La Folie chef Roland Passot--creates a grand flavor for the small place. For dinner, on a menu quite separate from the more casual weekday lunch items, she offers five special salads, among them Bistrot Salade for $8.50, consisting of baby arugula wrapped in proscuitto with grated cantaloupe, honeydew and Manchego cheese.
Entrees range from a version of the classic "pot on the fire" spring lamb shank medallion with vegetables and flageolet to Halibut Napoleon, Roulade of Boeuf and wasabi-crusted salmon served with sticky rice, stir-fried baby bok choy with corn, onions, leeks and a tamarind demi-glace. Chicken, pork, pasta and a vegetable platter round out the selections, which run $14 for the pasta to an average of $24 for the rest. French wines are available as well as an extensive dessert menu that includes Napoleon au Citron and crème brûlée.
"Sherry's very passionate about what she does," Brost observes.
The same can be said of Brost, who spent the past few years on a roller coaster of emotions involving the prolonged illness and death of her mother and then the joy surrounding Brost and husband Bob's adoption of daughter Morgan, now 3 years old and often seen cavorting about the restaurant. Morgan is growing up with lots of family around. Three of the staff of six are cousins, and her father is a regular as a fix-it man, taking time from his automobile repair business in Sunnyvale.
Through it all, "customers have become a part of my life as friends. They are so sweet about Morgan," Brost says. "That's what is so great about being in a small--or at least what used to be small--town."
A Matter of Taste, 35 E. Main St., Los Gatos. Lunch Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner Fri. and Sat., 6-10 p.m. Call for foods to go, catering and reservations 399-1599.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
