Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Andrew Stoloff, who with his partner, Michael Dellar, owns the Red Tractor Cafe, promises old-fashioned farm food like grandma used to make. Red tractor outside stands for farm-fresh food inside By Suzanne Cristallo Andrew Stoloff woke up one morning after years of riding subways to a desk in New York and decided he'd had it. He left his investment banking job, packed up his worldly goods and some childhood dreams and headed for San Francisco. After nine years in restaurant jobs, which started with making sandwiches at a lunch counter soon after his arrival, he eventually created the Red Tractor Cafe. The family eatery opened in September in the El Paseo de Saratoga Shopping Center at Campbell and Saratoga avenues. It is filled with food and ambiance inspired by Stoloff's aunt's farm in Pennsylvania, where he visited as a child, storing memories of a big red tractor in the barn and the wholesome food his family enjoyed around a big table. Stoloff and partner Michael Dellar, who also owns Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur as well as several other restaurants, opened their first Red Tractor Cafe three years ago in Oakland. So far, it's a small operation in a world of giant chains. "We'll see how things go," Stoloff says about expansion. For now, he's busy creating menus, overseeing employee hiring and training and even washing dishes when necessary. The partners have transformed the building shell into a knotty pine-paneled kitchen with big ceiling beams, a tin-roofed outdoor eating porch and accessories such as corrugated metal buckets of eating utensils, thick crockery bowls and plates and big signs reminding patrons of the fresh-squeezed orange juice and lemonade, iced tea and buttermilk biscuits on hand. There's also meatloaf cooked from scratch on the premises along with barbecue sauce and chicken. Side dishes include sweet potato pudding, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sweet-hot cucumbers, roasted carrots and onions. Sandwiches come in a wide variety along with meal-sized salads in giant crockery bowls. Desserts include butterscotch bread pudding and hot fudge sundaes. A house specialty and a proud concoction of Stoloff's is the vegetarian meatloaf. He says it has its own flavor--not a pretend meat one--that comes from polenta, wild rice and red rice, roasted mushrooms and onions and several cheeses, served with a vegetarian gravy. Stoloff himself was a vegetarian for 10 years and developed a knack for creating flavors. Weekend brunch with items running from $2 to $6 includes home fries, egg pie "and the best waffles you've ever had, I promise," Stoloff says. Since their opening in Oakland, Stoloff has been surprised by the great number of customers who, noting the red tractors decorating the shelves of the restaurant, have commented that they are tractor collectors. It was through this network of tractor aficionados that he found the large Farm All tractor that sits outside the cafe. The rusting hulk from Turlock has been restored to bright red perfection and is the cafe's trademark. The cafe's name won out over others meant to evoke the feeling of a rural "farm stand cafe" and "moonbeam cafe," according to Stoloff, and was inspired by the small toy tractor his mother had saved for him since his childhood. Red Tractor Cafe, 1320 El Paseo de Saratoga, San Jose. Open Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Brunch on weekends until 2 p.m. 374-4222. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 30, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.