Just when restaurants almost hit the one-week mark of welcoming diners indoors, Marin County officials retracted permission in response to the county’s recent rise in coronavirus cases.
But there are still plenty of alternatives to cooking at home. Outdoor spaces remain open. Or if takeout or delivery is preferred, a number of businesses have sprouted that — like restaurants — provide an eclectic menu of possibilities for lunch or dinner.
I had the pleasure of savoring the culinary talents of identical twin sisters and Marin residents Mary Barber and Sara Whiteford during their six years operating Thymes Two Catering back in the 1990s, and have made a few recipes from their many cookbooks. Now they’ve transformed their cooking to embrace our current climate.
The two have brought their Southern-style, California sensibilities and dietary know-how to their “quarantine project.” Each week, they create a full menu of dishes and post an order form online with pickup and delivery details. Their recent offerings included crispy carnitas, garlic-marinated grilled shrimp, and black bean and corn salad, along with gluten-free “cookie dough” cookies and recipes and tips for making guacamole with cilantro and salsa fresca with lime zest. A percentage of their profits goes to Eat REAL, a nonprofit that works with school district food service leaders to offer healthier food.
Find out more about Barber and Whiteford and their other endeavors at maryandsara.com. Or follow them at instagram.com/maryandsara.
Soul Kitchen Marin is a pandemic-born takeout business that pays close attention to offering comforting, organic meals at an affordable price. Trey and Angelica Mitchell have capitalized on his extensive restaurant experience, although both are doing the cooking since her work stopped in March.
“He’s the mastermind, but I do the business aspect and the aesthetics,” she says, while praising his skill in recipe development.
This week’s sold-out to-go package ($14 lunch, $18 dinner) contains organic, free-range stewed chicken in coconut curry sauce with potatoes, rainbow carrots, West Indian curry, sage and shallots with butter rice, honey habanero broccoli and yams. Party-size options for between four and 20 diners are also available and can be delivered. Otherwise, pickup is on Tiburon Boulevard in San Rafael until the couple moves to a commercial kitchen in Fairfax.
The menu is posted three to five days prior to the pickup date on instagram.com/soulkitchenmarin. Orders are taken by direct message or send a text to 415-448-6055. Email questions to soulkitchenmarin@gmail.com.
Organic catering company A Fork Full of Earth has reformatted operations and now has an online marketplace for ordering meals for individuals or “your next small gathering, family meal, road trip or late-night nosh.”
“The food we are creating continues to be focused on California’s wild abundance, though now we are designing items that people can enjoy at home,” says Jasmine Guyer, director of sales.
Menus change weekly and include one or two entrees with protein; a seasonal side dish; one or two seasonal vegetable preparations; a grain and a pickle. This week, take a tour of Asia with slow-roasted pork shoulder with shallots, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, lime, cilantro and brown sugar served on a bed of vermicelli noodles and tossed with cilantro, mint, Thai basil, pickled red onion and daikon. An array of dishes from Japan, Thailand, Korea and China come on the side, including savory chicken meatballs with Chinese five-spice and tom kha soup with kaffir lime, lemongrass, ginger and garlic in a coconut broth with mushrooms, carrots, Thai chilies, torpedo onion and cilantro.
The order window opens at noon Friday and closes at noon the following Tuesday. Pickup is noon to 1:30 p.m. Fridays and deliveries ($60 minimum) are from noon and 4 p.m. A loyalty program has been launched that incentivizes referrals from repeat customers. Sign up for the weekly email or place an order at forkfull.com located at 1605 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Fairfax.
Richard and Andrea Visconte, founders of Visconte Catering, continue to offer gourmet comfort food, frozen to-go for delivery in Marin, San Francisco and Napa.
Find the order form with a drop-down list of dishes like Indonesian beef short rib curry with red rice and bok chow mui; stuffed eggplant with ground lamb, pine nuts and crumbled feta; or pulled pork enchiladas with papilla sofrito, tomatillo sauce, cheese and corn tortillas at chefvisconte.com. Call 415-897-6543 with questions.
RH opens
RH Marin, the Gallery at the Village has arrived in Corte Madera. Over the past two years, the charcoal grey Venetian plaster and reflective glass structure, housing 60,000-square-feet of luxury furnishings and an elegant restaurant, has prominently risen to stately heights in the mall’s central parking zone.
For now, the lower two of its three levels are open to shoppers, but the Rooftop Restaurant and wine bar and adjacent park-like courtyards with 100-year-old heritage olive trees and sculptured evergreens temporarily closed Sunday night, along with all Marin indoor dining spaces.
RH Marin is at 1750 Redwood Highway in Corte Madera. Stay tuned for much more about the space and menus when the restaurant doors reopen.
Bastille Day
Left Bank Brasserie in Larkspur is getting in the spirit of Bastille Day, July 14, with additions to its regular French menu from Friday through Tuesday. This includes fried confit chicken with vinegar slaw, mustard potato salad and roasted corn; grilled sausage with heirloom tomato and cucumber salad, basil vinaigrette and French fries; steak au poivre with pepper-crusted prime sirloin steak, brandy green peppercorn sauce, truffle potato gratin and broccolini; and a fresh berry tartelette with Cointreau cream as well as French-inspired cocktails.
Take your meal to-go or dine on the corner patio at 507 Magnolia Ave. For more information or to make a reservation, go to LeftBank.com or call 415-927-3331.
Drive-by fair food
Missing giant corndogs, funnel cake, cotton candy, caramel apples, churros, kettle corn and strawberry lemonade? The festive Fourth of July spirit returns to the Marin County fairgrounds from July 10 through 12 and 17 through 19 with traditional fair food favorites available for drive-thru pickup from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the parking lot of the Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael. Drive-by fairgoers are asked to enter the car line on Avenue of the Flags where employees will take orders and collect payment. The menu will be available on the fair’s Instagram and Facebook pages @marincountyfair.
Leanne Battelle is a freelance food writer. Send her an email at ij.lbattelle@gmail.com with your comments, food news or restaurant recommendations. Or you can follow the Marin dining scene at instagram.com/therealdealmarin.
