Although I didn't realize it at the time, it was in a phone call for my daughter Rose that I first heard about the Barefoot Cafe. When I responded to her friend that Rose was already on her way, the friend said, "Oh, so she must know about barefoot and everything."I assumed that this was one of their typical flower-child gatherings, and that if she didn't know in advance, Rose would be unfazed to discover upon arrival that she was supposed to be barefoot. Or not, whichever it was.
Later she told me about her evening, commenting on the generous portions and friendly service at their dinner at a cheery little breakfast, lunch and dinner spot on Sir Francis Drake in Fairfax. I stopped by a few days later to check it out.
Tony Senehi ran La Petite and then the Blue Moon Diner in the Village at Corte Madera for 15 years. When the Village decided to close its food court in 2003, Senehi looked around for a good location for a Mediterranean-themed restaurant. After a two-year remodel, he opened the Barefoot Café in June of 2005, serving as head chef and house manager as well.
The cheery little corner space boasts two walls of tall windows, whose cream colored woodwork nicely offsets the warm mustard-painted walls, wooden tables and terrazzo tiled floors. The glow of small candles and subdued lighting from wall sconces magically transforms the room into a dinner house in the evening. There's an open kitchen, but the clanking noise is minimal, and strains of light, classic jazz waft through the air.
The menu, though, is perhaps too ambitious. Everything but the sandwich breads is made in-house, from fresh and whenever possible organic ingredients. There are dozens of choices for breakfast, which is served until 3pm. The lunch menu of sandwiches, burgers, soups and salads is also available for dinner. A dinner menu includes four appetizers, three additional salads and 18 entrées. Plus, there's a list of 10 specials. Even if the dishes are kept simple, a menu of this size seems impossible for a small kitchen to pull off.
And simple they are not. Even the most austere of the plates we ordered included too many elements that were superfluous and worked against the integrity of the dishes.
The exception to this are paper cones filled with hunks of the fresh, sweet, grainy polenta cornbread, first to arrive at the table and so moist and flavorful that they need no butter or honey. But they are also addictive and filling, which makes the tasty squares dangerous in relation to the dinner still to come.
I was inwardly grousing about the recent trend of charging $8-$10 for salads until I saw the proportions of our mixed green salad ($9). A huge white bowl arrived heaped with fresh organic greens, thin slices of Bosc pear, handfuls of currants and pine nuts, and a goat cheese-slathered crostino. A heavy hand with the balsamic vinaigrette made it difficult to swallow more than a few bites. Pulling back on the dressing will bring this salad more into balance.
Caprese salad ($8.50) was similarly gargantuan, with the greens surrounding a big ball of fresh mozzarella sliced in half, then laid over thick slices of tomato. A chiffonade of fresh basil and drizzle of balsamic vinegar topped the cheese, and a sweet vinaigrette bound it all together. Once again, the greens were too amply doused with the dressing, turning what should have been a refreshing salad into one that was too rich.
On that chilly evening, I was unable to pass up oyster stew ($16.75), so we shared it as an appetizer. An impressive array of tiny oysters, sautéed mushrooms, julienne leeks and spinach leaves came mounded in a pool of tarragon-speckled cream. It sounded wonderful, and everything tasted fresh, but the euphony of flavors was muddy. I think perhaps the soup needed fewer vegetables, more cream and then some lemon and a drop of Worcestershire to spark it up.
Pesto fettuccini ($14.95) delighted its owner. Fresh ribbons of pasta were bathed in green pesto sauce and spiked with artichoke hearts, strips of roasted red pepper and shredded Parmesan. This was another filling dish, but that plate left the table almost clean.
Barefoot Café has a neat little list of 33 wines, with 22 served by the glass. Bottles range from $28 ($7.50 by the glass) for a Rosenblum Syrah or Beaulieu Vineyard Sonoma Coast Chardonnay to $85 for a Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Corkage is $10. Beer, juices, sodas and fountain drinks are also available.
From the list of specials, seared slices of ahi tuna ($21.95) were tasted and pronounced well-executed all around. Fanned over a bed of grilled asparagus, with a cup of sesame-soy vinaigrette into which fresh wasabi and ginger could be stirred, they were the evening's favorite entrée--even though the snowy mountain of coconut rice had no discernible coconut flavor, and the tangled ribbons of daikon radish were chewy and dry.
After the oyster stew, I could barely make a dent in my prime rib ($21.95). An inch-thick slab of rosy, tender beef; a drift of perfect, buttery mashed potatoes; a baseball-sized serving of garlicky, lemony sautéed spinach; pots of intense, salty, onion-spiked jus and horseradish cream; it was almost too much to look at, and way too grand to finish. Even though other diners poked away at my plate all night, I had almost enough for my own breakfast, lunch and dinner the following day.
Pan-fried wild king salmon ($17.95), served over green beans with cherry tomatoes, fingerling potatoes and kalamata olives, would have been perfect had the chef stopped right there. But the thick stripes of kalamata olive vinaigrette, which tasted more like tapenade, overpowered the delicacy of the fish. Each bite tasted too strongly of olives.
For dessert, the only choice that evening was panna cotta ($6.95). A big, glistening dome of quivery custard, topped with a sprinkling of vanilla bean and surrounded by translucent dabs of raspberry sauce went down smoothly, but would have come alive with some fresh berries or other seasonal fruit. It was around 9pm when we were served our dessert. It took so long to get our check that I had the feeling the staff had simply run out of steam.
Barefoot Café is trying hard to be all things to all people, but in doing so, Chef Senehi's food goes in too many directions at once. After 16 months, he must know which of his offerings are favorites. If it were my venture, I'd tighten up the menu, concentrate on the best sellers and a few specials, and close one day a week to catch my breath. With a little more focus and trust in the quality of his ingredients, his food could really shine.
