Order up some culinary Christmas cheer at South Bay eateries
Because both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on a Sunday, many restaurants are closed. But celebrations must go on, and there are options.
At BE. STÉAK. A. in Campbell’s Pruneyard Shopping Center, Chef Patrick Capurro offers a holiday tasting menu featuring the season’s most familiar flavors plus new soon-to-be favorites. Cozy up and indulge in handmade pasta and ultra-luxury beef, through the month of December. Open Christmas Eve.
The Bywater in Los Gatos has you covered with Christmas Eve dinner to go—specifically, smoked prime rib dinners, including confit banana fingerling potatoes with rosemary, blue lake beans with almond and lemon, cream spinach with winter spices, maple-glazed carrots with cracked coriander, and brown butter cornbread. For dessert, Manresa Bread’s chocolate mousse grasshopper pie will sate your sweet tooth. Available for two and four people. Pick-ups available Dec. 24, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. https://www.exploretock.com/thebywater
The Tasting House in Los Gatos (closed on Christmas Eve) will help you gift glamorously with their selection of cheeses, chocolates, panettone, wines, pantry items and Champagnes, plus three sommelier-selected bottles of Champagne for just $200. Saber, anyone? https://www.tastinghouse.com/shop/holiday-treats/763
Manresa Bread is baking up challah, triple chocolate and candied orange panettone, chocolate cherry bread, pistachio cranberry babka, kougin-amann, Dutch apple pie and grasshopper mousse cake for Christmas. Order by Dec. 21 for pickup Dec. 23 and 24. Bake with Manresa Bread Kits (cookies, waffles, and brownies—all can be made vegan) and the “Bake with Avery” baguette kit come with a video link with a baking tutorial, and new this season is a cinnamon roll kit. Order at https://www.manresabread.com for pickup and shipping.
The Pastaria in Los Gatos offers meals to go, with pickup on Dec. 23. https://order.toasttab.com/online/the-pastaria-market-27-n-santa-cruz-ave
Grocer + Goddess has Christmas catering covered. Preorder for pickup on Dec. 23, 10 a.m-4 p.m., or Dec. 24, 9 a.m-2 p.m. Deck the table with a Christmas family meal starring beef tenderloin, stuffed Cornish game hen, mashed potatoes, long grain and wild rice, maple and bacon Brussels sprouts, braised kale with shallots, red wine braised mushrooms, holiday salad, pecan pie and Christmas cookie box (serves 6 to 8; $800 plus tax and gratuity).
Also available to preorder are glazed ham and hot mustard sauce, beef tenderloin with bordelaise sauce, Cornish game hens, miso glazed salmon, chicken Milanese with chimichurri, vegetarian loaf with mushrooms, nuts and spinach with mushroom gravy, and sides like cauliflower gratin, sautéed French green beans with hazelnuts and crispy onions and maple and bacon roasted Brussels sprouts. Order by Dec 20 at https://www.reverencecatering.com/order.
Emerald Hour, a cocktail bar and lounge in Mountain View’s in the Shashi Hotel, is serving up the Hygge Season cocktail, a pleasing combination of apples, baking spices and bourbon. Guided by Chef Jarad Gallagher, who helmed the Michelin-starred Chez TJ for seven years, is companion restaurant Broma. Both are closed Christmas Eve and Day. https://www.bromarestaurant.com
The Village Bakery in Woodside has Bûche de Noël, bourbon-pecan pie, Parker House rolls, focaccia, cinnamon rolls, cookie dough and salted caramel sauce to go. Order at Eventbrite.com by Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. (or until supplies run out) for pick-up on Dec. 24; search on “The Village Bakery’s Christmas Pre-orders.” A limited selection may be available in the bakery on a first-come, first-served basis.