My wife and I were up in Cambria for a one week vacation to celebrate her birthday with close family. We had rented a large Airbnb house on the coast with an amazing ocean view. On Sunday after breakfast at Linn’s we bought some fresh bread and savory croissants across the street at The French Corner Bakery. A little birdie had told me a couple of days before that good things were happening at a fairly new restaurant in town . . Brydge run by owner / chef Elaine. We happened to be parked in Bridge Street within view of this restaurant. I said to my wife I wanted to check it out. It was just after 11am when I wandered inside. A friendly well spoken young server named Declan answered a few of my questions.
No Elaine the owner / chef is not in. It’s her birthday today ! We are serving craft beer from Silva Brewing in Paso Robles. I had a look around the different dining rooms and took a few pics for later use. I told Declan we will pop in for lunch the next day ( Monday ) . . maybe we will get to meet Elaine. The menu looked elevated and very interesting ! On Monday we arrived here for our 12.30pm lunch reservation which I had phoned through with Declan the previous day. It was unexpectedly quiet when we walked inside. A cheerful server named Jamie welcomed us warmly and let us choose where we wanted to sit . . in a nice warm dining room at the front of the cute transformed house.
Jamie brought us menus and waters. I asked him if Elaine the owner / chef was in . . no Elaine was still celebrating her birthday. Ha ha my wife’s birthday was on April 27th. I asked Jamie to bring me a Silva Brewing Hazy IPA ( from Paso Robles ) which he took care of promptly . . it tasted very refreshing ! We surveyed the very interesting menu at our corner table. We decided to choose a bunch of small plates starting with Olive Oil Potatoes ( aioli, smoked pimenton with bottarga shaved tableside ), Roasted Mushrooms ( Grana Padano, truffle oil, breadcrumbs ), Grilled Bread & Butters ( grass fed Irish butter, anchovy, pecan ) and Pork Meatballs ( tomato-piquillo sauce, orange oil, Grana Padano ).
It was hard to believe we were the only diners in the house . . maybe dinner is the big thing ! Every now and then we could hear Jamie chatting with people enquiring at the front entrance. WHOO HOO ! At around 1.15pm Jamie started bringing out our lunch order . . . it was all on the table within a couple of minutes. EVERYTHING LOOKED FABULOUS ! We love small plates . . plenty of variety. The Olive Oil Potatoes tasted sensational . . . as good as it gets. We happily devoured the Roasted Mushrooms, Pork Meatballs with the scrumptious flat bread and crazy good butters. In fact we had to ask Jamie for more flatbread ( we paid for another serve of Grilled Bread & Butters ).
DESSERT ! Not a huge choice but enough to satisfy. The Dark Chocolate Pudding sounded good once Jamie had explained it was not really a pudding. I asked about the Pistachio Gelato ( it would have been nice with the pudding ) but Jamie said they were out . . a problem with the supplier. So we went with the Dark Chocolate Pudding ( flake salt ) which came out in a cute little bowl atop a plate. It tasted very rich and comforting ! We totally enjoyed our lunch experience here . . thank you Jamie and the talented kitchen staff. If we hadn’t been leaving for Santa Barbara the next morning we would have been keen to come back for dinner. OUTSTANDING LUNCH EXPERIENCE !
