New place on the peninsula

San Bruno, California, October 19, 2010—

DINNER TONIGHT WITH FRIENDS whom we generally see for dinner on nights like these, when we stay at an airport hotel because of an early flight next morning. Tonight Darin and Belinda introduced us to a brand new restaurant friends of theirs have helped open: Station 1, in Woodside, open only twelve days, but clearly in complete command.

You choose from a number of alternatives to make a three-course prix-fixe dinner which would be a bargain, at its $49, even if the kitchen were merely adequate. But the kitchen is much more than that: each dish was bright, complex, and interesting, and the flavors were right out in front yet deep, developing further as you continued to savor them.

I started with a poached egg atop a bed of red chard, thick morsels of bacon hidden underneath, with crisp-cooked potato involved as well. A small "succulent salad" had appeared first, with purslane, iceberg lettuce, and sliced lily root — crisp and white, like nutty endive — as well as a generous spoonful of tofu "ricotta".

My principle plate was tri-tip, from a wagu-style Idaho beef, rare, not grilled but broiled, with rich "jus" and tangy chimichurri, roasted red carrots and garlic cloves accompanying it. And dessert was Meyer lemon panna cotta, topped with huckleberry jam and candied lavendar-flavored orange zest.

This is an impressive restaurant, one of the best — to judge by a single meal — I've enjoyed recently in the San Francisco area. The menu offerd five first courses, three main courses, and three desserts, and there wasn't a thing I wouldn't want to order. Good wine list, too, and a very pleasant room.

Vermentino, Piero Moneto (Sardinia), 2009; Nebbiolo d'Alba, Marco Porello, 2008 (remarkably rich and fruity)

Station 1 Restaurant, 2991 Woodside Rd., Woodside; tel. (650) 851-4988