Dinner at Josiah’s/Sent Sovi

Dinner at Josiah’s

Josiah Slone is the Chef and owner of Sent Sovi, a high end restaurant in Saratoga, CA that was previously owned by David Kinch, now of Manresa in Los Gatos.  One of the angles Josiah uses to put his own mark on the place is to hold “theme dinners” every few months.

Laura and I tried our first of these dinners last year on Halloween when we went to the Bring Your Own Big Scary Bottle event.  The idea is for each person or couple to bring a Magnum or larger of wine and then to share the wine amongst the 30 or so people at the dinner.  The menu is pre-established, so this is mostly a social event and gives fans of the restaurant and the chef a chance to mingle and chew the fat, so to speak.  We went with our good friends Mer & Dave and didn’t know any of the other patrons.  But, thirty minutes into the dinner, with the wine beginning to flow, the place just turned on!  People began to bring their bottles around to each table to offer samples (and to get some samples, too) and it turned out to be more of a party than a dinner.

This year, we happened to have the chance to catch Josiah’s Heirloom Tomato night with our other good friends, Pat & Jennifer.  Like the Magnum night, it was a smallish group, which was perfect for creating an intimate, personal atmosphere with lots of attention from Chef Josiah.  What’s amazing is that every course on the menu included heirloom tomatoes in some form.  On Food Network’s The Iron Chef, competing Chef’s must make a complete menu and utilize the “surprise ingredient” in every dish.  Josiah pulled it off with everything from Heirloom Tomato Bellinis, lots of bite size appetizers showcasing different types of Heirlooms, a most excellent gazpacho, some fine sea bass, heirloom tomato granita, absolutely rockin’ pork tenderloin with tomatoes, and finally, a fabulous brownie-like dessert incorporating a sweet heirloom tomato paste.

We’ve been lucky to have great friends along with us for our two visits, but the people who attend these events are friendly and open, and the Chef and his team clearly enjoy the special nature of cooking for a group of people who have come to Sent Sovi for more than satisfying hunger pangs.

Sent Sovi, Chef Josiah Slone, www.sentsovi.com, 408-867-3110.  Maybe we’ll see you there next time!

– Chris