Anaviv’s Table Opens in Richmond

From Farm to Anaviv’s Table

Vigil does most of his buying at the San Rafael Farmers’ Market, where he can choose from among the best of the season’s produce. That bounty dictates the Anaviv’s Table menu.

“I usually have an idea of what I want to do on the way there, but seeing what they have affects how I put together the menu,” he says. “I take notes as I walk around and do some of my best menu planning when I’m driving home.”

Oren says his original concept for this unusual restaurant was for everyone to sit at one big table. “We would serve one menu to pair with local wines, highly emphasizing local farms, with some of the food coming from our garden.”

“Our garden” is a plot about a mile from the restaurant tended by master gardener and educator Kelli Barram as part of the West County DIGS Plant to Plate program. The two-year-old program offers an apprenticeship for students in under-resourced Richmond high schools. They learn gardening and cooking skills along with life skills, like punctuality and budgeting, that support a successful career. Oren is the Plant to Plate culinary instructor, teaching knife skills, preparation of simple dishes, and other kitchen basics. He also hires students from the program to work in his catering business.

“I’ve always wanted to do something in which my business is really involved in the community, more than just donating to a cause here or there,” says Oren, who lives nearby in El Cerrito. When he met Barram, they quickly came together over this shared goal. “I was thinking about urban gardening, and she wanted to do something with kids, so we put our ideas together,” he says. Thirty Richmond high school students have been through the program so far, 15 each year.

Oren dreams of extending his hyper-local sourcing philosophy deeper into the Richmond community, perhaps by enlisting Richmond residents as growers. “We’d bring in an expert urban farmer who would put in organic soil and set up a garden in their yards. We’d only need small quantities, so the grower would then have some for herself,” he says, adding that it’s only a dream for now.

The Dinner

When guests arrive for an evening at Anaviv’s Table, they are greeted with a welcoming cocktail and an invitation into the kitchen for a few “delicious bites” before dinner. Vigil whets appetites by describing dishes about to be brought to table, and guests see the sliced and chopped components beautifully arrayed on the counter with a mound of whole, colorful vegetables on a pedestal nearby.

This particular late-summer meal stars Barram’s garden produce with squash blossoms turned into fritters with Parmesan and basil, and salmon rillettes set on the garden’s cucumbers. A salad features the garden’s tomatoes, heirloom lettuces, and melon.
Edible flowers are incorporated into nearly every course: in an aioli atop the salmon rillettes; infused into a salad’s vinaigrette; and also part of a champagne gastrique (a sweet-sour sauce) accompanying a dish of pork belly, diver scallops, and grilled prawns with frisée and tomatoes. (The pork belly has been cured in vanilla and lavender.) Sage blossoms are stirred into the corn and chanterelle risotto, and both the saffron orange blossom panna cotta and shortbread cookie to take home are decorated with edible flowers. The steak and potato course alone has nothing floral added to it.

As guests settle in at the table, Vigil introduces each course, and nobody is shy with their queries. One person is curious about a mysterious ingredient in the risotto. Samphire, Vigil explains, is a sea vegetable. When another guest inquires about a mysterious flavor in the risotto, Vigil ducks into the kitchen to bring out a favorite jar from his spice cabinet: grains of paradise, a peppery spice with notes of coriander and cardamom.

On a visit two weeks later, the menu has subtly changed. An heirloom tomato bisque and petrale sole with summer shelling beans have replaced the seafood and pork belly courses, and charred peaches with pistachio ice cream are now on for dessert. We have come especially to try a savory cobbler, a recipe Vigil has agreed to share with Edible East Bay readers who might want to make the decadent vegetarian entrée for a holiday meal. Rather than fruit, the cobbler is made from Lunga di Napoli. This Italian winter squash with vibrant orange flesh can grow up to 45 pounds and feed a whole village. Vigil says sugar pie pumpkin or butternut squash would be fine substitutes. The filling also includes celery root, chanterelle mushrooms, purple daikon, fennel, and red onion. The cobbler’s rich and buttery crumble topping features the flavors of cayenne and herbes de Provence.
Anaviv’s Table offers a new concept for Bay Area diners. Ben Ortega, a guest who attended recently, sums up the evening as “cozy and unpretentious.” He adds, “I thought meeting the chef, seeing him in action and having him describe each dish was a nice touch that made the experience more personal and intimate. The food was excellent, but at the end of the day, the evening was great not because of one thing only, whether the food, the drinks, the service, the great people, or anything else, it was the combination of all of the above that made it truly memorable.”