specialty foods

BestOf
MONTEREY 07

•BAKERY

LAYERS | 160 Webster St., Monterey  • 655-1544

Princess, Pineapple Upside-Down, German Chocolate, Boston Cream, Poppyseed: the list reads like the ultimate layer cake ascending into cake infinity. Antonio “Tony” Nuovo, creator of Layers Sensational Cakes, offers enough choices to please the finickiest bride, bride’s mother, birthday Mom or retirement party planner. In fact, if you don’t find a cake at Layers that wows you and your guests, you are just unwowable. The wedding cake designs look like they should be on display at the museum of art—and that always makes a bride blush.

•BAGELS

BAGEL BAKERY | 969 W. Alisal St., Salinas • 758-0280 | 1110 Northridge Shopping Center, Salinas • 449-1110 | 452 Alvarado St., Monterey • 372-5242 | 2160 California Ave., Sand City • 392-1581 | 539 Carmel Rancho Shopping Center, Carmel • 625-5180 | 1132 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove • 649-6272

Dense bagels fill the bins at this morning hot spot like big, chewy Jewish Cheerios. Their goodness has made The Bagel Bakery a dynasty in this category, but they’re not cooling their fryers with overconfidence—instead they’re making it easier to fall in love with their life rings. Note the convenient drive-through window at the Sand City edition. See also the ongoing diversification of schmears. And check out the ever-expanding lunchtime sandwich options.

•BBQ

CURLY’S | 1107 Fremont Blvd., Seaside • 394-7274

Every morning, Hampar Kocek (Curly, to local grilled-meat aficionados) builds an oak fire in a humble, home-made barbecue grill outside his little eatery, and lays on the tri-tip and ribs. Inside, he gets the rotisserie spinning. Pretty soon the atmosphere of the neighborhood changes, as sweet smoke drifts across Fremont Boulevard. By lunchtime, Curly’s labors are making people happy. He’s been doing it the same way for years. And it’s still the best.

•Burger

IN-N-OUT | 151 Kern St., Salinas (800) • 786-1000

With his breakthrough book >>Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser exposed a laundry list of egregious sins committed by the industry—injecting cheese with artificial “cheese” flavoring, treating animals and employees shamefully, and preying on kids with its marketing. When Schlosser visited Monterey recently to speak, he was asked if there were any good souls in the world of fast burgers. “In-N-Out,” he said immediately. Monterey County gets that. For the honest quality of items like the Double Double with grilled onions, people from Carmel to Soledad trek to Kern Street regularly.

•BURRITO

CHIPOTLE | 500 Del Monte Shopping Center, Monterey • 641-9353

America is a place of choices. You can choose to watch reality TV shows like “American Idol” on Fox or programs like “America’s Top Model” on CW. You can spend your hard-earned American dollars on the new Bon Jovi CD or that doggone Toby Keith record. And by golly, you can choose your choice of meat, beans and salsa when you order a mammoth burrito at Chipotle, Monterey County’s pick for best burrito. God bless America.

•CALAMARI

ABALONETTI’S | 57 Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey • 373-1851

It’s the meanest multiple-choice question this side of the marine sanctuary: Which of the dizzying list of calamari preparations to choose? Fried golden-brown with beurre blanc? Grilled with garlic, parsley and bread crumbs? Stuffed with cheese and sausage? Sautéed in garlic and white wine? A la Napolitana? With fries? Barbecued? Parmesan? Yikes. Then again, the question’s not so tough—after all, there’s no wrong answer.

•CHOWDER

OLD FISHERMAN’S GROTTO | 39 Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey • 375-4604

Unbelievable. Right there, on page 72 of the beautiful new cookbook >>50 Years of Shake Family Treasured Recipes by Chris Shake and Sabu Shake, Jr., is the top-secret recipe for the Grotto Clam Chowder. “Clams and clam juice. Potatoes, carrots, celery, onions. Flour, olive oil, butter, cream. A touch of garlic, some salt, pepper. A few spices.” But then this: “That’s as close as we’re going to get...” I now understand. The Wharf wouldn’t be The Wharf without this elixir, and revealing its magic would change that. Grotto, we’ve got a deal. Now we just gotta find a way to serve it without Styrofoam.

•DELI SANDWICH

COMPAGNO’S MARKET & DELI | 2000 Prescott Ave., Monterey • 375-5987

When it comes to sandwiches, quantity is important. Bennett Compagno, owner of the landmark neighborhood market near the top of Prescott Avenue in upper New Monterey, knows that. And so he stocks a whole lot of different meats and cheeses, several types of good bread, and every sandwich-stuffing veggie you could hope for. Best of all, when you choose what you want from the big list of options, they pile it on. (As a bonus—thanks to the devoted throng of globe-trotting customers from neighboring DLI—there’s a huge selection beers from around the world.)

•BUTCHER SHOP

GROVE MARKET | 242 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove • 375-9581

Every good home cook knows that a great meal begins at the grocery store. In Pacific Grove, cooks have an edge thanks to Grove Market. The guys in the butcher shop have meat-cutting credentials that go back generations, so they know good meat and how to present it. The Grove has sold Harris Ranch beef since way before locally-grown, grass-fed, hormone-free meat became the rage, and the prices are better than at the supermarkets. For busy shoppers, these guys will get things started—there are always marinated cuts available, bathed in one or another of a dozen home-made recipes. Amid all this greatness, one thing stands out: the garlicky-cheesy Verona Chicken—the Grove sells 100 pounds of it a week.

•CHEESE SELECTION

THE CHEESE SHOP | Carmel Plaza, Ocean and Junipero, Carmel • 625-2272

Now that the names of once-rare varieties of cheese such as Manchego and Gorgonzola brim upon the lips of every maiden in the land, the more refined still turn to the small-batch production of cheesemakers such as Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese from Vermont or Abbaye de Belloc from the French Pyrenees. With every grocery store weighing in with a selection of gourmet cheeses, and some of them quite good, the competition only serves to place The Cheese Shop in a new context: It always seemed special, but its superiority is now starkly apparent. Samples are served the moment a customer crosses the threshold, and it’s one of the most delightful retail experiences for miles around.

•TAKE-OUT FOOD

TOMMY’S WOK | Mission between Ocean and Seventh, Carmel • 624-8518

The message in a recent fortune cookie from Tommy’s Wok says, “You are always welcome at any gathering.” We’d have to say the same about the tasty Chinese food from this small dining establishment and take-out joint hidden in the midst of downtown Carmel. The lunch combination plates—a main dish like the flavorful orange chicken plus egg flower soup, chow mein and fried rice—are a steal at $7-$8. Meanwhile, the dinner entrees of lemon chicken and mu shu pork are considered masterpieces by multitudes, including a co-worker who says she lived off the stuff for years.

•CUP OF COFFEE

ACME | 485-B Palm Ave., Seaside • 393-9113

When Larry and Jacki Thurman opened this unique wonder of a coffee shop in 2005, they brought some deep history with them. First of all, Jacki is a Seaside native, and Larry grew up in Monterey—those local roots made the place feel pleasantly familiar right from the get-go. Plus, Larry, who learned the trade from an old Italian family at the historic Café Trieste in North Beach, was already well known among local coffee lovers for his roasting prowess. At Acme it all comes together in a cozy and colorful shop where every manner of coffee drink is available—including the best damn cup of coffee in the county.

•DESSERTS

ROSINE’S | 434 Alvarado St., Monterey • 375-1400

Andy Warhol once said, “The only reason I go out to eat is so I can get to dessert.” On the face of it, one might think Warhol would have been out of place at a family-style restaurant like Rosine’s, but if you think about it, he’d have probably been a regular, just like so many hundreds of Montereyans in love with Rosine’s home-style cooking, friendly service, comfortable atmosphere and endless assortment of desserts. The only question is which confection would have made the avant-garde gourmand swoon the most intensely.

•ICE CREAM

COLD STONE CREAMERY |1470 Del Monte Shopping Center, Monterey • 649-1346 | 796 Northridge Shopping Center, Salinas • 449-2870

Cold Stone has done for ice cream what Willy Wonka did for candy. Have the team throw together a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, a handful of sprinkles, dangerously delicious brownies and a dash of chocolate syrup and then spade it over their granite stone, carefully kept at 16 degrees, and you’ve got the golden ticket to a wow-in-the-mouth experience.

•PIZZA

GIANNI’S | 725 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey • 649-1500

The combo here is—>>como se dice?—muy, muy, muy good. But that’s just a teaser. The combo of Little League-friendly benches with peppy service, good draft beer, big warm atmosphere, full bar and strategic Lighthouse location is even more impressive. And then there’s the combo with its own combo, “The Big Wheel”—an extra large pizza that brings vegetarian combination, Hawaiian, cheese and pepperoni to one scary-good place. Dios mio.

•SALADS

CRAZY HORSE | 1425 Munras Ave., Monterey • 649-4771

Salad bars, unlike the often-disappointing specialty salads off the menu, let you be the boss of your greens. If pickled baby corns are your favorite condiment, you can cover your plate with them and sprinkle croutons on top. Or you can protein-up your lettuce with beans, bacon and hard-boiled eggs. Best of all, you don’t have to wait for it; just grab a plate and go to town. Bay Park Hotel’s restaurant keeps its much-beloved salad bar simple, hearty, and modestly priced.  Get it with soup for less than $10—or included with a dinner entree. And bring the Book Club!

•JUICE/SMOOTHIES

JAMBA JUICE | 463 Canyon Del Rey, Del Rey Oaks • 583-0577 | 398 Alvarado St., Monterey • 655-9696 | 1552 N. Main St., Salinas • 449-3200 | 2160 California Ave., Sand City • 583-9696   

It’s a meal. No, it’s a snack. Maybe it’s a pick-me-up after the game or a sugar shot before a bike ride. Whatever it is, the Jamba Juice smoothie has quickly become a way of life. Forget empty calories. These babies are jam-packed with nature’s goods. And where else can you find a place that can whir fruit, juice and inject a shot of health the way these folks can? And just when you thought you’d tried it all, now there are Totally Tea smoothies with antioxidants that “neutralize free radicals” in the bod. Because really, nobody needs errant radicals running amok in there.

•RED WINE

BERNARDUS WINERY’S MARINUS

Bernardus Marinus Pon, owner of Bernardus Winery, Bernardus Lodge and various other projects that bear his name, approaches wines like he does his other endeavors: first-class all the way. From a handsome winery deep in Carmel Valley comes the Bordeaux-style Marinus, a delicious homage to the classic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Elegance, style, power and finesse, reminiscent of the racing cars Mr. Pon made his name driving. From racing cars to racy wines, it’s all in the name.

•WHITE WINE

TALBOTT VINEYARDS CHARDONNAY

For this category, the voters simply wrote in “Talbott.” They didn’t choose one particular Chardonnay, like Sleepy Hollow Vineyard or Cuvee Cynthia or Cuvee Audrey or Diamond T. They instinctively knew that regardless of what particular Talbott Chardonnay they happen to be drinking, it is the essence of what Monterey Chardonnay is all about: passionfruit, pineapple, beautiful lushness, good acidity and a long finish. Winemaker Sam Balderas has worked these vineyards and wines for so long he’s got the whole show dialed in. Demand for Talbott wines in New York City is so great that the entire production could be sold there alone, but luckily for us, Rob Talbott doesn’t forget his friends.

•BREWERY

ENGLISH ALES | 223 Reindollar Ave., Marina • 883-3000

Choosing a beer is tough when faced with a bank of taps or a daunting supermarket selection of suds. Luckily, the English Ales Brewery offers a savory line of pale ales, stouts and wheat beers easily recognizable to the indecisive drinker. For Ramsay’s Fat Lip, a smooth and hearty Scottish ale, look for the red lipstick imprint. Or simply point to the delightfully intoxicated holy man on tap to summon a pint of Monk’s Brown Ale, a buttery treat with a dark brown finish. Its feels like the funnest flashcard practice ever.