Head chef Collins is a graduate of the California Culinary
Academy and has more than 20 years of experience in the
restaurant business.
He takes care of the day-to-day operations while Liang, who
works for a New York publishing house, handles the business and
marketing aspects of Graham's Restaurant.
When we arrived the dining room was empty, and a few locals
relaxed on the porch off the soon-to-be-finished pool table
room. By the time we left, the dining room was near to full,
impressive for a Monday night.
The service was slow and languid in a friendly way, not in
the "I can't be bothered" manner of some restaurants.
Our server was funny and informative and got every dish in
front of the correct eater with ease, meeting my highest
criteria for a waitperson.
The three of us started with an appetizer of calamari served
with three-pepper aioli. Delicate nasturtium blooms picked that
morning by Collins garnished the colorful yellow plate. The
zesty aioli was served in a gorgeous earthenware pedestal bowl,
decorated with a small line of swirls around its edge.
The calamari was fresh and tender, without a drop of excess
oil. The aioli was a perfect complement, adding kick and cool at
the same time.
You can't go wrong with the house hemp salad, crisp greens
sprinkled with hemp seeds and glistening with a scrumptious,
slightly sweet dressing of hemp butter vinaigrette. Thin strips
of fried wonton topped the salad, adding crunch and flavor.
We also sampled a heaping basket of seasoned jo-jo potatoes
that were simple, spicy and filling.
My appetizer of Caribbean chicken salad was a great
alternative to the run-of-the-mill entrée salad. A bundle of
crisp greens were punctuated by two slices of grilled bread
topped with parsley and garlic. In the middle, mounded into a
crunchy tortilla bowl, were avocado, fresh pineapple, roasted
red bell peppers and marinated pull chicken. The sizable portion
was completely satisfying.
My husband ordered the Prussian sausage, an authentic German
wurst with pork and apples served with grilled onions, lettuce
and tomato on an enormous kaiser bun. The sausage was on the
mild side, served with a mustardy potato salad of red potatoes,
red bell pepper and fresh herbs.
The only down spot of our meal was my friend's shrimp kebab
special. Our dining cohort erroneously expected a bit more than
was served — and I don't mean portion size, as the handful of
unskewered prawn with pieces of red onion and red pepper were
served atop a gargantuan mound of white rice.
Her issue with the dish was dryness. The platter was presented
prettily, encircled by a decorative sprinkle of bias-cut green
onion slices, and although the kebab bits were cooked nicely,
there wasn't much else going on. She mentioned several times
while picking at the dish that it would be much better with a
bit of sauce or olive oil to give it some moisture. In the end,
she gave it a resounding thumb's down and was disappointed when she
got the bill and saw that the cost was $15.
When I asked Collins a few days after our visit about our
friend's disappointing dish, he explained that it should have
been prepared with a bisque sauce and herb-infused olive oil. He
was dismayed that the person at the helm that night accidentally
omitted these two key ingredients and graciously told me to tell
our dining companion that her next meal at Graham's is on him.
That was restitution enough for me, and I'm looking forward to
joining her when she takes him up on the offer.
