Home cooking comes to Los Gatos
Sheila Himmel
Mercury News
Published: Friday, March 1, 2002
The unlikely armpit of Los Gatos' Wherehouse shopping center has had phenomenal luck with restaurants. First it was Il Pastaio, which begat La Pastaia in downtown San Jose. Then Cafe Trio. And now, Diane Rose's triumphal return to home cooking: Crimson.
The 42-seat restaurant has had floor-to-ceiling surgery. Out with the Italianate black-and-white tiles, in with warmth and color. Crepe-like red chiffon flounces around the curtain rods and mustard-painted walls. (Rose found the fabric at the Berryessa Flea Market.) Jazz lilts in the background, under a dark ceiling with acoustics that permit talking and listening.
Between bouts of presiding over the tiny open kitchen, Rose is likely to come around and ask your opinion. The longtime executive chef of the four-restaurant chain Mio Vicino, Rose had her fill of growth. She wanted to contract.

Creative cookery
Eating at Crimson is like going to the house of a friend who's a wonderful cook. And she'll serve large portions of something different for each of you. Rose calls the menu ``American comfort food with global liberties.''
That means dishes like ``Thai-Di'' noodles with prawns ($14), a rich California-style pad Thai with rice noodles, fresh mung bean sprouts and coconut curry.
Focaccia and dinner rolls from Dolce Firenze in Seaside come with whipped, herbed garlic butter. (The rolls could have been fresher.)
Small plates and salads offer a wide plain for grazing. From truffled cheese fondue for two ($12) to coconut-curry mussels ($9) and butternut squash mashed potatoes ($4), dishes have a seasonal hue. In addition to shifting with the seasons, the proprietor says, the menu will change ``whenever I want.''
Crimson opened for a trial run in December, closed for the holidays, then opened for keeps in January. Already there are signature dishes such as the foie gras and sea scallop appetizer ($15). Three silky pieces of foie gras, nicely underdone, and a sea scallop sliced horizontally share a bed of frisée and a luscious pomegranate reduction. Caramelized onions could have been cooked longer.
If someone else orders this, you'll wish you had, because when the foie hits the pan, the whole room enjoys the aroma.
A hefty spinach salad ($8) came with juicy, sweet-tart pink grapefruit sections in a warm verjuice (aged grape juice), chopped bits of pancetta and a sprinkling of toasted almond slivers. Rose is partial to finishing dishes with toasted nuts, which I like.
And what is this with the big hunk of pork entree ($19)? A little slab of fat, keeping the three-hours-braised meat tender. Lean and mean are not in Rose's vocabulary. So you set the fat to the side, and enjoy juicy pork with halves of roasted blue and red potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, beets and kale in a lingonberry-pinot reduction. At lunch, the pork turns up on a sandwich with garlic-lingonberry aioli, caramelized onions, tomato and a small green salad ($9).
Vegetarians will find plenty to like. Recently, Rose featured hen-of-the-woods mushrooms with linguine ($16). There was a lot of Parmigiano-Reggiano melting in, and on top, toasted pine nuts. Rich and earthy.

Range of desserts
Desserts cover the comforts from cappuccino cheesecake ($6) and classic crème brûlée ($6) on up to chocolate-Frangelico fondue for two ($12) and a cheese plate for two ($13). ``Alberto's Famous Apple Crisp'' ($7), buttery and warm, could not be more soothing.
Crimson wisely serves Peet's coffee.
The one-page wine list features Santa Cruz Mountain locals such as Clos La Chance, which will be doing a winemaker's dinner March 10. Most wines are available by the glass. We had a half-bottle of fine '95 Durney Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ($15.75), Heller Estate Cachagua, which arrived just before the entrees, lacking time to open up. Frou-frou is not in Crimson's cards.
Nor is it in the single, unisex restroom, which one reaches through the kitchen. There is a sign: ``Please kindly put the lid and seat down. After all, a woman is cooking your food.''
ABOUT THE RESTAURANT Crimson
15466 Los Gatos Blvd.
Los Gatos, CA 95032
(408) 358-0175
Neighborhood:
Los Gatos Wherehouse shopping center

Cuisine type
American, Asian, Italian
Hours
Tu-F 11:30am-2pm; Tu-Sa 5-10pm
Meals Served
Lunch
Dinner
Seating Capacity
42