By Elena Kadvany
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About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo...
(More)About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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Zu Tarazi, who got his start as a manager at the longtime John Bentley's in Redwood City and went on to open two local restaurants, is opening his own wine bar.
Tarazi plans to open Bottle Shop at 2627 Broadway St. in downtown Redwood City this summer.
Tarazi said he left the restaurant world recently for a job he "had no emotional attachment to" in corporate food service. But a persistent local landlord who frequents the Redwood City cafe Tarazi owns with his wife Kristi Borrone convinced Tarazi to take over the Broadway Street space.
Tarazi said he's always been passionate about wine, both culinarily and culturally. (Plus, a wine bar is much easier to open than a restaurant, which would require a physical build-out and more staff.)
Tarazi worked at John Bentley's as well as his in-laws' Cafe Borrone in Menlo Park. In 2010, Tarazi and Borrone took over the original John Bentley’s location in Woodside to open
Station 1, which has since closed. They opened
Kristi Marie’s in Redwood City three years ago.
Bottle Shop will serve a California-focused wine list, heavy on champagne.
"I feel like you can't deprive people of great champagne if you’re a California-driven wine bar," Tarazi said.
The bar will serve cheese and charcuterie plates, plus desserts from Kristi Marie's. Wine will also be available for retail purchases and through a wine club membership.
Tarazi hopes to be open by early July.
