South Bay restaurants fall into the holidays with special menus, events

Lion Ranch Vineyards and Winery is the official winery for the 11-day Field to Table series of four-course meals being served by a variety of local chefs at PayPal Park in San Jose through Oct. 30. Field to Table spotlights the region’s diverse restaurant culture and is the first-ever dining series on a professional sports field.

Lion Ranch Vineyards and Winery will showcase five of its Rhone wines at these dinner events, all estate grown in San Martin, just 30 minutes south of San Jose. Whites include grenache blanc, viognier and cuvée blanc—a blend of picpoul blanc, grenache blanc, and Roussanne. Reds are grenache noir and Five Lions, a blend of grenache noir, mourvedre, syrah, cinsault and counoise. Reservations for the dinner series are available at https://www.fieldtotable.us.

Manresa Bread Café Los Gatos was slated to open Oct. 27 at 240 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, with a menu similar to that of the Campbell and Palo Alto locations. When we dropped by late last week, it looked like a few long days of work were in store to finish out the interior, which will offer a few tables for seating indoors and eventually outside.

Additionally, Manresa Bread founder and head baker Avery Ruzicka is opening a Manresa Bread petite bakery in Santa Cruz in early November. It is located at 330 Ingalls St. and will serve laminated pastries, signature breads and grab-and-go items.

Santana Row is holding a 20th anniversary celebration on Monday, Nov. 7, 4-8 p.m., featuring local wineries Armitage, Gali, Cinnabar, Lightpost, L&M Vineyard, Testarossa, Twelve Stones, Verde Vineyards and Wrights Station. Restaurants will pour specialty cocktails, include an Apricot Royale at Meso, Far East Side at Dumpling Time and Sandia Picante at El Jardin. Tickets are $50 at Eventbrite.com, and 100% of the proceeds go to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

DueDieci at the Toll House is rocking it with great service and excellent fare. Love the bruschetta with house-made ricotta and local honey atop freshly baked focaccia; this and the Gemma Precioze salad with Little Gems, roasted mushrooms, carrots and dukkah make a meal. The burrata and prosciutto pizza with crema di parmigiano arrived atop a delicately crispy yet chewy crust, and the lasagna was deemed “very rich and different,” courtesy of the duck bolognese and spinach noodles. The mac n’ cheese gnocchi is a creamy, satisfying winner. Little touches like strawberry gazpacho and salmon tartare tartlets to start clearly reflect Chef Nicko Moulinos’ dedication to hospitality.

Chef/owner Bruno Chemel of Bistronomie by Baumé in Palo Alto will be offering gourmet prix fixe Thanksgiving meals available to go only, with three courses for $98 per person and five courses for $138.