Dinner between SFO and Santa Cruz

[MrsWheatie]

We will be arriving into SFO on a Friday at 5:45pm, it should be 6:30ish after getting bags and car then heading down to Santa Cruz for a couple of days of our trip. We plan on taking 17 down for expediency and then take 1 up the coast to our next stop in Mill Valley. What will traffic be like? Should we eat near the airport, along the way, or in Santa Cruz? We like all sorts of food, especially things we cant get in DC. All suggestions welcome!! Will cross post on San Fransisco board.

Thanks!!

P.S.I love artichokes, any recs

pps We are staying at Dream Inn, we are also interested in breakfast recs.

[MrsWheatie]

We ended up at Hong Kong Flower Lounge. Had breakfasts at the Seabreeze Cafe. Thanks for recs!

[alanbarnes]

Coming from DC, 6:30 is going to feel like 9:30 to you, and traffic is guaranteed to be a beast.

In your shoes I'd pick a place relatively close to the airport and have a leisurely dinner to give some of the commuters and weekenders a chance to get off the roads. My recent favorite in that area is Mingalaba (Burmese in Burlingame), and there's tons of good Cantonese in Millbrae (maybe The Kitchen or Asian Pearl?), but that's just scratching the surface. You can search the SF Bay Area Board for more info.

[PolarBear]

Try Cafe Brasil for a uniquely Santa Cruz experience, great pancakes and other breakfast items, feijoada and other specialties for lunch.

[Stephanie Wong]

Our family likes Marianne's for ice cream -- I like macapuno; Mom likes ginger.

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Marianne's Ice Cream
1020 Ocean St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

[PolarBear]

The Dream Inn's new restaurant has been getting some love from this board:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/641144

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/642526

If you think you might not want to wait until you arrive in SC, you'll need to post a request on the SF board, which also covers Hwy 1 on your way back north to Mill Valley, including the Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino wine country. There is a plethora of excellent dining as you work your way down the peninsula to Hwy 17. The more specific you make your query the better feedback you'll receive.

If you want to search the SF board ( http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/1 ), just plug in San Bruno or Millbrae ( for what is available by SFO), San Mateo and Redwood City are just a few miles south but the Friday traffic might make for slow going. Beyond that as you head south on 85 (on the way to 17) are Mt. View, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino. You might want to have a couple of options, ie San Bruno or Millbrae if you're starved and tired of travel when you deplane and exit, San Mateo and Redwood City ethnic dining meccas (IMNSHO) and would provide good bailout options per traffic conditions, then the ones on 85 would provide a second stage of relief.

Have a great trip and be sure to report back (on both boards).

[Edit to add] Just saw your profile, really miss my days of travelling to DC and the great dining there. Any idea of what happened to Jimmy and Sharon Banks that had Red Ginger in Georgetown, then opened up off the mall, around 7th St. iirc? Best mussels I have ever had the privelege to gorge myself with (actually, Sharon's sauce, you could toss the mussels and make a meal out of that and the French bread).

[MrsWheatie]

Thanks for info!!
Try these links, they are several years old
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/11/21/story1.html?page=1
http://amandamc.blogspot.com/2005/11/...

[PolarBear]

Thanks MW, those echo the last reports I had. Never could get Sharon to give up the name of that secret spice for the sauce that she brought back from Jamaica (and no, it wasn't what some of you might be thinking).

[caldance]

If you make it to Santa Cruz on Friday night, how about walking out on the wharf for dinner at Rivas. Good seafood. The next morning walk downtown and have breakfast at Hoffmans or the Walnut Ave Cafe. Sat afternoon drive up to Pescadero for artichoke soup and ollalieberry pie at Duartes Tavern. Good eats!