Latest news with #Topham
San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
This Middle Eastern restaurant is a hidden gem in Wine Country
It's impossible to have drab food at Spread Kitchen. The dishes are vividly colorful with even brighter flavors. Look no further than the Lebanese restaurant's stunning mezzes. The hot pink whipped feta with beets is sour and silky; the baba ganoush thick and smoky; and the green tahini spiced and zesty. Each spread functions like a Lego: stackable building blocks of flavor, fostering a spirit of experimentation. The Sonoma restaurant, which quietly opened three years ago, is one of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area. I would also say it's the region's strongest Lebanese restaurant, but chef-owner Cristina Topham prefers to call it 'Lebanese-inspired.' Indeed, it's the restaurant's sense of individuality that shines over its strict adherence to tradition. Topham gleefully sidesteps those confines in favor of seasonal produce and unconventional flavor, inviting external spice profiles from Ethiopia and India. Lebanese cooking overlaps with several Levantine and Middle Eastern cuisines, but it's distinguished by a prolific use of lemons, according to Topham. The restaurant goes through gallons a week. This sunshine animates mezzes, marinades, salads and more. Spread's menu is modular. A lunch visit might include a wrap or grain bowl, while a full dinner shouldn't go without dips, loaded fries or grilled meats. Everything except the pita, sourced from a local Syrian baker, is made in-house. Topham is not shy about her worship of lemons. You'll find drops in smooth toum, which serves as the garlicky marinade for chicken, beef and ground lamb. The fried Brussels sprouts and fried cauliflower are drizzled with lemon-laced tahini; the latter is further electrified with briny preserved lemon. The pickled citrus is a trademark of the chef, making appearances in fondant-thick labneh and Pepto Bismol-tinted beet feta — the best of the dips. The dip platter ($14-$26) allows you to sample up to five alongside pita, pickles and fresh veggies, but you can save a few bucks on dips if you order side scoops ($4) instead. I recommend scooping spreads with thin za'atar-spiced pita chips ($6), which stand out more than the standard pita. Grain bowls ($20-$24) are the comprehensive option, featuring savory hummus made with black garbanzos, puckery tabbouleh salad, aromatic saffron rice, and your choice of fried cauliflower, grilled meat — like lamb seasoned with Ethiopian berbere — or falafel. Those orbs have garnered a local following for being crunchy yet tender. Topham uses a mix of whole chickpeas and chickpea flour to create a looser texture, which, Topham says, helps prevent dryness as the flour soaks up the frying oil. The falafel are a great accompaniment ($6) to loaded fries ($14), which are a step above the average, balancing salty decadence with acidity. Feta cheese, tahini-yogurt sauce and pickled onions combat the rich spice of the za'atar. The fries are where you can get maximalist with flavor. I encourage you to add nutty green tahini, seasoned with turmeric and fenugreek, and house-made hot sauce, a paste made of three Mexican peppers. For something lighter, try the unconventional fattoush salad (small for $12, large $16), which reaches for beets and apples when tomatoes are out of season. You'll want to eat in the large, charming outdoor patio, whose wooden perimeter is decorated with kitschy art made from salvaged gardening tools. It's as if the place was created to maximize the pacifying warmth of the Sonoma sun. There's indoor seating, too, but the area is mostly functional. Despite Spread's casual nature, nothing is casual about Topham's command of flavor, which she honed over 27 years of cooking. She cut her teeth in kitchens in Paris, New York and Napa; she worked as a private chef and cooked on yachts, where she once crossed paths with Meryl Streep. ('She's really nice,' Topham said.) In 2016, she launched Spread Kitchen as a catering company in Sonoma. The pandemic forced her to pivot to meal kits, and in 2021, she brought Spread to Wine Country farmers markets. A year later, she opened Spread, her first restaurant, right off Highway 12 in Sonoma. Topham views food as a creative outlet. 'I like to play with my food,' she said. That sense of exuberance is what attracted me to Spread. It clears the bar for traditional mezzes but always leaves room for the chef's personality. Is Spread the most traditional? No, but that's the point. Hours: 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m Wednesday-Sunday. Accessibility: Steps by front entrance. Wheelchair ramp by back entrance. Outdoor area with wooden deck, which isn't wheelchair accessible. Noise level: Mild. Meal for two, without drinks: $45-$60 Drinks: Beer and wine. Try the orange blossom lemonade ($4). Best practices: Experiment with the dips and sauces by seeing how many you can try in one bite.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Horses upset the odds at at Hereford Racecourse meeting
HEREFORD Racecourse ended its Spring fixture list last Friday night and despite limited runners due to the prolonged dry spell racegoers the meeting still saw competitive racing and races won not by the odds-favourite. The old betting adage of backing the outsider of three proved correct again in the opening two-mile novices Handicap chase when the 3/1 Centara beat his two more fancied rivals Chestnut Pete and Williethebuilder. Centara, ridden by Jay Tidball for trainer Paul Nicholls, led from the start and despite jumping out to his left throughout the race, was never really threatened by the Katy Price trained Chestnut Pete who was sent off 11/8 favourite and came home a 23 lengths winner with 6/4 chance Williethebuilder a further 10 lengths back in third. The partnership of trainer Warren Greatrex and jockey James Bowen were also in the winner's enclosure in the evening with the win of Golden de Coeur in the two-mile three and a half furlong novices hurdle. Golden de Coeur had been backed into 1/2 favouritism but after a mistake at the second last hurdle, this handed the initiative to the chasing Don Virginia who seized a vital length lead but James Bowen got his mount balanced and running again and they hit the front again approaching the final hurdle before staying on strongly to record a length and a quarter win. Bowen said: 'He's not a natural jumper, a bit of a straight back but to be fair to him he's got away well from the last'. Whilst winning trainer Warren Greatrex said: 'This one has done it well for us. And of the winning owner Alan Turner he added: 'He's a top man, a good friend, he's been with me a long time and had some good horses including a Topham winner.' Trainer Henrietta Knight has found winners hard to come by since her return to the training ranks but she scored a welcome winner with Moonshine Man in the two mile three and a half furlongs handicap hurdle. Confidently ridden by Brendan Powell , Moonshine Man led easily at the second last hurdle and the partnership drew clear easily and win by an eased down two lengths from the chasing Mactavish from the Matt Shephard stable.
Rhyl Journal
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Rhyl Journal
Warren Greatrex rewarded for Punchestown trip with Bill Baxter
The winning trainer is no stranger to success in Ireland and indeed this meeting, with his One Track Mind scooping Grade One honours at Punchestown in 2016. The Lambourn handler was out of luck with his first two runners at the Kildare track this week, but his admirable nine-year-old ensured he heads home with more riches from the Emerald Isle having seen off Anthony Honeyball's Jasmin De Grugy and the Jonjo and AJ O'Neill-trained Beachcomber. 'We've always been keen to come here if we have the right sort of horse,' said Greatrex. 'This horse has just been a star for us. He won the Topham two years ago and has found it hard since then, but he was on a dangerous mark today. 'He came over on Tuesday and he's a horse that loves going on a trip, like I do. He's thrived since he's been here. He was squealing in the morning. 'He almost ups his game when he goes away and we knew we had him in good shape.' Although Sean and James Bowen had steered Keep Running and Herakles Westwood respectively earlier in the meeting, it was left to Harry Bannister to partner 12-1 chance Bill Baxter in this Listed event. 'I was a bit worried about the ground, but Harry's given him a great ride,' continued Greatrex. 'He does like soft ground, but as I said he was on a dangerous mark and he's gone and done it so it's brilliant. 'I'm all for having a go and it's important that we all have a go if we have the right sort of horse. It pays off every now and then. It's what it's all about, competition is good.'
