The first surprise is the most striking: Where Monterey Marriott once housed a Starbucks and a Three Flags Cafe, a brand-new bar-restaurant now appears. The whole lobby, in fact, has been reinvented to feel less transactional and allow for more lounging, free Wi-Fi’ing, eating and drinking. That fits into what Marriott staffers, including GM René Boskoff, call a “great room” concept that allows for events and interactions big and small. There are new floors, comfy seating, Carmel stone-like columns, check-in kiosks, and power outlets and USB ports in every corner.
“It’s not a lipstick-and-rouge thing,” Boskoff says. “It’s a complete gut and redo. You can’t recognize what it used to be.”
An exploration of the menu and backstory of Fin + Field (649-4234 x1115), which opened softly last week, reveals other surprises. The most delicious might be that it exceeds expectations eaters tend to have for hotel restaurants in terms of flavor and value.
A number of tasty “shareables,” salads and sandwiches come under $13, and get no dinner markup since the same menu, which will change seasonally, works for both meals.
Two things I tried – the textbook Coke Farms salt-roasted beet salad with goat cheese, arugula and spiced yogurt, and the yummy white cheddar grilled cheese with fluffy-crunchy bread from Watsonville’s West Coast Bakery with an accompanying tomato-cheddar soup – are both a modest $10. So is the “nosh board” with hummus, moutabel (like baba ghanoush), marinated olives, grilled pita and vegetables Chef Samuel Santos pickles with his mother’s recipe. A rack of as many as six oysters is $13 (it depends on the size of the shellfish). Only two items top $20.
Other highlights from an extended lunch demonstrated why Santos, who turned 26 this week, is a rising star in the Marriott family: an indulgent carnitas sandwich topped with a sunny-side-up egg on a jalapeño-cheddar roll ($14); rock cod battered with Monterey Wheat beer and airy fresh-cut fries ($15); and Dungeness crab cakes with fried capers and a nice crust ($16).
The bar itself – which comes with the closure of neighboring Characters Sports Bar & Grill – changes the mood of the expansive lobby. The Marriott team took pains to include its loyal Characters customers in the development of Fin + Field; several of its 14 TV screens were immediately reserved by fans of various National Football League teams for Sundays.
They were on hand for NFL’s opening weekend Sunday, and not just for the 10 beers on tap (including Lagunitas Pils and Idiot IPA). A robust buffet materializes on new convection surfaces, as does a Bloody Mary bar ($6-$8). It’s $22 for guests and half that for locals with a “939 – ” zip code on their ID. Yes, a generous and quality all-you-can-eat buffet for $11.
The unique new bar surface, a trippy composite of archeological-looking stones, glows with embedded LED lights. The first day the bar soft-opened it was surrounded with guests going two – and three-deep for cocktails ($11) like the Watson-tini (Tito’s Vodka, Watsonville strawberries, cucumber, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, house-made simple syrup) and the el viejo (Don Julio añejo tequila, agave nectar, orange bitters over an ice ball).
Valet comes included, and local IDs will also earn a discount card at the bar. More surprises: Monterey Marriott is managed by the hotel dynasty, but owned by locals including former mayor Peter Coniglio and partners out of Seattle.
Sept. 16 is the first of 150-person invite-only introductory events designed to boost word-of-mouth between movers-and-shakers.
And it’s not the only major debut happening this week. After a dehumanizing wait for the local foodiesphere, Alvarado Ramen opened softly 11am Wednesday, Sept. 14. (Reminder: That means don’t go unless you’re good with patience and functional feedback.)
That joins a stretch of Alvarado Street that includes Poke Lab, Boardwalk Sub Shop, soon-to-open Revival Ice + Cream and the nearly-open dynamic mixed use building a few paces away.
Hank Kim of Sushi Moto (a little further down the block) does his broths from scratch in a traditional Japanese style, with 11 long hours simmering pork and chicken bones while adding onion, green onion, ginger, seaweed and katsuobushi, or fish flakes.
“It’s not easy, but it’s good,” he says.
That’s an understatement: I tried the pork belly broth the day before opening and it was all kinds of electric umami uplifted by ginger, garlic and jalapeño. I could’ve taken a Thermos of it.
He designed the 11-seat bar (to go with approximately seven two-tops) to look in on the open kitchen and aid appreciation of all the handmade soup and noodling.
“It’s a lot of job,” Kim says, “but we make everything.”
Guests can choose sea salt, veggie or soy sauce flavor variations on the deep and complex house broth, select a level of spice, go gluten free on the noodles (+$1) and assign toppings like negi, seaweed, corn, boiled egg and chicken karaage for $9-$9.50 a bowl. House specials like the namesake and chasu gohan run around $13. (View the menu on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.)
Eight shiny boiling baskets need less than two minutes to have the slurpables ready, which is good, because Monterey is definitely ready for ramen.
QUICKBITES
Welcome to the world, Mays Lawrence Fowler. World, meet Mays, a 9-pound baller with game up to the name.
MEarth’s annual glass pumpkin party hits 10am-5pm Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 17-18, at Hilton Bialek Habitat. More on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.
Casa Noble Dinner Thursday, Sept. 15, at Restaurant 1833 ($95, 643-1833). It arrives in conjunction with annual Monterey Bay Tequila & Cuisine Saturday, Oct. 8 at Hyatt Monterey.
Pinkberry on Alvarado in Monterey closes its doors Sept. 30, consolidating with its Cannery Row sister.
Peter B’s Brewpub’s (649-2699) 20th anniversary party goes all day Tuesday (11am-11pm), Sept. 20, with 20 percent off food, $3 Dancing Goat Russian Imperial Espresso Stout and raffles.
Dependable local food sleuth Greg Furey threw down a great recommendation in response to “Top 10 affordable spots to eat in Monterey County”: El Rancho Market (384-5151) on Reservation Road in Marina, for the massive $5 burritos.
From-scratch and family-run Old Town Deli & Café (422-4133) at 343 Main St. in Salinas will celebrate its upcoming 25th anniversary with a new name, Gordon’s Café and Catering.
Carbone’s Old School New Rules in New Monterey is promoting specials like $4 drafts and $5 burgers combos 3-5pm as a way to beat Lighthouse traffic.
Greg Lepesh is now exec chef at Asilomar Conference Grounds after three years as chef de cuisine and a long career in kitchens across California after graduating from California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
Stirrup Cup Pizza (659-4358), next to sister spot The Running Iron (659-4633), is just a great place for pizza in Carmel Valley. The stuffed pizza is an indulgent discovery; the cheeseless a godsend for lactose-intolerant types.
Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations reveals cash and compliments are less successful motivators than… pizza. (Compliments, BTW, were closer in effectiveness to pizza than #3 place finisher cash.)
Thomas A. Edison: “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”