Ozumo Oakland Celebrates 1st Anniversary with Prix Fixe Menu of Signature Dishes Cetrella Restaurant Introduces Weekly Prix Fixe Dinner Menu

Ozumo Restaurant in Oakland has announced the planned introduction of a 1st anniversary celebratory five-course prix fixe dinner menu for $36.00 plus tax and gratuity. The special menu showcases the restaurant’s signature dishes priced to provide substantial value.

The anniversary prix fixe has been designed by Ozumo Oakland Executive Chef Yo Matsuzaki and General Manager Danny Sterling and will be served from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the restaurant’s main dining room starting on Monday, November 30 and running through Thursday, December 3. Reservations are recommended but not required. The restaurant’s regular a la carte menu will also be served. Drink specials will be featured in the bar and lounge.

The special menu starter will be Miso Soup, Ozumo’s own awase blend of aka miso, plus warm edamame; the second course will be Futago, grilled Washu beef flatloin with sautéed garlic spinach and Japanese eggplant and a goma-miso sauce; the third course will be a Dragon Roll, tempura shrimp roll wrapped in grilled unagi with avocado with a sweet soy sauce; the entrée choices will be Gindara, Ozumo’s famous grilled black cod marinated in saikyo miso and sake kasu or Tokyo Gyu, cubed New York strip steak with black pepper sauce and Japanese karashi mustard with Ozumo’s own fries; the dessert course will be Shokora Ke-ki, flourless chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and hazelnut and banana ice cream.

Chef Matsuzaki is a graduate of the Peter Kump Culinary School and began his culinary career at Montrachet and then moved to Nobu Restaurant, both in New York City. His first job in California was at Rubicon in San Francisco. He has subsequently also worked at Farallon, Cityscape, and Sutra. Most recently, Matsuzaki was the Executive Chef at Ozumo San Francisco.

Ozumo Oakland was opened last December by Jeremy Umland, Ozumo founder, managing partner and long time Japanese resident/professional baseball player turned entrepreneur. Umland is the culinary pioneer who opened Ozumo San Francisco in 2001 and, in doing so, introduced contemporary Japanese cuisine to the Unites States, bringing together under one roof a sushi bar, sake lounge and robata grill.

The engaging décor at Ozumo Oakland, with an underling theme of water, air and earth, is the work of AGE Design of Japan, headed up by Ichiro Sato, one of Japan’s top interior designers. At the entrance to the restaurant is an oversized solid George Nakashima-style wood door with wood sidelites and a “live” edge. Highlights of the main dining room (seats 78) include earth tone slate floor tiles which extend up the walls and columns, custom oak wood tables and chairs and banquettes covered with traditional Japanese fabrics. Subdued lighting illuminates a second washi art work running the entire length of the west wall. The charcoal fired robata grill (seats 12), with a sunken kitchen area, is notable for its sustainably harvested ramon hard wood counter top.

The adjacent Kotatsu Room (seats 24), available for nightly or private function dining, is walled off on two sides by clear glass panels with glass shelves lined with sake bottles. A 20’ tall Japanese paper lantern creates a dramatic interior backdrop and acts as a beacon to outside passersby. The centerpiece of this shoes-off, uniquely Japanese room is a 12' solid oak wood table surrounded by elevated bench seats.

The Ozumo Oakland sake list, with over 90 brands, is one of, if not the most extensive in this country. The full bar serves signature cocktails such as the Giddy Geisha and Sumo-kaze, plus top wines from around the world and Sapporo and Kirin beer on tap. The bar is decorated with blackened metal and rich wood accents and a large waterfall with stylized leaping fish. A hand-troweled concrete floor embedded with a leaf motif is complemented by an expansive Japanese washi work of art, titled “Surge,” along the back wall. The cozy lounge has tatami mat bench seating with overstuffed pillows.

The restaurant’s intimate sushi bar, topped with salt and pepper granite, also has a sunken kitchen area, allowing the standing chefs and seated diners to see eye to eye, separated by clear glass display cases filled with fresh sushi and sashimi selections, and illuminated by a ribbon of light coming from fixtures housed in a lower soffit.

The Oakland location also has a private dining room, complete with sliding shoji screen doors, which seats up to 50 people, making it one of the foremost such non-hotel venues in the East Bay. The room has oak wood floors and soffits and is decorated with a washi art piece, “Blue Moon,” framed in by traditional Japanese textured stucco. Full-restaurant private lunches and off-site catering are specialties of the house.

Ozumo Oakland is located at 2251 Broadway, at Grand Avenue. The restaurant is open for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Lunch is served Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The bar opens at 4:30 p.m. Street parking and nearby off-street lots and garages are readily available and valet service is offered. Visit Ozumo on the Web at www.Ozumo.com/oakland. Reservations are recommended and can be made through www.opentable.com or by calling (510) 286-9866.

Cetrella in Half Moon Bay has announced the introduction of a weekly prix fixe menu. In addition to the regular a la carte offerings, the restaurant will be serving a $25.00 three-course prix fixe dinner every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The menu will change weekly.

The next prix fixe will include Cream of Celery Root Soup with Gruyere cheese puffs and roasted portobello mushroom; Maple Glazed Grass Fed Pork Loin with a Nueske’s bacon wrapped potato cake, wild mushroom ravioli and a shallot-bacon sauce; and Valrhona 64% Manjari Chocolate Pot de Crème with white chocolate chantilly and a trio of cookies.

Cetrella serves dinner Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday from 5:00 to 9:30 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday until 10:00 p.m. and serves Sunday brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Located at 845 Main Street in Half Moon Bay, California, Cetrella has ample free off-street parking. Visit Cetrella on the Web at www.cetrella.com. Reservations can be made by calling (650) 726-4090 or at www.opentable.com.