The beer garden that founded Mountain View Oktoberfest prepares to permanently close
Steins Beer Garden holds a special place in my heart. It was where I had my first beer flight and fell in love with Fruli strawberry beer. And it’s the creator of Mountain View Oktoberfest, an event I look forward to every year. But after its 12-year-anniversary weekend at the end of March, Steins will permanently close.
I talked with the founder of Steins, Ted Kim, about the reasons behind the closure and what he thinks the future of dining out in Silicon Valley will look like. Here’s an extra bonus fact I left out of the article: Carrying Fruli strawberry beer at Steins was Kim’s wife’s idea. After trying it for the first time at Wurstküche in Los Angeles, she urged Kim to offer it at Steins, which had not yet opened. Fruli is one of the few beers that he’s consistently carried at Steins since day one.
And since we’re on the topic of beer, Friday marks the beginning of SF Beer Week, an annual event where breweries, taphouses, pubs and beer gardens offer special releases, tap takeovers, competitions, meet-and-greets, live music and more. I’m personally quite intrigued by Alpha Acid’s upcoming tiki party, featuring a release of a sour ale with notes of coconut, pineapple, passion fruit and marshmallow.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Your 2025 guide to SF Beer Week along the Peninsula
Let’s raise a pint to another SF Beer Week. From Feb. 21 to March 2, breweries all along the Peninsula will be offering special releases, tap takeovers, competitions, meet-and-greets, live music and more.
A new Yemeni cafe, a Cupertino boba shop closure and a new build-your-own malatang spot in Sunnyvale
- After 12 years in downtown Mountain View, Steins Beer Garden will close at the end of March.
- Yemeni coffee shop Sana’a Cafe will host its grand opening in downtown Mountain View on Friday.
- Embarcadero Media blogger Laura Stec highlights plant-forward restaurants and compares cookies in Mendocino.
- Melo Melo, a Southern Californian chain specializing in coconut jelly desserts in glass jars, has opened its first Bay Area outpost in Cupertino.
- Dumpling Kitchen & Bar recently opened in Burlingame. It specializes in handmade dumplings, xiao long bao and pork buns, according to its Yelp page.
- Mi Pot, a build-your-own malatang restaurant, soft opened today in Sunnyvale.
- bb.q Chicken, a Korean fried chicken chain with locations in Sunnyvale and Cupertino, has expanded to San Bruno’s Bayhill Shopping Center.
- Sourdough & Co., a deli with locations in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Pacifica, Daly City and more, hosted its grand opening in San Mateo on Tuesday.
- Mr. Sun, a boba shop with locations in Palo Alto and Mountain View, will close its Cupertino outpost on Sunday “due to the drastic increase in rent cost,” according to a recent Instagram post.
- Sunright Tea Studio in Sunnyvale will temporarily close March 10-31 for renovations.
Frankies at Frankie
The creator of Santa Clara’s Purpanoli and Sunnyvale’s Surmai has opened yet another sister restaurant. But instead of focusing on Maharashtrian cuisine, Roshan Shivalkar’s newest Sunnyvale restaurant offers Indo Chinese food with a focus on frankies.
Frankies are Indian street wraps that originated in Mumbai. They look somewhat like Mediterranean street wraps, but instead of pita, the filling is wrapped in roti. The menu at Frankie is relatively succinct, with five varieties of frankies ($11.99-$13.99) and 12 Indo Chinese dishes ($6.49-$15.99). For drinks, Frankie offers typical soda cans, as well as Thumbs Up, the Indian version of Coca-Cola (although Frankie was out of Thumbs Up on the day that I went).
In terms of ambiance, Frankie is no-frills. You order and pay at the counter and select water cups, plates, utensils and napkins from a self-service table.
The chow mein samosas (two for $6.49) were filled with tender hakka noodles and served with a Schezwan sauce. The exterior of the samosa was crispy, but I felt that the filling on the inside was a tad dry and a bit monotonous. I think the samosa would have benefited from additional sauce for moisture and added vegetables for flavor. I enjoyed the Schezwan sauce it was served with, but for the size of the samosas, I would have liked even more sauce.
I also tried the veg manchurian, a popular Indo Chinese dish consisting of deep-fried vegetable balls cooked in a sauce made with garlic and soy sauce ($13.99). While interesting to try, the dish was a bit too heavy and salty for my preference.
The chili paneer frankie ($12.99) was my favorite dish among those I tasted. The crunchy bell pepper and raw red onion cut through the richness of the saucy and spicy paneer. The frankie also featured a creamy, mayo-like sauce that complemented the Szechuan sauce, yielding a wrap that was saucy but not soggy. I would happily order this again.
The chicken kebab frankie ($13.99) featured perfectly cooked, smoky and flavorful grilled chicken as well as the same mayo-like sauce that was on the chili paneer frankie. For those who do not like spice, this may be a good option for you, as the frankie was quite mild. I would have preferred if this frankie also came with bell pepper or other vegetable to add another texture and flavor element. I also ordered this frankie with Amul cheese for an extra $1.50, but I believe the kitchen forgot to add it, as I did not see or taste any cheese.
Frankie, 542 Lakeside Drive #3, Sunnyvale; 408-743-5084. Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.
Basuku Cheesecakes is back in the Bay
Why it left, why it’s back and where the popular Palo Alto Basque cheesecake pop-up will go from here
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