Frank Bravo, Author at The Six Fifty

Seven local wines for holiday drinking and gifting (but mostly drinking)

From Semillon to Sparkling, our local South Bay and Peninsula wineries have the goods to make your days merry AND bright Well, it’s almost Christmas, which means we’ve all earned a drink (or two) by now. And while our drinking tastes here at the 650 are as eclectic as they are expansive (such as this…and this…oh, and this too), there is something about wine that just seems so perfectly suited to the ...

Cowhide walls & purple cocktails: peek inside the swanky Park James Hotel

Eight things to know about Menlo Park’s ambitious new development. Looking down the hallway to the bar at the Park James Hotel. (Photo by Veronica Weber) In a location that once housed a Shell gas station, the swanky Park James Hotel now commands the corner of Valparaiso Road and El Camino Real in Menlo Park. It’s a new and high-profile development that aims to serve Silicon Valley business travelers while also offering spaces ...

Talking wine wizardry at Rosewood Sand Hill with Madera’s Paul Mekis

Big awards after grape expectations for Silicon Valley’s high profile wine curator Paul Mekis, Wine Director at Madera since 2009, recently earned the Wine Spectator Grand Award for the restaurant’s wine list. (Photo by Natalia Nazarova) When he started at Madera at Rosewood Sand Hill in Menlo Park almost 10 years ago, Wine Director Paul Mekis was given a lofty goal: achieve the coveted Grand Award from Wine Spectator magazine, which honors restaurants ...

How Birdman Bats went from a Half Moon Bay garage all the way to Major League Baseball

Yasiel Puig and Hunter Pence are just a few of the big league stars who now wield the artisan baseball bats from the 6–5–0. Photographs by Kyle Ludowitz The boys of Birdman Bats repping their wares at the company’s workshop in South San Francisco. (Photo by Kyle Ludowitz) Earlier this month, Cody Silveria and Gary Malec were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Milwaukee Brewers when Yasiel Puig strode to the plate. With ...

Silicon Valley’s most interesting new restaurant has a staff of 400 water buffalo

Silicon Valley’s most interesting new restaurant has a staff of 400 water buffalo Morsey’s Farmhouse in Los Altos is the first restaurant in America focused on cooking with water buffalo-based products Morsey’s Farmhouse’s marquee menu item—Burrata di Buffalo, made from the milk of their water buffalo. (Photo by Natalia Nazarova) Morsey’s Farmhouse is all about the buffalo. And lest you think we’re talking American bison here, let’s set the record straight up front. The ...