Last night, on our last dinner out, I was able share one of my favorite restaurants with some of my fellow teammates.  Chez Panisse was started in Berkeley by Alice Waters (my hero!) in the late 1960’s and has since been regarded as one of the best restaurants in the country. 

Ian Crocker and Chris Kubic are fellow foodies who knew about the famous eatery and were interested in eating there at some point during training camp.   I’ll use any excuse to eat there so I joined Ian, Chris, Emily Silver, Aaron Piersol, Eric Chanteau and Teri McKeever for the special dinner.  Teri’s husband, my fiancé and Kristen Cunnane (the Cal assistant coach and one of my best friends) also joined us. 

Although the restaurant is 45 minutes from our hotel, the long drive was well worth it!  My meal consisted of a local halibut tartare with fennel and roasted baby beets to start, and a hand-cut pasta with a rabbit and mushroom ragu for my main dish.  Everyone else really enjoyed their meals and were longing for more.  Unfortunately we weren’t able to stay for dessert because we had to rush back to Palo Alto to make our 10 o’clock curfew.  As a consolation the restaurant gave us house-made biscotti and local nectarines for the drive home.  There couldn’t have been a better choice for our last dinner out in the States.  Because of all the wonderful food we all slept very well last night!