Redwood Creek Grill to Offer Comfort Food This Week

Though it means saying farewell to a dear “shutter,” Redwood City is gaining a promising new “sprout” as the brand new Redwood Creek Grill restaurant gears up to open its doors to hungry customers this week at 2050 Broadway St.—the site of the former .

Redwood Creek Grill is the brainchild of a team of four owners—general manager of , Emily Curione; Kristen Archibald Moreau; Simon Koetke; and a silent partner—and executive chef Suzi Snepp, who was snatched up from her job cooking for restaurants in Las Vegas by Koetke, who wanted her for the Redwood Creek Grill.

“It was too darn hot there anyway,” Snepp said with a laugh, of her former city.

Snepp and Koetke both say they are excited to be running a restaurant in Redwood City, and have high hopes the locals will come to embrace their menu full of “American-style comfort food.”

Redwood Creek Grill’s menu is extensive, with several pages, each devoted to a different type of food.

Appetizer offerings include “chicken lollipops” with dipping sauces, calamari and a tomato mozzarella plate. There are as many as eight different salad entrees, including a wedge salad, a niçoise with seared Ahi tuna, and a barbecued chicken salad. The creamy tomato basil bisque soup is one item Snepp is sure they will become known for.

“And, everything is homemade, right down to our dressings,” she said.

When it comes to entrées, customers at the Grill will be greeted with a myriad of options that are sure to make choosing hard. Sandwich options include the Prawn Po’ Boy, BBQ Pulled Pork, Pastrami and Roasted Veggie. There are four styles of hot dog to choose from, such as the “Drunken ‘Braut” that is soaked in stout and smothered in carmelized onions or sauerkraut, the basic ball park dog, a sizzling sausage and the Chicago Dog. Other entrées include pan-seared salmon, skirt steak, pasta, an Angus rib eye, and Snepp’s infamous “Slow-Braised Sterling Silver Short Ribs”—another item Snepp hopes will help put Redwood Creek Grill on the local map.

Snepp said, she also hopes the restaurant’s extensive burger list will be a hit with customers. There is nearly an entire page of different burger choices on the menu, featuring everything from the Classic American and Filet-o-Fish to The Hawaiian, with grilled pineapple, bacon and pepper jack cheese; The Mexicali with avocado, salsa fresco and roasted jalapenos; and The Saucy Western with cheddar cheese, bacon, BBQ sauce, onion rings and corn on the cob—plus many, many more.

Dessert options include Katie’s Brownie Bombshell, the Bubbly Apple Crisp and Deconstructed ‘Smores. There is also a generous kids’ menu with classic favorites such as chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, and peanut butter and jelly.

And, locals may be delighted to know, that Redwood Creek Grill plans to be open for breakfast on the weekends. The breakfast menu includes sure-fire favorites like Eggs Benedict, several types of three-egg omelets, a breakfast BLT, crepes and more.

Redwood Creek Grill is also one of few local dining establishments that says, enthusiastically, “bring your dog!” Each table on the Grill’s patio has its own dog bowl, and they even have a five-item dog menu your pooch can order from.

The Grill also has a spacious upstairs room they will be renting out for private parties, and, they are considering renting out parts of the back kitchen to local catering companies that don’t have their own kitchen space, since most of the cooking for the Grill’s customers can be done in the front kitchen.

Snepp, the owners and the newly-hired crew have been working tirelessly to get things ready. They are hosting a “friends and family night” as a practice run on Tuesday night, then will open up to the general public for a soft opening on Wednesday, and an official grand opening is scheduled for Thursday. Tentative hours for opening week will be 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Snepp and Koetke say they have invited local business owners and community members from all over Redwood City to Tuesday night’s Friends and Family Night.

Snepp said, she doesn’t see the Grill and its staff as “competition” for other longtime restaurants in town. She said, rather, they look forward to joining the club.

“We don’t really see ourselves as competition,” Snepp said, adding how they have even invited the staff of , Redwood City’s infamous breakfast spot, to dinner Tuesday night. “Rather, I think we’re all just in this ballgame together, trying to make it in downtown.”

Koetke said, community involvement and support is extremely important to him and the other owners and staff members, especially since he is a former graduate of , and his family is “third-generation Redwood City.”

As soon as the restaurant is up and running smoothly, Koetke added, the staff is planning to give back to the community in a wealth of different ways, including participating in a “downtown passport program” that would encourage locals to patronize different downtown businesses to earn stamps that can be exchanged for rewards such as movie tickets.

“We really want to help drive business downtown, and keep it downtown,” Koetke said. “The idea of people walking from street to street and business to business downtown is exciting to me.”

Koetke said he also hopes to sponsor local youth sports teams, and even possibly host an after-school program for local children in the empty meeting space upstairs.

“To be able to give kids the opportunity to have something to do after school, rather than just hang out on the streets, is something we really want to do,” he said. “We are super community-driven.”

Snepp, Koetke and the entire staff looking forward to meeting many new customers at their various opening events this week.

“Once you taste the food, you’ll want to come back,” Snepp said.