Two longtime best friends and locals, Max Sodini and Matt Ramirez, have teamed up to launch their own restaurant in San Mateo’s Crystal Springs neighborhood.
Sodini and Ramirez met as teens — Sodini as a student at Bellarmine College Prep living in Burlingame and Ramirez as a student at Aragon High School living in San Mateo. Ramirez went on to spend about a decade working as a chef in Los Angeles, but, Sodini says, “We’ve always flirted with the idea of doing something together.”
Now, in their 30s, the dream has become a reality: They quietly opened the doors of their restaurant, Crystal Springs Tavern, in November. As co-owners, Ramirez is the chef, and Sodini runs the front of house.
Ramirez is Filipino and comes from a French culinary background. And with those influences and others, the menu ranges well-beyond standard tavern fare, alongside elevated touches like pasta made in-house, fresh seafood and locally sourced meats.
There are oysters served with a hibiscus mignonette ($4 each); kanpachi kinilaw ($21), Filipino-style crudo with cara cara oranges and coconut calamansi vinegar; and steak frites ($35), grilled pork chops ($33) and a dry-aged tavern burger with havarti cheese and burnt onion aioli ($25).
“We’re calling it New American bistro,” Sodini says. “It’s a little bit of everything.”
On the bar side of the roughly 50-seat restaurant, look for options like gin and espresso martinis alongside agave riffs on classics like the Mezcal Negroni and the Oaxacan Old Fashioned ($15-$19).
Details: Open 5-9 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays at 742 Polhemus Road, San Mateo; crystalspringstavern.com