Power Lunch!!

Item Description

Meet one-on-one with newly elected, City of Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson. Learn about the happenings in Benicia and the most important current issues facing the city. Ask Mayor Patterson  about her vision for the future.

• Lunch will be at the Benicia Union Hotel Restaurant at time to be mutually convenient. Or at another Benicia Restaurant as yet to be determined.
  
• Winner will need to call the Mayor's office within one month of the close of the auction.   You will need to arrange the lunch itself at least one week in advance.  The more advance the request, the more likely you will arrange the date you may prefer.
• Your lunch opportunity will expire, if not taken, by October 1st, 2009.
  

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Elizabeth Patterson
Biography

Mayor Patterson has served on the Benicia City Council from her her election in 2003 to her election in November 2007 to the office of Mayor. She served on the Benicia Planning Commission (1998-2000) and was Chair of the General Plan Oversight Committee (GPOC) for three years from beginning to end (1995-1998). Ms. Patterson has been or currently serves on City committees including People Using Resources Efficiently (PURE), Sunshine (open government), Solano Economic Development Corporation, ABAG, BCDC (alternate), and Sky Valley Open Space.

Ms. Patterson was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. She moved to Northern California in 1968, lived on a ranch in San Luis Obispo and then in Ithaca, New York for five years before returning to the Bay Area. Elizabeth has lived in Benicia since 1983 where she raised two girls and one large dog.

Ms. Patterson became a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 1991 and has been a Planning Director for two Bay Area towns. Elizabeth has been involved in several regional and local issues using conflict resolution to reach a consensus for planning and managing urban and natural resource assets. She was Executive Director of the Partnership for Regional Livability, a project for the White House Task Force on Livable Communities during the Clinton/Gore administration.

Elizabeth is most proud of her work on the Delta Protection Commission while she was at the California State Lands Commission. Ms. Patterson has worked before and within the State Senate as staff to Senator Thompson. She is currently a staff environmental scientist for the Governor's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Stakeholder Coordination Group for the Department of Water Resources.

Ms. Patterson's other memberships in organizations include:

• Benicia Soroptomists International
• Benicia League of Women Voters
• Benicia Historical Society
• Benicia Historical Museum
• Friends of the Library
• California Native Plant Society, Wills L. Jepson, Benicia Chapter
• Association of Environmental Professionals
• Center For Natural Land Management (former Board Member)
• Friends of the Estuary (Vice Chair)
• Sierra Club, Mt. Diablo Regional Group, (past) Conservation Chair (Bay Chapter, Conservationist of Year Award 1980)
• Greenbelt Alliance, (past) Executive Committee
• Soil Conservation Society of America, San Francisco Chapter
• Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, (past) Associate Board Member

Item Special Note

The City of Benicia

Benicia or Bust! (Article in the Contra Costa Times)

One of California's earliest cities, Benicia was founded in 1847. Benicia is a General Law City and operates under the Council-Manager form of municipal government. The Mayor and four City Council Members are elected by popular vote to four-year terms. The City Council appoints the City Manager and the City Attorney. The City Manager is responsible for City administration and services. The other elected officials are the City Treasurer and the City Clerk.

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Union Hotel Restaurant, Benicia, CA

Reviewed in San Francisco Chronicle

Upon entering the Union Hotel Restaurant and Bar in Benicia, I was almost immediately in the middle of the tiny dining room. There is barely enough room to stand and wait for a table.

But that's a minor inconvenience, especially when the payoff is a menu with well-executed dishes with a heavy Italian influence and French touches here and there.

Reopened by its current owner in December 2003, the restaurant is located on the bottom floor of the historic Union Hotel, built in the late 19th century.

The restaurant has seen many incarnations, including a stint by Judy Rodgers, co-owner of the Zuni Cafe, in the early 1980s. Rodgers joined Zuni in 1987, and from the early 1990s, the Union Hotel Restaurant and Bar changed hands repeatedly.

But 18 months into its current incarnation, chef-owner Gabriel Oviedo, who along with his brother opened Buon Appetito in Hayward and Benicia, has a popular establishment that complements First Street's mix of antique shops, specialty stores and restaurants.

During my visits, it seemed as if every customer knew Oviedo or one of the other customers at the bar or tables. This is either a testament to the closeness of the community or because the 10 white-clothed tables in the yellow-walled dining room almost bump into one another and into the dark wood bar and its eight stools. If all this elbow-rubbing makes newcomers feel awkward, those feelings are quickly forgotten once the food arrives.

That's when Oveido offers a collection of pastas and pizzas as well as some dishes with a French flair that include a nice touch with sauces. Some comforting favorites -- filet mignon, New York steak, rack of lamb -- also helped soothe my palate and my sore elbows.

Take, for example, grilled asparagus ($7.95). Prosciutto is wrapped around thin, lightly poached asparagus spears and quickly grilled. The saltiness of the Italian ham and the mildness of the tender asparagus pair well, even without the zesty tomato dipping sauce that comes with the dish.

A trio of crab cakes ($9.95) comes with a luxurious lobster cream sauce adorned with a thin ribbon of a thick balsamic vinegar reduction. A meal in themselves, the crab cakes have bits of bell pepper throughout and a generous amount of crab.

Returning to the prosciutto theme, we ordered pizza Cristina ($9.95), a thin, nicely-browned crust topped with fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, shaved Parmesan, truffle oil and prosciutto and finished with baby arugula, all working together. Other pizzas include the traditional pepperoni, a margherita and a vegetarian (all $8.95), as well as a calzone ($9.95) filled with cheeses, vegetables, ham and tomato sauce.

Pastas -- there are nine on the menu -- tend to be prepared with the "less is more" approach.

Seafood linguine ($14.95) sounds simple enough yet it's anything but. Fresh clams, mussels, prawns and scallops are featured items, all tossed with thin noodles. Fresh tomatoes and a splash of white wine along with a dash of red pepper add zip.

Ravioli margherita ($12.95) is also a winner, with pillows of paper-thin pasta filled with a delightfully sweet combination of yellow pumpkin and ricotta cheese. Cooked al dente, the ravioli are lightly tossed in brown butter and sage for a dessertlike dish I would order again and again.

Spaghetti lobster ($21.95) is almost overindulgent. Large chunks of salmon, scallops and prawns are sauteed and tossed with spaghetti and a rich tomato cream sauce with a hint of brandy. It's all topped with half a broiled lobster tail. The presentation is impressive; the richness of the dish makes it impossible to finish in one sitting.

Another excellent choice was chicken breast stuffed with a combination of fontina cheese, leeks and asparagus ($16.95). The chicken is nicely browned, sliced and layered over mashed potatoes surrounded by a white wine citrus sauce. The only drawback was the julienne of carrots and zucchini that were ice cold on the chicken. Those same cold vegetables accompanied the veal scaloppini ($17.95), a rather disappointing dish that looked promising but failed to deliver, thanks to a surprisingly bland fennel-brandy cream sauce.

However, the New York steak ($17.95) restored my faith; it arrived nestled in a delicate port pepper sauce with piping-hot roasted potatoes and steaming sauteed spinach. Bits of garlic in the fresh spinach made a nice pairing with the beefy New York, although the steak could have been more tender.

A fresh fillet of salmon ($16.95), grilled and topped with small grapes and a delicate citrus butter sauce, is also good.

A lengthy dessert menu features a variety of sorbetos, a couple of cheesecakes and three house-made selections -- zabaglione, tiramisu and whiskey bread pudding (all $6). The bread pudding is a winner. Large chunks of the warm bread pudding are broken into a bowl, topped with creme anglaise and dusted with powdered sugar. Just a hint of whiskey in the pudding made for a smashing end. Key lime cheesecake, however, didn't measure up -- it was a dry -- but the apple tart, which is not house-made, is warm and comforting with a large spoonful of zabaglione alongside.

Service at the Union Hotel was efficient and well paced on all of our visits, despite several large graduation parties. From appetizers to desserts, there were no delays; and the waiters were friendly, yet not too familiar.

Oviedo said he plans to convert his space into a past configuration with the small dining room becoming the lounge and an adjacent room into a larger, more comfortable dining room within the next few weeks. The goal is to relieve the dining room crunch and add some live music, a nice touch for hotel guests as well as diners. Those changes -- and a closer eye on those chilly vegetables -- will help take this already good establishment to the next level.