Public Opinion
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Martins West
September 3, 2009
Four months ago, a bit of the United Kingdom landed in downtown Redwood City with the opening of Martins West. This Scottish-style gastropub incorporates California sensibility and modern riffs on traditional pub fare. There are three partners - general manager Moira Beveridge, executive chef Michael Dotson (both from Sens in San Francisco), and Beveridge's husband, bar manager Derek Smith (Zibbibo and Rudy's in Palo Alto).
The brick building - built in 1896 - originally housed a theater and saloon. It underwent several transformations until 2001 when the second floor caught fire before restoration to a theater and music venue was completed. The building has been empty until now.
Black Pudding and Beer: Gastropubs Move West
July 21, 2009
Your host recently had the opportunity to visit Martins West, a new gastropub that opened in May in the historic area of Redwood City. The founders include the husband and wife team of Moira Beveridge and Derek Smith, both active in the local restaurant and bar scene, as well as Michael Dotson, former Executive Chef at Evvia in Palo Alto. It's named after the Martins Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland, run by Martin Irons, a family friend of Ms. Beveridge.
Located in the old Alhambra Theater building constructed in 1896, the restaurant incorporates some of the original design elements of the building including a line of solid wood columns that extend down the middle of the room. Also notice the scorch marks on the back exposed brick walls, resulting from a fire in years past. The proprietors went through great lengths to use recycled materials during construction. The bar is made from an older wooden water tank, and many of the tables are made from old wine barrels.
Martins West Pub Looks East
A new Redwood City restaurant serves authentic Scottish food with a twist
By Stett Holbrook, Jul 06, 2009
YOU’VE GOT to love a restaurant that has the sense of humor and temerity to serve haggis on a stick. Haggis, in case you don’t know, is a beloved Scottish dish made from, among other things, sheep organs and oatmeal boiled inside the animal’s lungs. Haggis is also a funny word to say that sounds to me like what it is: haggis.
Redwood City’s Martins West Pub, a 2-month-old Scottish-inspired “gastropub,” serves the intimidating dish in an approachable format: battered and fried on the end of stick. As offensive as the dish sounds, it’s quite good here. In America, haggis is generally made in artificial casings like sausage, so it’s really pretty tame. It’s just a rich, savory sausage made with lamb heart, kidney, sweetbreads and little regular old lamb meat.
A Touch of the Old Country
British and Irish pubs offer a friendly dose of tradition
June 10, 2009
PUBS AND PUB culture have found fertile ground in Silicon Valley. Whether old school like Cupertino's Duke of Edinburgh and the Trials in San Jose or neotraditional like Campbell's Katie Bloom's and Martins West in Redwood City, the pub's appeal extends well beyond a place to get a drink.
"It's a social space," says John Goldstein, bartender at downtown San Jose's O'Flaherty's Irish Pub. "It's a meeting place. It's just a relaxing place to come. ... Plus we pour proper Guinness, which you don't get at a lot of places." He claims the pub is Silicon Valley's No. 1 seller of the 250-year-old brew my Irish friend affectionately calls "mother's milk" when it first crosses her lips.
Martins West Brings Market-Fresh British Pub Fare
to Silicon Valley
April 30, 2009
The successful marriage of a relaxed dining atmosphere and chef-driven cuisine has proven itself across the globe in countless culture-specific forms such as the Italian trattoria, British gastropub and French brasserie. This Spring on May 7, 2009, these two key components come together in Silicon Valley at new restaurant Martins West Pub, co-owned by General Manger Moira Beveridge, Bar Manager Derek Smith and Executive Chef Michael Dotson. Dotson’s menu, demonstrating his reverence for local, sustainable ingredients and authentic British pub fare, is served in surroundings as convivial as a neighborhood saloon.
"I’ve searched for years for a chef and space to make this vision a reality," says Beveridge. "Martins West has always been evolving in my mind, but it took a perfect partnership and shared enthusiasm and passion to bring this to fruition."
"From historic public house to Scottish-inspired gastropub"
Mistie LoNardo
