The corner of B'game Avenue and California across from the train station is a very visible, very desirable spot for any business.  With Limon on one side and the new Flights on the other, visitors are immediately offered some good choices to eat, drink and socialize as they get into downtown.  Flights follows in the jetstream of Nathan's, Cafe Marimba, Left at Albuquerque and most recently Straits as the corner location of the Ave's dining scene.  It is the third establishment by the owners after a very successful introduction in Campbell and a sister restaurant in Los Gatos.  They also have a signed lease on Castro St. in Mountain View so this concept restaurant will be familiar to some out of towners.

After dining there twice I can imagine it will have a good run on the Avenew with a refreshed bar area (they took down the wall that blocked the view of the train station as shown below–a great move).  There is a cool airplane hanging from the ceiling that has a back story of being Pablo Escobar's drug running plane before it was captured.  With the staff in flight attendant attire and a call button on each table and team service, the scene is set for something a little different.  All food and drink comes in "flights" of three–three sliders, three glasses of sauvignon blanc, three manhattans, three shrimp dishes–you get the idea.  It's not trying to compete with Parc & Howard, for example, on the wine list or Ecco on the food.  It's geared for fun and sharing and watching sports on TV while being in the center of the action.  Welcome to B'game!

It looks like Asian Box is finally open.  I noted that The Melt closed down around April 19th of 2016– nine months ago.  I'll never understand what takes so long to switch from one type of pretty simple restaurant to another.  Here is the sign indicating today's and tomorrow's sales are going to a really good cause.  See you there.

We follow the local dining scene pretty closely since it is so volatile and drives other city policies like permits, parking and traffic.  Dining out last night in San Mateo at 31st Union, we ran into a group of B'gamers who had also ventured into downtown San Mateo.  The food at 31st Union was great and I was pleased to see they had Burlingame Il Piccolo coffee on the menu.  I commented to my dining partner that all was good except the noise level which I found troublesome.

My partner said "You should hear Limon's noise level!".  As we walked out of the restaurant the other B'gamers were leaving too.  Comparing notes, I commented on the noise and one of ladies in the other party said "You should hear the noise at Limon!".  It might be time for both restaurants to add some softening wall covering, perhaps a rug or two on the concrete floors or more acoustic tiles.  I would love to patronize both places regularly–but it might have to be mid-week only.  Limon did a nice job opening up the space where Kabul used to be.  Here is a photo of their soft opening last month.  Check 'em out.