Los Gatos Weekly-Times
Dining
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Vienna Woods, a European-style cafe on Big Basin Way in Saratoga, is more than just another local restaurant. The cafe has become a gathering place over the past 23 years where customers have become good friends.
Vienna Woods draws the regulars for more than just the good food
By Suzanne Cristallo
The folks who gather for comfortable conversation and coffee on the patio every day at Vienna Woods are not related by blood, but they are held together by a remarkable bond. The European-style cafe in Saratoga is home to them, and owner Farzin Sanjideh is the cement that has held them together for 23 years. On warm days, they sip coffee under the shade of a towering tree, order a favorite deli sandwich from an extensive menu or ask Sanjideh to whip up a favorite not on the menu, such as chicken kebob. When it gets especially busy, regulars will go around the counter to pitch in.
On Tuesdays, the soup of the day--chicken curry--attracts a faithful following. But on any day of the week, fans gather and enthusiastically make known their reasons for being there.
"I like everything," says Mim O'Neal, for many years a Los Gatan and now a Saratogan. She has been a customer for 22 years, along with her mother, the late Mim Neely, who made it a point to leave one of her Delft blue plates for Sanjideh to add to the blue pottery collection she keeps in the front window.
"Farzin is what makes me come back three times a week," O'Neal says. "First I was a customer, now I'm a friend."
"I'm a fan of the hot meatloaf on a French roll," says Ken Shevok, who with wife Carol says it's worth a trip twice a month "all the way downtown just for that."
"I've known Farzin for 25 years, and the coffee still isn't ready on time," jokes Bob Kivort of Saratoga. Kivort has been known to open the shop on days Sanjideh might be late. He and wife Ann also tell the compelling story of a group of regulars who have been gathering for coffee since 1975--22 of those years at Vienna Woods. They call themselves the Saratoga Coffee Group. As Ann tells it, one day she made the acquaintance of the three "founders" of the group who had gathered for their regular morning coffee. The three--all deceased now--were Carter "Brack" Garland, Fern Williamson and Bill Henderson. "Bill said, 'I've heard everything he's had to say, and he's heard everything I've had to say, so why don't you join us?' " Ann recalls.
"And that's the greatest pick-up line I've ever heard," laughs husband Bob. It was also the beginning of a group that today numbers 16, including Henderson's son Darrell and Dick Karnuth, 85 and the group's unofficial CEO. Seven of the men are retired United Airlines pilots, and two of the women--Bernice Kane and Los Gatan Janet Kastle--were flight attendants. They gather seven days a week in varying numbers. It's a ritual over Starbucks coffee, homemade lemonade and Sanjideh's famous apple strudel.
"It's only because of Farzin," says Ann Kivort. "She cannot retire!"
However, her customers did encourage her to return to her birth country of Iran for a family visit that had been delayed for 27 years while she reared three children and helped husband Sid, now at home for health reasons, run the business. It was a visit possible only because customers and friends got together to run the restaurant while she was away for more than a month.
"I even got a call while I was there from a customer who asked, 'Where are you, you bad girl!' " she laughs.
"We're a tremendous support group," says Jill Ebenhahn of Saratoga. "We talk about everything but don't argue, even though we disagree politically. If the White House could only hear us, they'd have everything solved," she laughs.
Perhaps it's the warm Reuben sandwich with sweet corned beef, homemade sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese on marbled rye for $6.95. Maybe it's the comforting sun-warmed patio with the sound of birds above. "It's home!" concludes O'Neal.
Vienna Woods, 14567 Big Basin Way in Saratoga, is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m.6 p.m.; Sunday noon3 p.m.; and Monday, 9 a.m.5 p.m. Call for takeout or catering, 408.867.2410.
