Photograph by Douglas Rider

Karaoke Night: Ron Short impersonates Elvis Presley as he sings one of his songs on Karaoke Night on March 17 at the Three Flames Restaurant in Willow Glen.




Three Flames Restaurant has new owner; food still the same

By Jim Aquino

Though the Three Flames Restaurant on Meridian Avenue recently changed ownership, the restaurant/cocktail lounge will continue serving the same items on the menu that Willow Glen residents have enjoyed since its opening in 1980.

Toni Ann Saiz, the restaurant's banquet coordinator, first worked at Three Flames in 1984 and says the restaurant has changed very little in 22 years.

"There's not going to be any major changes at all. Same employees. Same menus. Same format," Saiz says.

The restaurant's founders and former owners are three brothers from Kyparissia, Greece: Pete, Louie and Gus Tsigaris. The brothers also own the Flames coffee shops in Milpitas and in San Jose's Winchester, Cambrian and Santa Teresa areas.

In December, the Tsigarises sold Three Flames to their longtime banquet manager, Jose Garcia, to concentrate on other ventures.

Garcia says the only thing he's learned about being a restaurant owner so far is the paperwork. He adds that the restaurant will promise to keep the menu the same.

The most popular items on Three Flames' menu include the Three Flames special steak (a coulotte with mushrooms and baked potato), the prime rib, the seafood sauté, the scampi, and--the restaurant's most acclaimed entrée--the pepper steak. The steak is a New York cut covered with pepper sauce, peppercorns and green onions.

The pepper steak is not listed on the special menu for occasions like anniversary parties, reunions and seminars at the restaurant's banquet facilities. However, Saiz says the restaurant will serve the pepper steak for those occasions if it's requested.

"Some people will say, 'We have to have the pepper steak,'" Saiz says.

Three Flames also receives praise from customers for its desserts. On a message board at citysearch.com's Silicon Valley restaurant section, an enthusiastic poster writes, "Their cakes are baked at their own bakery and the slices they offer are as big as your firstborn child!"

According to Saiz, cheesecake and gelato are the most popular desserts.

Music also plays a huge role in the quintessential Three Flames experience. Live musical acts perform at Three Flames from Tuesday to Sunday. The restaurant also has karaoke on Wednesday and Sunday. One Sunday night, a woman could be heard from the lounge singing a tune that's hardly synonymous with the Sabbath: Madonna's randy 1990 semi-hit, "Hanky Panky."

A local newspaper once said the restaurant has a "Vegas vibe." Perhaps that's what attracted Vegas icon Robert Goulet to Three Flames years ago.

Saiz says that Goulet and his entourage dined at Three Flames when he had a concert at Cupertino's Flint Center.

"I was here when they made the reservations," Saiz says. "He was very nice."

Dennis Weaver of McCloud fame is another celebrity who came to Three Flames. In 1996, he dined with the owners of Willow Glen's Falcone & Snyder Plumbing and Heating, which hired him as a spokesman for a magnetic water and fuel treatment product.

More than one reviewer has described Three Flames as a place where the family can enjoy the food while Uncle So-and-So sneaks out to the cocktail lounge for a horse-betting tip.

"We have a lot of return customers. They've been coming in forever. They've had their weddings and anniversaries here," Saiz says. "It's kind of like a family around here."

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Three Flames, 1547 Meridian Ave. Open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday 4-11 p.m. and Sunday 4-10 p.m. For more information, call 408.269.3133.

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