Bistro 107 puts Testarossa into elite wine-dine category

Photo by Olena Kovtash

There’s a new option for wine lovers who want to make a day — or night — of it, and enjoy food beyond the usual cheese and charcuterie.

Wineries with onsite restaurants are not uncommon in the North Bay, or even Paso Robles, but they are a rarity in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley.

There is only one winery that operates a true built-in kitchen in the Silicon Valley, and that is Domenico Winery in San Carlos. Their Osteria is a delightful taste of Italy by way of New Jersey, birthplace of owners, Dominick and Gloria Chirichillo. However, it is only open on weekends, serving pizzas, fries and authentic Italian pastas, and a full menu of wines available by the taste, glass, or bottle.

Now there’s a new option for wine lovers who want to make a day — or night — of it, and enjoy food beyond the usual cheese and charcuterie. Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos recently launched Bistro 107, in response to what owner Rob Jensen refers to as, “thousands of requests from club members.”

Their popular Wine Bar 107, founded in 2012, was named for the winery’s original Federal License Number 107, which was given to the property in 1888. Wine Bar 107 was restricted to cheese, meat and fruits. Jensen says it was a great boon for club members, but clearly, the clientele wanted more. Wine, by the way, makes you hungry.

Photo by Tomas Ovalle/ SVBJ

“Many visitors told us that they would rather just stay and have lunch or dinner at Testarossa after visiting for a wine tasting instead of getting in their cars and fighting for parking outside a downtown restaurant,” says Jensen. He began the process of opening an onsite restaurant in 2018, but the pandemic, followed by skyrocketing inflation, impacted their financing.

Plus, with an historic building, there were many improvements needed to meet ADA codes, along with a full fire sprinkler system. Yet, they were able to open in late August.

Testarossa’s resident chef, Nadiv Geiger, has been handling special member lunches and dinners, plus corporate and private banquets for years, and has turned the idea of an onsite restaurant concept into reality. Bistro 107 Manager, Virginia McVeigh, hails from ASA Los Altos and Evia in Palo Alto, and, previously Lavanda restaurant, co-founded by local icon Howard Graham, who also provides grapes for Testarossa.

Unique to Testarossa are the wines, made by longtime winemaker Bill Brosseau, who celebrates his 22nd harvest this year.

“We complement the amazing dishes crafted by the winery’s executive chef, Nadiv Geiger, with a 20-page Library Wine List that includes vintages as far back as 2012, and dozens of aged magnums to choose from,” says Jensen. “We also highly emphasize the provenance of how and where these wines have been stored, as none of these bottles have ever left the winery’s historic caves and cellars, thus they have never been exposed to anything other than perfect storage conditions.

“No restaurant, not even a 3-star Michelin restaurant, can make such a claim. We also offer our wine club members the same discounted price on all of our wines as they would pay in the tasting room, prices that can be up to half of what they might pay for similar quality wines at their favorite restaurants.”

Jensen says that the favorites so far have been the smashburger-style Bistro 107 Burger with hand cut fries and au poivre dipping sauce, plus a market fish dish, focusing on sourcing from local fisheries, and a Flannery Holstein prime steak with a bone marrow chimichurri sauce.

The upside of having a full menu has been immediate, says Jensen. Tasting room attendance has increased from the start. He describes it as the perfect afternoon of food and wine for an early or late lunch, or a tasting in the late afternoon followed by dinner.

Photo by Tomas Ovalle/ SVBJ

“Our 136-year-old property, with dozens of 100-plus year old trees, is only two minutes of off E. Main Street in downtown Los Gatos, but feels like it’s 100 years away from all of the stress, hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley.”

Jensen says that dinners have been the most popular thus far, largely due to visitors scheduling wine tastings at 3 pm, 4 pm, or 5 pm, and then lingering in the ambience of the peaceful setting for dinner.

“We will likely add a few lunch and dinner dates around the holidays,” says Jensen. “As we go into the winter season, being a brand-new restaurant, we have limited our hours to dinners Thursday through Sunday, and lunches Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We are expecting to expand the hours and days of service in the Spring. It is important to note that we have beautifully decorated and heated clear top tents for the winter for year-round dining.”