This new high-end restaurant in downtown Merced hopes to attract diners from all over
A few days before the new Rainbird restaurant opened inside the historic El Capitan Hotel in Merced, whole bunches of grapes are roasting over charcoal in the kitchen, a cook gingerly turning them with tongs.
The liquid from the slow-roasted grapes will be made into a deep brown sauce for abalone from Monterey, an appetizer made with black trumpet mushrooms, and olive oil from olives grown on a farm 30 minutes away.
It’s not a sight you’d see in most restaurants around here, and it’s an example of how Rainbird is a little different.
The upscale restaurant opened Feb. 11 with a focus on “hyperseasonal” cuisine and a five-course tasting menu with food sourced mostly from nearby farms.
“Art in an edible format,” executive chef Quentin Garcia likes to call it.
“Everything is as local as possible,” he said. “This is a brand new thing for Merced. … It’s very much focused on being a destination restaurant.”
So, like Erna’s Elderberry House in Oakhurst (the San Joaquin Valley’s only four-star Forbes rated restaurant), Rainbird wants to attract people from all over. Many of those diners will be combining their restaurant visit with a trip to Yosemite National Park just northeast of the city.
And Merced residents, many of whom have been yearning for an upscale restaurant for downtown, finally have that local option.
The restaurant
Rainbird is on West Main Street in Merced, inside the recently renovated El Capitan Hotel, a building constructed in 1912.
The building is also home to Native Son cafe and bar, and an outdoor courtyard restaurant that will open in the coming months. Along with the historic Mainzer Theater, recently renovated with a restaurant inside just down the street, all are managed by the JdV (Joie de Vivre) by Hyatt brand.
For now, Rainbird is open on Friday and Saturday nights, with plans to offer Thursday night dining and brunch soon.
The inside of Rainbird has been renovated in shades of cream and sage green.
In addition to the ingredients, the flowers are local. Even the wood used in the decor – and George Pena, the woodworker who crafted it – are local.
Pena made the large chef’s table in the dining room. He also crafted the host stand from monkey puzzle wood that was rescued from a Merced property — a rare tree that’s now federally protected in Chile.
Above the bar are large jars full of preserved ingredients that will later be used in meals, like dried flowers and acorns.
Because of the hyperlocal focus, some ingredients will get preserved or fermented for later use. Like tomatoes in the height of their season, which will be dry aged and smoked. They’ll be treated like a beef tartare, a dish that the chef says tastes strikingly like the raw steak entree.
“It tastes so similar to beef tartare but it’s just as satisfying,” he said.
The food
The prix fixe dinner menu is set each weekend, five courses for $80 per person. Wine can be paired with each course for another $30.
Diners can choose from two or three options for each course. Vegans and others with dietary restrictions are accommodated, though the chef asks for at least one day’s notice.
The debut menu includes a ribeye from nearby Mariposa Ranch, with a beeswax and black salt crust and carrots poached in bone marrow.
Also on the menu: coriander-cured squab, a dessert made from sweet potatoes, and a smoked cauliflower custard that evokes flavors of coffee and bacon, even though the dish is vegan.
As for the drinks, cocktails and wine are available. There are plenty of local wines on the menu.
The wine list was created by Christophe Tassan, a master sommelier who also holds the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, one of the highest accolades in the French cooking world.
“Having one here in this restaurant is insane to me,” Garcia said. “That’s awesome.”
Because of the seasonal nature of the ingredients at Rainbird, its menu will change frequently. You’ll find ingredients from Burroughs Family Farms in Denair and the Humble Rice Farmer in Merced.
“I’m not going to go 100 miles to get asparagus,” Garcia said.
That’s where the focus on preservation comes in.
The chef
Garcia, 27, in addition to working at upscale Napa Valley restaurants, also worked under a well known chef in Denmark.
“That’s where I learned to forage and treat ingredients with the best respect that you can,” he said.
Lessons learned there are applied to Rainbird dishes, like that sweet potato dessert.
He uses black apples — apples slowly cooked for three months until blackened — blended into a caramel sauce that’s drizzled on top. The sweet potato itself is cooked in a coffee butter made with espresso and topped with a pistachio gelato.
The end result is “super deep, indulgent fudgy potatoes,” he said.
Some of this style of cooking may be new to diners in Merced, Fresno or Modesto. Garcia said he hopes they won’t be intimidated, and feel free to ask questions.
“Come in with a curious heart and trust us to guide you along,” he said. “We thrive off of creating an unforgettable experience.”
Brunch, when it starts, will be à la carte and bit more approachable, with dishes like a pork belly hash.
Garcia, who is from Southern California, got his start by knocking on the door at an unnamed upscale kitchen at age 11.
He asked if they would teach him to cook. They handed him an oversized chef’s coat, and he held up his chef’s pants with a length of plastic wrap.
He’s come a long way since then, working at restaurants all over the world.
Although he could be working in a city with a food scene that’s already thriving, Garcia said he wanted to be part of something from the ground up.
He hopes he can be part of making Merced a destination area, for food and other reasons.
“The next part of my career I wanted to be creating a food scene,” he said. “There’s so much potential ... but they haven’t kicked off a food scene yet. You really only get one chance to do this.”
Details: Rainbird is at 609 W. Main St. in Merced, Calif. Reservations can be made online at www.rainbirdrestaurant.com or by calling 209-446-4026. Hours: To start, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 9:54 AM with the headline "This new high-end restaurant in downtown Merced hopes to attract diners from all over."
