Cotati's Down to Earth Cafe serves up refined comfort food

When 43-year-old chef Chris Ball decided to open his first restaurant in downtown Cotati in 2017 - Down to Earth Cafe - he already had nearly 30 years in the food industry business under his belt.

The Midwest native, who came to California after culinary school to cook at chef Bradley Ogden’s Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, decided he wanted to create a fast-casual eatery that would deliver some of the comfort food of the Midwest, only with the refined simplicity of California cuisine.

“My food is all about the things that remind me of my childhood,” said Ball, now the father of two young boys. “We’re the spot where people say, ‘This reminds me of how my grandmother cooked.’?”

Case in point: his Slow Braised Shortribs served with mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, “horsey” sauce and natural jus.

“The short ribs is basically meat and potatoes, with a pan sauce and veggies on the side,” he said. “As a kid, it would have been overcooked and dry pot roast on Sundays. This dish takes me back to that, even though we make a veal demi-glace.”

From his childhood in northern Michigan, Ball also brought with him the late-night memory of poutine, a Canadian concoction that consists of French fries and cheese curds smothered in brown gravy - the kind of ballast folks tend to order after 2 a.m. when the bars close.

It wasn’t until he reinvented the dish, however, that he was able to sell poutine to the Californians.

“I tried to recreate it faithfully, but nobody bought it,” he said. “Here at Down to Earth, you can have Slow Braised Short Rib Poutine ... it’s short ribs with blue cheese cracklings and beef demi-glace over hand-cut fries. Nobody does that out here.”

Native New Yorkers have also been thrilled to find a Classic Reuben Sandwich at Down to Earth that tastes like the real thing, because it’s mounded high with housemade pastrami. The chef wet brines the beef and then smokes it slowly. The entire process takes four to six weeks.

“I modeled my pastrami after the Katz Deli Reuben in New York,” Ball said. “I want to do it right, not halfway.”

One of the cafe’s most popular dishes is the Turkey, Bacon and Avocado “Cotati” Cobb Salad, a dish that originated in Southern California. Ball gives it a twist by making his own dry-cured bacon, which takes two to four weeks. The bacon also stars in the Turkey, Bacon and Avocado Sandwich.

“I’ve tried to gear our menu to efficiency,” he said. “Every protein gets used two to four times ... pulled pork appears in three dishes. Short ribs are in two dishes. We cross-?utilize chicken.”

After working for the Lark Creek Inn, Ball transferred to One Market and Lark Creek Steak in San Francisco, then came back to Larkspur to work for The Yankee Pier, all part of the Lark Creek Restaurant Group. Then he jumped ship and went to work for Fish in Sausalito, which also runs TwoXSea, a sustainable seafood store.

“I grew up fishing and always loved the idea of sustainable fish,” he said. “We did 1,200 to 1,500 covers a day, and all the seafood came in from the docks.”

For seafood lovers, the Down to Earth chef also fries up a crunchy and succulent Shrimp + Chips and an uber-popular Fish + Chips made with local rock cod.

“Rock cod has the right moisture content, flakiness and fat content,” he said. “Atlantic cod has a lot of moisture in it, and so does ling cod, so that will get soggy or blow the batter off.”

As a special during the late summer, Ball often takes advantage of the wild salmon coming off the docks from San Francisco to Alaska and offers a comforting combo: Crispy Skin Salmon with Summer Succotash, Olive Oil Crushed New Potatoes and Piquillo Pepper Sauce.

“I do the pan-seared salmon with crispy skin, then slide it into the oven in a cast-iron pan to finish,” he said. “Me and my dad would pull the skin off and eat it, but you can just leave it in the pan.”

His side dish of Fennel and Apple Slaw, originally created as a garnish for crab cakes, is finally growing in popularity, after a slow start.

“It’s crisp and light and refreshing,” he said. “And it’s got the Meyer lemon vinaigrette.”

The Summer Succotash - made with corn, green beans, cherry tomatoes, butter, garlic and thyme - takes advantage of garden-fresh veggies at their peak. It’s the kind of ingredient-driven cooking Ball learned from Ogden, who worked briefly with Alice Waters and opened his first restaurant around the same time she opened Chez Panisse.

“The simplicity came from Ogden - five ingredients in each dish,” he said. “That’s why I moved to California. The East Coast is about manipulating food. Here we cook a carrot well.”

As a kid, Ball was already working 60-hour weeks, helping out on his parent’s 300-acre farm, where the family tended a big garden and raised cows, lambs and pigs. His father grew up working on his grandparents’ dairy farm and market garden.

“My parents are great cooks - Dad was a contractor - but on the side, they were farmers,” he said. “Fifty percent of our plate came off our property.”

Ball got his start as a dishwasher in a restaurant near Cheboygan, Mich., a touristy area on the Inland Waterway, a series of rivers and lakes that connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. By the time he was 18, he had worked himself up to line cook.

He named his Cotati eatery after a restaurant his family used to go to in the basement of an old stone farmhouse, outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“You parked in the grass yard, and walked down into the root cellar ... and the kitchen was upstairs,” he said. “They grew their own food and made it themselves. It was rustic, farm food. “

At Down to Earth, Ball has kept the menu simple and straightforward, with no fancy ingredients to decipher and no “food shaming.” His entrees are all under $25. Ball also offers a take-out “Midweek Easy Dinner for Four” that includes fried chicken or tri-tip served with creamy mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables and a garden or Caesar salad, all for $45, with pickup on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

“The locals can’t afford high prices, so it’s not fair to them to charge as much as Healdsburg,” he said. “Cotati is the last blue-?collar spot that’s not in the middle of nowhere.”

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The following recipes are from Chris Ball, chef/owner of Down to Earth Cafe in Cotati.

Fennel Apple Slaw

Makes 6 servings

2-3 large bulbs fennel, tops removed, cut in half and core removed, thin julienne

1-2 large crisp apples (fuji, pink lady, honeycrisp, etc), diced

2 Meyer lemons, juice from both and zest from one

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, crushed into a paste with salt

1 bunch chives, minced

¼ cup slivered almonds

1/3-½ cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

- Salt and pepper to taste

Remove tops from fennel (if they have them), cut in half the long way, cutting out most of the solid core. Split again the long way and then cut thinly (julienne) either with a knife or a mandoline. Put fennel in ice water for 2 minutes, remove and place on paper towel to dry.

Dice the apples, or if comfortable with a knife, fine julienne the apples and reserve.

Lightly toast the almonds with a little olive oil in a 350 oven for 3-4 minutes (should smell nutty). DON’T BURN THEM. Let cool 5 minutes.

Mince the garlic and then add a pinch of salt and mash into paste against the cutting board with the side of your knife.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the Meyer lemon juice, garlic paste and Dijon mustard. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil. Add the fennel, apples, toasted almonds and chives. Add salt and pepper to taste, toss and serve.

For a more crisp salad texture, serve immediately. For a more slaw-like texture, refrigerate for ?1-2 hours and serve.

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“The key to serving this dish is the mise en place,” Ball explained. “Get each of these sets of components for each part of the dish ready to go before you start, and this dish can be done easily in sequence.

“The sauce can be done completely ahead and then just reheated to serve. If this is the case, the entire dish can be made for six people after prep in roughly 30 minutes or as long as the potatoes take to cook. (Larger potatoes than the ones in the ingredients will take longer to cook until soft to the center.)

“Start the potatoes first and while they are cooking, cook the succotash. When the corn is cooked, take off heat and cover. Start the salmon after the succotash is done and while the salmon is cooking, then drain and mash the Yukons and cover. Heat the sauce at this point or serve room temperature. Then cook the salmon.”

Crispy Skinned Wild California Salmon with Summer Succotash, Olive Oil Crushed New Potatoes and Piquillo Pepper Sauce

Makes 6 to 8 servings

For Piquillo Pepper Sauce:

8 ounces roasted piquillo peppers (in jars, or roasted red bell peppers)

1 yellow onion, rough chop

10 cloves garlic

¼ cup sherry vinegar, or 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

¼ cup pure olive oil (or any high temperature sauteeing oil)

1 cup veggie or chicken stock

For Olive Oil Crushed New Potatoes:

2 pounds small Yukon or red skin potatoes (roughly the size of golfballs)

½ cup salt

10 cloves garlic

10 sprigs thyme

1/3-3/4 cup good olive oil (depends on your preference and the oil)

¼ cup chopped chives

For Summer Succotash:

6-8 ears corn, kernels cut from cob

½ pound green beans, snipped, cut into halves or thirds

½ pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

3-4 tablespoons butter or buttery olive oil

6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme, chopped

For Crispy Skinned Wild California Salmon:

1 side of wild local salmon, scaled and pin bone out, cut into (6) 6-8-ounce pieces

½ cup pure olive oil (not extra virgin) or other high temp cooking oil

For Piquillo Pepper Sauce: In a large, high side skillet or small pot, heat olive oil until medium hot and sauté the yellow onion and garlic over high heat while stirring until soft and starting to brown with a pinch of salt. This will take about 5 minutes.

Add the piquillo peppers, the stock and the bay leaf to this mixture and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes over low to medium heat. Remove the bay leaf.

Put the mixture in the blender with the vinegar and blend until smooth and hold someplace warm by the stove. If you don’t want to use a blender, chop the onion, pepper and garlic finely and sauté together, finish with half the stock and the vinegar and use as a relish.

For Olive Oil Crushed New Potatoes: Put Yukons into a pot with 2 inches of cold water above them with the ½ cups salt, garlic and sprigs of thyme.

Slowly bring to a simmer of medium heat. They will be done when a paring knife passes cleanly through the center, roughly 15-20 minutes after beginning to simmer. Once they are soft, drain the potatoes.

Put the potatoes back into the pot they simmered in and add as much or as little olive oil as preferred, depending on flavor of oil and desired texture. (I prefer a more buttery olive oil mimicking more traditional mashed potatoes.)

Crush the potatoes with a spoon or masher until small pieces remain. Add chopped chives, ground black pepper and taste if salt is needed. Cover and hold until ready to serve

For Summer Succotash: Cut kernels from corn cob in a large bowl with point of the cob down on a clean kitchen towel. Use a smooth motion, not cutting all the way into the cob. Slowly rotate the cob until all kernels are removed. Remove the kitchen towel and leave the corn in the bowl.

You will use the same large sauté pan for all of this: Add the green beans in as flat a layer as possible and add ½ cup water. Cover and quickly bring to a boil over high heat. Wait 2-3 minutes and discard water. (The beans do not need to be full cooked as the dish will continue to be heated.) Add the butter or olive oil, thyme and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the corn and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté over high heat, stirring regularly until cooked, roughly 5 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes after fully cooked and off heat to not overcook them. Put cover on and for Crispy Skinned Wild California Salmon: Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick or well-seasoned heavy cast iron saucepan.

Season the flesh side of the salmon with salt and pepper and then carefully place them in the hot oil, skin side down.

With a small spatula, press each one in the center for 10 seconds before adding the next piece of fish. Continue until all are in the pan and continue to cook uncovered over medium low heat, occasionally gently pressing them in the center with the spatula. This presses the moisture out of the center and allows the skin to crisp. The spatula shouldn’t make a mark in the flesh of the fish, just a little pressure. This is where patience is key. The skin will release from the pan when it is nice and crisp in cast iron or easier with nonstick (but less crisp).

When the fish is cooked from the one side without flipping halfway (roughly 9-12 minutes depending on thickness and water content of fish), and the skin releases from the pan, gently use a metal or nonstick spatula to flip the salmon and finish cooking for 1-2 minutes depending on how you like it cooked. Immediately plate.

Assembly: When the salmon is halfway done, plate up the succotash and potatoes. After the salmon is flipped and cooked to the desired doneness, plate the salmon on top of the succotash and potatoes and add a generous dollop of piquillo pepper sauce.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56.