November 4, 2022 – One beautiful bit of math, when it comes to restaurants, goes like this: good food + good service + good setting = hard-to-quantify satisfaction.
That math gets tastier when it happens at an affordable price point.
So it goes with happy hour at the singular spot that is The Sardine Factory in New Monterey.
The happy hour unfolds twice nightly, a regional rarity in its double-down, and hits those three frequencies (food/service/setting) with time-honored acumen. You can enjoy it from 5pm to 6pm and from 9:30pm to 10:30pm seven nights a week.
I’ve always loved The Sardine Factory’s melange of history, style and substance. But it was my go-to flavor concierge, long-time local reporter and regional travel author Stuart Thornton, who popped it—and specifically the happy hour—back on my radar.
“It’s a way to experience a special atmosphere without dropping serious money,” he says.
Thornton recently made it official with the love of his life. I call his fairer half (Sarah Kenoyer Thornton) The Burger Whisperer, given her passion for the ground beef greats of the western states she visits on research missions with her honey.
So the meatballs and sliders—“baby burgers,” in Kenoyer Thornton parlance—were recommended.
Mama’s Meatballs and their generous showering of San Marzano sauce and shredded Parmesan—and the basic-but-satisfying Wagyu sliders with caramelized onions and cheddar—promptly generated happiness. (If you pick one, go balls.)
Like the Buffalo wings, Margherita pizza and Sicilian olives, those apps run $11 during happy hour.
The other two required dishes were $8 and $10, respectively: namely, abalone bisque and the truffle sea salt popcorn with Pecorino Romano cheese and butter. (Cocktails like the sweet Blue Sardine, meanwhile, cost $8.50; beers and wines go for $5.50-$8.)
The bisque is a must-do because it’s one-of-a kind, and a Factory classic. This would be my #1 draft pick for the soup course of my last meal. (Hopefully it’s a multi-course affair.)
The popcorn, meanwhile, has become a crowd favorite, one that co-founder and executive chef Bert Cutino didn’t expect, and now can’t drop from the menu.
That was mandatory because my mama and papa were along for the ride, and pops has a claim to his own title as The Popcorn Whisperer. And, yes, he found heaven in a mound of earthy puffs.
Back in the Bellbottom Era, my parents made Sardine Factory happy hour their local, as young educators looking to tap quality snacks and tipple at a public school teacher price point.
Full disclosure: I may have been conceived after a Sardine Factory happy hour.
That potential conception happened without the assistance of Michael Conley, though I imagine many have since.
He’s the guy with the easy smile, casual charm and overall ivory dexterity who plays piano 7:30-10:30pm Tuesday through Saturday, a gig he’s now held for close to two decades.
Between the vintage fixtures, celebrity framed pics and cozy furniture, the ambiance is plus plus in these parts. But it reaches another stratosphere when he’s playing.
The Sardine Factory represents a crucial part of many locals’ lives because it has hosted so many special evenings.
It’s fair to go a step further, too, and add that anyone who has eaten in Monterey has indirectly been affected by The Sardine Factory.
That’s how much it anchored the area’s culinary cred back in the day my folks first ate there. It’s also a nod to founders Cutino and Ted Balestreri. They’re featured in national cookbooks—and have a cookbook heavy on history of their own—for a reason.
I took our visit as an excuse to check in with Cutino. I’ve been a full-blown fanboy of his for years because of things like the aforementioned abalone bisque recipe and hires like now-retired Big Mike, perhaps the best bartender to ever grace these shores.
But what wows me most is his community connectivity, perhaps best evidenced by his Culinary Classique D’Elegance, an annual benefit for Monterey Peninsula Meals on Wheels, coming up Nov. 20, after selling out (as it does regularly), months in advance.
He refuses any administrative payout. “That’s my rule,” he says. “Everything goes to feed the people.”
So many chefs ask to participate that he has to turn away more and more gifted flavor-makers every year.
They each submit menus based around Cutino’s playcalls—this year the menu includes mushrooms, 40-day-aged steak and a cheese course—then 25 chefs prep their expressions with customized thematic decorations for 10 people each.
“It’s interesting to see the chefs get creative, and a little competitive,” Cutino says. “If you see the menus it’s kind of mind-boggling—despite the use of the same ingredients, there’s no duplication.”
The event has raised $5 million since it began.
Cutino will oversee 2022’s affair while surviving multiple types of cancer.
“I can live with it. I have to,” he says. “I can’t complain—and I can’t give up the ship.”
That ship has a new hand on deck, whose food will be familiar to loyal locals like my parents.
Robert Mancuso returned to The Sardine Factory six months ago, after manning the kitchen years back, then taking posts in Boston and San Francisco before returning.
His specials now appoint the nightly offers in the dining room—including a popular chorizo-clam fettuccine, homespun cioppino and a New York cut of Wagyu steak—and help contribute to the everchanging happy hour menu in the lounge.
“We’re working on some new ideas,” Cutino says. “You’ve got to keep evolving. Bar food has become so predictable, so typical. We want to come up with some new things. You gotta try things out and see if people bite. It’s not what I like or what [Robert] likes, it’s what the customer likes.
“Flavor is so important.”
That gets at the main takeaway here: The Sardine Factory, after all these years, maintains its flavor in full, no math needed.
More at sardinefactory.com.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
