Sbrocco: Filipino inspired brunch in Seaside... Lammie: You can actually smell the cinnamon.

Sbrocco: ...Sicilian seafood delights in Monterey... Alter: Get the mussels every time.

Their non-negotiable.

Sbrocco: ...and rustic pizzas in the heart of Carmel Valley... Elder: You get a beer and a nosh.

Sbrocco: Just ahead on a special Monterey Bay area edition of "Check, Please!"

-"I Love lumpias!"

-Alter: [ Laughs ] [ Indistinct talking ] Sbrocco: Okay.

Hi, I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to a very special edition of "Check, Please!

Bay Area".

Today, we're venturing down the coast to explore a whole new culinary region for our show -- the scenic Monterey Bay area.

We have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots and the other two go check them out to see what they think.

Joining me at the "Check, Please!"

table today are behavior analyst Peter Alter, high school baseball coach Travis Elder, and administrative assistant Kim Lammie.

-Welcome, everyone.

-Elder: Thank you.

Sbrocco: Kim's up first.

Her go-to brunch spot offers all the American classics -- cinnamon rolls, pancakes, omelets, you name it.

But now she's expanding her horizons with the Filipino and Pacific Islander inspired specialties the owners serve up daily.

Located in Seaside, it's The Butter House.

♪♪ Benny: I'm Benny.

I'm the owner.

This is my wife, Susan.

Susan: The vibe when you enter The Butter House is supposed to be open and dynamic and friendly to every single person that walks in, with a little wow factor.

Benny: There you go.

And the reason why we decided to open up a breakfast restaurant is that we came from the bar scene.

We were originally bartenders, and instead of giving people the hangover, we wanted to cure the hangover.

Instead of going to bed at 4:00 a.m., we wanted to wake up at 4:00 a.m. We describe our food as American classics with Pacific Islander and Filipino flair.

Susan: Benny absolutely loves breakfast.

Benny: Breakfast -- It's my favorite meal.

And lunch is my favorite meal.

So our menu is completely available from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., like so I can get my fried chicken sandwich and he can get his scramble whatever way he wants.

Benny: Yeah, there you go.

Enjoy.

There's things that I crave, and lumpia is always something that comes around for the holidays.

And lumpia is one of the things that we got taught as we were kids.

Get to about right there.

Fold the insides in.

The recipe has been in the family for over 90 years, and that's kind of where it all started, was my grandma.

Susan: While Benny takes care of the savory, I'm a big fan of sweets on the menu.

Benny: Always good to see you, brother.

Boom!

Susan: The Butter House, on average, sees anybody from six months old all the way up into their 90s.

It's fantastic to see a beautiful circle of life that walks through our doors with every creed, nationality, religion.

It doesn't matter.

It's just home.

Benny: Yeah.

What makes us happy, what makes this worth it is when I see them get something and they do a little dance.

Susan: Yeah.

The shimmy.

Benny: They do a little shimmy dance when the food comes and they're like, "Oh, yes," and they eat it and they're so happy.

That's everything to us.

Susan: Yeah.

Sbrocco: All right, Kim, you are a breakfast and brunch lover?

-Lammie: Yes.

-Sbrocco: Okay.

Lammie: My favorite meal of the day.

My favorite meal to eat.

My favorite meal to cook.

-Sbrocco: Really?

-Lammie: Yes.

Sbrocco: What is it?

What is your specialty at home?

Lammie: My scrambled eggs with cheese.

Sbrocco: Oh, okay.

Lammie: I hear that they're the best from friends and family alike.

Sbrocco: All right, own it.

Own it.

Lammie: Yes, absolutely.

Sbrocco: So what makes The Butter House comparable to your kitchen?

Lammie: The Butter House has a wonderful feel.

It's a neighborhood restaurant.

They have a great eclectic menu, so there's always something to find for somebody else to eat.

So I usually have the chicken and waffles.

It's one of my favorite.

The chicken is usually fried crispy.

It's juicy, it's tender, and the waffle is always crispy on the outside and nice and meaty on the inside.

They serve it warm with some warm syrup on the side.

It's just a great way to start the day.

Sbrocco: All right, Travis, what did you have?

Did you go for breakfast or lunch?

Elder: Breakfast.

There's so many options, so many good options.

I had the Santa Maria tri-tip sandwich.

Comes with a fried egg and chimichurri.

I'm a sucker for anything with chimichurri on it.

It was very good.

Thinly sliced tri-tip, a nice little salad on top, arugula, little greens on top with a perfectly fried egg on toasted buttered sourdough bread.

So good Sbrocco: And what about you, Peter?

Alter: So we got things rolling with lumpia and they came out piping hot.

You break open the little egg roll and it's filled with beef and rice.

It's an appetizer for breakfast, which you don't usually get.

And it's wonderful.

Yeah.

And it's fantastic.

Elder: It's the best lumpia I've ever had.

Alter: It is.

Absolutely.

Elder: The best lumpia I've ever had.

-Sbrocco: You had lumpia too?

-Elder: I did.

Oh, yeah.

You have to.

Alter: I was so inspired, I actually bought a T-shirt that has that says "Lumpias" on it with the "Friends" logo.

And I've never gone to a restaurant and bought a T-shirt.

This is so delicious, I need a shirt to represent how much I like this food.

-Lammie: They were amazing.

-Alter: They were amazing.

Sbrocco: Do you get them regularly?

Lammie: That was actually the first time we had those.

Sbrocco: Oh.

Because you're exploring kind of the Filipino side?

Lammie: Exactly.

Yeah.

And the sweet chili sauce.

Elder: You know, it was the adobo for me, the adobo sauce to dip it in.

Lammie: It was the chili sauce for me.

-Elder: Oh, yeah.

-Alter: That sweet chili sauce.

I'd put that on anything.

That was absolutely perfect with it and just delicious to counterbalance it.

Sbrocco: Okay.

And you said you started with the lumpias.

So then where did you go from there?

Alter: Marciana's fried rice, which is this big bowl of butter fried rice topped with eggs and a choice of meat.

I had the spam.

I mean, it's grilled, it's crispy, it's sweet.

You break the egg and the yolk pours into the rice and it's just this savory thing, and it just keeps going.

It looks like not that big a bowl, and halfway in, you're like, "There's still a half a bowl of rice in here."

And it is absolutely wonderful Lammie: We tried the lemon curd blueberry pancakes this time.

Oh.

The lemon curd on top was perfect.

Just enough.

Not too tart.

Fresh blueberries on top.

Didn't even need syrup.

Alter: One more thing about the pancake, though, and I didn't order it, but I saw them going by.

These things are huge.

I mean, we're talking -- The whole plate is a pancake.

You are getting a pancake.

-It is the pan, right?

-Lammie: Yeah.

And they're fluffy and just wonderful.

Elder: We had the fried rice for the table, the pork belly fried rice.

Again, you're at a Filipino place.

I mean.

pork belly marinated in adobo.

We kept the adobo sauce from the lumpia and poured it a little bit more on top of it.

So good.

I mean, we went across the board on the menu.

It was really great.

Alter: So my wife regards herself as a BLT aficionado.

Sbrocco: Ah.

Okay.

Alter: She did the BLT with avocado and everything was wonderful.

The only tiny miss was it was a little dry.

Could have used a little more mayo.

But you know, that's coming from someone who regards themselves as an aficionado.

So still excellent.

And those country potatoes I thought are delicious.

Elder: It's not an afterthought.

The sides aren't an afterthought.

I don't think anything there is an afterthought.

You can taste the love that the owners, that the kitchen, that everybody puts into that.

There's a vibe when you're in there.

It's just a great place to be.

Sbrocco: And what do you get to drink?

Alter: It's a Guatemalan coffee.

Again, to your point, everything's done just up a little bit, and this deep, rich, dark Guatemalan coffee, and strong.

Elder: Two degrees hotter than it needed to be.

But, like, in a good way.

They weren't going to serve you cold coffee.

They were bringing a hot, piping hot coffee.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

You'd rather have it that way than the other way.

Elder: We had a Bloody Mary and... Sbrocco: Was it spicy?

Elder: They asked you if you wanted spicy.

I didn't want to burn my palate out right before I got there, so I went with a little spicy.

Alter: Their bar is inventive.

I had the P.O.G.

Tai, which is their version of a Mai Tai.

P.O.G.

being passion fruit, orange and guava.

And then -- Sbrocco: Which is a famous Filipino drink.

Alter: Yeah.

With a couple different rums in there and wonderfully inventive.

Sbrocco: I don't think we talked about those cinnamon rolls.

-Lammie: OMG.

-Sbrocco: Okay.

I was just going to say.

Lammie: It's the size of a softball.

Sbrocco: Talk to the baseball coach over here.

Lammie: Comes out warm.

So when you cut it, you can actually smell the cinnamon coming up from it.

It's thick, thick layer of frosting, but it's not overly sweet.

And then at the bottom, the brown sugar and cinnamon caramelize.

And so there's this crunchy crust kind of at the bottom.

It's just amazing.

It's a wonderful way to end a meal.

-Sbrocco: Or start one.

-Lammie: Or start one.

Sbrocco: All right.

So would you go back again?

-Elder: Totally -Alter: Absolutely.

Elder: He bought a shirt.

Alter: I bought a T-shirt.

I bought the shirt.

Sbrocco: "I Love Lumpias!"

All right.

If you would like to try The Butter House, it's located on Fremont Boulevard in Seaside, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $25.

Our Monterey culinary tour wouldn't be complete without a trip to the waterfront for the fresh catch of the day.

Travis's favorite seafood spot is run by a Sicilian-American family with roots dating back to the heyday of the sardine fishing industry.

Located on historic Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, it's Cafe Fina.

♪♪ ♪♪ Mercurio: The restaurant name is Cafe Fina and I named it after Josephina, my mother.

Both my mother and father are Sicilian.

My father and his four brothers came to Monterey because there were sardines, not knowing how beautiful Monterey was.

It was just about fish.

You cook what you know how to do best.

Coming from a fisherman family, you know, I mean Dominic Mercurio.

We eat fish, we eat pasta.

The main things that we serve that are popular, you know, the clam chowder, crab, a new pasta dish called Pasta Gianna, named after my granddaughter, which is chopped meat, mozzarella cheese, throw it in the pizza oven and let it melt.

This is a true Italian pizza.

With the wood fired oven, you got to have a dark crust.

I want the bubbles to be burnt.

I make my own vinegar.

I love doing things like that.

This is a propeller shaft that we had cut.

We keep it white hot, and... voila!

Our desserts are all made here.

Cannolis are standard in the Sicilian community, and it's always a treat at Christmas.

My grandmother would make the shells.

We use a whole milk ricotta with a couple of secret ingredients.

It's the best.

We've been here a long time.

We've had Joe DiMaggio here, John Madden, Mario Andretti.

I mean, I can go on and on.

The wall's full.

John Madden was sort of special.

John always liked to sit in the same place because he could sort of hide in the corner.

I always had a plaque on the table that said, "This table is reserved for John Madden.

If he arrives while you're here, we may ask you to move to another table."

It's the least desirable table.

It's right next to the kitchen.

You're close to the wall, but that sort of made it a little funnier.

There's something here that makes the people come back.

When you see the same people that have been coming here for 30 years, it's a good feeling.

Sbrocco: All right, Travis, there are a lot of seafood restaurants in Monterey and on the wharf.

Now, what is it about Cafe Fina that brings you back time and time again?

Elder: Well, if you're coming to Monterey, you got to do seafood.

If you're doing seafood, it's got to be Italian seafood.

And in Monterey, if it's Italian seafood, it really should be Sicilian seafood.

There's a huge Sicilian-American community that dates back to the early 20th century, and this place really hits all those marks, plus just the environment, the ambience, and the people there are fantastic.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

What do you start with?

Elder: The appetizer menu.

You could go there just for appetizers.

Alter: Oh, yeah.

Elder: We get the mussels every time.

I say they're non-negotiable.

They come in this little tin pot.

They're black Mediterranean mussels that are cooked in a white wine tomato sauce, the broth that comes on top of them.

They cook them just to perfection, right until they open up.

You're not taking that tin away until all of that sauce is mopped up.

Bread, napkin, T-shirt, sleeve, whatever you got, mop it up because it is just the best every time.

Lammie: And I love mussels.

I'm a mussels girl.

Elder: All right.

Lammie: The mussels were plump and juicy, and they were all open, and they were all big and fat.

Just so tasty.

And for our table, even the folks who didn't necessarily eat the mussels sopped up that tomato sauce.

Elder: Oh, that broth.

Lammie: You could have just drank it.

They need to bottle it and put it in a jar and sell it.

Elder: Yeah.

In Monterey, down on the water, it's required.

You got to do calamari.

That's another staple when you're down there, and it's buttery on the inside, crispy on the outside.

Hit it with a little lemon and sea salt on top.

It's such a good way to start a meal.

And now we're mussels and calamari, and it's like, "We're going to order a couple more?

Okay.

Let's see how this goes."

Sbrocco: So did you order more appetizers?

Lammie: We did.

We had crab cakes.

Elder: Okay.

Yeah.

-Lammie: Oh.

-Sbrocco: How are they?

Lammie: Fried to perfection.

Crispy on the outside, loaded with crab on the inside.

They were warm and meaty.

And we would go back for those.

Sbrocco: Just for the crab cakes?

Lammie: Crab cakes and mussels and the bread -- I'm done.

Elder: You still got three more courses to go.

Alter: But wait, there's more.

Elder: Yeah.

Alter: So we got the artichoke.

And obviously, Castroville is the artichoke center -of the world.

-Elder: Capital of the world.

Alter: Capital of the world.

Sbrocco: We got the fresh produce from Salinas Valley just right there.

Alter: Yes And it's so good.

It's steamed and then chilled, and then they fan out the leaves like a flower.

And then in the center, you get the artichoke heart with this sauce of aioli.

It is absolutely scrumptious, but a little lighter.

Sbrocco: Talk a little bit about what you drank with it.

Alter: Started with a Bloody Mary.

The server was like, "I just made this Bloody Mary for you."

It had to be Roxanne.

She's the bartender Alter: She is the bar-- Yeah.

You know, asked, "How hot do you want it?"

You know, it's that good.

It was, you know, savory and salty and everything you want in a cocktail.

Elder: I get a Dom's Negroni every time.

Dom's Negroni.

Good Negroni.

You're eating at a Sicilian restaurant.

Come on.

For an entree, I went with the mixed seafood grill.

Swordfish, prawns, calamari, and salmon cooked in his wood fire grill.

The wood grill gives the fish this different type of consistency.

It's like a crispy outside, but perfectly done on the inside with a little bit of smoke.

It's almond wood that comes from Dominic's ranch, the first wood fired grill, wood fired pizza oven in Monterey.

Alter: I had the mixed grill as well.

And you know what?

I think it really speaks to the skill of the chefs is to prepare a whole different number of fishes all together and not dry them out.

And you get the salmon flavor, you get the calamari flavor.

It's so good.

Elder: With a little orzo salad, hit it with a little lemon on top.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Lammie: So we had the crab.

Oh, so good.

It's a beautiful presentation, and it has about 10 or 12 legs.

So it makes it very simple to eat.

You don't have to pull apart the crab.

The meat was succulent and sweet.

The legs were nice and thick, so you got nice pieces of crab.

Comes, well of course, with some nice warm butter and some lemon on the side.

So that was really good.

We had the pistachio pesto.

Elder: Yes.

Isn't that good?

Lammie: Oh, my goodness, that was our favorite dish, to be honest.

Elder: Yeah.

With prawns?

Lammie: Yes.

I would never have thought to order a pistachio pesto, but it was so good.

And then of course, you have the bread to dip the pesto sauce.

And the prawns were cooked perfect.

They were sweet and plump, the little pistachio in it for a little crunch.

That was just really good.

We really enjoyed that.

Elder: And the pizzas -- I'm telling you, you could go just for the pizzas.

There's 5 or 6 different kinds.

Cooked in a wood fire oven.

How can you beat it?

Great dough.

Dominic's got a couple secrets from some Sicilian guys he knows about the dough to make it nice.

Sbrocco: From Sicilian guys.

[ Laughs ] Alter: He's got a couple secrets.

Mercurio: The filet's cut longways.

Woman: Oh.

Elder: Did you both meet Dom?

He's a character.

Alter: He's fantastic.

Elder: It's Fisherman's Wharf.

It can feel sometimes a little fancy, but you feel like you're in somebody's house.

You feel like you went over to a friend's house for dinner.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Lammie: Service was impeccable.

Elder: Okay.

Lammie: It was a beautiful mixture of being taken care of but not being hovered over.

-Alter: Yes.

-Sbrocco: Okay.

Now dessert.

-Lammie: Mmm.

-Sbrocco: [ Laughs ] Alter: I am a sucker for the dessert tray.

I mean, again, I'm here for the show.

Yeah, and I had the cannoli, and -- Sbrocco: Okay, now we're back to Sicily.

Now we're back to Sicily.

Alter: You know, that sweet ricotta filling of the cannoli and the crust on the outside and just those little chocolate chips and it finishes perfectly.

Mercurio: The original is a brulée iron.

Lammie: And then the creme brulée was just amazing.

It had a beautiful crunch on top, the candy top, and then the creme brulée inside was just so creamy and so delicious.

So that's how we ended our meal.

Sbrocco: A lot of good desserts.

Lammie: Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

Sbrocco: All right.

You'd go back?

Lammie: Oh, absolutely.

Alter: There is a rumor on the East Coast that there's no good Italian food here.

And I would be thrilled to take any of my East Coast relatives and say, "Try this."

-Lammie: Yeah.

-Sbrocco: There you go.

-I think your team won.

-[ Laughter ] Elder: The quintessential Monterey Italian restaurant.

Sbrocco: All right, if you would like to try Cafe Fina, it's located on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $40.

Peter's place is well off the beaten path, nestled amongst the ranches and orchards east of Carmel.

It's a rustic, slightly quirky spot, offering an equally eclectic menu of locally sourced foods and organic wines.

Tucked away in Carmel Valley, it's Corkscrew Cafe.

Georis: When people come to the Corkscrew, they feel transported.

So I designed and built the restaurant to be in the spirit of my childhood experiences back home in Belgium and France.

What I tell them is you're in Europe without the jet lag.

My wife is a big factor in the menu.

We've decided to have a very modest, simple menu.

Not pretentious.

We're bringing some traditional things like a French onion soup, which is part of my childhood, our fish tacos.

We made the tortillas with blue corn we ship from Mexico.

We've got the ladies in the back making it.

You can't get it any better than that.

We have trees at the vineyard, as well as on our property, where we harvest persimmons, apples, pears, tomatoes, and so on.

And so we bring that into the mix.

Woman: Beautiful.

Georis: Well, we have a wood fired pizza oven.

Cooking in a fire, so you get that smokiness and texture, the crunch, all those factors.

So Sylvia, my wife, came up with the Meyer lemon pizza.

Sylvia: And it's been the most popular pizza we have.

Georis: It's ingredients that kind of takes you into a couple different culinary sensory worlds, if you will, of acidity to protein.

Sylvia: Check it out.

Georis: It's just the perfect pizza.

What are you drinking?

I was born just towards the end of World War II, and we had to evacuate, and my mother gave birth to me, actually, in a wine cellar.

And so I was raised as a child drinking beer and drinking wine as well.

So it's a food for me.

And that's how I consume it.

And that's how I make it.

Woman: Yummy.

Woman #2: Oh, my goodness.

Georis: The people come here not only to be fed through the food, but to be fed with the setting in the feeling of the space.

Woman: Are you in heaven?

Georis: And that gives us a lot of pleasure, and plus, that's who we are.

Sbrocco: Now, Peter, people come to Carmel, this idyllic kind of Carmel by the sea, you know, and you get that lovely image of the ocean, but you picked a spot that's a little more tucked away, huh?

Alter: Absolutely.

You have Carmel-by-the-Sea, and it's adjacent to Pebble Beach, and it's the quaint European village.

And so maybe people visiting don't know that you drive 12 miles east and you happen upon this amazing little village, this little community that really captures some of the old California, the ranches and the orchards that California was.

But it's also -- now it's a winery, which kind of represents what California is now.

And I just think it's a wonderful place.

Sbrocco: And what does Corkscrew Cafe do so well?

Alter: Sure.

Well, I think it is their attention to detail.

It's inventive with a real focus on "Is it delicious?

Yeah.

It's delicious.

Let's do this."

You know, we always start with the baked garlic that they serve with a goat cheese.

And you know, when you hear garlic, you think of the raw and it's got a bite, and when you roast it, it mellows all that out.

And that plus the goat cheese that's kind of salty and tangy, it's just an amazing way to start.

Sbrocco: And what about you, Kim?

Lammie: We loved the garden.

We got there and it was a beautiful sunny day in the Valley.

So we did the beet salad with the golden beets and the red beets, some goat cheese, a couple slices of grapefruit.

Amazing.

So good.

The beets were sweet, nicely firm.

The arugula had a nice little vinaigrette.

Not overbearing.

It just all came really together.

Elder: It was a rainy day when I actually went there, you know, one of the one rainy days in Carmel Valley, but that's okay because they had French onion soup on the menu and it was perfect.

I felt like Ernest Hemingway in the little, you know, brick area.

Lammie: Yeah.

Elder: And the French onion soup was delicious.

Sbrocco: Oh, nice.

Alter: So you have to try the Meyer lemon pizza.

Wood fired oven, thin crust, so you get a little bitterness from the arugula, the saltiness of the prosciutto, and then the Meyer lemon is a little bit sweet, a little bit sour.

It's a little bit of everything.

Elder: And the shaved parm right on top brings it all together.

Alter: Yes, absolutely.

Elder: It really is a delicious bite.

And this place doesn't have a huge menu.

But to me, you look at the menu and you go, "Well, they lean on what they do really well."

And that -- I mean, everybody who goes to this place, start with the Meyer lemon pizza and work your way out from there.

Sbrocco: Okay.

Lammie: The highlight for us was their fish tacos.

Elder: Oh.

Lammie: They do a fried fish taco.

And I don't usually like fish tacos because usually it's a steamed fish or a boiled fish, and it's the texture.

But these fried fish tacos were perfect with a nice crust on it.

The fish was flaky.

They do a homemade purple corn tortilla with chipotle aioli on top that had just enough spice to it.

We're going back for those.

-Alter: Oh, Nice.

-Elder: My wife ordered -- She ordered a burger.

I knew she wasn't going to finish it, so I knew I was going to get some of that.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

[ Laughs ] Elder: They do this double patty smash burger.

Really, really good.

Really well done on a brioche bun.

And the fries were really good as well.

My wife gave it a valiant effort, but I knew she wasn't going to finish.

-Alter: It is a big burger.

-Elder: It's a big burger.

Alter: And, you know, so many other dishes are just so good.

I had the short ribs.

Fork tender.

They just fall apart, in this lovely cloud of mashed potatoes.

I mean, it pairs well with a Sunday afternoon nap.

I'll say that.

It just is -- It is that good.

Sbrocco: Now, did you wash your dishes down with anything?

-Alter: Oh, yeah.

-Elder: I did.

We started with a cocktail.

The Corkscrew Cocktail.

Really, really good.

White port.

Didn't even know that was a thing.

-Sbrocco: It is a thing.

-Elder: Apparently.

Sbrocco: And it's fabulous.

Elder: With a little citrus fruit inside.

-Elder: Just very refreshing.

-Sbrocco: Right.

Well, and Walter Georis, who's the owner, has his own winery.

Alter: Absolutely.

Sbrocco: And they have Cowgirl Wines as well.

So you're getting the Georis Wines as well as the Cowgirl Wines.

Alter: Absolutely And even the beer.

I ordered a Modelo and it comes served on a silver tray.

I mean, when I order a beer, I expect two things -- the beer and something to pour it into.

And you get a silver tray.

You get six little cubes of Gouda cheese rolled in celery salt.

So you get a beer and a nosh.

Sbrocco: What about desserts?

Alter: I got the lava cake.

And it is not an overly sweet cake, but the powdered sugar and the vanilla gelato -- you know, it's the showstopper when you cut into the middle of the cake and all the chocolate lava oozes out.

Sbrocco: And service?

What do you think of service Lammie: Service was wonderful.

we arrived waiting for our party, took us right back into the garden, got us something to drink, and I loved all the beautiful little white serving dishes.

And so sitting out in the garden among the greenery, it just felt so proper.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: You almost wanted to raise your pinky.

Lammie: Yes.

It was just a beautiful environment.

It just felt nice.

Yes.

Elder: And you're tucked out there.

I mean, you feel 100 miles from civilization in the best way possible.

You could spend an hour there.

You can spend three hours there and you wouldn't even know it Lammie: Yeah, yeah.

Alter: And people do just call it the Valley.

And I have a dear friend -- She calls herself an original Valley girl, and she says, "But Carmel Valley."

Sbrocco: Let's be right.

Lammie: The right valley.

All right, if you would like to try Corkscrew Cafe, it's located on West Carmel Valley Road in Carmel Valley, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $35.

I have to thank my great guests who joined us for this special edition -- Peter Alter, who's partial to the Meyer lemon pizza at Corkscrew Cafe in Carmel Valley, Travis Elder, a lover of the mixed seafood grill at Monterey's Cafe Fina, and Kim Lammie, who dreams of the giant cinnamon rolls at The Butter House in Seaside.

Join us next time, when three more guests will recommend their favorite spots right here on "Check Please!

Bay Area".

I'm Leslie Sbrocco, and I'll see you then.

Cheers.

Susan: When we took over a former restaurant and we had a massive discussion, we had to keep the one staple, which was Miss Jackie, and she serves coffee and water, and she has a smile on her face every single day.

Benny: She is amazing.

Mercurio: There's a little hill right up the street.

It's called Spaghetti Hill.

A lot of the Italians moved up there.

One of the coolest things I remember -- on Sunday morning, when you walked through that neighborhood, it smelled like spaghetti sauce.

It was awesome.