Dining at the Coop

Last night, we had dinner with friends at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in Campbell. Although I had walked by it a number of times on my way to Orchard Valley Coffee, I had never made a point to stop in. I'm glad we finally did.

Ever since the original one opened in downtown San Jose, I've been a Coop fan. The prices are cheap, but the food quality isn't. It's a self-serve restaurant, which means there is usually a line to order, but it isn't a big deal because that means more time to peruse the menu and choose what I want to eat. Last night, I tried the tarragon grilled ahi tuna (with potatoes, tomatoes and greens), which was delicious.

San Jose's Coop is long and narrow with an equal number of indoor and outdoor seating. Before, I thought it was a decent size, but now that I’ve been to the new one, it seems tiny.

Campbell's Coop is a two-story joint with a bar and a brewery. The bar offers live music every Thursday night and live comedy every Sunday night. The brewery produces a selection of five beers: Brown Porter, ESB, Kölsch, Kristall Weizen, and Pale Ale. To satisfy one-fifth of my curiosity, I tried a Coop's Pale Ale. I'll have to make four more trips to satisfy the rest of my curiosity to tell you if it's my favorite brew.

Since we arrived early for dinner, we had some time beforehand to wander across the street and explore Trailsloggers, an outdoors store. It's just a small shop that doesn't have the wide selection of REI, but has the undeniable charm of a local business. Of course, I might have a slightly positive bias because it's where I received an early birthday gift in the form of a chocolate brown Life is Good cap with a cartoon mountain and trees and a slogan that says, "Get Out."