For 26 years, Silicon Valley engineer John Vink had a weekly lunch routine.
Each Wednesday he’d head to the closest Armadillo Willy’s barbecue restaurant for the Pit-Smoked Boneless Rooster Sandwich, a juicy thigh topped with jalapeno-spiked barbecue sauce and recent jalapenos.
“When I worked for Apple I went to the Cupertino location. Then when I worked for Nest I went to Los Altos. Then Google bought Nest, so we” — by then it was a bunch, the VIM, Very Necessary Assembly lunch membership — “had to come to this location,” he stated, sitting in what was previously the Sunnyvale Willy’s.
It’s now his restaurant.
The abrupt closure of three Armadillo Willy’s in late June set Vink in movement. “I had to buy it,” he stated, or lose his favourite sandwich. “We moved fast.”
Vink negotiated a chapter courtroom sale and a brand new lease on the El Camino Actual property and partnered with restaurant veteran Ousmane Barry, who was normal supervisor of the Santa Clara Willy’s. They renamed the place Empire Armadillo BBQ & Deli, which displays each the Texas barbecue aspect of the menu and the brand new New York Metropolis-inspired deli sandwiches.
Empire Armadillo opened quietly just a few weeks in the past and can maintain an enormous public celebration beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday with a blues band, native dignitaries, the compulsory ribbon-cutting and a meals deal for the primary lunch and dinner clients.
Moreover a refreshed restaurant with new tables, diners will discover one thing else new: A show case of iPhones and different merchandise that Vink had a task in creating over the a long time..
For his nascent culinary enterprise, he has engineered a educated crew, hiring a number of of the restaurant chain’s longtime pitmasters,
“It’s great that they wanted to keep the Armadillo Willy’s legacy going,” stated Jerzy Alanis, chef and assistant GM, who’s a 30-year veteran. He’s joined by pitmaster-cooks Maricruz Sanchez (28 years), Mario Miranda (26 years) and Omar Hernandez (17 years).
They’re stoking the acquainted fireplace pit close to the entrance door with oak wooden and making recipes they’ve been churning out for all these years. Moreover the bestselling brisket and ribs, they smoke pork, turkey breast, tri-tip and Texas jalapeno sausage.
Willy’s aspect dishes are notably in style. “People come in for the beans, the coleslaw.” a barely spicy peanut model, Alanis stated, “And the cornbread muffins,” Miranda chimed in. These are served with honey cinnamon butter.
A visit to SAP Heart led to the expanded menu imaginative and prescient. Vink was impressed by the Augie’s Montreal Deli sandwich he had at a San Jose Sharks sport, so he and Barry hit the highway to go to delis in New York and Los Angeles. They settled on a Pastrami, a Corned Beef and a Reuben, together with a French Dip.
After which there’s the outstanding addition to the dessert menu. Barry, who labored in administration at Magnolia Bakery for years, has developed a recipe for Banana Pudding that dials again the Southern-style sweetness to a extra interesting West Coast degree.
Based 42 years in the past in Cupertino by John Berwald, the venerable Armadillo Willy’s chain grew to a number of Bay Space areas. One restaurant, in San Mateo, stays. Previous to the June shutdown of the Sunnyvale, San Jose (Blossom Hill) and Santa Clara eating places, the San Jose (Camden), Los Altos and Dublin ones closed.
Might clients see the resurrection of any of these areas?
And he has a whole lot of consuming to do. Devoted as he was to that rooster sandwich, “I never had the ribs until I bought the place!” he stated, laughing. So he’s on a mission to familiarize himself with all the pieces on the large menu. “I’m not done yet.”
Particulars: On Thursday, the primary 25 clients in line for lunch will obtain a free aspect dish with their order, as will the primary 25 clients in line at 5 p.m. The Excessive Water Blues Band will play from 4:30 to eight p.m., and the ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. Empire Armadillo is open each day from 11 a.m. to eight p.m. at 161 E. El Camino Actual, Sunnyvale; www.empirearmadillo.com
