New Restaurant Planned for Old Mudd's Site

The site of the now shuttered Mudd's may be transformed into an upscale Southern restaurant where the cuisine is "Paula Deen meets Alice Waters" as early as fall 2011.

Michael LeBlanc, whose Picán restaurant has drawn steady crowds to Oakland's Uptown district since opening in fall 2009, now has his eye set on San Ramon.

"I wanted to make an early pitch for the Santana Row type development that the city of San Ramon is planning," said Le Blanc, "and then the city told me about their purchase of Mudd's and asked me if I'd like to consider it."

After visiting the site, which includes several buildings, a parking lot, and a creek side vegetable garden, LeBlanc said he had a vision for the place that was in keeping with the sustainable ethos of the restaurant's founder, Virginia Mudd, a preschool teacher who developed the land in the late 1970s.

He plans to name the restaurant Heritage, pronounced with a long "a."

"I want to have a different flair out there," said LeBlanc, "an energy and vibe that brings the Berkeley Birkenstocks, the cosmopolitan, and the agrarian comfort."

Truffled honey fried chicken, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese, and pork belly with roasted chanterelle mushrooms have lured diners to Picán. LeBlanc says he'll offer similar fare at Heritage, but plans to broaden the menu to include some dishes that are more deeply Southern.

He also said he plans to utilize the adjacent gardens for as much produce as possible.

Despite his stated commitment to inhabit the site "like a Native American, with respect for the earth," LeBlanc says he thinks he needs to raze and rebuild the main restaurant structure.

"Today's building requirements make it almost impossible to keep the old building. I want to keep what we can but it's so far out of code, it's hard to know what could be retained."

That's a source of some debate among certain locals, who object to new development on the location.

LeBlanc, a retired Polaroid executive whose entrepreneurial projects have included founding his own beer company, Brothers Brewing, said he feels he has the full support of the city.

"We're acting as partners," he said. "The only alternative is to let it rot."

Still, he hopes to address the concerns of residents, particularly neighbors of the restaurant.

"I'm not looking for people to allow us to be there, he said, " I want them to want us to be there."

LeBlanc grew up in New Orleans' Pontchartrain Park neighborhood in the late 1960s and said the value of group consensus building is ingrained in him, and he's willing to do "almost anything" to make a peace with the community.

One part of Mudd's that may be able to remain standing with improvements is the Fireside Room, which LeBlanc said still has potential as a wedding and event space. He said he'd like to offer an alternative to typical catering there.

"It will be a mix of European, African, and Caribbean, not just in the food, but also in the music, the décor, everything," he said. "This place is going to be about laissez les bons temps rouler."