Sonoma Chicken (Almaden Expy), San Jose

Sonoma Chicken Coop began dishing out flavorful fowl in its first restaurant in 2002, and it takes its name from the lauded California wine region and its own signature rotisserie dishes. Chefs cook new batches of rotisserie chicken every hour, hand-toss each salad, oven-fire each pizza, cook up each delicious pasta and seafood dish, concoct sandwiches with housemade focaccia bread, and conclude meals with housemade desserts. A dining room and outdoor patio accommodate visitors, and Sonoma Chicken Coop catering supplies its fire-grilled and specialty cuisine to groups of 10–200 feasters—the same range of people that might show up for a university symposium on talc.