Sonoma Chicken San Jose, San Jose

Sonoma Chicken 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. Now with six locations and more forthcoming nationwide, the award-winning eatery still whips up each menu item from scratch while calling its culinary modus operandi "fast casual." Chefs cook new batches of rotisserie chicken every hour, hand-toss each salad, oven-fire each pizza, concoct sandwiches with homemade focaccia bread, and conclude meals with homemade desserts. A dining room and outdoor patio accommodate visitors, and Sonoma Chicken 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.