Mercury News staff writer Greg Lepesh fires things up in the kitchen of Adobe Systems gourmet cafe.
Sunlight fills the dining room from overhead skylights and curved glass exterior walls.
Just outside is a blooming, manicured garden, while beyond is a riverside park, filled with billowing flags and winter-Wyeth trees. The room tile, marble, terrazzo, glass is airport-like and noisy, lacking cozy nooks. At the moment he is hovering, trolling for reactions to the day s special. He has 16 hours invested in a single dish, having begun marinating the meat the day before. It is osso bucco, made with lamb, not the usual veal.