Great food, smooth jazz served at KBLX Live Brunch

By Greg Zeman
The Guardsman

Radio DJ Nikki Thomas keeps the Bay Area safe and warm on “The Quiet Storm” every day, spinning smooth R&B classics on 102.9 KBLX. And if you’ve got half a hundred to spare on a Sunday, you can watch her do her thing live and enjoy some excellent cuisine at the Anzu restaurant inside the Hotel Nikko.

Live radio?
I hope nobody in the broadcast department gets mad at me for revealing industry secrets, but what a radio DJ does on the air is generally not that exciting to watch in person. Basically, they push a few buttons and talk. I have to give the energetic Thomas credit for mixing things up and dancing behind the mike at 10 a.m.

Nom nom nom
The food was pretty exceptional. The fish was delicious and the grits were remarkably creamy. The colorful array of desserts, ranging in size form tiny, one-bite tarts to elaborate, multi-layered cakes of all shapes and flavors was as tantalizing to look at as it was to sample. They also had sushi available and the coffee did not suck at all, which is so rarely the case at a brunch.

Did I mention that there is free-flowing champagne and mimosas?

It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere…
The warm glow of social acceptance that accompanies the consumption of breakfast-approved booze is already a thing of beauty and wonder, and when you add unlimited, free refills to that equation, you’ve got one happy columnist.

So as a reader, you’re probably wondering, if these people fed Zeman drinks the whole time he was there, where did the other microphone go?

Where indeed?
Maybe it’s because I paid $50 to listen to a free radio station “live,” or maybe it’s because they pack their guests like sardines into the back of a mostly empty restaurant causing everyone’s conversations to run together into a disorienting blur of noise.

Most likely the fifth microphone is missing because the ladies at the table next to mine got three mimosas into their breakfast and started loudly discussing their time in a Santa Rita jail. No detail was spared, including how dry the soap made their skin, whom they fought and ate with and a few other things that were not at all table-friendly.

Verdict: 4/5
Apart from being within earshot of a dramatic recounting of bloody shankings, the whole thing was pretty excellent. Smooth music with no commercials, good food and free bubbly — it sure beats sitting in church.