.Best Lobster with a View: Al Zampa Memorial Bridge awaits

Forget San Francisco views. Where other than the Dead Fish can you gaze at the first major suspension bridge built in the United States since 1973 while wearing a bib? Sure, you could bring your own bib and camp out in front of the C&H sugar refinery, but eventually the Crockett cops are going to come by and start asking questions. Better to take yourself and a friend to this crab and prime rib joint perched on a cliff above the Carquinez Strait — but call ahead for a reservation and request a window table (the restaurant doesn’t guarantee it, but you can ask). The food is pricey, the service and clientele folksy, but the view of the engineering marvel is spectacular. Quite possibly the only bridge named for a blue-collar ironworker, the 3,465-foot Zampa, opened last year, is the longest suspension bridge built domestically since New York’s Verrazano Narrows back in 1964. Crockett native Al Zampa worked on almost every major Bay Area bridge and survived a fall from the Golden Gate during construction in 1936. If a Dead Fish meal isn’t in your budget, or you’d rather experience the bridge up close, then head to Crockett on May 16 for the official opening of the bridge’s pedestrian and bike path, which links to the regional Bay Trail.