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Michael Bauer finally got by RN74 for his much-anticipated review, and gave Michael Mina's latest project a solid three stars all the way around. The cassoulet stood out as a highlight of the wine-friendly menu, as did pate de campagne. Of course, the wine list was a star and the specials list on the train board "adds an exciting element to the room." The design-heavy space and casual-but-skilled waiters support Bauer's assertion that the place is "a great wine-centric restaurant that gives the wine bar concept a white-tablecloth turn." [SF Chronicle]

Photo via SanFranAnnie/flickr

Another day, another national best-of list. This time it's the American Automobile Association with it's roundup of the United States' "top historic hotels." San Francisco made the list with the Sir Francis Drake, home of the Starlight Room. The "grand dame" with the "colorful past" and an indoor golf course walks the line between the seedy Burlington, a former brothel in Port Costa, and the staid Mark Hopkins Intercontinental on Nob Hill, both of which would have made our list. [Via AAA Travel Views]

Photo via Frank Tobia/flickr

In honor of Pride yesterday, Bay Area Bites has a great general shout-out to the gay and lesbian chefs, restaurateurs and other food personalities that help make our city such a culinary Mecca. In particular, we thought the mention of 2223 was illuminating to the feeling of empowerment and belonging such a community can foster: "I still remember walking into 2223 Market one night near the end of June last year, and feeling like everyone there was gay. Gay couples, gay friends, gay parents--it was just like being in the straight world, except this time it was all ours." [Bay Area Bites]

For those of you who missed it, Serious Eats yesterday ran a lengthy treatise on one of our region's under-celebrated foods, the Dutch Crunch roll. This peculiar little foodstuff is taken so much for granted that we didn't even realize how local it was until Carey Jones reminded us it's practically unavailable outside the Bay Area. Did you ever wonder how they get the crunchy top on there? "The bread is coated with a wash of rice flour, butter, sugar, and yeast. In the oven, the top crust splits and browns, giving us that distinctive streaked or spotted crust." There you go. As for the name, it seems the bread bears some resemblance to a similar Dutch product called Tijgerbrood (Tiger Bread), but that still doesn't explain why it's such a localized thing. That lingering question aside, we're suddenly very hungry. [Via Serious Eats]

Photo via star5112/flickr

Next month's issue of Men's Health includes some tips on what to eat (aside from generic Viagra you ordered on the internet) to improve your sexual performance, including popcorn and tomato soup. According to the UK Guardian, "it's all to do with a nutrient called Arginine," which improves blood flow and increases sperm count. If you're looking for a little boost on the way home, stop by the Clock Bar for some high end popcorn with truffle oil, or grab a bag from the Bazaar Cafe to eat at your desk. If those aren't on your way we've got 34 other restaurants that have it. As for tomato soup, MarketBar's version with roasted pepper is pretty great, but here again we have 40 choices for you. New Yorker's Buffalo Wings is even open late. Just like the pharmacy.

Photo via sfllaw/flickr

San Francisco's offal-master and burgeoning Food Network star Chris Cosentino is going to grace the small screen tonight on a Barbecue edition of The Best Thing I Ever Ate (Food Network, 9:30 p.m.). He'll explore the world of grilled meats with with Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, and Ted Allen. It's a little strange to see two Bay Area chefs on the lineup but just one Bay Area restaurant (Yank Sing and its Baked BBQ Pork Buns). Still, these guys travel a lot so they'll surely make their case for the rest of the collection. This is the first in a string of summer television spots for Cosentino. As he reminds us on his blog, the Incanto chef has a series in Chefs Vs. City (premiering in early August), and also shows up on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations later in the summer. He's back from all that shooting, according to his twitter stream, hitting up Humphry Slocombe like he lived here.

Photo courtesy the Food Network

Mark your calendars, aspiring celebrity chefs: Season six of The Next Food Network Star is coming, and they're going to be casting here next month. On July 26, head to the W Hotel between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to try your hand at getting on the show. We realize that's a little far off, but we figured you'd want time to prepare. If you look at past seasons' results you'll see the Bay Area hasn't represented very well on this show at all. Except that time Guy Fieri won in season two. If you think you deserve a Food Network show more than Guy Fieri, we'd like you to enter. If you can't make it down there, but have video recording equipment, you can enter via the web or mail here.

Serious Eats came across this comic on Buttersafe and, it's hilarious. Click through to check out the burrito at the end and then tell us whether you think it's from Northern or Southern California.

[Buttersafe via Serious Eats]

Eat Me Daily today ripped into local blogger Kate Hopkins' new book, 99 Drams of Whiskey, bucking the opinions of Publisher's Weekly and Playboy (at least as reported in Accidental Hedonist). Reviewer Paula Forbes doesn't spit vitriol or write Hopkins off entirely (to the contrary, she even plugs the blog), but she does not pull punches in driving home the point that the book, which follows Hopkins and her friend Krysta on a tour through the whiskey-producing regions of the world with little historical lessons interspersed, lacks a defined arc.

The two women are trying to understand why a man they dub "Mr. Disposable Income" would spend £32,000 on a bottle of whiskey and then drink it all in one night. In the end, they come to an anticlimactic conclusion: it's because whiskey is awesome!

Reporter John Berman, Chipotle CEO Steve Ells, and rancher Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms

ABC News took a visit to one of the farms from which Chipotle sources its meat. Fat, happy pigs get to "express their pigness" at Joel Salatin's picturesque Polyface Farms in Virginia, which looks out of place in a fast food production line. We've got to hand it to Chipotle founder Steve Ells for doing the right thing by his meat products, but that lack of tomato paste in the rice still throws us for a loop. Whose call was that? [ABC]

[Image: Via ABC]

Rachel Maddow took a break from talking news on MSNBC to be the guest bartender on the newest episode of Digg Nation, due to air today. The commentator has gained quite a reputation as a cocktail expert, starting with a video that ran on our parent site last year. While you wait to see her new tricks, here's a refresher:

The menu at Chicago's Moto is also a dish

We've seen a couple of unique pricing gimmicks in the last few weeks with Fish & Farm's single-price menu and Urban Tavern's pay-what-you-feel experiment, but almost all restaurants use more subtle strategies on their menus to try to separate you from as much money as possible. The Baltimore Sun's Consuming Interest blog lays out a few of those tricks in a post today.

Continue reading "Menu Design is All About Psychology" »

Even though it may cost someone a million bucks, a San Francisco writer broke — and MenuPages Chicago confirmed — the overall winner of Bravo's Top Chef Masters (Do Not click the links if you don't want to know). GraceAnn Walden, who writes the Yummy Letter's Scoop column, dropped the bomb last week, and this week has a follow-up including her conversation with a few extremely pissed-off PR people. Apparently the chefs signed a contract agreeing to pay $1 million if they leaked the winner. Walden isn't giving up her source, but we'll give up her scoop. Click through the jump to find out who won Top Chef: Masters.

Continue reading "'Top Chef Masters' Spoiler: SF Writer Announces Winner" »

We have to give Roadfood author Michael Stern credit for not being too obvious with his Bay Area pick in the list top 15 list from he and Jane Stern's new guide, 500 Things to Eat Before it's Too Late. In a Wall Street Journal article today Stern pointed to the Morning Bun, from Berkeley's Bread Garden, as the only Bay Area entrant in his short list. So kudos indeed, but we also wonder if he's missing something by not including — Mission burritos or sourdough bread? Of course, if he had chosen those things we'd be abusing him for being too obvious. We obviously want to have our morning bun and eat it too (sorry).

But we'd like to hear from you. What's your favorite road food in the area? Please have at it in the comments.

[Via Wall Street Journal]

[Photo: Via Berkeley Bread Garden/Yelp

Psycho Donuts' Massive Head Trauma

After thumbing his nose at his detractors for not wanting to debate him in public, Psycho Donuts owner Kip Berdansky will get his chance to bicker engage with one of the many mental health advocates who find his store offensive. Oscar Wright, CEO of United Advocates for Children and Families, will debate Berdiansky on KTVU, which will air the conversation at 6:30 a.m. July 11 (a Saturday) on the show Bay Area People. Get ready for the doughnut-based throw-down of the decade, folks.

[Photo: Via Psycho Donuts]

The Ad Hoc at Home: Family-Style Recipes blad just landed in the offices of our parent publication, and Grub Street has a post with the the touching back-story to Keller's simpler approach: The chef's father died during the early stages of the book's creation, and Keller cooked his last meal — a simple affair of barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, and collard greens. The recipes in the book follow along those lines. On a related note, Michael Bauer has a blog post today about testing the new Ad Hoc fried chicken kit from Williams Sonoma. While the bottled coleslaw dressing proved to be a big hit, the chicken seems to have been a bit too much of a project for the payoff. [Via Grub Street]

[Photo: Courtesy of Artisan]

Every year, Zagat's informal army of citizen reviewers reports to headquarters on their dining and drinking experiences, and the job falls to San Francisco editor Sharron Wood to compile those experiences, along with her own findings into a neat little black book. The 2009 edition of the Zagat Survey's Guide to San Francisco Nightlife came out Wednesday, bringing with it some bleak tidings on the state of the local bar industry. According to the survey, 48 percent of respondents say that they are going out less often, 34 percent say they are more price sensitive, 30 percent are going to less expensive places and 27 percent are ordering fewer drinks. With those sobering numbers in mind, we got on the phone with Wood to ask about her predilections and predictions. Among the casualties of this economy: The piano player at the Four Seasons. Is this really a world we want to live in? Find out after the jump.

Continue reading "Zagat Editor Discusses Grim Nightlife News" »

Food, Inc. opens today, and while the documentary on our nation's food industry may be the summer's most virtuous blockbuster, the New York Times also called it the "scariest," and Hearst reviewer Amy Biancolli wrote, "I might never want to ingest anything ever again." Okay, so it's one to see after lunch. This is the first feature-length documentary from director Robert Kenner, who won an Emmy for the PBS show Two Days in October. MenuPages writer Alexis Wright chatted with Kenner this week to find out a little more about the man who hopes to rattle cages — rather, grocery carts — on a level with Upton Sinclair.

Continue reading "Interview: 'Food, Inc.' Director Targets Moms" »

• Meredith Brody visited RN74 to find uneven service and food. When it hits, apparently, it hits, but it seems to miss just as often. [SF Weekly]

• Michael Bauer revisited Walnut Creek stalward Prima, to find it as good as ever, but with slightly inattentive service. Overall he gave it two and a half stars, but the service only got one and a half.

• Paul Reidinger took a stab at the new Fly Bar And Restaurant and found it consistent and good, with quality pizzettas, but he really seems to miss Brick, whose place Fly took in April. Fortunately, they kept the Brick burger. [SFBG]

• L.E. Leone played three soccer games without eating anything, and when the big moment came for her to get a burger at Marin Brewing Company, it was overcooked and dead. Can you just imagine the consternation? [SFBG]

[Photo: Via SanFranAnnie/flickr]

Of all the thousands of restaurants in New York, Brooklyn-based singer Santigold told Blackbook today that her favorite place is Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco. "They should bring it to New York!" she says. We disagree. She should visit more often. Wouldn't you love to hear her sing "I left my heart?" Yes, you would. [Via Blackbook]

[Photo: Via Myspace/Santigold]

The biggest star of last night's Top Chef Masters was Gladware, for sure. Little opaque boxes with blue tops made cameos in just about every kitchen shot on the show, including taking up whole bookshelves in the tiny Pomona College dorm rooms that were the scene for the main challenge. The four chefs got their share of screen-time, though, and when Hubert Keller (Fleur De Lys) cruised to an easy victory, we can't say we didn't grin (and possibly make smug comments to a Bostonian friend). Other highlights included Kelly Choi's frighteningly stern attitude, Gael Greene's trademark hat, and the quiet realization that Jay Rayner looks a little like a British Howard Stern. The quickfire challenge involved cooking dessert for Girl Scouts, which Keller won by making chocolate mousse swans, and the second put the chefs in those dorm rooms with just a hot plate, toaster oven, and microwave to make three courses.

Continue reading "Top Chef Masters: Hubert Keller Dominates Dinner Tables, Turntables" »

Tonight's Top Chef Masters premiere (Bravo, 10 p.m.) gets our locals on screen right off the bat with Hubert Keller, of Fleur De Lys, going up against Boston's Michael Schlow (Radius, 606 Congress, Via Matta), New York's Christopher Lee (Aureole), and Tim Love of The Lonesome Dove in Dallas. The show involves Girl Scouts, a classically hatted Gael Greene, and some very non-subtle product placement (we're looking at you, Glad. We can't stop looking at you). While we can't tell you who wins, we will spoil you this: Try to imagine Hubert Keller working the decks at a rave. Whatever your wacky mental picture is, you'll have the chance to fact-check it in just a few hours.

[Photo: via Top Chef Masters]

For a little food porn rendering of one of our hot new mobile eateries, check out Chrysanthemum's post from yesterday. Cocochanelella took the camera down to the truck after her night at 1015 Folsom (note: the truck is down the street from 1015, across from Terroir, as a reader points out. Sorry for any confusion). In search of bacon-wrapped hot dogs, she made do with lobster and garlic aioli soup, escargot puffs, foie gras torchon, and braised sweetbread with sherry. Unfortunately, all this wasn't quite filling enough, as, "I could have eaten doubles of everything and still eat a bacon hot dog." Wow. Still, the pictures are a good vicarious trip through Chez Spencer's mobile menu. [Via Chrysanthemum]

Season Four Top Chef champ Stephanie Izard took a day in San Francisco and ate about 40 pounds of food, which she also blogged about. She made a lot of the standard foodie stops, including the Ferry Building market, Slanted Door, La Taqueria, Humphry Slocombe, Delfina (and the Pizzeria), and NoPa. Our favorite line was "Delfina was up first for dinner," because dinner really should involve something like four restaurants. Too bad they didn't hit up House of Prime Rib, though. That would break some kind of record. [Via Stephanie Izard]

[Photo: Via Stephanie Izard]

• Hopping across the bay not to Oakland but to Hayward, Carol Ness finds Bijou to be sleek and sophisticated, though lacking a bit of focus when it comes to the food. She gives a solid two stars overall. [SF Chronicle]

• Paul Reidinger takes a turn through Luques and Stable Cafe, and finds smartly appointed restaurants doing lunch with a bit of finesse. [SFBG]

• L.E. Leone gets a little surreal at the doctor's office, but finishes it all off with a garlicky, if a little salty, meal at Ton Yong Thai Cafe after having dinner with her out-of-town cousin in North Beach. [SFBG]

• Matthew Stafford heads to the Excelsior to give the Broken Record its long-overdue review. His conclusion: It's a good whiskey bar with a surprisingly sophisticated menu of sausages and smoked meats. We all kind of knew that, but it's good to see it acknowledged formally. [SF Weekly]

[Photo: Via pudgeefeet/flickr]

Constantly on the lookout for the "next big thing," food writer types sometimes seem to cast about a little bit to spot a trend. Twitter has made this easier. In what might be looked at as an example of crowd-sourcing a scoop, Food & Wine editor in chief Diana Cowin sent out this tweet this morning: "Could this be the yr of the snail? Had it in unexpected dishes: pasta at the Modern + asparagus at Ssam Bar. Need 1 more example for a trend." Some four hours later, Chris Cosentino picked up the thread: "@fwscout braised snails with trotters at incanto." And suddenly, snails are a thing. Call it what you will, but that's some pretty efficient trendspotting. Whether the 48 restaurants on our site whose menus list escargot will be impressed is another matter entirely.

[Photo: Via psd/flickr]

Yesterday we were amazed that in 18 hours at the 24th and Mission McDonald's, Mission Loc@l reporter Armand Emamdjomeh only managed to drop 10 tweets. We surmised he must be working on an actual piece of reporting, which he was, and which came out today. It's pretty good, in fact. Turns out the 24th Street McDonald's acts as a bit of a community center, with senior coffee klatches, groups of students after school, and studying college students, as well as a healthy dose of Mission whack-jobs. We're especially impressed with Emamdjomeh's fortitude on this whole thing, because after just a little more than an hour's sleep, we would not have been able to cope with 18 hours of McDonald's food and KOIT. [Via Mission Loc@l]

Today in questionable uses of technology: Mission Loc@l reporter Armand Emamdjomeh spent all of Saturday in the McDonald's on 24th and Mission streets and live-tweeted his experience. His first tweet went up as the place opened at 5:54 a.m: "Sitting down to breakfast and starting day at 24th and mission mc d's. It's gonna be a long day.#mlnow." The final tweet of the day went up at closing time, 11 p.m. We were a little surprised at the dearth of tweets in between. If we were trapped at a McDonald's for 18 hours and the only thing we had to do was type our thoughts to an audience, you'd better believe we'd be deliriously tapping out knock knock jokes and surreal trains of thought by 9 a.m. We are going to give Mr. Emamdjomeh the benefit of the doubt, though, and suppose he's working on a piece for Mission Local, and was busy taking notes and talking to people. He does weigh in with a number of fun tweets throughout the day. Our favorite: "Two boys just got up the nerve to go sit down w two girls across the restaurant. Godspeed!" [Twitter Via Mission Mission]

[Photo: Via San Diego Shooter/flickr]

• Dining at Gary Danko can make one feel a little awkward, especially in these lean times, but Meredith Brody quickly got over it on her maiden visit and decided that pretty much everything there is the best ever, and therefore worth it. [SF Weekly]

• Farina is going strong two years into its life, and while Michael Bauer liked the menu and service enough to give an overall two-star rating, he mentioned that handkerchief pasta with pesto and focaccia di recco rule the day, overshadowing other menu items. But he didn't say it was a bad thing. [SF Chronicle]

• L.E. Leone finally works a full week, and therefore has reaffirmed her love of hammocks, but hers broke, then she went to the beach. The last two words of the review were the name of the restaurant: King Sing. [SFBG]

• Paul Reidinger finds much about Contigo a bit over-complex, but still manages to have had a good time with the tapas and entrees. Irritants, such as the over-use of the color green, were small compared to the enjoyable food. [SFBG]

[Photo: Via jaycross/flickr]

It's a good day for virtuous food media. While the New York Times informs us that Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma is back on the required reading list at Washington State University after being pulled for lack of funds, our sibling site in New York has news that Pollan will join Alice Waters and, get this, Anthony Bourdain (along with Ted Allen, Tom Colicchio, Scott Conant, Wylie Dufresne, Bobby Flay, Danny Meyer, Jacques Pepin, Ruth Reichl, Eric Ripert, and Martha Stewart) in hosting the premiere of Food, Inc. We're guessing the hot dog discussions will be limited, but here's hoping Bourdain can find some other way to get under Waters' skin. We have faith. [Via Grub Street]

Today's "Scoop" column contains three strikingly different tales of how employees and owners are dealing with shuttered restaurants. As the bad economy and just plain bad luck claim one victim after another, we're beginning to see a variety of options for the suddenly adrift staffs.

One of the best things about the recently shuttered Jeanty At Jack's was the place's dedication to serving fresh, local oysters and accompanying wines. The Chronicle reported today that we may not lose that aspect after all, as former Jeanty general manager Luc Chamberland says he's looking to partner with other Jeanty vets to open Jack's Oyster Bar in the same space.

Unfortunately, another shuttered restaurant isn't having an easy time reopening. Limon is apparently having trouble getting insurance payments after a fire last year forced them to close. Still, owner Martin Castillo told the Chron he plans to open in the next couple of months.

For one chef who abruptly lost his job when his restaurant went under, a new opportunity was worth a step down in position title. Cafe Majestic executive chef Louis Maldonado has gone to work as chef de cuisine under Mourad Lahlou at Aziza. Maldonado told the Chronicle he sees Lahlou as a role model and, "someone I can actually talk to." [Via SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Via Wikimedia]

Hubert Keller may stop serving foie gras at Fleur De Lys in advance of the upcoming California ban, he said today. While the state will start enforcing the ban on the goose liver pate in 2012, Keller said in an interview that he would stop selling the stuff, which currently figures heavily on his menu, "probably within two years or maybe even before then." He compared the upcoming ban to the smoking ban of the last decade. "At Fleur De Lys, we [were] one of the first restaurants in San Francisco [to become] non-smoking, even though the law hadn't been passed then," he said. But while he intends to be ahead of the curve, Keller said he will miss the pate, a tradition in the Alsace region of France, where he is from.

Keller was talking in a telephone press conference to promote the upcoming Top Chef Masters (premiering June 10 on Bravo), for which he said he drew more on his Fleur De Lys menu more than Burger Bar. Though Keller wouldn't disclose how far into the competition he got, he seems to have made a hit in at least one portion of the pilot: A panel of Girl Scouts judged the dessert portion, for which Keller made animal shaped pastries. "It's a little swan, and that would be more Fleur De Lys in a sense,” he said. “The simple thing like macaroni and cheese, that could be something like from Burger Bar, very simple.” But, he said, "all the things were more Fleur De Lys, definitely."

[Photo: Via Fleur De Lys]

The new Pixar movie, Up, includes a couple edible East Bay cameos, including Oakland ice cream parlor Fenton's, and the Merritt Bakery. The producer and director both live in Oakland and take their kids to the Piedmont Avenue ice creamery, and the Pixar staff often go there for celebrations, Producer Jonas Rivera told the Chron. He said he got a free sundae during the negotiations with Fenton's to use their likeness (the ice cream parlor was happy to oblige). In a smaller-scale nod to the Mellow City, the Merritt Bakery's famous hamburger cake shows up as a merit badge on the young protagonist's "Wilderness Scout" uniform. Those animators sure have a sweet tooth. [Via SF Chronicle, SF Gate/The Poop]

You will not see the Slap Chop on Kitchen Gadget Girl, nor in most actual kitchens. But somebody's buying it. Thank goodness Slate gave us the inside scoop on the Slap Chop and its rival, the Vidalia Chop Wizard, finding out which one works better — or at all. Watch the video to find out, then write to Le Sanctuaire and demand to know why they don't sell it.

The old Bar Crudo space, soon to be Swell.

With a host of new restaurants opening, and plenty established ones going through remodels — a hopeful sign for the dining economy — some projects have come up against delays. The Chronicle reported today that, due to lack of funds, former Coi sommelier Paul Einbund and his wife Vanessa won't be opening their wine-bar-cum-yarn-shop on schedule. Warmth, which Tablehopper profiled back in February, was supposed to open on April 1, but because of the sluggish economy it's been put on hold indefinitely.

Meanwhile, one of the recent batch of temporary closures has lasted a little longer than planned, as Bar Crudo waits to open in its new location on Divisadero Street. Due to open last week, the project got delayed with logistics and inspections, thankfully, not related to the poor economy. Look for a new French seafood joint called Swell in the old Bar Crudo space. [Via Scoop/SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Via craigemorsels/flickr]

Yes, it is embarrassing that SF Weekly readers voted Pasta Pomodoro — The IHOP of Italian food — the best restaurant in San Francisco. But we're going to give them more credit than the Weekly's editors in the best burrito category. Readers voted for Papalote, a strong choice backed up by some of the local experts. Meanwhile editors crowned Taqueria Cancun, which as most connoisseurs know, has gone downhill in recent years, with under-cooked rice and weak spicing, at least in our experience. Our go-to resource, Burritoeater, gives Papalote an overall mustache rating of 8.5, on average, and Can-Cun just 8.05 (an average of the three locations, but also the exact OMR of the Mission and 19th streets location). Does this get you off the hook for voting Pomodoro best restaurant, Weekly readers? No. You guys really need to work on that. [Via SF Weekly]

[Photo: Via Burritoeater]

We're always trying to insist to our New York and Chicago friends that San Francisco is a great pizza town, and thanks to GQ, we now have a little more ammunition in that area. Their list of the country's 25 best pizzerias includes three San Francisco establishments, a presence bested only by New York City, which has five. Chicago only has one pizzeria on the list, but it's at the top, so they still insist on bragging about it. Pizzeria Delfina took third place in the list for its Panna pizza, which includes tomato sauce, heavy cream, basil, and shaved parmigiano. Also in the mix: Gialina's wild nettle pie, at no. 14, and A16's Romana pie, at no. 17. We'd also like to point out that, since New York has a population of about 8.25 million, and San Francisco about 765,000, we actually have more pizzerias on the list per capita. Check out the whole list, after the jump. [Via GQ]

Continue reading "SF Represents on GQ Best Pizza List" »

According to Bon Appetite, Bi-Rite Creamery is one of the 10 best ice cream parlors in the country. We'll accept that. It may be considered obvious in some circles, but really, how often do magazines rate ice cream parlors? Not. Often. Enough. [Via Bon Appetite]

[Photo: Via ianloic/flickr]

Restaurants are trying all sorts of special offers and menu changes to get folks through the door these days, but it seems one of the most effective things at bringing in customers is getting a visit from Rachael Ray. SFoodie yesterday got in touch with some of Ray Ray's destinations from her recent Rachael's Vacation in San Francisco and found that, post-visit, many restaurants experienced a spike in customers. Mama's said, "We definitely have a lot of new customers who mention the show. We didn't even know it was on! And, yes, we're selling a lot of the apple pain dore and crab benedict." And while Spruce and Spruce said they hadn't noticed much of an effect, Cha Cha Cha and Shanghai 1930 said they'd experienced bumps in reservations, and had customers ordering a la Ray. Whatever you think of Rachael Ray as a personality, we do like hearing that restaurants are getting business. We'd like to see her put that power to good use, possibly by offering a template blog entry that restaurateurs could fill out and post on her site: "We stopped by _______ for some of the city's best ______. Yum-o!" And watch them come running. Mad Libs, anyone? [Via SFoodie]

Alice Waters ate caramel corn out of the garbage. Anthony Bourdain lies to his children about Ronald McDonald. Duff Goldman is hotter than Leonardo DiCaprio. These were some of the revelations shared on stage at the Food for Thought forum in Hartfod, Conn., which Eat Me Daily attended last night. Back in January, a few days after Anthony Bourdain compared Alice Waters to the Khmer Rouge, it came out that the two would share a stage in May. At the time, we wondered if sparks would fly or if they'd kiss and make up. It seems neither really happened. Bourdain still says he doesn't give a hoot whether his food is organic, as long as it tastes good, and Waters is still going on about serving organic apples on airplanes. While the two haven't come to any big joint realizations, they weren't at each others' throats, either. According to EMD, when Alice Waters proclaimed her last meal would be shark's fin soup from Cecilia Chang, "Bourdain responded, 'I don't think shark fins are local' — and everyone laughed… at her." [Via EMD]

• Michael Bauer likes E & O Trading Co a lot more now that chef Arnold Eric Wong runs the place. He gives it two and a half stars all the way around. [SF Chronicle]

• Paul Reidinger likes Nopalito. Not as much as Michael Bauer, whose language posted on the website Reidinger calls, "a hyperbolic toot," but it's good, sure. [SFBG]

• L.E. Leone was not impressed with Mission Pie, for its portion sizes or quality. But she had a lot of fun at strikingly different parties over the weekend, so it's cool. [SFBG]

• Whoa, do you suppose Meredith Brody and Paul Reidinger ran into each other at Nopalito? Maybe they went together. They both have reviews today, and both are, essentially, "pretty good." [SF Weekly]

The New York Times needs your help, San Francisco, and they need it bad. In a Diner's Journal post about Sriracha hot sauce, Nick Fox calls on readers to share restaurant dishes made with the stuff. He also published a starter list of such dishes by state. California's only shout-out: Guy Fieri's Tex Wasabi's up in Santa Rosa. Now, there's got to be thousands of restaurants in the Bay Area that have Sriracha on the tables. At least some of them must use it in their cooking. If you know of one, won't you please share? Let's not be solely represented by this guy. [NYT Via MenuPages Chicago]

[Photo: Via Huy Fong Foods]

Manhattan may have some of the world's most expensive real estate, but restaurateurs there get off easy when it comes to labor costs. Hiring a server in San Francisco costs more than double what it does in New York, and more than four times what it does in Boston, according to Palio d'Asti owner (and Golden Gate Restaurant Association president) Dan Scherotter. Scherotter — whose organization has sued the city to halt its mandatory health care law — broke it down for Michael Bauer: A staff of 12 servers in San Francisco will run an employer $296,076. New York's total for the same sized staff: $128,064. Boston's? Just $73,219. The difference mostly has to do with California's lack of tip credit, which allows employers in other states to deduct tips from their employees' pay as long as the total reaches minimum wage. [Via SF Gate]

[Photo: Via independentman/flickr]

California burritos are big in San Diego. They have French Fries in them, which is kind of awesome.

Yesterday's dust-up between Los Angeles and San Francisco burrito fans raised plenty of hackles, but a voice was missing from the debate. As long as we're comparing burritos, we wanted to hear from a San Diego slab expert. We called up Dr. Burrito, Crawford Coats, to get his perspective on the whole thing. Not surprisingly, he prefers the burritos in the 619.

"If there’s a prototypical LA burrito, I wouldn’t know it. I’ve had good Mexican food in LA and I’ve had really bad Mexican food in LA as well," Coates said. "The thing about San Francisco is that they usually put beans, rice, salsa fresca, and maybe something else, on everything, so it all tastes the same." We've heard Coats' perspective on San Francisco burritos before, when his mention of them as "good only if you're drunk" caused a flare-up on SFist in 2007. He's a proponent of the San Diego burrito, but what makes that particular slab so great? The answer is simplicity, he said. Letting individual ingredients stride out.

"Usually, for carne asada, you have meat, a little salsa fresca, maybe some guacamole, and that’s it. Chile verde is chile verde, beans, and that’s it. Also, the tortilla really needs to be toasted on the griddle. It needs to be kind of crunchy. Then ample good salsa on the side. That’s key. Little cups of it," Coates said. "I had a friend who went to Latvia, and he said the burritos there were just like the burritos in San Francisco. And everybody loved them."

[Photo: Via permanently scatterbrained/flickr]

BusinessWeek yesterday ran a feature naming some of the United States' oldest restaurants, and San Francisco has two on the list. The Tadich Grill opened in 1849, and Swan Oyster Depot in 1912. The Tadich is one of the few places left where you can get a Hangtown Fry, which includes bacon, oysters, and eggs — the most expensive ingredients available in the 1850s. [Via BusinessWeek]

Somebody is trying to get the burrito battles started again. LA Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold has a blog post today just ripping into Northern California burritos. And San Franciscans are taking the bait. He calls our burritos, "monstrous things wrapped in tinfoil, and filled with what would seem to be the contents of an entire margarita-mill dinner." He then goes on to call us out for, in addition to the common Southern Californian rice complaint, "yellow cheese." Now, we're not sure which Mission burrito has yellow cheese, but we've never seen it.

Anyway, this battle flares up from time to time, and while it may (or may not) be a worthwhile debate, it's also a fair barometer of which end of the state cares more about its online rep. Predictably, SFist's post on the topic has 51 comments as of this writing, while LAist's has seven, including one by SFist editor Brock Keeling: "pst, your burritos are secretly much, much better." Traitor. [Via LA Weekly]

[Photo: Via biskuit/flickr]

The Massive Head Trauma, from Psycho Donuts

People sure are worked up over Campbell's Psycho Donuts. First came the San Jose Mercury News op-ed condemning the place for being insensitive to the mentally ill. Then there was Plebiscite's hilarious take-down of both Fisher and the doughnut shop. Now, mental health advocates are picketing the place, and using pretty heavy-handed comparisons to slam it in the press. "Imagine a shop that made fun of cancer; it wouldn't be funny," Brian Miller, director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told the San Jose Mercury News. Back in April, alliance member John Mitchem said the same thing, but with HIV instead of cancer. These guys really go for the gusto, don't they? Meanwhile, Psycho Donuts owner Jordan Zweigoron doesn't seem to mind the protests, as the customers keep coming. Nor do we imagine he hates all this free publicity. [San Jose Mercury News via The Scavenger]

Check out some more photos of the offending doughnuts after the jump.

Continue reading "Protestors Get Serious in Condemning Psycho Donuts" »

After last week's fleeting rumor that the Tonga Room would close imminently, Curbed SF asked, why don't we make it a landmark already? The short answer is, because nobody's really tried. Planner Tim Fry said today that no proposals have been submitted — either by citizens or government agencies — to start the process of declaring the place a landmark. Meanwhile, the place went down to five days a week about a month ago, closing on Mondays and Tuesdays. A hotel employee told us today that change wouldn't be permanent, though. Thank god. Nothing chases away the Mondays like your own personal Scorpion Bowl. [Curbed SF]

Previously: MenuPages Tonga Room coverage

[Photo: Via eenwall/flickr]

A Chat with A16’s Nate Appleman [Slashfood]
Earlier: Meet the Bay Area Beard Nominees: Nate Appleman
[Photo: Via Helen Rosner]

Word came down from Yountville today that Thomas Keller's ad hoc — French Laundry's casual cousin — will start serving breakfast. The restaurant currently offers a three-course brunch (because even when he's down-home, Keller is tasting menu kind of guy). This new offer is a one-shot deal, though, with diners taking their choice of waffles, oatmeal, corned beef hash, or a fancy bacon/eggs plate. At $24, it's probably the cheapest way to get your hands on Keller's cuisine. [Via Eater]

[Photo: Via inuyaki.com/flickr]

It turns out Bay Area chefs --from Martin Yan to Guy Fieri -- are something of a staple on the small screen, something we need reminding of in this world of Bastianiches and Batalis. This upcoming season is no exception, with three locals filming new shows. Elizabeth Falkner heads for Top Chef Masters, Chris Cosentino will battle foodies in Chefs vs. City, and Mourad Lahlou will host his own series on Moroccan cuisine. Turns out its not just our houses and car-chases that are telegenic after all. [SF Chronicle]

Food & Wine's newly published Cocktails '09 includes their list of the nation's top 100 cocktail bars, and the Bay Area naturally makes a good showing. With 13 entries (including both Charles Phan restaurants), we show just behind New York. Here's where F&W recommends you go: Absinthe, The Alembic, Beretta, Bix, Bourbon & Branch, Cantina, Clock Bar, Elixir, Forbidden Island, Heaven's Dog, Nopa, Range, and The Slanted Door. We're just happy they didn't include the Zeitgeist, for once. Elsewhere in the Food & Wine world, travel editor Jen Murphy posted a blog entry today about another staffer's visit to the City by the Bay. It's pretty by-the-book, including stops at F&W-approved places like The Alembic and A16 (Chef Nate Appleman won their Best New Chef award this year). [Via Food & Wine]

Michael Mina's new project RN74 opened about 10 days ago and is attracting the attention of bloggers throughout the city. We've compiled some of their initial reactions, but the early verdict is: Pretty good food in too-small portions for too much money, but paired with a stellar wine selection.

Continue reading "Early Report: RN74" »

This year's Beard Awards theme was women in food, and Thomas Keller had his list of favorite female chefs ready to name drop at the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2009 luncheon Monday at Del Posto. The bi-coastal Keller mentioned chefs both east and west, including Zuni Cafe's Judy Rodgers.

Rodgers, for her part, may have been too busy to take in the accolade. Zuni closed down for renovations from April 27 through May 4, but is back in action on schedule. [Via Grub Street]

[Photo: Via mrgarin/flickr]

A couple of gems from this week's Tablehopper: Hayes and Kebab's first spinoff, Marina and Kebab, has opened in the old Pita Pit space on Chestnut. Let's Be Frank also opened a store in the Marina. Rohan Lounge seems to have shuttered, and Zuni is back from behind its newspapered windows.

But the big news, to us, is that the folks behind Walzwerk are opening a new grocery/deli, Schmidt's Deli, in the Mission, which will sell German products, sandwiches, sausages, soups, coffee and, eventually, German beer and wine. [Via Tablehopper]

[Photo: Via mlinksva/flickr]

Tune In Tonight: Don't forget to check out our live-tweets from the scene at the 2009 James Beard Foundation's Chef & Restaurant Awards, starting tonight whenever we get there (about 2:30-3 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time).

The James Beard Foundation holds its A-list awards ceremony, the Chef and Restaurant Awards, tonight. The event commonly referred to as the "food Oscars" reasonably has a smaller, less-glitzy counterpart, now known as the "food Golden Globes," in the form of the James Beard Foundation Media Awards, the awards dinner for which happened last night.

Our counterpart in Chicago, Helen Rosner, was at the dinner, and brings disappointing tidings for both Bay Area readers and those in Chicago, with the news that neither region's publications brought home medals. The San Francisco Chronicle was up for two awards: Newspaper Food Section, and writer Jon Bonne for Wine and Spirit Writing. The Washington Post ended up taking home the Newspaper Food Section award, while the award for writing on spirits, wine or beer went to GQ's Alan Richman.

While the Chron didn't fare so well, the event still sounds like a good time, and you can read Helen's full account, plus get a list of all the winners, over at our Chicago site. [MenuPages Chicago]

It is, of course, way too early for a formal review of the week-old Pal's Takeaway, inside Tony's Market at 24th and Hampshire streets. But that hasn't stopped the internet from weighing in. Fortunately for pals David and Jeff, who run the little gourmet sandwich counter, pretty much everybody is in love with the joint.

It is possible that the only customers at this place are food bloggers. If so, Pal's must be cleaning up, because every single person in the world has written a blog entry about this place. SFoodie ran a feature on the place yesterday, complete with sandwich porn. Mission Mission also ran some shots of the lauded asparagus and egg sandwich. A girl's gotta eat did a big write up and took 1,000 photographs of the slow-roasted Becker Lane pork shoulder sandwich.

Chowhounds are barking about the place, of course, and that thread is the only place we've seen any negative comments so far. Absonot says the chicken bahn mi missed the mark with too few crunchy vegetables and jalepenos.

The pals strangely have garnered only one Yelp review so far, a four-star from somebody who said, "This is the sort of place I'm proud to get my lunch from."

So it seems, early on, that Pal's is a big hit. That's a good thing, because as we all know, it can be difficult to shake the burrito yoke of the 24th Street corridor. More power to you, Pal's!

[Photo: Via a girl's gotta eat]

Continuing with our series of conversations with Bay Area James Beard Award nominees, today we have Coi chef/owner Daniel Patterson on the line.

Up for a Best Chef: Pacific award, Patterson is one of this city's newer heavy-hitters. After opening just three years ago, Coi quickly gained a reputation as one of the best restaurants in town. One of only three restaurants in town to earn two Michelin stars (along with Aqua and Michael Mina), Coi holds four stars from the San Francisco Chronicle. We caught up with the soft-spoken Patterson to grill him about the awards ceremony, his competition, and his trip to New York.

Where are you most excited to eat when you are in New York?
You know, I really haven’t put the amount of thought into this as I probably should have, since I’ve just been so busy at the restaurant. But David from Manresa made a reservation at Corton, so I’m really excited to eat there [with him].
I’m going to go to Le Bernardin, it’s been about 10 years since I’ve been there so I’m looking forward to that.
And I’m going to try to get to Eleven Madison Park, at least for lunch, so I can try a few things.

Continue reading "Meet The Bay Area Beard Nominees: Daniel Patterson" »

If you read No Salad As A Meal, then you know Haas has been posting a round of "best-of" lists the last few days. Today's post is the last one: Best restaurant overall. Spoiler alert: It's the French Laundry.

But then you knew that, right? The region's only Michelin three-star restaurant generally cleans up in these kinds of lists, even when written by an in-the-know food blogger.

Some of Haas's other areas of comparison leave more room for debate: No overall winners in the design and small plates categories? The opinions to forgo winners come defended, but we still think one ought to be able to choose. That's what making these lists is all about, right?

Still, there's a lot of great content here, and a bookmark on the page would be a handy tool for any full-time foodie or part-time explorer. Meanwhile, here's a summary of the winners:

Best overall: French Laundry
Best Bay Area original design: No winner (First runner-up: Foreign Cinema)
Best Bay Area dessert: Town Hall's Butterscotch and chocolate pot the crème topped with butter crunch
Best Bay Area restaurant burger: Spruce
Best Bay Area pizzeria: Pizzeria Delfina
Best Bay Area small plates: No winner (First runner-up: Beretta)
Best Bay Area brunch: Ad Hoc
Best Bay Area casual dining: Bouchon
Best Bay Area elegant casual dining: Spruce
Best Bay Area fine dining: The French Laundry

[Via No Salad As A Meal]
[Photo: Via No Salad As A Meal]

Big news from one of the city's biggest restaurants: Seems the combination of a family tiff over ownership and a big tax bill has put Aqua in serious jeopardy.

According to the Chron's Inside Scoop, court papers indicate that the restaurant's cash reserves have been "wiped out" by a tax bill, and, "The absence of clear ownership, combined with the increased reluctance of banks to lend, has made it difficult for management to borrow money." Meanwhile, chef de cuisine Ron Boyd is leaving the place to go to work for Beautifull.

We really don't want to see Aqua crash and burn, so could the Condy family and their accountants and managers please get it together and boot the place back up? Thanks. [Via SF Gate]

Today in our ongoing James Beard Awards interview series, we caught up with a long-time Beard Awards veteran and judge, who is also a nominee. Nancy Oakes won the James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef in California in 2001, and her restaurant, Boulevard, has been nominated tons of times in various categories over the years.

This year, Boulevard is up for the Outstanding Restaurant award, a field that includes the East Coast Portland's Fore Street, Birmingham, Ala.'s Highlands Bar & Grill, and New York's Babbo and Jean Georges. Hear what Oakes has to say about the competition, the Beard Awards scene, and the Best Chef: Pacific category, after the jump.

Where are you most excited to eat when you are in New York?
I’m very interested in Corton, so we have reservations there.
One thing is that a lot of our obligations are later, and it’s always been possible to eat late in New York, but that’s changed. Not everybody’s staying open as late.

Continue reading "Meet The Bay Area Beard Nominees: Nancy Oakes" »

Everybody's talking about President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office, including Michael Pollan, who will be doing so on Michael Krasny's Forum on KQED at 10 a.m. today. That's in, like, 25 minutes. Streaming here, btw. If you miss it, you can hear the archived show on the KQED site tonight. [Bay Area Bites]

Our favorite thing in today's Tablehopper was not the news of the upcoming weekly Open Restaurant at Bruno's (though that is pretty cool), nor was it the scoop that Richard Corbo is leaving Ducca. Our favorite news was of the Tablehopper herself. San Francisco, meet your newest book author: Marcia Gagliardi.

After more than three years of pounding the pavement immediately surrounding this city's restaurants, bars, hot dog stands, and coffee joints for your immediate, internet gratification, Gagliardi is finally going to put all her knowledge on paper. Due out on Ten Speed Press in spring, 2010, the Tablehopper tome will be a "guidebook to dining and drinking in the City and outlying areas," in her words.

Little else is known about it, except for the fact that Ms. Gagliardi is going to be one busy (anti-)social butterfly the next few months. Congratulations, Marcia. We can't wait to read it!

[Photo: Via sarah xic/flickr]

As the James Beard Awards approach, we're chatting with a few of our local nominees this week to see how they're feeling about the competition, their chances, and their upcoming trips to New York.

The San Francisco Chronicle has been nominated for two awards: Best Food Section, and wine writer Jon Bonne, in particular, for Wine and Spirits Writing. Today we got on the phone with the Chronicle's food critic and section editor Michael Bauer to talk about both of those nominations.

Where are you most excited to eat when you are in New York?
I love going to Scarpetta. I love Corton. Probably those two. I always like going to Balthazar, because I love the feel of the place. I really like the enoteca at Del Posto. I think it’s one of the best values.

Continue reading "Meet The Bay Area Beard Nominees: Michael Bauer" »

Many of you probably attended the Meatpaper party at Camino last night, but in case you missed it, our friend Olivia has a couple of photos on flickr that can give you an idea of what a great time was had by all (except you).

The party was to celebrate the release of Issue 7, The Pig Issue, so of course it featured an array of pork dishes, including high-end corndogs, bacon marshmallows, and a whole pig's head.

Congratulations are in order for Meatpaper, which was nominated for two Utne Independent Press Awards, in the categories of General Excellence and Social/Cultural Coverage. Winners are going to be announced during the Magazine Publishers of America’s Independent Magazine Group conference in Boulder, Colo. May 17-18. Round of applause, please.

Here's a typical party table with a porcine centerpiece:

And here's the meat being worked on:

Update: Here's a shot of the whole pig before butchering, courtesy of Schlomo Rabinowitz:

Check out Olivia's photostream for a corndog closeup, and Schomo's Meatpaper set for a bunch more shots of the butchering demo.

[Via Meatpaper]

Alice Waters didn't make any friends during a visit to Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York, where she sent back part of her lunch, complained another dish was too salty, and finally offered an alternate recipe for a vegetable dish. This despite the staff's "subtle and tasteful fawning" over her. [Black Book via Grub Street]

Ask any dining partner we've had and they'll tell you we are like a toddler when trying to pick out a wine. This usually doesn't matter, since squealing, "I want a red one!" or "pink is for girls!" seems to get the point across well enough.

But sometimes you want subtlety, and one of those times would be when you're dealing with something as delicate as fresh oysters, as they do in the Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition. Yes, that's a thing. Aren't you glad that exists?

We're getting to the end of the traditional oyster season, but thanks to kumamotos, that doesn't really make much of a difference anymore. Those are exactly the oysters they used in the competition, for which Chronicle columnist Jon Bonné was a judge. Here's what he says about stuff:

Official results won't be out until next week, but I can share my top picks from the roster. They were, not surprisingly, names that I've had surface high on my list in past years. The 2007 Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc took my top spot. Next was the 2007 Elodian Sauvignon Blanc from Tom Eddy Wines (which I still could swear had some semillon in it, though not being able to smell the wines, is a half-baked guess on my part). The top five was rounded out by the 2008 Kunde Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc, and two Oregon wines, the 2008 Anne Amie Pinot Gris and the 2008 Sweet Cheeks Pinot Gris.

Wow, Korean tacos sure are a thing today. Foodhoe spotted some in the window of John's Snack and Deli, and at almost the exact same time, Kitchenette served them up out of their Dog Patch loading dock. Five minutes later, every food blogger and twitterist in San Francisco got to buzzing.

These things have been a big deal in LA for some time, so whether they're good or not, we're all going to get really, really excited over their arrival on our bay's shores. [Foodhoe, via Eater]

[Photo: Via Sam Felder/flickr]

Yesterday saw this season's Feast issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian drop, and while it's not exactly the Chronicle's Top 100, it's worth taking a look at.

Features included the requisite budget-friendly dining roundup, which includes an exceptionally helpful handful of places that will let you bring in your own wine for cheap or no corkage. Did you know Plumpjack never charges corkage? We did not.

A couple of roundups, like the "5 Great Sandwiches" or "12 Sweet Spots" lists might be useful to the uninitiated, but foodies probably won't learn much. The "Spring Flings" dating roundup is ok, and makes a good brunch suggestion of The Butler & The Chef Bistro. We barely glanced at the Master Cleanse alternative column because, ew.

We really liked and will use the "Big Easy in the Bay" feature because we love drinking, and we don't have the vacation time to visit New Orleans right now.

Finally, home cooks will totally love the "One chicken. Two people. Three gourmet meals." feature. It's a really neat take on budget dining, in which Alice Waters, Gary Danko, and Traci Des Jardines each offer suggestions on how to feed two people three meals from one chicken.

[Photo: Via MVI/flickr]

• The CoCo Times beer column will be taken over by Jay R. Brooks after longtime writer Bill Brand died of injuries inflicted in a streetcar crash in February. [On Beer]

• Fresh after Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, Haagen Dazs is offering free ice cream on May 12. Mark those calendars. [GrubGirl]

• Tyler Florence takes the hint and removes the auto-play music from his new website. Now if only he could get the rest of it right. [Food Network Humor]

• The conventional agribusiness industry is mad about the Obamas' all-organic garden and sent Michelle a letter asking her to use pesticides. [Telegraph UK]

• In an effort to compete with Pizza Hut, Domino's is now selling bread bowls filled with pasta. [WSJ]

• Because of last year's salmonella scare and resulting oversupply, less peanuts are being planted this year. [WSJ]

• Actual tea drinkers annoyed at their drink being co-opted by tax-haters. [SF Gate]

• Brittney Gilbert chats with the Amuse Bouche Guy on video. [Sparkwood & 21]

• Cheap is the new green: A look at how an "econovore" eats. [CoCo Times]

• Boxed wines are a good buy, since they have lower packaging costs. [AMNY]

• There's some kind of strange poetry in Twitter recipes, don't you think? [NYT]

It would appear that once you are featured in an in-flight magazine such as Air-Tran's Go, your future is made. At least, that's the conclusion we're drawing from today's news that Chris Cosentino will star in a new Food Network show called Chefs Vs. City. Here's the pitch:

Acclaimed chefs Chris Cosentino and Aaron Sanchez are pitted against two local foodies in a winner-takes-all race through a different city each week, through the most fascinating, unusual food locations. Each team begins with a clue leading them to their first food challenge. Challenges could include everything from wine stomping to the eating the spiciest chili west of the Mississippi to diving for sea urchins! The five challenges take the chefs and foodies on an adrenaline-charged, food-lovers tour of each city, and once complete, it’s a sprint to the finish line to see if the locals can protect their home turf or if the Food Network chefs can conquer a new city.

[Photo: Via Offal Good]

If you turn on the CBS' Eye On The Bay tonight (7 p.m.), you'll see a feature on SubCulture Dining, one of those particularly lovely only-in-SF-seeming things that give our city its ultimate foodie reputation.

SubCulture Dining, a project of the Dissident Chef, Russel Jackson, has gotten some attention from the mainstream media before, but as far as we know, this is the first time they've allowed a news crew into one of their "underground restaurant" events.

Jackson, who used to own Russell's, in Los Angeles, has plans in the works to open a restaurant called Lafitte at Pier 5, but that project has been delayed. Meanwhile, the SubCulture Dining schedule is busy the next few months.

For a little more background on SubCulture Dining, check out their site, and this video.

SubCulture Dining [Official Site]

As fashionable as Mission Street Food is in the city's dining scene, its patrons seem to be equally hip in the actual fashion scene. Demonstrating that, the blog Fashionist came out and shot pictures of diners waiting in line at last Thursday's MSF dinner. Now, you get to vote on who's the best dressed. Polls stay open until Saturday, April 25, so get voting!

Mission Street Food Collaboration [Fashionist]

[Photo: Via openDemocracy/flickr]

• Red, white, and green wines at the Taste of Mendocino. [Ukiah Daily Journal]

• Hunting Pheasant in a Napa vineyard. [The Atlantic]

• Tom Colicchio is "so over" the banh mi and thinks the next big thing in sandwiches will be Indian street food. [Yum Sugar]

• The Food Network Magazine plans to double its circulation. [Ad Age]

• In the face of changing customer behavior, the packaged food industry is learning that it may not be entirely recession-proof. [WSJ]

• Though U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend only 2300 mg of sodium per day, the average American consumes 3400. [WSJ]

Local bigshot Thomas Keller led the nation in this year's S. Pellegrino list of the world's 50 best restaurants, but in a shakeup from last year, the French Laundry fell by seven ranks, and Per Se grabbed the U.S.'s highest ranking: Sixth.

The French Laundry came in at no. 11, just below Alinea, which jumped 11 spots from last year. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Chez Panisse came in at no. 59. Overall, the United States had 12 restaurants on the list, including five in the top 20, and eight in the top 50.

The top restaurant in the world is, according to these guys, El Bulli, followed by the Fat Duck, Noma, Mugaritz, and El Celler de Can Roca.

Click through the jump to see a full list. The numbers next to the names indicate how each restaurant's ranking has changed.

Continue reading "French Laundry No Longer A Top 10 Restaurant" »

Is It Because Of A Regrettable Tattoo? Top Chef host, Craft maven, and general foodie bigwig Tom Colicchio, says he won't pose nude, like his TC counterpart. But he will open more San Francisco 'wichcraft locations. He likes the anchovy sandwich best.

In town for a book signing, Colicchio sat down with 7x7's Sara Deseran for a Q&A interview. They talked about plenty more than nudity and anchovies, but you'll have to head that way to read it.

The last few days have seen two local pundits tackling the always-sticky service question. The consensus: Use your words, people.

Tuesday, 7x7 guest blogger Ella Lawrence suggested that customers would get better wine service if they admitted their own ignorance, described their tastes, and allowed servers to guide them.

Today, Michael Bauer weighed in on the question of sending food back, and also addressed rude service. We'd have liked to know what exactly "rude" meant in this case (snappy? rushed? pants unzipped on purpose?) but we figured it just meant brusque and harried, like some servers get.

On the rude thing, Bauer suggested saying "I simply asked a question, you don't need to be rude about it," which frankly doesn't seem like it would de-escalate any tense situation we've been in. But whatever. The point is, call them on it politely. To the question of sending food back, the answer is, yes, send food back if it's gross, but don't be a jerk about it.

If this all rings familiar, it's because we came to a similar point last week. But we can't stress this enough: Politely addressing staff with measured, direct language and good humor can get you whatever you want about 99 percent of the time. That other 1 percent is when you start whittling down the tip.

How To Be a Better Diner, Step 1: Toss Out Your Ego [7x7]
Sending back food, and dealing with rude waiters [SF Gate]

[Photo: Via pasotraspaso/flickr]

Our love of oysters is well documented around here, so we've been following Robert Lauriston's $1 oysters thread on Chowhound with some relish.

After posting a list of half-shell deals on SFoodie some weeks ago, Lauriston put it to the hounds to collaborate. They did, and the result is an 18-strong, and growing, list of fantastic oyster deals, which Lauriston today updated on SFoodie. In that spirit of collaboration, we've done up this little google map, plotting all the places on the list. It's open to your input, so please have at.

The Dollar Oyster List (updated 4/16/09) [SFoodie]
$1 oysters [Chowhound]

Conde Nast Traveler just came out with its "Hot Tables 2009" list, and of course, San Francisco is on it. But the magazine seems shockingly ambivalent about the one restaurant it includes from our 49-square-mile bubble.

This time we're represented only by Zinnia, of which CNT says, "The soulful food makes up for the somewhat sterile decor." They also note strongly that Zinnia's is Sean O'Brien's new joint, and the comparisons run heavy. It almost seems like some CNT editor is carrying a torch.

Meanwhile, the Bay Area is represented by two other Marin County restaurants: Sausalito's Murray Circle, and Sebastapol's Restaurant Eloise.

Condé Nast Traveler: Hot List Tables 2009 [Concierge.com]

[Photo: Via Zinnia/Official Site]

That Dinner: Impossible show gets weirder and weirder, right? And tonight's episode is no exception, but it may be worth a watch, or at least an extended stay in the TiVo, as it brings Robert Irvine to the Silicon Valley, where his challenge will be Yahoo.

Being nerds about things like search engine technology and strange cooking, this challenge actually seems pretty cool to us (from the press release):

“The Yahoo! Search Scramble”
Robert visits Yahoo! headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley to celebrate the anniversary of Yahoo! Search. His mission: make the top 15 most-searched dishes, with a catch – each dish must be made with a randomly assigned top-searched ingredient! Can Robert overcome the strange pairings and successfully feed 450 Yahoo! employees in just eight hours, or will this be Dinner: Impossible?

[Photo: Via Food Network]

The country's original craft beer sold more suds than any Bay Area brewer last year, but couldn't crack the top 10 in national sales.

Our sister blog in Boston reports today that Sam Adams' parent company sold more beer than any other craft brewer in the Brewers Association trade group last year, with Anchor Steam trailing at 15th on the craft list and 24th overall. San Jose's Gordon Biersch was 24th in craft beer and 35th overall, while Lagunitas was 27th in California and 38th overall.

Check the whole list here. [MenuPages Boston]

[Photo: Via DieselDemon/flickr]

Most of us know or care little more about In-N-Out Burger than the fact that their sandwiches are great, and they have a not-very-secret "secret menu" for those in the know. But did you ever wonder why their burgers are so danged good, and why, given the danged-good quality of the food, they're not in more states?

The chain's reticent upper management is glad to keep things quiet, but BusinessWeek staff writer Stacy Perman managed to compile enough information about the small, cult-favorite burger chain to write a book. Turns out their big, closely guarded secrets include using fresh ingredients that they process themselves, paying their well-trained employees a living wage, and only expanding when they have enough expert managers to do so. Pretty radical stuff!

Check out an excerpt from the book and an interview with the author at BusinessWeek.

[Photo: Via greychr/flickr]

People just love complaining about rushed restaurant service. In our user reviews it is always a top gripe. Our Sibling publication, Grub Street, recently generated a bevvy of comments with a post on an impatient Minetta Tavern host. Now Michael Bauer has opened that pandora's box in his blog today, running a letter accusing the city's dining culture in general of being rushed.

The Chronicle critic advocates communication among staff, and waiters doing a better job of reading tables. Comments ranged from the completely offended to the completely sympathetic, but most agreed that while they don't like to be overtly shooed out, they understand the restaurant needs their table to make money. This is because most diners are reasonable people who understand how tricky running a restaurant can be.

With that in mind, we'd suggest that a bit of communication between staff and patrons could go a long way. Personally, if a server explains their situation and offers a solution, we're inclined to work with them so that everybody gets what they want. Saying to a table of coffee-lingerers, "excuse me, but I have a party of four waiting. Can I offer you a refill on coffee and a seat in our lounge?" will sit better with most than a curt, "please finish up. I need this table."

But then, based on the feedback we've seen on this issue, we're only one in a chorus of millions, with as many differing opinions. What's yours?

[Photo: Via Wootang01/flickr]

It was not surprising that a whole bunch (8) San Francisco restaurants made Travel & Leisure's "50 Best New Restaurants" list, but it was kind of neat to see some small-time operations on there as well as obvious choices like Spruce, La Mar Cebicheria, and the Moss Room.

While The Sentinel, Brenda's French Soul Food, and Dynamo Donuts are popular enough around here, they aren't usually on the radar of national magazines compiling "best of" lists. Good on you, T&L. Also on the list: Academy Cafe, Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland's Camino, and Napa's Ubuntu (duh).

[Photo: Via e.t./flickr]

Add this to your mental list of ramps, spring onions, garlic greens, and fiddleheads. Bauer's got the skinny on a new take on an ignored spring green: sweet fava leaves. Apparently Point Reyes' Osteria Stellina does a great salad with them.

And right on cue, an SF Gate commenter has a big problem with that. Writes Crypled2:

Tehre wa [sic] a time when chef's in Frisco weren't consumed with trendiness and actually focused on making food that tastes good.

I suppose looking for the "next big thing" is a lot easier than actually learning how to do things right.

Here's your midweek look at what other outlets are saying in their food sections. This week's highlights: Diners' bad behavior, Reidinger on Tropisueno, and a soul food roundup.

• Diners love complaining about how badly they're treated by wait staff, but those on the front side of the white apron are no angels themselves. And some say their antics are getting more out of hand. [SF Chronicle]

• Michael Bauer gives Fringale its due as a South of Market pioneer, but comes away a little disappointed, leaving two stars in his wake. [SF Chronicle]

• The chef shuffle at the French Laundry isn't the only news in this week's Inside Scoop. There's also the fate of former Cafe Majestic chef Louis Maldonado, and the endless negotiations surrounding the burned-out Original Joe's. [SF Chronicle]

• Matthew Stafford takes us on a journey of discovery of San Francisco's soul food highlights. [SF Weekly]

• SFoodie finally comes out with the ultimate happy-hour resource: The dollar oyster list. [SF Weekly]

• Paul Reidinger finds a brief tropical oasis in the "outsize taco cart" with bar that is Tropisueno. [SFBG]

• L.E. Leone has already disregarded her pledge to start reviewing restaurants in her restaurant reviews, writing instead, this week, on the death of a friend of a friend. But she does get in a few words about Pizzeria. [SFBG]

[Photo: Via Tropisueno]

This year's Restaurants and Institutions list of the nation's 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants contains the same four San Francisco establishments as last year's, but their places have shifted, with The Slanted Door topping the local list.

The Charles Phan flagship, which brought in $15,495,332 in 2008, came in at no. 27 on the latest list, up from no. 70 last year. Scoma's ($15,229,280), which last year topped the local list and came in 23rd nationally, got bumped down to no. 30. Boulevard ($12,697,753) ranked 57th overall this year, up from 59th last year, while The Cliff House ($11,500,000) fell to 83rd this year from 79th last year.

The highest grossing restaurant in the country is Las Vegas's Tao, with an overall income of $68,406,696. New York has 30 restaurants on the list, while Vegas claims 25.

Check out Grub Street's analysis of the New York picks, and pop over to MenuPages blogs in Chicago, South Florida, and Boston, for a look at the list-toppers in those markets.

[Photo: Via Roshan V./flickr]

Here are some tidbits from the world of San Francisco food news outside our little bubble.

Eater reports that Woodhouse Fish Company finally opened their second location on Fillmore today. Also, that second Cafe Prague location is finally up and running in the old Country Station space. And you will soon be able to smoke hukas at Sens.

Tablehopper delivered a couple of neat tidbits into our inbox today, including the news that Jean-Claude Persais is leaving Aqua to start his own consulting company (which will contract with Aqua), and that Brick is going to go dark from April 19 through May 1 for a little makeover. Also, she reports that chef/owner Dan Scherotter of Palio d'Asti is donating a portion of this April's dinner revenues to victims of the earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy.

Food Gal has your links and details on the pistachio recall, including which products have been recalled, and information on the California farm thought responsible. She also brings word of this year's Francis Ford Coppela-hosted North Beach Citizens benefit, which for the first time will be at a restaurant, Rose Pistola, instead of in the basement of Saints Peter and Paul Church.

And if you happen to be in Seattle and are just dying to hear about sustainable sushi, Eat All About it brings word that Tataki chef Kin Lui and "sustainability guru" Casson Trenor will be hosting a sustainable sushi workshop there, including hands-on instruction and a meal.

[Photo: Via rick/flickr]

Question: Can we get enough "best burrito" coverage? Answer: No. Obviously. Reason: Polling just opened in SF Weekly's Best Of San Francisco readers' poll.

We got the word from the We Eating crew's twitter feed. They're hot for Papalote. Who's on your short list?

New tricks in local food journalism: The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a video feature on Youtube all about Weird Fish and The Corner. Strangely, though, there's no video footage or even names given of the interviewees. Still, pretty pictures:

Bravo has just announced the premiere of a next-level Top Chef spinoff, Top Chef Masters, featuring already-famous chefs in a Top-Chef-style competition. Can they get mileage out of a concept or what?

Our favorite twist: The judges will include a host of TV writers, producers, and actors, including lovable self-parody Neil Patrick Harris.

San Francisco has a few dogs in this fight, including Elizabeth Falkner (Citizen Cake, Orson), and Hubert Keller (Fleur De Lys). The Bay Area also represents with Cindy Pawlcyn, of Mustards Grill, in Napa.

Check out the full list of cheftestants after the jump.

Continue reading "New "Top Chef" Spinoff Features Already Top Chefs" »

One more note about the Chron's Top 100: Plebiscite weighed in today with the charge that it was a sort of racist move on Michael Bauer's part to cut out a relatively high percentage of Asian restaurants, and not include more authentic Asian places such as the ones you'll find in Chinatown and the Richmond:

There are, what, twenty restaurants cut. Five of the twenty are Asian. A full quarter! That leaves maybe eight Asians in the Top 100 (1) restaurants in the Bay Area.

And for what reason? So we can include the $14 carnitas from Nopalito? Two more pizza places? I mean, honestly…

[Photo: Via LFL16/flickr]

The Chronicle's annual Top 100 list finally dropped Sunday, and it seems pretty heavily pruned since last year. Michael Bauer added 21 choices, which meant 19 had to get cut (Rubicon and Cafe Majestic shuttered). The internet has lots of opinions about this.

Of those that got cut, Bauer writes in his blog, "A few had actually gone downhill on my return visits, but many were as good as ever, so it was a difficult decision. In some cases, I thought the new places were better or brought something new to the list."

But SF Weekly's Robert Lauriston points out that Oakland's Oliveto — a long-time list member just knocked off &mdash ranks higher, by the Chronicle's own rating system, than 18 of the newly added restaurants. He suggests that its cutting may have to do with its high prices: "The guy implied in his blog recently that he knocked down Terzo's food rating half a star because he thought the prices were too high, which is just wrong since the Chron rates the food and price separately."

An aside: A friend who works in the Oliveto kitchen tells us that the staff there regularly has its New Year's Day meal at House of Prime Rib, a longtime cult favorite new this year to the Top 100.

Other upsets: Well, it's not really an upset, but Terzo got the boot — possibly at the last minute? — after the aforementioned middling review last month, even though Bon Appetit apparently lurves it. Tartine Bakery got cut, but it made Bauer's list of the city's best desserts in November.

Check the full list of cuts and new additions after the jump.

Continue reading "Chronicle Top 100 Postgame Show" »

The plight of our favorite tiki bar has gone national, as the New York Times featured the threatened Tonga Room in its Friday Style section.

The Old Gray Lady seems to have let her hair down a bit, checking off a few visits to the Polynesian hideout under the Fairmont Hotel. Writer Jesse McKinley highlights the effort to save the Tonga Room from becoming a casualty of the Fairmont's impending renovation as a move to preserve some of the city's "zing:"

Over the last several years, San Francisco has had its raucous Halloween party canceled; its boozy Bay to Breakers footrace ordered to sober up; and its most famous sex club, the Power Exchange, just plain closed.

Fortunately for Tonga fans, those working to preserve the space are not only exploding attendance records, they're working with the San Francisco Young Preservationists to have the place officially declared a historical landmark. We'll keep you posted on the progress. Meanwhile, sites like Save Tonga and the Tonga thread on Tiki Central are good starting points for those looking to get involved.

[Photo: Via Pargon/flickr]

It looks like another arbiter of taste has come along and declared another San Francisco taqueria "the best." This time it's Decider.com showering love on El Metate.

Now, it should be said straight-off that we're Metate novices. The bright paint-job has always been something of a turn-off, and since it's so close to Taqueria San Francisco that we always just end up there. But writer Andrew Simmons actually sells it, at least enough to get us in there:

These burritos aren’t cruise missiles; they’re long, lean, and notable for the rich fillings—not their sheer gut-stretching mass, which is the principle selling point of too many of El Metate’s peers.

But people come out with proclamations like this all the time, often surrounding a group of usual suspect, one of which usually isn't El Metate. Burritoeater almost always favors Papalote, while Chronicle readers tend to swing between that and La Taqueria.

Perhaps parsing out the single best burrito in the city is a losing game, though. At some point your top-level contenders could win or lose the title on a by-meal basis. Personal favorites often come down to how much you like the vibe inside. It sounds like El Metate has a good thing going in that department, so perhaps it's worth a detour through that garish yellow doorway on 22nd Street.

[Photo: Via Burritoeater]

The Wall Street Journal noticed today that many higher-end restaurants are keeping business up by focusing more on selling booze and bar food than on selling hugely intricate tasting menus. They even name-checked a San Francisco restaurant that we frankly wouldn't have thought to bring up.

It's worth knowing about, though: Shanghai 1930 is offering their full menu in the bar for less money, a move that seems to have rankled some dining room patrons, but not enough for the restaurant to stop doing it. Apparently owner David Chen will give dining room customers the bar discount if they complain. Their featured deal: Eight soup dumplings with black truffles for $18.

But while Shanghai 1930 is a fine joint with a fine bar, it seems a strange choice to feature in an article like the Journal's, where New York heavy hitters like Per Se and Daniel jockey for position. There are more on-par restaurants in San Francisco doing discounted bar menus.

La Folie, for example, just opened an adjacent lounge with toned-down prices and atmosphere. Back in February, The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton started offering a discounted bar menu. And waterfront siblings Epic Roasthouse and Waterbar both have bar menus with happy hour deals that are downright cheap, including $5 cocktails and $1 oysters.

Of course, you probably knew about those, and we've got a feeling the trick of complaining about the Shanghai 1930 dining room prices is a new one, so thanks, Journal!

[Photo: Via Mark Coggins/flickr]

Yesterday was a pretty big day for 10 chefs who were honored as Food and Wine''s Best New Chefs. The Bay Area represented with two honorees, including San Francisco's own Nate Appleman, partner at A16 and SPQR.

Grub Street's got full coverage of the event, but for our own field of interest, we asked MenuPages Boston editor Leila Cohan, who was at the awards party, to corner Appleman for a little Q and A:

MP: Any plans for a new restaurant?
NA: We're opening a third restaurant in San Francisco and we're also opening a16 in Tokyo.

MP: What can you tell me about the new San Francisco restaurant?
NA: Well, it's been delayed a little bit, it's been on hold a little bit because of the economy, but it's going to be inspired by the region of Marche, which is on the Adriatic side of Italy and I'm building a butcher facility to handle whole cows.

MP: How's the a16 for Tokyo going?
NA: It's going! It should open in September.

More Appleman after the jump!

Continue reading "A16 To Open In Japan, New Appleman Restaurant Slated For SF" »

Left: Nate Appleman (via A16, Right: Christopher Kostow (via Meadowood)

Food and Wine's Best New Chefs awards party just started, but Grub Street already knows who won. Two Bay Area chefs claim Best New Chef awards, including one we name-checked yesterday, and one from a ways up north.

As fun as it was to play FW editor Dana Cowin's twitter game, in which she dropped coy clues about the winners, it's time to open the danged envelopes already.

While you can see the whole list at Grub Street, here's what matters right here and now: Locally, the awards are going to Nate Appleman, of A16 and SPQR, and Christopher Kostow, of Napa's Meadowood.

MenuPages Boston is also giving kudos to honoree Barry Maiden, of Cambridge's Hungry Mother.

Kostow, who won a Michelin Star for the first restaurant he headed, Mountain View's Chez TJ, came on as executive chef at Meadowood just about a year ago, replacing Joseph Humphrey. He was a Chronicle Rising Star Chef last year.

Appleman is one of a few American chefs who can call themselves a "pizzaiolo," a stringent Italian certification of mastery. He's worked in Italy and at top restaurants around the country, First landing in San Francisco at Campton Place, under Laurent Manrique. Now he's a partner at A16 and SPQR, and a 2007 Chronicle Rising Star Chef.

Next month's Bon Appetit is up online, and there's a big feature on California culinary tourism.

Yes, it includes the obvious mention of Ubuntu, but we were heartened to see they also did a little legwork and got behind the scenes at Terzo. Home cooks can learn how to mimic one of that restaurant's dishes: Braised Goat Shoulder Stew with Sunchoke Puree and Harissa.

Bi-Rite Grocery also gets a mention, as do Coi and Chez Panisse.

[Photo: Via p200eric/flickr]

As our sibling publication Grub Street reported earlier, Food and Wine is playing a game today on twitter today where editor Dana Cowin drops clues about the identities of this year's Best New Chefs, which will be announced tomorrow.

She already called Grub Street out for guessing at Paul Liebrandt, of Corton ("Not true. Yet."). That clue was "Broadway Beauty and the NW."

Her fourth clue seems to suggest A16/SPQR executive chef Nate Appleman: "Ciao I-95W." As Eater SF points out, "Nate Appleman hasn't won the honor yet, A16 is a freeway in Italy, San Francisco is west of NYC (you're welcome for the geography lesson)."

Also, Appleman is in town, helping to cook at Chelsea Market last night. According to his own twitter feed, he's still around, heading to Blue Hill at Stone Barns this afternoon.

[Photo: Via Ten Speed Press]

A couple national magazines have once again come up with declarative lists of important restaurants, and naturally San Francisco has a presence.

Saveur included the Slanted Door and Los Gatos's Manresa in its 12 Restaurants That Matter list. Manresa, it seems, is "luminous, thoughtful, and sensual," using fine, locally sourced ingredients and complex flavors. The Slanted Door, meanwhile, "symbolize[s] our era's version of the American dream."

But we're not just the subject of food-centric publications. In its A-list guide to the 10 best sushi spots in the U.S., Playboy appropriately featured Sebo. Obsessive about its sourcing and dedicated to using the best ingredients possible, this Hayes Valley spot was a natural.

[Photo: Via Roshan V/flickr]

With a hilarious spray of edible legalese, local hand-food blogs Breadxbread and Burrito Justice have waded into the question of whether or not burritos are sandwiches.

This really shouldn't be an issue still, as a Massachussets court two years ago came to the obvious conclusion that, no, they are not. Duh.

But, the internets being the internets, people will talk, and the question of what makes a sandwich still gets batted around. In an effort to once again quell debate, Burrito Justice has a survey going on whether you think Sandwiches and burritos are the same in anything more than a Venn-diagram sort of way.

The oval at the center of that diagram, according to BJ, is the torta, which itself casts into relief the very differences between these two carb-bombs:

if there’s something in a parallel food universe that is clearly a sandwich (a torta), then another thing (a burrito) that you are trying to claim is a sandwich is clearly not a sandwich. Q.B.D. (Quod Burriterat Demonstrandum.)

Around The Web [Breadxbread]
A Burrito Is Not A Sandwich [Burrito Justice]

[Photo: Via arvindgrover/flickr]

Intrepid Chowhound Joan Kureczka got by the new Pizzanostra last week and filed an early report on the discussion board. Then a bunch of other hounds got in on the act, and now we have a pretty good snapshot of this new Potrero Hill Italian joint from Jocelyn Bulow and the Chez Maman/Papa crew.

Overall it sounds pretty good — sort of like the fanciest junk food palace ever: Pizzas, pasta, snacks, burgers. But, you know, good. OP Kureczka was impressed with the pizza — "Crisp and delicious," and the wine prices — $28 for a bottle of Sardinian vermentino.

According to fellow hound David Sloo,

Nothing on the menu or served at the tables around us looked pretentious or fussy. Rigatoni, octopus salad, chick peas, cold cuts (inevitably labelled salumi), marrow bones with gremolata -- really just straightforward lunch food that will please most people and threaten few. Pizzanostra seems to have locked onto the fashion of the past decade for straightforward Italian food and wine. Good for them.

It is like the mate you choose for a long term relationship. It is not without its passion, of course. But is more about the place you want to go back to every day because it is satisfying and just good.

Continue reading "Threads Up: Early Pizzanostra Feedback" »

After allegations of homophobia started circulating online, a North Beach restaurateur spoke out for the first time in a Bay Area Reporter story today, saying he "loves gay people," and is the victim of a "bad misunderstanding."

On March 14, author Mark Doty, who is gay, posted an anecdote on his blog describing a run-in with a woman and a group of men in North Beach. The men, one of whom he said was the owner of Caffe Macaroni and Macaroni Sciue Sciue, allegedly called him "faggot," and "twinkletoes," and yelled at him to get back to the Castro, after he exchanged harsh words with the woman over her driving.

But restaurateur Mario Ascione told the Bay Area Reporter that while he did confront Doty, he didn't say those things. He said there were a lot of drunk people out celebrating St. Patrick's Day, and they chimed in with the homophobia.

The Reporter reported today that indignant readers of the blog picked up the story after Doty posted it, and berated the two restaurants — owned by Mario Ascione — on Yelp. Most of those reviews had been taken down when we checked, but a few left up make reference to the incident.

However, Ascione has his own supporters, who told the Reporter that they can't imagine him using homophobic language.

Gay-friendly North Beach takes a hit [BAR]
Even though you are who you are [Mark Doty]
Caffe Macaroni [MenuPages]
Caffe Macaroni [Official Site]
Macaroni Sciue Sciue [MenuPages]
Macaroni Sciue Sciue [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Caffe Macaroni/Official Site]

This Slate article? This is why we've never joined a CSA. Yes, strawberries and asparagus and cucumbers delivered to the doorstep are wonderful, but Jesus, is it worth drowning in turnips and kale all winter? Even Greens Restaurant founder Deborah Madison gets overwhelmed:

For CSA devotees, talking to Deborah Madison—founder of San Francisco's iconic vegetarian restaurant Greens and author of nine cookbooks—is the equivalent of getting a personal phone call from Barack Obama. "I do find that kale sits in my refrigerator longer than other things," she confessed when I called her. "And I sometimes forget what to do with turnips."

If you're like us, though, and hungry for veggies, you'll just go straight to the source: Greens, which just checked off its 30th anniversary, is still on the a-list for veggies and omnivores. They've just introduced a half-priced wine list on Mondays, so you can go green and red.

The Locavore's Dilemma [Slate]
Greens Restaurant [MenuPages]
Greens Restaurant [Official Site]

Dear Every Magazine Editor In The World,

Thanks for including San Francisco in your roundup of the nation's best dive bars/beer gardens/bloody Marys/bars in general. Can we just say, though? San Francisco does have bars in it that are not the Zeitgeist.

It's true, that place has a nice big backyard and a killer bloody Mary recipe, but, you know, so do a few other joints. That latest Details roundup just reinforces the stereotype that there is only one bar in San Francisco. And while on the rare warm Saturday night it can feel like the whole city is at the Geister, we know better.

Please take it under advisement.

Sincerely,
Your drinking buddies,
MenuPages San Francisco

THE BEST DIVE BARS IN AMERICA [Details]

[Photo: Via Nick Douglas/flickr]

SF Gate's Baylist came out with some readers' choice best-of roundups, including best burrito (thanks Burritophile). We don't want to editorialize too heavily, but suffice to say, our top five would not be the same as theirs.

Check out Baylist for their top five. For us, we swing classic (and heavily to the 24th street corridor, it seems. Are we really that lazy? Yes). Here's our top five, in no particular order.

• Taqueria El Castillito (overall)

• Taqueria San Francisco (carnitas)

• Taqueria Vallarta (seafood)

• Guadalajara (mind bendingly hot salsa)

• El Farolito (drunk food)

[Photo: Via Phillie Casablanca/flickr]

Craig Stoll

For as precise a shot to Yelp's jaw as they delivered with their bad review t-shirt stunt, Delfina proprietors Craig and Annie Stoll both think the site is "good for the San Francisco dining community," they said in an interview Friday.

The pair appeared on the latest edition of On The Media, which featured a story about Yelp and the latest round of business owner backlash. They said the t-shirt gag was born out of frustration with their powerlessness to respond to Yelp reviews, but that overall, they think the site is beneficial to the community:

ANNE STOLL: I think it’s good.

CRAIG STOLL: Overall, I guess. Yeah, overall it’s good. I mean, it’s just people are talking more about restaurants. And I hate to say it – I mean, colleagues might shoot me – but I think that people want to know what other people like them think.

And to all our, you know, handwringing and being upset about this, we [LAUGHS] – the other day one of our managers was deciding on where she was going to go and was looking at Yelp reviews [LAUGHS] of some restaurants... which just cracked me up.

So for all their expertly landed media jabs at the review site, the Stolls and their staff seem to think it provides a good service overall. And to be honest, who among us doesn't at least give it a quick check when thinking about trying a new spot?

Not us. We use MenuPages.

[Photo: Via BAIA/flickr]

Eater's got the skinny on a few more Bourdain sightings during his recent visit. Apparently he stopped by the Tadich Grill for a Sierra Nevada, then hit up Bender's.

Beyond that, Chowhound poster Jeffreak says, "The Roli Roti guy at the Farmer's Market said he kept walking by and got someone from his crew to get him a porchetta sandwich I think." Any more sigtings? Send 'em in.

Tadich Grill [MenuPages]

Poached brains for Incanto's Head-to-Tail dinner, from Chris Cosentino's twitter

According to its website, Incanto still has tables open for tonight's Head to Tail dinner, where some have suggested Anthony Bourdain might make an appearance.

Incanto chef Chris Cosentino noted on his twitter feed this morning that he was nervous about the dinner, but he didn't mention it was because of the possible celeb visit. We doubt Bourdain's presence would rattle him, though, as this wouldn't be the first time.

We'd get in trouble for saying that brains and guts are gross, but you know what really is gross? The food at That's It (unless something drastic has changed since we were last there). And yet, that's where Bourdain reportedly filmed over the weekend, eating a torta at the only liquor store around that neighborhood that sells beer and fried food till 2 a.m. The Yum Diary's Tracie Broom put out the alert on her twitter stream.

Anybody else seen Mr. Bourdain on his latest visit? Apparently he dropped by Pirate Cat Radio, but that's the only other sighting we've heard of. If you have information, please share. Also, if you are in touch with the No Reservations host, please tell him to try Tortas Los Picudos or Oakland's El Ojo De Agua if he really wants a good torta. Neither of those places sells beer till 2 a.m., though.

Incanto [MenuPages]
Incanto [Official Site]

We've been picking up the James Beard Award finalists this morning from their live twitter feed out of Chicago's Frontera Grill. In case you missed it, here's a recap of San Francisco winners. For the full list, go here.

• Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer: Jon Bonné (San Francisco Chronicle), Jay McInerney (Men’s Vogue), Alan Richman (GQ)

• Newspaper Food Section: Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post

• Wine & Spirits Pro: Dale DeGroff, Merry Edwards (Merry Edwards Wines, Sebastopol, CA), Garrett Oliver, ,John and Doug Shafer (John Shafer and Doug Shafer, Shafer Vineyards, Napa, CA), Julian P. Van Winkle

• Best Chef: Pacific: Jeremy Fox (Ubuntu, Napa), Douglas Keane (Cyrus, Healdsburg), Loretta Keller (Coco500, San Francisco), David Kinch, and Daniel Patterson (Coi, San Francisco)

• Rising Star Chefs: Nate Appleman (A16, San Francisco), Sean Brock, Johnny Monis, Gabriel Rucker, Michael Solomonov, and Sue Zemanick

• Outstanding Pastry Chef (All-Clad Metalcrafters): Gina DePalma, Kamel Guechida, Pichet Ong, Nicole Plue (Redd, Yountville, CA), and Mindy Segal

• Outstanding Restaurant: Babbo, Boulevard (San Francisco), Fore Street, Highlands Bar & Grill, and Jean Georges

Eye on Blogs' Brittany Gilbert picked up on this incredibly weird and rather offensive German product that, for some reason, features the Golden Gate Bridge on the packaging.

An article about the product in Der Spiegel doesn't shed much light, except to point out that Germans don't really get the whole black people/fried chicken/racist undercurrent.

[Sprehe sales manager Judith] Witting told SPIEGEL ONLINE the connection never even occurred to her. "It was supposed to be a homage to the American lifestyle and the new US president," she said.

Obama Fingers Over San Francisco [Eye On Blogs]
Tender, Juicy Obama Fingers Hit the Shelves [Spiegel Online]

[Photo: Via Eye on Blogs]

As you've probably heard, Anthony Bourdain is going to be in San Francisco this weekend, shooting an episode of No Reservations. There's been plenty of speculation about where he'll visit, and we'll join in with an educated guess:

Bourdain hasn't visited this city as part of No Reservations, but he was here in late 2007 to speak at the Commonwealth Club. At that time, he said he had a pulled pork sandwich in the car (didn't say from where), and that he planned to have $30 peanuts from the mini bar.

He was really all about House of Prime Rib, but said he probably wouldn't be able to get there that trip. He also mentioned Swan Oyster Depot and Incanto.

Here's that Commonwealth Club video:

Tony Bourdain to Shoot Show in the Mission [Missionmisison]
House of Prime Rib [MenuPages]
House of Prime Rib [Official Site]

The Atlantic's new food site launched today, and includes a piece by Bill Niman, the Marin rancher recently divorced from his famous Niman Ranch meat company.

Niman's latest project, a turkey farm, got underway last spring when he picked up a bunch of chicks from Bill Reese's Kansas farm, and brought them back to Bolinas:

In a rented car, we placed 225 newly hatched baby turkeys (called "poults") on the back seat and raced toward California. We took turns driving and headed west through five states with only brief stops for food and bathroom breaks.

A year later, Niman is ready to start breeding the turkeys himself, his imported birds having reached maturity. Will he rent them motel rooms?

Starting a Traditional Turkey Flock [Bill Niman/Atlantic]

Previously:
Where Will We Be Without Bill Niman? [MenuPages: San Francisco]
MenuPages Interviews: Unterman On Niman [MenuPages: San Francisco]

[Photo: Via teddy llovet/flickr]

Anthony Bourdain on Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern, via Eat Me Daily, via Grub Street:

I've got to hand it to the guy for being able to get up in the morning and face nothing but lizard parts and testicles, especially in some tropical climate without the benefit of alcohol.

The Napa restaurant-cum-yoga studio that impressed the hell out of Frank Bruni when he took his cross-country dining trip last year has landed a cookbook deal with one of the hottest publishers in the industry, according to Eat Me Daily:

Jeremy and Deannie Fox, the husband-and-wife team behind Napa vegetarian restaurant Ubuntu (which is New York Times critic Frank Bruni's second-favorite restaurant in the country, and which is also a yoga studio) have signed with Artisan Books to produce The Ubuntu Cookbook.

Big Deals: Napa's Ubuntu Lands a Cookbook [Eat Me Daily]
Ubuntu [Official Site]

[Photo: Via mlinskva/flickr]

Our sister site in Chicago brings word of CitySearch's newest and best looking project yet, the still-beta 3 Buck Bites. In short, it's a photo-based roundup of some of the best cheap eats from around the country. Content is user submitted, so it's up to you to make sure they have listings for Taqueria Cancun's ceviche tostada, Escape From New York's potato pesto pizza, and Saigon Sandwiches' Banh Mi.

3 Buck Bites Launches, Makes Us Hungry [MenuPages: Chicago]
3 Buck Bites [Official Site]

Dave Cook is New York photojournalist who specializes in food writing and photography, which he practices primarily through his blog, Eating in Translation. He recently visited the Bay Area to cram a bunch of "work" into a week's visit. This mostly involved eating at a host of the best (and some of the not-so-best) of the Bay's hidden gems and international treasures, taking pictures of said gems and treasures, and writing about them.

Dave is back in New York now, where we tracked him down with a list of questions via e-mail; his patient answers are after the jump. You can read his detailed impressions of the Bay Area food scene on his blog.

Continue reading "MenuPages Interviews: A Visiting New York Food Blogger" »

The insanely smart bad Yelp review swicheroo by Pizzeria Delfina is turning into a bonafide meme. Everyone from Boing Boing to Serious Eats is rolling in the aisles after PD tossed a bunch of choice quotes from their one-star reviews onto t-shirts that their servers wear. Everybody but Yelp, that is. But the scheme is not without its annoying hangers-on.

It seems a lot of the "Yelp mentality" has to do with getting exposure, for both users and the businesses. The fake bad reviews are already rolling in — though honestly fewer than we'd expected. We only found this one from user Jay M, whose tongue might just be in his cheek:

sucks.sucks.sucks.sucks.sucks.sucks.sucks.

am i good enough for a t-shirt now?

Meanwhile, Yelp's own listing for itself isn't doing so well these days. We found such gems as, "Yelp you are horribly unethical and should be ashamed of yourself. I've noticed since joining Yelp that some of my reviews have "mysteriously" disappeared," and, "Customer service has completely gone down the toilet. Fake reviews have been allowed to remain." So, um, which ones are going on a t-shirt?

The Yelp Tee: Almost More Brilliant Than Pizzeria Delfina's Pizza [7x7]
Pizzeria Delfina [MenuPages]
Pizzeria Delfina [Official Site]
Pizzeria Delfina [Yelp]
Yelp [Yelp]

[Photo: Via 7x7]

Alright enough with the Tonga Room for a while. In other tropical-themed news, SFoodie visited Outerlands the other day, and in the process stumbled across a not-really-that-new joint that we (and we're guessing you, unless you live nearby) had never heard of.

Trouble Coffee and Coconut Club. They are called this, we guess, because mostly they sell coffee and whole coconuts. The only breakfast they sell consists of a slice of cinnamon toast, a coffee, and a coconut. O.K.

They also have something called a "Yoko" listed on their site as a scurvy-fighting agent, which SFoodie claims is actually grapefruit juice. In addition to this, they sell pastries and stuff.

Mostly, though, they seem to be about art, found objects, old manuals of stuff. You know, California-style. See a bunch of photos over at SFoodie.

Coffee, Toast and a Coconut: That's Trouble [SFoodie]
Trouble Coffee Company and Coconut Club [Official Site]

[Image: Via Trouble Coffee]

C.W. Nevius, the Chronicle's favorite rattler of dead-bird cages, chimes in on the TTonga Room">onga Room today with an angle so obviously contrived we're wondering if he just gets up and shoots dice in the morning in order to decide on his opinion.

Nevius apparently doesn't think the Tonga is worth saving because its biggest fans don't visit it enough. He quotes Nob Hill Association president Bob Varni: "The last time I stopped in, there were only two people." Then, in triumph he gets Tonga supporter Colin Boyle to admit that the last time he visited was, gasp, September.

We're betting that if it wasn't the Tonga Room on the line, but rather, say, John's Grill (which by the way is only famous for serving one meal to one fictional character in one pulp novel) C-Dubs would be singing a different tune. In fact, he got distinctly misty when mourning the Washington Square Bar and Grill a little more than a year ago.

Why the backlash against the Tonga Room, then? Nevius scolds, "you can't save everything, San Francisco," but we ask, why not? At least why not make an effort to save the things that give this city its character? We saved the Palace of Fine Arts — a move few would call a fallacy. We saved the Cliff House numerous times. We saved the whole city from the encroachment of freeways.

This is a town that looks both forward and back. We honor our history and we work to innovate. Our diligent preservation of our own character helps keep us on every list of America's most-visited cities, while our forward thinking attracts new industries, such as the tech boom in the 90s and the biotech that will fill Mission Bay. But tourism is still San Francisco's bread and butter.

If we allow the Tonga Room to be demolished just because its local fans don't visit it often enough, we're opening a dangerous door. How many locals ride the cable cars? How many visit John's regularly? How many visit Alcatraz? Should we nix those institutions, too? That island in the bay would make a lovely health spa.

Also, it's debatable that the place isn't pulling in business. Perhaps on a Wednesday at 5 p.m. it's a little quiet, but visit there on a weekend night and you're just as likely to see a crowded dance floor rocking to that floating band.

The Tonga Room is definitely a link to San Francisco's past, and it could be a great tourist attraction (much as we'd hate to give up the solitude of that Wednesday happy hour), with just the barest effort at marketing. Instead, the Fairmont wants to tear it down to cash in on high-end condos which, in this economy, people totally want more than a strong, fun drink.

If Nevius and the rest of this city's arbitrary arbiters of taste want to dismiss the Tonga Room as having run its course, we'll be hard pressed to conjure much sympathy when other local institutions close to their hearts face the wrecking ball.

If you want to get on board with the effort to save the Tonga Room, visit Sutro's at the Cliff House" target="_blank">Save Tonga, sign the petition, write an e-mail, and then get over to the bar itself for happy hour, Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., when fans of the place will gather to show love and talk strategy over a Bora Bora Horror.

Tonga Room: Thanks for the memories [SF Chronicle]
Save Tonga [Official Site]
Tonga Room [MenuPages]
Tonga Room [Official Site]

Previously:
Tonga Room In Trouble [MenuPages: San Francisco]
How To Save The Tonga Room [MenuPages: San Francisco]
The Tricky Task Of Preserving The Tonga Room [MenuPages: San Francisco]

[Photo: Via Critiki]

Plantains from La Cocina, a San Francisco program that helps minority women start food businesses

If you enjoyed last week's New York Times article on the burgeoning Brooklyn culinary scene, but thought it a bit geographically short-sighted, KQED has you covered.

Bay Area foodies are, after all, a vocal bunch, so the left-coast "hey, we're here, too," response was inevitable. Bay Area Bites has a good start to a comprehensive roundup of extra-geeky Bay Area food endeavors, and wants your help tracking down more. Give it a read, and see if you can turn them onto something. We'd love to see their collection of local links grow.

Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement [New York Times]
Food Businesses: Brooklyn by the Bay? [Bay Area Bites]

[Photo: Via La Cocina]

Always up for a bit of a psych-out, we were interested in SFist's double-reverse strategy in re. Mission Street Food tomorrow:

Whatever the case -- two days of availability instead of the one, a loss of cred/fear of overwhelming lines after its "discovery" by the Chronicle, or the notoriously fickle nature of restaurant patrons -- this week might be the week to go to MSF, and not just because you want to bring some leftover "acorn soup with foraged mushrooms" back home for your pet squirrel.

Are You Still Waiting In Line For MSF? [SFist]
Mission Street Food [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Bobby Rullo]

How about those Oscars last night? Most unsurprising night since the election, are we right? While the ceremony and the dresses were both dull as dirt, one moment enlivened the night for at least the food-obsessed: the Diet Coke ad starring Tom Colicchio, Top Chef head judge and the man behind the Craft empire. In 30 seconds, Colicchio both skewers Alinea-style molecular gastronomy and the 1980s fine dining trend of literally towering dishes (you stay au courant, Coke!), and makes a plug for Diet Coke, served sans garnish. While some might (not unfairly) scream "sellout!", really, is this any more egregious than the endless product placement on Top Chef?

Tom Coke-licchio Woos Women During the Oscars [Grub Street]

Slogging through the inbox after a three-day weekend can be a chore, but we were mollified early on by finding a Weekly Yelp e-mail containing an interview with Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage. The show films here in the Bay Area, and Savage lives in San Francisco. He name dropped a bunch of his favorite local businesses in the interview, including restaurants:

My wife and I are foodies, so we try and hit the places with good grub. We love Dosa for Indian food. For sushi, we can't get enough of the incredible dishes at Yoshi's on Fillmore, truly the best sushi I've ever had. The best burger in town is without a doubt at St. Francis Fountain, even though the best fries are still at Zuni. Our old standby, though, is Foreign Cinema. Simply the best restaurant in town. We've been going there so long they're like an extended family to us. They also make the best Mojito by far and their weekend brunch is amazing.

Yelp Is No Myth: The Adam Savage Interview [Weekly Yelp]
Mythbusters [Official Site]
Yoshi's [MenuPages]
Yoshi's [Official Site]
Yoshi's S.F. changes its repertoire [SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Via Adam Savage/Official Site]

Breaking news! The James Beard Foundation this morning announced semifinalists for this year's James Beard Awards — the culinary equivalent of the Oscars, Pulitzers and Emmys — chosen from a field of some 15,000. San Francisco did well enough, though there were some disappointments. No entries in the outstanding service category? That's telling, somehow...

Anyway, we've pulled out the Bay Area semifinalists for you, with the categories in bold. For a complete list, check out Grub Street.

San Francisco Bay Area Semifinalists:

Best Restaurateur:

Bill Higgins and Bill Upson, Real Restaurants, Sausalito, CA

Pat Kuleto, Pat Kuleto Restaurant Development & Management Co., San Francisco

Doug Washington, Mitchell Rosenthal, and Steven Rosenthal, Town Hall, Salt House, and Anchor & Hope, San Francisco

Outstanding Chef:

Michael Mina, Michael Mina, San Francisco

Charles Phan, The Slanted Door, San Francisco

Outstanding Restaurant:

Boulevard, San Francisco

Delfina, San Francisco

Best New Restaurant:

Bottega, Yountville, CA

Camino, Oakland, CA

Rising Star Chef Of The Year:

Nate Appleman, A16, San Francisco

Outstanding Pastry Chef:

Deanie Fox, Ubuntu, Napa, CA

Outstanding Wine Service

Acquerello, San Francisco

La Toque, Napa, CA

Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional

Mannie Berk, The Rare Wine Co., Sonoma, CA

Merry Edwards, Merry Edwards Wines, Sebastopol, CA

Celia Masyczek, Corra Wines, St. Helena, CA

John Shafer and Doug Shafer, Shafer Vineyards, Napa, CA

Outstanding Service:

wah wah

Best Chef: Pacific:

Chris Cosentino, Incanto, San Francisco

Jeremy Fox, Ubuntu, Napa, CA

Douglas Keane, Cyrus, Healdsburg, CA

Loretta Keller, Coco500, San Francisco

David Kinch, Manresa, Los Gatos, CA

Christopher Kostow, The Restaurant at Meadowood, St. Helena, CA

Daniel Patterson, Coi, San Francisco

Gayle Pirie and John Clark, Foreign Cinema, San Francisco

Dude! These nerdy foodies with their map-making obsessions are just making life great for counterpart lazy foodies like us. Yesterday, Burrito Justice ran a post linking to Yum Tacos!, which is undertaking one of the most laudable and ambitious food-mapping projects we know of right now: A Google map of all the taco trucks in the state. Seriously. It's obviously still incomplete (could it ever actually achieve full coverage? Seems unlikely) but we think it's an excellent project, and the Bay Area has pretty good coverage. You're invited to add sites as needed.

May A Thousand Tacos Bloom [Burrito Justice]
the taco truck map - share your favorites! [Yum Tacos!]

The ongoing tiff between Berkeley's Wat Mongkolratanaram Buddhist temple and its neighbors made national news this week, when the Wall Street Journal picked up the story of the increasingly controversial Sunday brunch.

Bay Area foodies have probably already heard about the blowback from neighbors who say the weekly Thai feast is disruptive. From the Journal:

But last spring, some of the temple's neighbors decided they'd had their fill. They asked the city's zoning board to shut down what they call a "commercial enterprise" operating in a residential zone. At a public hearing, a dozen neighborhood opponents sounded off: Some said they couldn't stand the "offensive odors" of Thai food being prepared; others objected to litter, traffic and clanging pots early in the morning. One compared the temple to a McDonald's.

Abbot Tahn Manas, who has lived at the temple for 22 years, says the event is critical to the Buddhist religious practice of "earning merit." Monks are forbidden by their religion from earning money or accumulating earthly goods on their own. Providing for monks and temples is the religious duty of Buddhists of the Theravada school; it helps them build goodwill for later in life or for the next life. In Thailand, they earn merit by giving money to monks in the street. Berkeley Buddhists earn merit by volunteering at brunch, thereby serving the temple.

"It is nice to see the religious organization interact with the community. It's like the best-run spaghetti dinner you've ever seen."

Brunch as a Religious Experience Is Disturbing Berkeley's Karma [Wall Street Journal]

[Photo: Via peterme/flickr]

Alice Waters might get the credit (and the blowback) for inspiring the locavore movement, but it's the chefs that adhere to the philosophy that keep it going. Part of that is making attractive menus out of local ingredients, even in the dead of winter.

So here's to Luce's Dominique Crenn, a farm girl turned award-winning chef, who was profiled in Reed Business's Hotels last week for her use of local ingredients and her dedication to farm-to-table dining. Here's a bit of what they had to say:

That passion has driven her not only to develop a seasonal menu at Luce restaurant at the InterContinental San Francisco that reflects the farms surrounding San Francisco, but also to create a daily four-course farm-to-table tasting menu highlighting local produce and a six-course “From Ocean to Land” tasting menu.

Embracing Natural Materials [Hotels]
Luce [MenuPages]
Luce [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Luce]

Our increasingly favorite local food blog Plebiscite has word of a hilarious gaffe on Oliveto's Whole Hog dinner menu: "Bruschetta di milza or milzschittensuppe." Get it? Sound it out... Now you get it? Ha ha, gross.

Don’t schitt in my suppe! [Plebiscite]
Oliveto [Official Site]

We were waiting to offer an opinion on the Chronicle's newly reformatted food and wine coverage until the mid-week bump came along, and now it's here, so... Yeah. They re-designed it. It's different.

You probably already saw how they lumped all the food and wine coverage together in one section on Sunday. And that was alright. Sunday already has a lot of lifestyle coverage (travel, etc.), so there's definitely a precedent. Though we suppose they could run the risk of overdoing it. But we always thought food was underrepresented before, so probably not.

Now we have the Thursday food coverage bundled into the Datebook, which includes a review, an update, and the Inside Scoop. And that's all fine and good for readers of the paper, once they get used to it.

The rub here seems to be at SF Gate. When we went to the site this morning and clicked on the food section the latest coverage was from Sunday, because that's when the food section comes out, apparently. But, wanting to read what the Thursday Datebook had to say about edibles, we had to click "Today's Chronicle," then get into the Datebook, then finally find the articles. It was not intuitive from the front page online.

So that's about it. New look, same content, new delivery. Hopefully the online kinks will work out, and we'll get all the hot, ready food coverage we need, as easily as possible. Meanwhile, what do you say to a little "Over Coffee" roundup of the Datebook stuff? Just for kicks:

• Amanda Gold gives Tropisueno two stars after a night of spotty service. [Tropisueno's weakest link]

• Michael Bauer re-visits Slow Club, which he finds still solid, but with enough minor flaws to keep it out of three-star territory. [Slow Club needs minor course correction]

• Stacy Finz explores the amateur hour that is Valentine's Day in restaurants. [On Feb. 14, drama is the order of the day]

• And some sad closings, a "Coi" replacement for Mistral, "Urban" development, and new blood on the way. [Inside Scoop]

The Single Guy has a long, thorough report-back from a dinner at Mission Street Food, complete with lots of photos and a review of the unique event's history. If you haven't been yet, or just want to visit vicariously while you wait for Thursday to roll around once more, you may want to check it out.

Dish on Dining: Mission Street Food [Cooking With The Single Guy]
Mission Street Food [Official Site]

A re-creation of Zuni Cafe's famous roast chicken

We would be neglectful if we did not point you toward this comprehensive — though subjective — list by 7x7: The Big Eat SF: 100 Things to Try Before You Die. Many of the hits are there, but here's a weird thing: While carnitas from La Taqueria come in at no. 3, as the first commenter points out, there is no burrito mention. In-ter-est-ing. The super burrito is an SF classic that really does deserve some space. But hey, it's not our list, it's theirs, so maybe when we get around to ripping off this idea, we'll include burritos.

Some of our other local food blogs have also chimed in, SFist encourages you to, "taste Tu Lan's imperial rolls and Velvet Cantina's nacho dip, or whatever they call it, before your bowels release," while an Eater commenter calls for arctic char at Bar Crudo. It's impossible not to chime in, right? Well, go ahead...

The Big Eat SF: 100 Things to Try Before You Die [7x7]
7x7's Premortem Tasting Menu [SFist]
Listicles [Eater SF]

[Photo: Via Dunham_1/flickr]

Fancy Beef Jerky from Jitlada

One of our favorite media outlets, NPR's Market Place, went to last week's Fancy Food Show, and they have some of the best coverage yet. We got to hear about somebody whose Volcano Vaporization System, initially popular mostly with stoners, has made its way to the kitchen of Grant Achatz, where he uses it to float dinner plates on pillows of violet-scented air. Hot, right? Also, a couple of garage rockers started an rock-and-roll-themed potato-chip line, which is fun.

But the thing that sent our jaw to the floor was the revelation that John Wayne's kinfolk have started a line of beef jerky in honor of the Duke. To which we can only say, "good work, pilgrim." Because nobody can mention John Wayne and then not do the voice. Anyway, here's the clip about the jerky:

MARISA WAYNE: My dad loved beef jerky. We all do.

Marisa Wayne is the daughter of actor John Wayne. Her brother Ethan is taking the family business in a new direction. Before, it was just a licensing company.

ETHAN WAYNE: We've licensed products like plates with his picture on it, or mugs or cups or shotglasses or firearms or lottery tickets, slot machines, etc.

But he wanted to develop his own products that honored his dad. At the show, he unveiled six varieties of John Wayne Stock and Supply Beef Jerky -- all natural and organic.

ETHAN WAYNE: You know, as kids, whether we were on location with him or on our boat, we ate a lot of beef jerky. So we became, I don't know what you'd call it, beef jerky connoisseurs?

Part of the proceeds will go to the John Wayne Cancer Foundation. But for Ethan and his four brothers and sisters, the product is also about doing right by their dad.

ETHAN WAYNE: You know, we always talk about, like, "One day we'll have to see him again, and we wanna make sure that, you know, whatever we make pleases him.

Food vendors sell with personal touch [Marketplace]
Fancy Food Show [Official Site]
Volcano Vaporization System [Official Site]
Hippy Chips [Rock-N-Roll Gourmet]
Golden Valley Natural [Official Site]

Previously:
The Virtual Fancy Foods Show [MenuPages San Francisco]

Photo: Via SauceSupreme/flickr]

An example of British food writing, for comparison's sake

San Francisco food media is going national. A little bit.

You've got Michael Bauer gallivanting around New York, reviewing Big Apple restaurants hither and yon. Today, he did a comparison between New York and San Francisco dining, as described by former Rubicon (and current Corton) honcho Drew Nieporent. Basically, it boils down to San Francisco diners being all about the food and New York diners being all about being cool. Also, he stopped using OpenTable because of rampant no-shows and reservation scalping.

Meanwhile, closer to home, one of our beloved local bloggers and an editor for one of our beloved local publications will moderating a panel on food writing with some seriously heavy hitters. Plebiscite's Chris Ying, who is also an editor at McSweeny's, will keep Harold McGee, Michael Pollan, and Bonnie Azab Powell on topic during an 826 Valencia discussion titled, "Food Writing: the politics, the science," on Feb. 25.

Our area is a national epicenter of restaurants and dining trends. Could we also be coming into our own as a center of food media, or are we just getting lucky this month?

Differences in bicoastal dining [SF Gate/Between Meals]
Corton [MenuPages]
Corton [Official Site]
New! Seamless Self-Promoting Pants [Plebiscite]
Food Writing: the politics, the science [826 Valencia]

Restaurant reviews happen!

Here are the first and last sentences of SFist's review of
Orson:

An 18-year-old Oakland man was shot and killed in a Hunters Point public housing project... No arrests have been made.

Man Shot to Death in Hunters Point [SFist]
Orson [MenuPages]
Orson [Official Site]

Here is an example of why we don't get to be an air traffic controller or a fireman or some other job with grownup consequences: A few months ago, a headline appeared on Coldmud: "Snail Prices Rocket In France." Instead of drawing the conclusion that snails were becoming more expensive, we eagerly clicked on the story with the mental image of a snail walking around a rocket in a used rocket lot, kicking the tail fins, and fidgeting with the price tag. What the hell?

A similar thing happened just now while reading about Michael Bauer's visit to New York. Bauer dined at, and will officially tell you about, The John Dory, Corton, and Convivio. But of course, he ate more than three meals on his visit, and we like the way he slipped in mention of another New York institution, Shake Shack. After his dinner at John Dory, Bauer decided he needed an evening top-off in the form of a "hamburger nightcap."

So you see where this is going. For a second we looked up from the screen, giggling, with a mental image of a nice, warm, cone-shaped cap made of, what, woven-together buns? With a little lettuce ball up top? And meat inside? Hilarious. And hey, it's cold in New York right now, so useful as well. Bauer mentioned he ate his Shake Shack burger outside in the park at night, so maybe he needed hamburger earmuffs as well?

New hot spots in cold New York
The John Dory [MenuPages]
The John Dory [Official Site]
Corton [MenuPages]
Corton [Official Site]
Convivio [MenuPages]
Convivio [Official Site]
Shake Shack [MenuPages]
Shake Shack [Official Site]

[Photos: Via Magic Makers (nightcap), Projets (Frink with earmuffs)

Let's take a minute to revisit Zuni Cafe, where we participated in a mocking pile-on back in August. Aside from that one (admittedly hilarious) gaffe, of serving a whole nectarine rolling around on a plate as an $8 dessert, this place generally deserves a lot of credit. See that “piccola meringata” with Meyer lemon cream and wild huckleberry sauce? That's the kind of dessert that you can usually expect here.

We had a particularly festive lunch at Zuni with one Alexis Wright over the holidays, at which we tasted one of the best hamburgers ever, as well as 1,000 (ok, 12) oysters and clams. We didn't take any pictures because in theory we were off the clock.

Well, No Salad As A Meal is never off the clock, and they have a bunch of really beautiful shots of what seems like an equally festive brunch at the cafe. Fancy French toast, rabbit salad, and chickpea ragout shine, as well as that fantastic dessert. There's plenty more Zuni food porn over there. Take a look!

Zuni Cafe, San Francisco [No Salad As A Meal]
Zuni Cafe [MenuPages]
Zuni Cafe [Official Site]

[Photo: Via No Salad As A Meal]

A couple of San Francisco restaurants made it into this Wall Street Journal article today. Beyond the general point that restaurants are offering relatively cheap meals to keep customers dining out during the slow economy, we learned something specific and useful: Fifth Floor has an honor bar, at which you pour your own wine and stuff money into a box to pay for it.

Now, the benefits of this extend far beyond the obvious temptation to "forget" to feed the kitty. For one thing, on a Friday night, it's next to impossible to get a bartender's attention at a lot of bars. This seems like a possible workaround for short-staffing. Also, you can pour as much or little as you want, thereby lessening your intake manually, or lessening your need for trips to the bar.

Aside from that little tidbit, there wasn't a whole lot of use to San Franciscans in the WSJ article. But if it inspired you to run out and grab a cheap prix-fixe, you can look over on today's calendar page at SF City Dish to find a handful.

Also, on the topic of cheap wine, Larkspur's Lark Creek Inn sent out an e-mail this week saying their half-priced bottles will remain on the menu for the next couple of months. Nice work!

What's Not Cooking [Wall Street Journal]
Fifth Floor [MenuPages]
Fifth Floor [Official Site]
SF City Dish [Official Site]
Lark Creek Inn [Official Site]

[Photo: Via habitatgirl/flickr]

You know, for such a food-fanatical region, there is a surprising lack of eat-focused local television. We've got Check Please, Bay Area, and there are some feature segments on local news shows that get into the dining scene a bit, but not much else.

So it was neat to see a promo for a new show focusing on local restaurants, San Francisco Bay Chefs, due to premier on KRON 4 on March 7. We got on the phone with producer/director Leonora Fishbein, who gave us the skinny:

"The general idea is that we go on location to the restaurant, we interview patrons, we interview the owners, the chef talks a little about his cuisine, we show the restaurant, then in the actual kitchen, in the restaurant, the chef prepares a dish and shows us how it’s done," she said.

Each hour-long show will contain 11 such five-minute segments, each hosted by the restaurant's chef, Fishbein said. Restaurants will often show up repeatedly, featuring different dishes each week. They've got contracts signed with a few places, and are in talks with others — we'll drop some names later.

Fishbein and operations director Marcus Monka will start shooting and editing next month with their production company, Melior Media, for their March premier. They've signed with KRON for a year, but Fishbein is confident they'll last longer than that. "This show’s going to be on forever,” she said. Well, let's hope it doesn't feel that way while we're watching.

Anyway, here's the trailer, and check back with us to hear who you can expect to see featured.

KRON 4 [Official Site]
Melior Media [Official Site]

A new burger has been declared the best in San Francisco by a writer with all the authority of an honest-to-god Website behind them, and we're really hoping a controversy erupts this time. But it probably won't.

You may remember a post a while back where we sort of tried to gently blow on the flames smoldering over the question of the city's best burger. In September, local food writer Jen Maiser ran an item in Serious Eats declaring Spruce's burger the best in the city. A tiny dustup followed in the comments section, with some arguing for Joe's Cable Car, but it never really took on the intensity of the burrito battles of yore.

Anyway, now AOL's in-flight magazine equivalent Digital City has declared Taylor's Automatic Refresher the best burger in town, and we're going to once more hope the internets go to the mat about this.

Anybody want to chime in with a brutally partisan opinion on burger bests in this great city? Bueller?

Best Burgers in the USA: Upper Crust Burgers [Digital City]
Go to Spruce for the Best Burger in San Francisco [Serious Eats]
Spruce [MenuPages]
Spruce [Official Site]
Taylor's Automatic Refresher [MenuPages]
Taylor's Automatic Refresher [Official Site]

Previously: Let The Burger Battles Begin [MPSF]

[Photo: Via Taylor's Automatic Refresher]

It's been a while since we tossed a foodie thread your way, so it's good we're getting back to that with a classic argument. Dim Sum comes second only to burritos as a dish on which many San Franciscans have fierce opinions and strong (some might even say blind) loyalties.

The basic divide in the Chowhound thread seems to come down to Koi Palace vs. Yank Sing, but we know there are a lot of little spots tucked away in Chinatown or out Clement or Irving Street in the deep avenues that can give those two behemoths a run for their money. Anybody want to share their secrets?

Best Dim Sum in the Bay [Chowhound]
Yank Sing [MenuPages]
Yank Sing [Official Site]
Koi Palace [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Navin75/flickr]

We didn't make it to the Fancy Food Show at Moscone Center this past weekend, and now it's over, and there's no chance of picking up a last-minute helping of Baconaise Lite, or a leftover bottle of lychee soda.

But there are thousands who didn't miss the thing, and seemingly every single one of the attendees has a blog, or even better a flickr stream, so you can hit up the whole thing in cyberspace. Hooray!

Here's where we've been reading all about it:

• Local fave Cooking With The Single Guy has some nice shots and descriptions of the invite-only Food Fête.

• Eat Cheap, Eat Well, Eat Up! has some nice, news-papery comments from attendees, as well as overviews of trends.

• Flavorista gets a little more in-depth about a few select products, including that lychee soda we mentioned.

• And over at Food for the Thoughtless, Michael Procopio has a rather in-depth, essay-feeling post on the whole big shebang, including a stop by the Bacon Salt / Baconaise / Baconaise Lite booth. Weird stuff.

• For photos, a good place to start would be c(h)ristine's flickr stream.

Fancy Food Shows [Specialty Food]

[Photo: Via Bacon Salt Blog]

It seems a little awkward to praise the state capitol for having "made it," but those are the first two words that came to mind on hearing the news that Sacramento will finally get a Zagat guide. The Sacramento Bee reported that that city is in a restaurant boom, and that the guide is the result of popular demand:

The decision to create a Sacramento guide, Zagat said, came from repeated requests from visitors to the company's Web site, www.zagat.com.

The guide, which costs $5.95 and goes on sale next week, tabulated the opinions of 1,264 people who ate some 200,000 meals. The 62-page guide contains ratings of 192 restaurants.

By comparison, there are 2,073 restaurants listed in the New York City guide and 1,212 in the San Francisco version. Zagat targets dining aficionados.

Zagat Survey releases guide to Sacramento restaurants [Sacramento Bee]
Zagat [Official Site]

[Image: Via Amazon.com]

Amanita phalloides, or "death cap" mushrooms. Do Not Eat! (no matter what the newspaper tells you)

This would be funny if it wasn't deadly dangerous: On the very same day it ran a story about an Albany family that was poisoned by a batch of wild "death cap" mushrooms they picked by mistake, the Contra Costa Times accidentaly ran a photo of a death cap mushroom on the cover of their food section — which focused on wild mushrooms. Oops.

A correction today read,

A photo of this mushroom on the cover of Wednesday's Food section was incorrectly identified as a giant morel. It's actually either a death cap or a death cap look-a-like, a mushroom ethical foragers never harvest due to the danger of confusion.

The two 11-year-olds and their 72-year-old grandmother, New York resident Sarah Elbert, became violently ill after eating Amanita phalloides mushrooms — also known as Death Caps — that they picked while on a family hike at Mount Tamalpais State Park on Dec. 28.

The three ate the mushrooms later that evening in a soup and became ill with intestinal cramps, vomiting and diarrhea during the night. They sought care at an East Bay hospital but were sent home after a blood test. When they went back for more tests, doctors referred them to the UC San Francisco Medical Center...

Dr. [Kent] Olson [medical director of the San Francisco division of the California Poison Control System] said the mushrooms are common in the Bay Area this time of year, and can easily be found in parks in Marin County, the East Bay, the South Bay, and the Santa Cruz area.

"They're good-looking mushrooms and are said to taste good," he said. "Their poison is not removed or disabled by cooking them."

Those who eat the mushrooms typically feel fine for eight to 12 hours, Olson said. Then, stomach symptoms begin. Some patients die of the fluid loss they experience during severe vomiting and diarrhea. Soon after, toxins begin to cause liver failure.

"Usually within two to five days, people worsen suddenly, and then they may die or get a liver transplant," Olson said.

Albany family recovers after eating poison mushrooms [Co Co Times]
Taming the 'shroom [Co Co Times]
Correction: Mushrooms [Co Co Times]

[Photo: Via Occidental College Department of Biology]

So it looks like fellow restaurant 2.0 website Yelp has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, even as it navigates tricky legal waters stateside.

The New York Times reports today that yelp.co.uk is up and running, allowing Brits to weigh in on their chippy or geezer or what have you. According to the Times, Yelp will face some homegrown competition in London, but when we browsed through the site briefly this morning, a few users had already gotten the review ball rolling. Yelp iteslf already has 19 reviews, most glowing.

Meanwhile, back home in San Francisco, a chiropractic business has sued a Yelper after he left negative reviews. If the case goes to trial and the chiropractor wins, it could set a precedent that will make reviewers on Yelp and plenty other sites (maybe even this one!) think twice before they exercise their constitutional right to free speech. Yikes! It's a tense time, people. Cross your fingers and your ts.

Yelp Jumps the Pond [New York Times]
S.F. Yelp user faces lawsuit over review [SF Gate]
Yelp.co.uk [Official Site]

So after all our cheerleading and buildup, we were on vacation when Burritoeater finally announced the winner of the 2008 Slab Scrum on Chirstmas Eve. Fail!

Anyway, congratulations to El Norteno, the truck that keeps Hall of Justice denizens fat and happy. We were pretty glad to see this four-wheeler claim the title, beating out Papalote by just .23 mustache. It's got underdog cache, and it's a win for those in the burrito dessert that is deep SoMa. The rest of the scrum seems to be pretty much regulars. You can check out the full results here.

2008 Slab Scrum Finals Wrap-Up [Burritoeater]
Papalote [MenuPages]
Papalote [Official Site]
El Norteno [Burritoeater]

Burritoeater's Slab Scrum 2008 Update [MenuPages: SF]
This Year's Slab Scrum A Win For Justice [MenuPages: SF]

[Photo: Via Burritoeater]

Perhaps you read when we got all worked up in yesterday's national post about the Kansas City waiter who got the gigantic tip. We were momentarily sad that we had hung up our own apron in favor of a keyboard and not sore feet, as we missed our chance at such an experience forever. Well, it turns out all hope is not lost.

Yesterday, Richie, of Line Cook, posted about receiving an anonymous $300 tip along with a nice note thanking him for blogging. Amazing. We're not holding out any hope of our own, as this kind of thing happens less often than winning the lottery (unless you have 1,100 scratchers), but we're very happy for Richie, and also weirdly spooked by the timing.

It's all happening again... [Line Cook]
Good Reads: Get 'Em While They Are Hot [Eye on Blogs]

Previously:
National: KC Waiter Gets Big Tip, Food Blogger Jealous [MenuPages: SF]

[Photo: Via Houston's Clear Thinkers]

Not just more superfluous Burritoeater fluffing: There's something real to be gained from this year's Slab Scrum, which is nailbitingly close to its final hour. So far, relative unknown El Norteno has held its own against heavyweights like Taqueria San Francisco and Taqueria El Castillito. Now, the competition has come down to two (El Norteno vs. Papalote), and even if El Norte loses out, it still wins for the acclaim its getting.

But the real winners in all this are the lawyers, cops, investigators, secretaries, medical examiners, judges, bail bondsmen and criminals who spend their days in and around the Hall of Justice, at 850 Bryant St., just across from El Norteno. Because damn if there's not a frightful dearth of decent places to eat around there. Bechelli's Flower Market Cafe is alright, but it's just a little too far away, and is a dollar-sign too expensive for an every-day lunch option. There's Delideleon, which was a personal staple when we were a denizen of the Hall of Justice press room, and they're fine, but can you handle deli sandwiches every day? No, you can't. Even if their meatloaf is off the charts/chain/handle, etc.

So it's a boon for those poor workers, defendants, and witnesses alike, of 850, to have one of the best taco trucks in the city right across the street. Our only regret: We never ordered a burrito there. Tacos, plenty of times. The occasional torta, but for some reason, no "slabs." Well, perhaps its time to take a stroll down to the ol' courthouse once more to sample the lunch that could have been.

2008 Slab Scrum [Burritoeater]
Taqueria El Castillito [MenuPages]
Taqueria San Francisco
Papalote [MenuPages]
Papalote [Official Site]
Bechelli's Flower Market Cafe [MenuPages]
Bechelli's Flower Market Cafe [Official Site]
Delideleon [MenuPages]

Not that it has a wit to do with the local dining scene, but you may enjoy this anyway: We think the below celebrity chef (who himself recently appeared in his first music video) bears a much closer resemblance than we ever realized to a certain washed-up rocker, whose 15-years-in-the-making latest album just flopped like a fat guy on the high dive:

Think About it.

Mario Batali Makes His Music-Video Debut [Grub Street]
Axl Rose Kills US Economy [Gawker]

[Photos: Via Gawker (Axl Rose) and Sam Spade SF (Mario Batali)]

It's possible that Cafe Gratitude — the raw vegan restaurant with the self-affirming menu items — is low fruit for teasing. But if you thought the restaurant wouldn't take that very fruit, cut it up into a bowl with rice, and charge you $10 while calling it "I am regular," you're wrong.

So we didn't mind a bit when, in SFist's poll asking which local business its readers would actually like to see fail, Cafe Gratitude represented a huge share of the vote. Especially funny was this comment:

I'd like the pesto pizza.

The what?

The pesto pizza.

I'm sorry, you have to say it.

No.

Look, if you don't say it, you won't get it.

Okay, fine. I'd like the I Am Fulfilled.

You ARE fulfilled!

Fuck you.

We're guessing it has to do with the fact that CG offers a cuisine that, while more available here than in other cities, is still rare enough that if you can do it well, you'll necessarily get business. And they do seem to do a pretty good job. Finally, owners Matthew and Terces Engelhart may put on a hippy dippy act, but they're actually quite sharp business-people, with a few published books, a line of flax clothing, and a fairly booming trade in workshops on, um, Abundance.

So yeah, SFist readers might be a vocal (and hilarious) anti-Grati contingent, but it's going to take more than a handful of net-savvy disgruntled Santa Cruz refugees to derail the express train of CG's success. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next gloomy year, as it does not seem there is a space on the menu for an item called, "I am Unemployed and Broke."

Wish Your Were Dead: The Poll [SFist]
Cafe Gratitude [MenuPages]
Cafe Gratitude [Official Site]

[Photo: Via wrestlingentropy/flickr]

Want to see something gross, and possibly NSFW? Check out the photos of these girls bathing in the sink at the Redding-area KFC where they worked. At first, we were like, "ha! How funny, restaurant employees being gross," but after blushing through that photo set, we're convinced this article was just a ploy to show some 17-year-old girls in their undies.

Three KFC employees in hot water for dip in restaurant's sink [Redding.com]

The other day, while we stood around complaining about Twitter, a friend said this gem of a new-media one-liner:: "Can't we all just blog like adults here? Jesus!" We laughed and laughed, but really, the answer is no, we can't seem to.

The New York Times has some jerk live-blogging Thanksgiving. Some newspaper in Colorado sent a reporter to "tweet" a funeral. Most recently, A16 chef Nate Appleman has been documenting his every move on Eater, leading to this conversation between ourselves and MenuPages: Chicago editor Helen Rosner:

Helen: who the f*ck is nate appleman?
me: chef at A-16
which is a restaurant in SF
Helen: eater is being his personal twitter
me: haha

Caroline was right. Can't we just blog like adults here?

Right This Second [Eater]
A16 [MenuPages]
A16 [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Wikipedia]

Bay Area sports stadiums claimed second-place spots for their vegetarian-friendliness with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals this year. This is rather surprising. We'd have thought the area could snag at least one first-place win. But we'll try not to be that parent who's super disappointed in your A-. Good job, Bay Area.

Yesterday, Eye On Blogs directed us to a Dec. 1 post on PETA's blog, naming McAfee Stadium (that's Oakland Coliseum for those who still have a soul) the second most vegetarian-friendly in the NFL. Previously, the group had named AT&T park at no. 2 in major league baseball.

First place spots went to the San Diego Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium in the NFL and the Philadelphia Phillies' Citizens Bank Park for baseball. This had everything to do with that stadium offering mock versions of Philadelphia's many meaty classics. Vegetarian cheesesteak anyone?

Top Five Vegetarian-Friendly NFL Stadiums [PETA]
PETA's 2008 Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks [PETA]

[Photo: Via bk2000]

Today is a lot of things. It's Wednesday. It's about 60 degrees out, it's trash day in our old apartment. But you know what today is not? It's not Yelp Day.

Which makes it like most days, really, except that it was going around that the mayor's office was going to declare today some kind of Yelp-based holiday, but then was all, "psyche!" That's if you believe the Yelp people. Mayoral spokesman Nate Ballard basically just said, no, it's not happening, and didn't get into details with the Examiner about whether that was a change of plan.

Now, Yelp is sort of our competition, so we're not crying about them not getting their own civic holiday, but they did get one last year, according to the Ex, so it seems a little chilly to snub them now.

SFist suggested that this may lower the mayor's rating on Yelp, but we're pretty convinced that only getting mauled by a bear or splashed with acid could do such a thing. The vast majority of four and five-star reviews focus mainly on his looks, while the bad reviews called out his lack of response to problems like homelessness and unsolved murders. And truly, who cares about the homicide rate when you've got hair like that?

Mayor reverses his Yelp review [SF Examiner]
Yelp Day Never Happened [SFist]
Mayor Gavin Newsom [Yelp]

Hey, take a look at James Oliver Curry's predictions for food trends in 2009 over at Epicurious. Look at how ahead-of-the-curve San Francisco is on everything. Neat, eh? Though not a surprise, we know.

All up and down the list, SF is like, "check, check, checkity check that too." Like, no. 1, "value is the new sustainable," well hell, we've got both in spades. Or no. 7, "regional roasters are the new Starbucks." Dude, just try and find a cup of coffee that wasn't roasted in some garage down the street. In fact, SF is mentioned by name in many of these predictions, and even where it's not, it's still right there with an example (La Mar Cebicheria was obviously the inspiration for no. 3).

Only thing we'd have added, especially with this year's inception of Dynamo Donuts, is "Donuts are the new cupcakes," but maybe that's the kind of trend that should just fade, like the food world's obsession with bacon (groan).

Anyway, read the whole list here, and then go pat yourself on the back and buy yourself a congratulatory cup of locally roasted coffee and an inexpensive, organic, farmers'-market apple from Sonoma. High five!

Epicurious Predicts Top 10 Food Trends for 2009 [Epicurious]
Dynamo Donuts [MenuPages]
La Mar Cebicheria [MenuPages]
La Mar Cebicheria [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Phil Hawksworth/flickr]

In case you are not a voracious reader of other cities' food blogs, we thought you should know that Chicago food writer and general editorial whiz Liz Grossman is in town, and has a series of pretty good posts bringing a fresh perspective to some of our local staples on her Elizabites blog.

Grossman has been in the area for about a week, it seems, and has hit some good spots, including UUbuntu, Tartine Bakery, The Slanted Door, and Cafe Gratitude. We especially liked her take on Gratitude, cause you know we're all thinking it:

The service was so-so and ordering is a little annoying as every menu item is a warm and fuzzy self-affirmation like the “I am renewed” organic wheat grass shot or “I am insightful” veggie springrolls, and you feel pressured to say the damn phrase while placing your order. But it’s worth the embarassment for “I am enlightened” enchilada of the day (ours: jicama and apple) with spicy salsa verde, cashew sour cream and Bhutanese red rice, and a surprisingly flavorful “I am cheerful” sun burger made with pumpkin seeds and walnuts and served on sweet onion sunflower bread.

Elizabites On The Move [Elizabites]
Ubuntu [Official Site]
Tartine Bakery [Official Site]
The Slanted Door [Official Site]
Cafe Gratitude [Official Site]

[Photo: Via Elizabites]

Is it bad that we got all giggly after reading Michael Bauer's tacit assertion that there are no worthwhile dining destinations between San Francisco and Palo Alto? Probably. But he may be right. The funny thing was just that he was all, "yeah, I agree, reader. San Mateo sucks it. Anybody got a problem with that?"

Just because we are a provincial know-nothing without a car, and therefore can't speak up in San Mateo's defense, doesn't mean there is nothing to say. At this early stage, though, there are no comments one way or the other on Bauer's blog. Are you from the northern Peninsula? Go defend your territory!

Why aren't there better restaurants outside San Francisco?

[Photo: Via VirtualErn/flickr]

Hang all your hopes on this one: San Francisco's only cheftestant this season

For those of you who a) really love Top Chef and can never get enough of it, b) don't watch Top Chef but want to sound like you do when you go to cocktail parties or to work at your food-blogging job, or c) just want a refresher before tonight's big Season Five premier, New York magazine's Grub Street blog (our corporate sibling), has an exhaustive rundown of the doings of cast members over the last four seasons.

Gosh, we never realized how San Francisco-centric this show is, but we are not surprised. There are seven past contestants with a local connection. This season, there is just one, Absinthe's Jamie Lauren. Wish her well.

A couple of highlights from the roundup include news that Tiffani Faison, from way back in the first season, is planning to open a restaurant in San Francisco (more on that later), and that Circa executive chef Erik Hopfinger (Season Four) is designing a line of chef coats called Piratewear. They're sleeveless. Um, yeah.

'Top Chef': Where Are They Now? [Grub Street]
Absinthe [MenuPages]
Absinthe [Official Site]

[Image: Via Bravo]

It's always the same question, isn't it?

The Epi-Log, Friday, had the most elegantly phrased, thought-provoking version we've ever read of the question omnipresent on all San Francisco food-related message boards: "I'm planning a visit. Where should I eat?" Honestly, open Yelp or Chowhound right now and you're almost guaranteed to find a version of this thread.

Only this time, our questioner deserves a bit more credit. Raphael Kadushin is a real-live food writer who lived in the city previously, more or less knows the scene, and already has his list of favorites. He seems to be asking for new additions. So help him out, readers! And while you're at it, we'd love to hear your latest favorites, too.

Rediscovering San Francisco's Restaurants [Epi-Log]

[Image: Via San Francisco Sentinel]

We didn't see much coverage of last month's Asian Culinary Forum at the time, but just this week, an article showed up in the Vancouver Sun, of all places, summarizing the main points of Sunday's all-day symposium. It's a succinct overview of the different key tastes of Asian food, and worth a read for those unfamiliar with the Asian palate.

After reading the piece, we got to ruminating on the lack of coverage, but a blog search turned up a great rundown on the workshops from Vanessa Barrington.

Now we're really bummed we missed it. Sounds like a great event. But don't you fear. MPSF is going to bring you coverage from, count 'em, two different events this weekend. Stay tuned for more on that.

Asian Culinary Forum [Official Site]
Asia offers six taste elements [Vancouver Sun]
Asian Culinary Forum [Vanessa Barrington]

The nice thing about being a restaurant critic is that it usually doesn't matter what your politics are. You don't have to studiously separate your opinion from the facts, as you would if you were, say, a city hall reporter, because it's your job to offer an opinion, and and politics usually has nothing to do with it.

That's why it's been interesting to see Michael Bauer deal with the real-life merging of food and politics in the form of Proposition 2 on tomorrow's ballot. First, he wrote in support of the measure. Perhaps, though, he got a little heat for directly offering an opinion? Whatever the reason, Bauer seems to have felt that his position needed a bit of shoring up, and this morning ran a piece clarifying his thoughts on his job and his politics:

To do the job properly, I have to check my attitude at the door and try to concentrate just on what's on the plate. Last week, for example, I wrote about Prop 2 on my blog. If I politicized my job, I'd trash any restaurant that used cage-raised meat. I'm not going to do that; when I evaluate a restaurant, I concentrate solely on the experience.

As a critic you have to know your preferences, examine them carefully, and then put them aside so they don't influence the review. It may come across at times that I'm having a bad day, but if you look at the criticism, it's the restaurant that's having a bad day.

Do critics have bad days? [Between Meals]
My view on Prop 2 [Between Meals]

[Photo: Via Orin Optiglot/flickr]

Forget your normal food-porn fetishizing El Bulli or Momofuku Ko. Those joints are played. Remember that bento box flickr stream? Also played. Today's Newsday spread on school lunches represents the hottest, edgiest realm of lascivious food photography. Or something.

Anyway, the story is that Newsday profiled three different school lunches, examples of "typical," "ideal," and "dream" offerings, two of which (on the higher end) hail from Berkeley. That's where self-styled "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper comes up with school meal plans, and writes books. Here's what she serves some kids in the 510:

Impressive. Our school meals always looked a lot more like the "typical" example. Check out Newsday for that and a whole bunch of other exciting action shots from school kitchens. Hott.

A profile of 3 school lunches [Newsday]
Lunch Lessons [Ann Cooper's Official Site]
Momofuku Ko [MenuPages]
Momofuku Ko [Official Site]

First came the demise of Mother's Cookies, in Oakland. Now say goodbye to your own mother's cookies, as the Chronicle reports on the waning days of the school bake sale.

Seems those cookies and pies and bundt cakes violate state restrictions on selling junk food at school.

The state guidelines, passed by the Legislature in 2005 and gradually being implemented at districts around the state, require that snacks sold on campuses during the school day not contain more than 35 percent of calories from fat, 1 percent of calories from saturated fat and 35 percent sugar by weight. Snacks must also not exceed 175 calories at elementary schools or 250 calories at middle and high schools.

School bake sales victims of nutrition rules [SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Via Joelf]

Check it: The Merc is hot on the trail of Zhongyi Liu, former executive chef of the Grand Hotel Beijing who created a cult following for Albany's China Village. Seems the award-winning chef has quietly picked up and hauled off to Fresno, where he can finally open his own restaurant. And Bay Area residents are following. So much for eating locally!

"Before, we were all working for others," Zhongyi Liu says. "This was the chance we had to start our own business."

But there was a problem. Hunan's old customers, accustomed to the former owner's Chinese-American dishes, had a hard time adjusting to Zhongyi Liu's regional Northern food and Sichuan cuisine. With the restaurant struggling, one of the owners left the business and returned to the Bay Area.

The longtime customers would say: "We came to Hunan Restaurant. We want a Hunan dinner," says Hunan co-owner Kathy Kao.

As Zhongyi Liu was coaxing guests to move beyond Chinese chicken salad and General Tso chicken, his Bay Area fans were looking for him.

Top Chinese chef finds a home in Fresno and Bay Area fans are flocking to his restaurant [San Jose Mercury News]
Hunan Chef's Tasting Menu - Oct 18, 08 (Fresno) [Chowhound]
The Hunan Restaurant [Official Site]

[Photo: Via The Hunan Restaurant]

In addition to an achy neck due to excessive nodding in agreement, the article in Slate today on birthday dinners gave us some pangs of nostalgia. Writer John Swansburg bashes the practice of dragging one's friends out to not-so-moderately priced restaurants and forcing them to buy you dinner, to which we say, "here here."

While it's great to be on the receiving end of such affairs, there's nothing worse than shelling out more than you were willing to spend on your girlfriend for your anniversary, to buy your one-semester college roommate a steak.

However, perhaps there's some middle ground? What if there was a place where you could enjoy a festive atmosphere, some genuinely good drinks, kitschy and festive decor, and at fun, if not good, food, for about $20 a person? There was once, and it was called La Rondalla.

Continue reading "We Miss You, La Rondalla" »

Still haven't gotten a chance to check out La Mar Cebicheria? Or do you have unanswered questions about the first outpost north of the border? We dug up this YouTube interview with chef/founder Gaston Acurio, which we think should be fascinating. However, it's in Spanish, so we only understand it about 60 percent. Perhaps you'll have better luck? At least there are lovely pictures.

After the jump, a lesson from bartender Enrique Sanchez (who we met at Slow Foods, and who really is a miracle-worker) on the making of a signature Pisco Punch.

Continue reading "La Mar SF Interview With Gaston Acurio (En Espanol)" »

How did we miss Michael Bauer's little roundup Friday of Napa's (and a few SF) hot-spots for fried chicken? Well, we have it now. In case you missed it yourself, it's definitely worth checking out. Turns out SPQR is doing fried chicken on Tuesdays, and Jack Falstaff is doing it sometimes, too.

Then, of course, you've got the folks at The Front Porch, who have been perfecting the art for a couple years now, and Hard Knox Cafe, which has been quietly churning out near-perfect plates of the golden-brown on Third Street forever.

Bauer is contemplating replacing his Pizza Friday series with Fried Chicken Friday. Honestly, we can't think of a better way to end the week.

Great fried chicken in Napa [Between Meals]

[Photo: Via misslaurenlee/flickr]

Two "best of" lists came to our attention today, from two different media outlets, both honoring San Francisco. High five!

We aren't too familiar with iexplore.com, but since when has lack of knowledge kept us from spouting off about something? The adventure travel site issued a press release Monday listing its Top Ten Culinary Destinations, and gave us slot 10. That's fine and all, but we can't find anything describing their criteria or even noting the list on the site, so we're accepting the honor with a "meh."

But the other thing, the bigger thing, is that Conde Nast Traveler readers chose San Francisco as their top city for the 16th year in a row! We also got four hotels on the board, including the Four Seasons, checking in as no. 14 in the United States.

Not bad for a day's work, San Francisco, not bad.

Top Ten Culinary Destinations [PR Newswire]
iexplore.com [Offical Site]
San Francisco voted #1 U.S. City to visit by Conde Nast Traveler Readers [SFist]
2008 Readers' Choice Awards [Conde Nast Traveler]

[Photo: The Four Seasons poking up behind St. Patrick's church in San Francisco via Allan Ferguson/flickr]

We were hopping from one foot to the other in front of the e-mailbox all weekend, waiting for the October issue of Burritoeater's Intestinal Apocalypse. When it came, it bore fantastic news: The participants of the 2008 Slab Scrum (Burritoeater's biannual tournament for the "Great Mustache" award for best burrito in San Francisco) have been announced.

We were a bit surprised to see the Golden Gate/Larkin location representing Taqueria El Castillito, instead of the Mission Street location. Why, it was just this past New Year's Eve that we personally watched Charles Burritoeater award 9.08 mustaches to a breakfast behemoth right there at 2092 Mission St. But the times, they change. It's 2008, baby, and apparently time for a shakeup.

Another surprise: Taqueria Can-cun, with which we have never been terribly impressed, seems to have been performing strong enough, recently, to make the cut. Screw football season. This here's the tournament for us.

2008 SLAB SCRUM PREVIEW: The Road to the Great Mustache [Burritoeater]
Taqueria El Castillito [MenuPages]
Taqueria Cancun [MenuPages]