The TableHopper is an fun email that we look forward to every Tuesday. Since you have to be a tiny nimble thing to gracefully hop on tables, we find this food-and-restaurant-scene newsletter incredibly sexy. Were we to jump on a table, we would look as ridiculous as Tom Cruise on Oprah's couch, and the table would crash under our weight. Lithe we are not. We leave this sport to the playful Marcia Gagliardi, a San Francisco-based food writer, who kindly agreed to answer our questions.

Marcia, could you describe in a few words what/who is the tablehopper?

“The tablehopper” is an insider weekly e-column/newsletter about the SF dining scene, chock-full of gossip about what’s opening, closing, or doing something new, plus entertaining restaurant reviews covering haute dining to cheap eats, new hotspots to old favorites. I also like to cover culinary events, wine tastings, new bars, and random star sightings.

Chat with Marcia after the jump!

All by yourself, you have almost as much content in your weekly newsletter as in the Chron food section. We are amazed. Our editors think we are real slackers because of you. How do you do it? Do you outsource the writing to a team in India? Do you take 'roids? Don't you have a 9-to-5?

[I’m blushing like I just finished a bottle of Barbera.] It’s amazing what a food and restaurant obsession will do to the average human, and I’m not just talking about my figure. I created tablehopper as an outlet for my obsession, and a way to highlight restaurants and chefs I’m fired up about. I’ve been a freelance writer for six years, and I can’t tell you how much fun it is to be able to write in my own voice, and on my favorite subject. I literally have to restrain myself from writing too much each week. I also have to stop pretending tablehopper is my full-time job, because it doesn’t pay me (yet), and I need to keep some focus on my other gigs that do pay.

We are very impressed that you spent so much time/effort putting this together (if it does not take you any time, we hate you). What is your business model? Is Tablehopper VC funded a la 1999?

No need to be a hater—I had it in the works for ten months before it even launched. I also have my über-talented designer, Sasha, to thank for creating such a great look! Tablehopper needs to start making me some ducats, stat, because the weekly design and emailing service fees are definitely a drain on my freelance writer funds. Now that my subscriber numbers are up, the plan is to start selling advertising on the newsletter, highlighting products/services in the travel, liquor, food, and luxury categories. No restaurant ads, though—I’m not into conflicts of interest.

Thanks for your recommendations for our birthday dinner. Do many other people take advantage of the concierge feature [Ed:Marcia recommends the right place for you if you ask nicely on her website], or is it just us? For what occasion are they looking for recommendations? Where do you send them?

It’s funny, I get a “tip please” request almost every day. I seem to get a lot of wedding and banquet-style event requests (not my favorite), and all kinds of special occasion requests, like good birthday and anniversary destinations. I also get the occasional out-of-towner wondering what’s good, or new. I’ve helped steer readers who are looking for a specific cuisine or style or vibe to all kinds of restaurants, like places doing unique and inspired cuisine, like Winterland and Aziza; authentically San Francisco-offbeat places, like Blue Plate or Bar Crudo; and even Tajine for a reader who wanted a restaurant serving Halal meat. My “tip please” service brings me a lot of pleasure because I’m able to support the places I truly believe in by turning people on to them.

And you provide the recommendation against the promise of a report. Do you have a collection agency running around busting knees with crowbars to get the feedback? What kind of feedback?

You’d think my Southern Italian last name would be enough! It actually bums me out when people don’t write back. It’s kind of an honor system—I spend the time to share my knowledge and suggest a few places, even telling them what table to request, or if I know the GM, I’ll call and ask them to treat them extra-nice. You’d think I would get a report, right? Nope. So each month, I go through my folder of people who haven’t responded and send them a friendly reminder. If I don’t hear back, they don’t get to use the tip please service anymore. They are dead to me! (LOL)

What are your SF credentials?
I grew up in San Mateo, and after a stint in L.A., and Italy, I moved to SF in 1994. Some folks know me as a food writer, but others know me for my parties—I’ve been throwing soirees since 2002, including +Rehab+ and feather with my disco associate, Ryan Robles.

You contribute the Tablehopper to the Northside. Would you promise us you won't get all Michael Bauer or Meredith Brody on us, and you'll keep checking places all over town?

My Tablehopper column for The Northside is just about the Northside area (Geary St. to the Marina, North Beach to Sea Cliff) but for tablehopper.com, I go all over Dodge. Just last night I was out on Irving and 11th gorging on delicious Vietnamese food, and you certainly won’t find good Korean BBQ in Pac Heights, you know? Hell, I’ll schlep all the way to Princeton for the fish ‘n’ chips at Barbara’s Fish Trap.

You have pictures of you on your web site. Do you get recognized? We at Gastronomique are still waiting for a restaurant to print in their window a review of ours. Come on, they put up Dan Leone's columns, why not us! Are you pinned in the window somewhere?

What the hell? Perhaps you should get a publicist! I was pretty fired up to see my Northside Tablehopper column explaining there’s no Nick at Nick’s Crispy Tacos taped in the window of Nick Fasanella’s new place, Nicky’s Pizzeria Rustica, which is where you will find him. Some restaurants are beginning to link to their reviews on tablehopper.com on their websites, which is cool. As for me getting recognized, I’m only undercover when I’m on that kind of an assignment, but otherwise, the tablehopper is all about meeting people. I call it hocializing.

Do you have an "only in SF" story?

After eleven years here, I better! One evening when I was riding my bike on my way to a restaurant, I found a huge wad of drug dealer cash in the middle of the street. I paid for a series of cooking classes at Tante Marie’s with it.

What question would you wish we'd asked you?

So where can people send you bottles of Billecart-Salmon Rose?

Just send it to the SFist office, we'll forward it to you. Thank you!