Food: October 2009 Archives

A couple months back we attended a panel discussion that included local cocktail blogger and booze aficionado Camper English (he of Alcademics fame), and as a hand-out Camper prepared a locally-based glossary, if you will, of cocktail style varieties which included Bay Area venues where one might sample examples of these styles.

Yesterday, we gave you free hot dogs. Today, we bring your free chocolate. Dark chocolate. Milk chocolate too, hopefully. (Whatever, we still love us some milk chocolate. With caramel. And nougat.) Anyway, Mission Mission reports that "volunteers from the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition and TransFair USA will be handing out free Divine Chocolate Thursday evening from 5-7 p.m. outside of four BART stations: 24th & Mission, Montgomery, Rockridge and Ashby Street."

Speaking of BART, if you have a BART ticket, TransLink or Transbay pass, you can score a free hot dog today. Zog's, located at the tip of Market and Post, is offering free hot beef injections today in order to ease your nightmareish BART commute.

Pulled from the Glen Park Parents Board mailing list, we came across this urgent plea for help. See, the recently opened Whole Foods is hurting small meat business Drewes Brothers Meats, located in Upper Noe Valley at 1706 Church. (If you don't know Drewes Brothers, you don't know meat; and if you don't know meat, may God have mercy on your soul.)

Today's culinary cocktail tour of SF takes us to the far reaches of the Presidio (and Brock's favorite restaurant) Spruce, where bar manager Brandon Clements has created a dual-sided cocktail menu that highlights several classics -- The Aviation, Blood & Sand, The Last Word -- and a number of delicious house concoctions like the Violet Beauregard (Beefeater 24 gin, blueberries, lemongrass, lemon, soda, violet, lavender) and the eponymous drink, The Spruce Goose.

The Bay Area has a new daily food newsletter, one you need to know about. It's called Tasting Table. What's more, it's penned by the multi-talented Scott Hocker. (Before joining Tasting Table, Hocker was an editor and food scribe over at San Francisco Magazine.)

In our search for small-scale wine producers to visit in our nearby wine regions, we're always glad to find start-up wineries making excellent wines to a small, devoted audience. Astrale e Terra on the Silverado Trail is one of those wineries. The name translates as "heaven and earth," and we encountered their wines at an event in San Francisco a month or two back, and thought they were on to something special.

Although the mystique and innovation of New York City has dimmed over the last few years -- what was once, as countless New Yorkers have described it to us, a mecca for richly-textured thought and poeples has now revealed itself as simply a large museum city brimming with tell-it-like-it-is-esque reality show contestant types -- the food culture there is as popular as ever. Even the chefs there still think of themselves as rock stars. Which is adorable.

As Monsieur Bauer and many food blogs are reporting today, SF's showing in the new Michelin Guide is a little less stellar than last year. Many foodies would trust the much sought-after Michelin ratings more than, say, Zagat, and this year there are a number of new one-star recipients, and several local joints that lost stars. The new additions in SF proper are: Aziza; Luce at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco; and Quince, which regained its star after losing it last year. Also of note, are new one-star winners Commis in Oakland and artful vegetarian haven Ubuntu in Napa. For the fourth year since Michelin began publishing an SF guide, The French Laundry remains the only Bay Area restaurant to earn three stars -- a distinction earned by 5 restaurants in NYC, but only ever earned by 71 restaurants total, worldwide.

This is another NSFV (Not Safe for Vegans) post, so consider yourselves warned. SF Weekly food blogger Meredith Brody snapped the pic at right of a whole steer that spit roasted and then butchered before an audience at a event Saturday night celebrating a week of events at the museum focusing on Futurism. We, ourselves, are simultaneously grossed out and drooling over the photo and this write-up by Brody, which describes how the meat slices were sent onto a conveyor belt around the room, slathered in mole, and served atop Tartine bread along with a bunch of yummy cocktails.

While we weren't lucky enough to score a coveted invitation the Hubert Keller's Burger Bar VIP pre-opening, we look forward to going again and again. Why? Because Keller's ode to the hamburger has a milkshake bar. No, you're not listening. Let us repeat that for you: they have a goddamn milkshake bar. Not only do they have a bar dedicated to the art of blending of milk and ice cream at high speeds, but also a bartender dedicated to making your ass milkshakes.

With his book Artisanal Cocktails, local startender Scott Beattie established himself as a leading figure of West Coast-style, farmers-market-driven cocktail creation. And as the drink specialist at Healdsburg's Cyrus, Scott championed the building of a high-end cocktail menu to match a high-end food establishment. Today's multi-step recipe is, clearly, not for the unambitious.

Found at Geary and Fillmore, Greg Dewar of N Judah Chronicles came across this bilingual, demanding sign that asks you to not cook and eat San Francisco's pigeons.

Quickly becoming the Fuzio of Asian cuisine, Osha Thai according to Eater, will set up shop in the old Bong Su space at Third and Folsom, replacing the greatest-named restaurant in San Francisco that closed earlier this year.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent out a precious twitpic today, followed with the caption, "This is how I start my day."

We're still pretty broken up about this week's demise of ultimate food-porn mag Gourmet, and while some like Cook's Illustrated's Chris Kimball might be quick to blame the internet, Gawker is quick to blame Condé Nast.

People who move to SF from other states love to complain about San Francisco's lack of decent pizza and bagels. To which we say: Arinell's and House of Bagels. But the whiners do have a point. What is it about San Francisco, the alleged food mecca of the universe, that we can't come up with tasty, inexpensive, savory-based carbs? Pizza and bagels, which should be cheap as well as widely available, should be a cinch.

Nobody we know really strives to be a wine snob, but a person can always come off sounding like one in mixed (read: non-Bay Area) company when it comes to choosing or discussing what to drink with dinner. At the risk of looking like a total douche, you can now whip out your iPhone to look up wines and vintages via several apps now on the market. Herewith, we give you a couple capsule reviews, should you be one of those people who likes to be knowledgeable about wine, or should you be one of those who just likes to dork out with every app you can get your hands on.

Comedy.com complied a list of the 20 worst bars in the U.S. Among them is "Bow Wow’s Cocktail Lounge." Tastefully described as "a Vietnamese whorehouse," the North Beach institute wins a spot on the unsavory list mainly because of the Yelp reviews it's garnered.

Soul Food Farm of Vacaville, who provide the Bay Area with delicious eggs and chickens via various locations and through their brand-spanking new CSA, encountered a devastating fire last month. One thousand baby chicks perished, 30+ acres were scorched, and an 1880s barn burned to the ground.

Although we find this season particularly listless -- for reasons we can't put our finger on, exactly -- Top Chef will return for another cycle of fast-paced cooking and egregious under-salting. And with that, Bravo will hold open casting calls for folks interested in competing in the foodie competition. Chefs in the Bay Area interested in trying out, listen up: season Top Chef auditions will happen on Sunday, October 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Parlor at 2801 Leavenworth.

A new local fave for it's hip-casual vibe, tasty drinks and lively crowd, Pisco Latin Lounge was founded by James Schenk, chef-owner of next-door "nuevo Latino" restaurant Destino. It won recognition as a new nightlife destination in Zagat, and this week Pisco celebrates it's one-year anniversary with drink and appetizer specials.

It's sure to cause controversy, which Eater SF editor Paolo Lucchesi openly acknowledges, but Eater has just inaugurated The Eater 38, a non-ranked list of the best, most beloved restaurants in the city which they would gladly recommend, with some emphasis given to neighborhood favorites over big destination spots.