Arts & Entertainment Spem in Alium: There is Hope in Our Soul. You had to stay in your squeaky pew last night, at the performance of the same 40 part motet by actual live human beings, the singers of the Schola Cantorum and of the
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: Nicky Love's The difference between Rouge and its predecessor was the addition of Nick's Crispy Taco, which quickly became a neighborhood phenomenon, with lines still out of the doors on most nights. We haven’t
Arts & Entertainment Tristan and Isolde So it was no surprise that last night’s performance of Tristan and Isolde turned out as a magistral musical display: from the prelude to the final curtain drop, Runnicles coaxed a splendid
Arts & Entertainment Opera at City Hall. For all info, go here. The first simulcast of Madame Butterfly was a blast and looked nothing like the photo-montage which illustrates this post. Rigoletto is an opera to make opera skeptics love
Arts & Entertainment The Chron Kicks Michelin's Michelin Ass. Point taken, we will scrupulous a lot more, indeed. Picture of former mayor Willie Brown with Bibendum, from SF environment, because where there's controversy, there's Willie
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: Thomas Keller Kicks Alice Waters's Michelin Ass!* Every food critic is shocked, shocked!, to discover that a bunch of out-of-town restaurant reviewers disagree with their own taste. The Chron's Michael Bauer does not understand why the Michelin did not reprint
Arts & Entertainment Rigoletto: The Killer, The Jester, His Daughter, Her Lover. We were going to make a snarky comment about the crimson theme of the set: it is the only color, the rest is black and white; and the interiors are only red: walls,
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: The Doña Tomàs Cookbook. We tried three, and we can safely say that Thomas Schnetz and Dona Savitsky's batting average with the clumsy home cook is a respectable .667. We had a decent success with the budín
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Another Little Star Is Born Oh, and the one waiter we talked to needs to be re-trained: we asked if it was as good as the divis shop, and he replied: the menu is the same. He should
Arts & Entertainment The Philistine Asks for More Ball Movement. The one good thing about missing the opening night Gala --and we'd have looked absolutely stunning in a tux-- is that we got to read the underwhelmed reports of the premiere of Verdi's
Arts & Entertainment Die Fledermaus: The Bat Swings Wildly But we at SFist can go where they can't, with their layers of editors and fear of sanctimonious letter writers: die Fledermaus means "the bat," a somewhat nonsensical title, but then again, the
Arts & Entertainment The Philistine Operates in the Park. --Friday was the Opera opening night at the opera house, and I was one of the penguins there, in that March of the Penguins. --I read in the paper there was a report
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: a Palace for the SF Queens. Some go boring: pick the address, and voila, Campton Place, Hawthorne Lane, etc. Some go eponymous, which rhymes with non-adventurous, pompous and presumptuous: Gary Danko, Michael Mina. Some think too much, and pick
misc The Philistine's Fall Music Preview. You want to go below to see movie clips of Deborah Voigt and our running commentary on the SF Symphony's and SF Opera's season. Picture of MTT -Hi, Mike, good to see you
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: This Bull Got Teeth. Bullshead has big shoes to fill: it occupies the space of Tallula, the Indian-fusion restaurant in the heart of the Castro. Tallula was such a sophisticated, refined place that the big shoes were
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: the Merola Grand Finale One would expect that the format, a sequence of arias not unlike that of Opera in the Park (Sept 10th, it's coming up), would become a bit predictable after a while. One would
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: For Whom the Onion Rings* Indeed, a young lady was reading one night, and we had to admit: with its mostly white walls, blonde hardwood floor and table tops, Cha-Ya is a clean, well-lighted place. The high organically
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: How Greens Is Your Vino? The tasting took place in the awesome private dining room at Greens, in the corner of the Fort Mason building, with spectacular views through windows on the Bay from two sides. We'd be
Arts & Entertainment Philistine: Il Matriomonio Segreto We saw James Schwabacher once, at his debut recital series, which he endowed in perpetuity, and where he introduced the singers. He was 86 yo, but still had the quick wit of a
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique Writes Stinking Prose...Wait, Stinking Praise. Having garlic infused drinks, garlic spread on your bread, garlic appetizer, garlic entree and garlic ice cream: we fancy all these once in a while. But stringing all these into a meal sounds
Arts & Entertainment Gastronomique Smells Fishy. Panel members were moderator Patricia Unterman, chef and owner of Hayes Street Grill and Examiner food critic as well; Steve Fitz, a salt-of-the-earth Half Moon Bay sand dabs fisherman; Tom Worthington, from Monterey
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: Sustainable Seafood Salon So if you are concerned about having good fresh local wild seafood on your plate instead of tasteless overly pink antibiotic loaded farmed fish, you can go and attend the discussion, moderated by
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: Posturing Poobahs of Positivism We say suburban, because it seems to be the beachhead for second venues of out-of-town restaurants. We've had Patxis opening there from Palo Alto, and a few weeks later, next to Patxis, Cafe
Arts & Entertainment The Philistine: Transformations Conrad Susa, who was in attendance and seemed quite pleased afterwards, wrote Transformations in 1975, on a commission of the Minnesota Opera, based on a libretto of Anne Sexton, itself based on her
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Gastronomique: Aslam's Grand Slam Good thing he did, though. We haven't been to the Tandoorloin lately, we are not on top of the Indo-Pakistani food scene there, but Aslam's Rasoi serves better food, both in flavor and
