November 1, 2018

by  on  in Intro Letter

“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” — George Bernard Shaw

Doppio Zero Hayes Valley

This week I’m in Bogota, Columbia, for Worlds 50 Best Restaurants’ Latin America awards, celebrating chefs and restaurants from culinary mecca Mexico down to my beloved Peru, all congregating in the city for the awards. Of course, I’m exploring the local cuisine and drink of Columbia, too.

A long overdue return to Thailand quickly follows after a short week home, then it’s already Thanksgiving week! It’s going to be an intense but exciting November…

This past week I spent an overnight in always special Sonoma County staying at Santa Rosa’s retro-cool Astro Motel. I devoured the rare Swedish and Turkish-Swedish fast-casual food of Petaluma’s new Stockhome (from the wonderful husband-wife duo behind Plaj in SF; pictured) and the edomae sushi mastery of chef Ken Tominaga at escape-to-Japan-in-Rohnert-Park, Hana Japanese Restaurant.

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Dry house sodas in flavors like lingonberry, sea buckthorn and cucumber at Stockhome, Petaluma

This issue:
Top Tastes — 10 Top Italian Restaurants in SF: There are dozens of superlative Italian restaurants in the Bay Area covering regional Italian, American-Italian and SF’s forward-thinking New School Italian. Here are just a few of the best.
The Latest — Inside Anthony Strong’s New Prairie: Check off your menu when ready to order, sip kitchen-collaborated cocktails (plus highballs from a straight-from-Japan Suntory highball machine) and look for an Elon Musk flamethrower in the kitchen.
Top Tastes — 10 Best Bakers in San Francisco: Some of the best in the baking capitol of the US.

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As your personal concierge who tells it like a good friend would, I create personalized itineraries; provide food and drink consulting for restaurants and bars; and classes at companies for the layperson wanting to dig deeper in food and drink (more info here).