Category: Intro Letter

 ““Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi Weekending in Healdsburg, I’m reveling in harvest time in Sonoma County with Alice Waters and Carlo Petrini at a Slow Food Picnic. I return home to SF Cocktail Week, an ever memorable week… Read more →

 “I love the sound of the bone against the plate and the fortress-like look of it lying before me in a moat of risotto, the meat soft as the leg of an angel who has lived a purely airborne existence. And best of all, the secret marrow, the invaded privacy of the animal prized out with a knife and swallowed… Read more →

 “lt takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.” – e.e. cummings Change is in the air as summer swiftly makes way for fall… This Saturday is the annual SF Street Food Fest, a melange of dozens of food trucks and stands serving global food on a few Mission blocks. It runs a little… Read more →

 “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” — Bertrand Russell Just back, exhausted and exhilarated from Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans (event recap and Nola reviews soon to come), two of my favorite San Francisco events all year are underway. This week… Read more →

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious… He to whom this ’emotion’ is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder, or stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein In the throes of Summer, I am about to depart for my beloved New Orleans, soon to bring… Read more →

“”If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry Visiting friends, family and intense deadlines… it must be summer. As I wrap up work on the 2013 Zagat restaurant guide… Read more →

“Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel My BBQ obsession is no secret. I’m delighted to be offering a VIP package for two (valued at $214) to you, my readers. It’s for the 2nd annual Bay Area BBQ Championship, an AFS fundraiser, on Saturday, 7/7, at Oakland Coliseum. Besides the A’s vs. Mariners game,… Read more →

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” – Flora Whittemore Literally just back from Portland and Mexico, I’m warmed by the sun (at the latter location) and the joy of travel and friendship, now returning to mountains of work and deadlines. In between trips, I was delighted to stumble across a brand new market… Read more →

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” – Leo Tolstoy This issue is action-packed… time for this to be split up once a week vs. bi-weekly, eh? There’s a slew of new and classic recommends this issue, both at home and afar. Top Tastes – Sushi East & West: Explore a new… Read more →

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began though the voices around kept shouting their bad advice.” – Mary Oliver, “The Journey” Welcome May’s warm days and invigorating breezes. I’m appreciating favorites, like rhubarb and kumquats, starting to show up at farmers markets and on menus, and also chatting with neighbors on the front stoop while sipping… Read more →