SF CHEFS Recap: August 1-7 Last issue I shared about one of my favorite food and drink events all year, SF Chefs. After attending every day, going home for naps and heading back out for evening mayhem, here are just a few fond memories. My husband, Daniel Stumpf, assisted me with photos from Friday night and Sunday. 8/4 Sugar &… Read more →
Category: On the Town
On the Town
SF STREET FOOD FESTIVAL August 20 (11am-7pm) La Cocina’s SF Street Food Festival keeps getting bigger each year. Gearing up for this Saturday’s 3rd annual street food extravaganza, prepare for a takeover of numerous Mission blocks (free admission, with food for purchase under $8). This year there was an early sneak peek for media and select guests. There will be… Read more →
On the Town
SF CHEFS 2011: August 1-7 It’s SF Chefs, year three. I’ve covered the last two years here and in my Guardian column. For those of you who have not yet been, this has really become San Francisco’s biggest food/drink showcase (our “food & wine classic”, if you will), utilizing much of the Bay Area’s best talent. SF Chefs takes over… Read more →
On the Town
GILT TASTE LAUNCH, San Francisco Gilt Taste is a special kind of gourmet food site. It’s hand-selected gourmet items one can have delivered to their own home – that we have seen before. But besides the exceptional quality of products, it’s rich with editorial from some of the nation’s finest writers, including Francis Lam on food or Dave Wondrich on… Read more →
Passport to Dry Creek – One of My Favorite Wine Country Events
Last year’s Passport to Dry Creek festival was quite the weekend hopping between wineries in Dry Creek Valley. How is this different than any of the dozens of wine events in Wine Country at any given time, you rightfully ask? Unlike barrel tasting weekends mobbed with drunken carousers and not-yet-mature wines, or smaller events where you gain merely a handful… Read more →
Whiskies of the World 2011
There’s always fine pours to be had at the (12th) annual Whiskies of the World (a.k.a. WoW) — held March 26th — particularly from smaller distilleries. Bourbon, rye, scotch, Japanese and Irish whiskies all flow freely. As I said in my coverage last year when it was held at Hotel Nikko, the downside was tight, body-to-body crowds. This year, that… Read more →
Top Ten Tastes at the 2011 FANCY FOOD SHOW at Moscone Center, 1/16-18
Fancy Food, the largest showcase of specialty foods in North America (held annually in NYC and SF) returned to the Moscone Center, January 16-18. Again I explored thousands of products from around the world, with the limits of my stomach to slow me after hours of sampling. Fancy Food showcases trends in food, which there’s been much talk of… Read more →
On the Town
NY’s BROMBER BROTHERS deliver their comforting welcome at the Stanford Court Renaissance Two of the nicest chefs you’ll ever meet, Bruce and Eric Bromberg (brothers), spread the warmth of their NY Blue Ribbon Restaurants globally. I have happy memories of late nights at the original Blue Ribbon Sushi on Sullivan Street long before Blue Ribbon grew to multiple restaurants around… Read more →
On the Town: “Deep South” Showdown at FIVE in Berkeley
With more than a little Iron Chef-themed influence, FIVE‘s elegant, spacious dining room was transformed into communal seating party for their second Seasonal Showdown Dinner on October 21 ($62 without beer pairings; $70 with beer pairings from Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro – appreciated the grapefruit brightness of the 1500 Pale Ale and malty bitter of their Amber Ale). Diners… Read more →
On the Town
10/3 CUESA Sunday Supper Reception A fundraiser for CUESA‘s many endeavors is a pleasurable cause, especially when a slew of our best chefs and mixologists line the Ferry Building hall for a Sunday Supper reception. The reception included 30 bites, 5 cocktails and a mix of wines, then a move upstairs for a magical dinner under white lights with whole… Read more →