One jumps at the chance to spend a day at London’s Beefeater Distillery, particularly when given a personal tour by Beefeater’s master distiller Desmond Payne. Gracious and mannered, Payne has been making gin for over 40 years, his early days being at Plymouth Gin. An English picnic in Kensington Gardens and a week full of fine food and cocktails at… Read more →
A 3 1/2 hour train ride through the rolling, green English landscape (yes, dotted with sheep and cows), remains as idyllic as my memories. Ten years ago I explored the central and northern parts of the country, feeling strangely at home in the English countryside and moors. This Summer brought me to the southwestern coast of England and the town… Read more →
Top Tastes is not a list of all-time favorites, rather it’s about the best tastes of the last two weeks (since my last newsletter), often from new openings. I’ve been eating steady, as usual, from a pleasant, if not notable, Vietnamese meal at My Father’s Kitchen, to trying out brand new trucks (and revisiting favorites) at Off the Grid Upper… Read more →
Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen, Downtown/Union Square (401 Taylor at O’Farrell, 415-775-7979) You heard it in my Guardian column a couple weeks ago: Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen is going to be a drink destination, no doubt about it. Pair its all-star bartender line-up and impeccable cocktail menu with 18 beers on draft (like Telegraph Reserve Wheat from Santa Barbara), a… Read more →
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 →
“i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.” – e.e. cummings Summer is speeding by… upon returning from the UK, I’ve been writing up a storm. My article on corn whiskey is in… Read more →
Top Tastes is not a list of all-time favorites, rather it’s about the best tastes of the last two weeks (since my last newsletter), often from new openings. Cheap Eats: Korean Wave SF may not be the Korean food mecca both LA and NY are, but there’s been a recent wave of Korean openings I can only hope signals a… Read more →
I sample dozens of spirits, wines, beers in any given month. If there are tasting events (and there are), then multiply that a few times. Here are ones that rose above in recent weeks: WHISK(E)Y LAPHROAIG 2011 CAIRDEAS – Laphroaig’s master distiller John Campbell and Global Brand Ambassador Simon Brooking were in SF a couple weeks ago. I spent an… Read more →
It was 10 years ago that I spent a month in England, a country I felt immediately at home in. Returning to the incomparable London last month certainly revealed changes – most for the better, including the ignited culinary and cocktail scene (I covered cocktails last issue). Maybe it wasn’t as devastatingly amazing as some claimed (and produce still falls… Read more →
There’s not enough Cuban food in the Bay Area. No, this is (thankfully) not Miami with its close proximity to Cuba and, therefore, plethora of Cuban food. But I wouldn’t trade the vibrant cuisines we are swimming in for anything. It’s with joy I speak of a new Cuban cafe, Cana, in Oakland. Pretty much a walk-up counter with one… Read more →