For those of you who attended last year’s San Francisco Cocktail Week, you know it was jam-packed with some downright magical events, celebrating our city’s rich cocktail heritage, bar talent and innovation. Monday begins the 5th annual Cocktail Week, bigger than ever, with numerous national and local brands represented, an extensive schedule of seminars, parties, events, and the first ever… Read more →
“The morning smelled like a freshly opened bottle of wine – leaves, earth, the damp woods, berries, grass. There is still more than enough beauty in one morning alone on earth to break a heart wide open… For every person who has ever lived there will come, at last, a spring he will never see… Glory then in the seasons… Read more →
On September 6th, Harry Denton’s legendary Starlight Room will reopen, revamped, with brand new menus and look. Though the space wasn’t quite ready for a sneak peek, I did sample a few of the cocktails that will be on offer from bar manager Joel Teitelbaum’s winning menu. Grouped together by time periods, the menu starts with the 1600’s and punch,… 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. RENDEZVOUS TAPAS LOUNGE, Nob Hill (2080 Van Ness Avenue at Pacific, 415-409-0660) Though the new Rendezvous Tapas Lounge is a work-in-progress with a blessedly open but stark space (big booths and lighting… Read more →
JAPANESE WHISKY If you were at SF Chefs last month (here’s my recap of it), you might have been privileged to try Hakushu whisky as I did… multiple times over the weekend. The 12 year Hakushu emits sweet pear and green apple aromas, but surprises with dry smoke. Shockingly evocative of a peaty, Islay Scotch (sans the peat), Hakushu is… Read more →
Tavern at Lark Creek’s new Biergarten, Larkspur Think towering redwoods, smoky aromas of sausages, onions and peppers wafting from a grill, German beers on tap from a cooler, and a darling oompah band of elderly gentleman playing with spunk and skill. Enter the just-launched this week Biergarten at The Tavern at Lark Creek. For a short jaunt from the… Read more →
“If you love life you also love the past, because it is the present as it has survived in memory.” – Marguerite Yourcenar August has been a non-stop flurry of major SF events: SF Chefs, our city’s biggest food & drink week (which I give the photo recap treatment in On the Town), and Outside Lands, a massive music festival… Read more →
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 →
ORSON, SoMa – Orson bar manager Ian Adams shows inspired vision in his cocktails. He’s having fun pairing them with a new four-course dinner, but even more so, his everyday cocktails shine with enough twists to keep me intrigued. Amorosa ($10) comes on the stem in a champagne glass. It exhibits a rosy Campari and house cinnamon-rose kombucha hue, mixed… Read more →
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 →