The other night I was headed to a new restaurant, Anchor & Hope (to read a Q and A with co-owner and all-around-nice-guy Doug Washington, click here), and I mentioned to our Executive Editor that I was almost hoping that I wouldn’t like it (I did...but more on that in another post). It’s not that I relish being a crank (at least, not all the time) but just that loving all these restaurants in San Francisco can be debilitating.


Universal Cafe, one of my local favorites.
Photograph by John Casado

I’m well aware that this is what my friend Rob likes to call a “Class A” problem, meaning that it ranks very low on the scale of real world troubles. But in the course of a week I can go to 4 or 5 new restaurants and, because the bar in San Francisco is set pretty high, quality-wise, there are a lot of places that I love at first sight (or, rather, at first bite). There are chefs I’m particularly fond of (like Chris Kronner of Slow Club and Serpentine) and restaurants that I like to go on nights when I’m tired and I just want to eat good food without thinking too hard (Universal Café, here’s looking at you). Trouble is, with a rigorous dining schedule I don’t get back to the places that I love as often as I’d like. And as the tally of restaurants that I really like gets higher, it becomes more and more difficult to answer that all-too-frequent question: “So, where is your favorite place to eat?”

After the Executive Editor and I had talked about it for a while, she summed my problem up perfectly. “It’s like a blind date—you had a good time, but as you’re saying goodbye you know you’re never going to call that person again.” I’ve actually never been on a blind date, but I think she might be right. So, to my favorite restaurants, the ones I wish I could get back to once a week but only make it to every six months—I’ve been meaning to call, really.

photography by Stefanie Michejda

1. Shuck and Swallow
O’Reilly’s Irish Pub and Restaurant is once again hosting the ninth annual San Francisco Oyster Fest. Hang out with local brogue-sters in the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, throw back a Guinness and maybe even participate in the shuck and swallow competition. Doors open at 11 and live music, featuring The Dropkick Murphys and Zooey Deschanel’s band, She and Him, starts at noon. Ticket prices range from $20 to $80 at snagtickets.com (children under 14 get in free).



2. Full moon rising
As it turns out, the moon is made of cheese. Celebrate the first full moon of May, traditionally called "milk moon," with a dinner brought to you by Boulettes Larder and Cowgirl Creamery. Lovers of all things fromage will be thrilled when cheese is woven into every course of the menu and paired with the appropriate wine. The event, to be held at Boulettes Larder on Thursday, May 15, is limited to 24 guests and the cost is $175 per person. Reservations are required; call 415-399-1155 or email joslyn@bouletteslarder.com to book your spot.

3. Uncork it
On May 17, check out Ghirardelli Square's UNCORKED! Wine Festival. From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., enjoy wine tastings and seminars, chef demonstrations and great food provided by restaurants from throughout the Bay Area. The event is free, but tickets for wine tastings are $40 in advance or $45 at the event. All proceeds go to COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food & Arts located in Napa. For more information, call 415-775-5500; tickets can be reserved here.

4. Meals on (bicycle) wheels
Join local green superhero Antonio Roman-Alcala and the San Francisco Bike Coalition for an on-bike preview of the documentary In Search of Good Food. Roman-Alcala makes sustainability fun as he takes you on an easygoing bike tour of key players in San Francisco's sustainable food efforts, with stops at Mission Pie, Veritable Vegetable and Alemany Farm. The ride is free, but donations to support Roman-Alcala's documentary-in-progress will be accepted. (Check the short out here.) Interested in going on the ride? Meet at the intersection on 16th and Mission streets on May 18 at 5 p.m.



5. And an aspirin chaser, please
If you're not already lying in bed with an ice pack and the lights dimmed, meet up with fellow libation lovers for the finale of San Francisco Cocktail Week.  From 6 to 9 p.m. on May 19, Absinthe Brasserie and Imbibe magazine invite you to sip classically prepared absinthe and signature cocktails designed by Absinthe GM Jeff Hollinger and guest bartenders. Tickets are $45 and benefit the San Francisco Bartender's Guild. To RSVP, contact Absinthe’s private dining manager, Vanessa Harris, at 415-551-1453, or email her at vharris@absinthe.com.

6. In the raw
We suspect the cheese makers and cheese mongers speaking at the Commonwealth Club's “Cheese in the Raw: Evaluating Risks and Rewards” panel have already made up their minds on this issue. But if you have any questions or are curious about the debate on raw vs. pasteurized milk, consider attending this event, which will be held at the Ferry Building in the Port Commission Hearing Room. Andante Dairy cheese maker Soyoung Scanlan will be on hand, along with the buyers from Rainbow Grocery, 3D Cheese and Bar Bambino. Samples of artisanal cheese will be served. The event will be held May 19 at 5:45 p.m.; tickets are $7 for Commonwealth Club members or $15 for nonmembers and can be purchased here. tickets.commonwealthclub.org



7. On the wild side
Big 4 Restaurant invites you to take a walk on the wild side with its now semi-annual Wild Game Week. From antelope to yak, the adventurous menu designed by chef Gloria Ciccarone-Nehls promises to introduce you to meats rarely served on this side of the Neanderthal era. Go ahead: let your hunter-gatherer out. 

Jeff Hollinger in action.
Photo courtesy of Frankie Frankeny.

Jeff Hollinger, the bar manager at Absinthe and co-author of the must-have bar book, The Art of the Bar, is the man behind SF’s second annual Cocktail Week, a seven day tribute to libations and the people that make them. This year’s SF Cocktail Week runs from Tuesday, May 13 to Monday, May 19th. For a full schedule of events and ticket information, visit sfcocktailweek.com.

What is San Francisco cocktail culture?

What sets SF apart is that we have a tight knit group of bartenders that share information with each other. We have different philosophies: Some of us are doing different things from one another,  but we love to go out and eat, we love to try one another's cocktails and we love to visit wineries. The thing about this city is that the general public gets it—the public is really food and drink savvy—and that's something you don't get in other cities. People have made a big deal about how [the cocktail culture] is different here, but I've talked to people all over the country and people are doing the same things. It’s a load of crap—can you put it directly as that? We're doing similar things all over the place.

What SF Cocktail Week event are you most looking forward to?

Saturday, May17th, we're doing an event at the Hotel Rex, a discussion about San Francisco's cocktail culture and literature with Dave Wondrich, who just wrote a book about Jerry Thomas [the San Francisco bartender who wrote the first American book of cocktail recipes in 1862]. Ed note: Get tickets ($30) here.


How is a mixologist different from a bartender?

[It's] not the same thing—absolutely not. There's a lot of confusion about the two terms right now. Bartending is not always about making a good cocktail. A bartender should understand service and how to finesse a group of people sitting at the bar … if people aren't having a great experience it doesn't matter how sophisticated your drinks are.

Mixology is really just the ability to create new cocktails—you can be a mixologist and never have stepped behind the bar in your entire life. A mixologist has an understanding of the ingredients and the creativity to come up with new cocktails. He doesn't have to be personable or know how to provide someone with a great experience.


Where do you get your cocktail ideas?

Food.

Really? 

Mostly. I love to cook. I've been big into playing around with vinegars—cocktails using balsamic vinegar—because I wanted to play around with ideas of acid in the cocktail that wasn't just citrus.

So is vinegar a hot new ingredient?

Yeah, which kind of bums me out a bit.

Why?

Because that was my thing! It's cool that people are doing it but the reason why it bums me out is because you're going to start to see people making vinegar cocktails that aren't very good.

Let's play a game. I'm going to give you a word and you give me the first drink association that comes to mind.

Vodka: Why? It's flavorless so why?
Bourbon: Yummy good
Rum: Rum make you dumb. It's an old saying.
Bitters: Essential in cocktails.
Hot Drinks: I'm not a fan.
Frozen Drinks: Everybody needs a good blender party.
Summer: Margaritas.
Republican: Martini.
Democrat: Old Fashioned.
Hangover: Definitely Bloody Mary.

I read food books more than I read anything else. Whether I'm deep in a new cookbook—I just bought James Oseland's (editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine) divine Cradle of Flavor—or eating up one of Diane Mott Davidson's food-centered murder mysteries, food and good writing seem to go together like beaches and barbecues, or popsicles and summer days. Here are some of the books lying next to my bed right now—some other time, we'll have to talk food films.

Everyday Drinking by Kingsley Amis.  This just-released collection of essays sees the master of British wit contemplating the whys, hows and wherefores of enjoying alcohol. SF's cocktail-swilling hordes will enjoy Amis' encyclopedic knowledge (and experience) of booze in all of its intoxicating forms.

John Thorne's newsletter Simple Cooking has had a cult following for almost 25 years. Mouth Wide Open, the latest in a series of essay collections came out this year; I love Thorne's quirky and unconventional approach to eating and cooking, and as a fellow hater of breakfast cereals, have signed on to his zealous crusade for savory breakfasts. Eggs baked in cream, anybody?

Food historian Laura Shapiro short biography of Julia Child recently won the IACP's 2008 book award for literary food writing. Who doesn't want to spend 200 pages with the dulcet-voiced mother of American gastronomy?

The Taste of Place is a must-read for the serious-minded foodie. In it, Amy Trubek takes up the story of terroir, the idea that the taste of food and wine comes from the place where it was grown. An important next chapter in the conversation started last year by Michael Pollan.

The Debt to Pleasure by John Lancaster is completely evil and totally irresistible, if you like your food writing with a side dish of murder. Or maybe you just hate food critics! This novel about a horribly unkind but wickedly funny food critic is delicious reading with a bittersweet aftertaste.

Although he died ten years ago, James Beard's imprint on American food culture has yet to be erased. Some of his books are out of print, but they can easily be found in used bookstores and online. Lately I've been reading his very wonderful 1960 book, The Complete Book of Outdoor Cooking. I'm taking it on a camping trip in a few weeks. It's that good. 

The newest lunchtime rage downtown is Best-O-Burger, a kind of little urban version of In-N-Out on none other than Belden Lane: Angus beef, cast-iron skillets, fresh-baked buns, housemade fries (and onion rings), plus a few extras like daily-made gelato and gelato shakes. The tidy red and yellow space opened on the corner of Pine and Belden on Monday, and by Thursday the line was snaking out the door for four hours straight, from 10:30 a.m. till 2:30 p.m.



The burgers are cute li'l sliders—in orders of one, two or three—and are done just right: slightly pink inside and perfectly proportioned to their little fluffy bun. The fries are delicious, crunchy and perfectly salted like McDonald's but a tiny bit fatter and fresher-tasting (Best-O uses rice oil, by the way). We can't speak to the onion rings as they were flat out by the time we made it over. Next time we'll try them along with the Romaine-O Fingers Salad, hearts of Romaine intended to be dipped into ranch or Italian dressing. And, thanks to Eater SF we already know that there's a whole other "secret" menu online where you can find daily specials, meatball-and-mozzarella sliders, gelato-cookie sandwiches, and something called a Fat Bob (two burgers, one bun).

So, to sum up: Next week we try the meatball slider, onion rings, Romaine salad and a gelato ice cream sandwich to finish. Bad news for our waistlines, but good news for our American souls and wallets.

Sometimes it seems as though if we get any closer to our food that soon we might be buying it a drink and inviting it to spend the night. Not that this is a bad thing, per se, just that we food-obsessed San Franciscans are always looking to get closer to the source of our meal, to be more in touch with local farms, the seasons, the hardships. Enter Greenleaf Produce. One of the first organic produce companies to open in San Francisco, Greenleaf got its start in 1975, founded by Jameson Patten, and was purchased after his death in 1993 by Bill Wilkinson, the (formerly) retired GM of the Campton Place Hotel. 33 years later it’s still going strong, with a client list that includes most of the finest restaurants in San Francisco and many of the most respected farms in California.

For chefs and food writers, Greenleaf is an invaluable resource—these people really know their stuff. Curious consumers can now get in on the action, too—on the Greenleaf website you can take advantage of their collective expertise by sneaking a peek at both their weekly bulletin and their monthly newsletter. The weekly bulletin is a newsy update about what you’ll be seeing (or not seeing) in the market during the coming week, along with some bonus info—this week, under the heading “Grapes” the report is: “Stored Chilean, the only grape game in town, and these are all but over; as a result, prices are up.” Wondering about potatoes this week? Prognosis negative: “Every year around now we’re scraping the bottom of the storage barrel and the tired Kennebecs’ starch has converted to sugar, which makes them fry up dark.” Somehow, armed with that information, grocery shopping—even at the corner store—makes more sense. Oh, you suddenly think to yourself, that’s why I’m not seeing any Meyer lemons.

The monthly newsletter goes even further into detail—each month you can read profiles of farmers along with a page called “Farm Direct Crops—What are local farms picking this month” so you know to be on the lookout for the first local organic strawberries, zucchini and fennel. There’s even a page titled “Seasonal Menu Planning” that is one you’ll want to clip and stick to the fridge, so you can know what’s new, “done” and best of the season. Armed with so much knowledge, there’s no excuse for selecting an out-of-season pear again.

1. To-Do: Todd English
On May 8 at 6 p.m., celebrity chef Todd English will be demonstrating recipes inspired by his interest in Slow Food, the movement to reclaim our meals from the culinary-industrial complex. English is the owner of the Olives restaurant family, coauthor of The Olives Table and, naturally, stars in his own show on PBS, Food Trip with Todd English. The event takes place in Macy’s Union Square Cellar, and the $20 admission will go toward supporting the San Francisco Symphony.

2. Fire meets water
Get front-row seats to KFOG’s annual KaBoom fireworks show on Saturday, May 10, with an all-the-appetizers-you-can-eat event at Waterbar. Tickets are $65 per person and include artichoke-crab crostini, risotto fritters and mini meatballs. Drinks are on you. The waterfront event starts at 7 p.m. and runs until the fireworks are over. What better way to beat the Marina’s madding crowds?



3. Straight from the hip
Hip Tastes, the only enologists we want to spend our Saturdays with, invite you to explore Spanish wines on May 10 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the spanking new San Francisco Wine Center in SOMA. Emphasizing happening varietals from hot new wine regions, and led by certified sommelier Courtney Cochran, the class is open to anyone who wants to learn about wines in a laid-back environment.



4. Bottoms up!
Or is it “Down the hatch”? Get your toasts down by May 13, when the second annual San Francisco Cocktail Week launches with a gala at Harry Denton's Starlight Room at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Locavores and mixologists can find their bliss on May 14, when CUESA hosts an evening of farmers-market-inspired cocktails at the Ferry Building. For $15, you can enjoy cocktail demos by renowned mixologists, two signature drinks and unlimited appetizers. Check out the week’s complete schedule at sfcocktailweek.com

5. Political palates
Savor the flavor of the 11th annual United States of Asian America Festival with the comic and culinary stylings of chefs Mero Cocinero Karimi and Comrade Cocinero Castro. Fresh off an international tour, the two chef-cum-performance-artists cook up revolutionary recipes onstage, serving stories and healthy political discussion with samples of Iranian-Guatemalan-Filipino food. The show runs from May 8 to16 at SomArts Cultural Center, and tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets. For further info, call 415-864-4126.



6. Earth mother
Make Mom and Mother Earth happy on May 11th, when Marin Organic celebrates its second annual Mother’s Day Tea Party. Hosted by All Star Organics farm, the event includes afternoon tea, a bouquet for Mom and a tour of the farm, along with tips for making essential oils. The cost is $25 for members of Marin Organic or $35 for nonmembers, and reservations are suggested. For more information, call 415-663-9667.

7. Green goodies
On May 14th, vegetarian goddesses Sara Tashker of Green Gulch Farms and Annie Somerville of Greens Restaurant will be demonstrating farm-fresh cooking and talking about the collaboration between chefs and farmers. The event starts at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Cellar kitchen at Macy’s. Seating is first-come, first-serve, and the $10 admission includes a sample of the featured dish, a glass of wine from Benziger Family Winery and assorted goodies.

We all think we’re the master (mistress?) of our own universe, but the truth is, we’re not. You think you’re drawn to that fuchsia top because you like it? Sorry. Most likely, a highly-paid fashion forecaster set the palette for Summer '08 way back, stores have placed it strategically and, voila: You’re suddenly overwhelmed with the need for a closet-full of hot pink.

Similarly, if you have fresh ricotta on the mind, the versatile cheese has, in fact, been subliminally wiggling its way into your collective craving conscious for most of spring. And there’s more than one chef to blame (or in this case, thank).


Craving? The ricotta at Laïola is housemade.

My own ricotta revelation came the other night at Pizzeria Delfina (a restaurant which I’ll swear by again and again). A mild scoop of it came out with marinated and grilled artichokes and crostini made with Tartine bread. Simple but so delicious: Delfina’s specialty. I asked chef Anthony Strong about it and got an email back that was more of a dissertation/101-things-to-do-with ricotta cookbook. (“It’s really cool in the nettle and pinenut calzone. In the summer, we do a version of the Spanish pane e tomate drenched in olive oil, with just a little fresh ricotta spooned on top. And of course we use it in cannoli! We stuff squash blossoms with it. Koa, our pastry chef does this insanely old school ricotta and wheatberry crostata. It is the filling for our shells ... we use the hell out of it.”)

Delfina doesn’t make it in-house. Rather, they get their ricotta from the same people that make their mozzarella: Belfiore in Berkeley (why mess with success, was basically Strong’s rationale). Breaking news: The pizzeria has recently made the bold move not to salt it!  “It just sort of makes sense, though we can't really explain it. It's like fresh ricotta is pure and clean, and salt seems to actually take away from that,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, last week at SPQR, I had a big bowl of fresh ricotta with crostini and at Laïola, chef Mark Denham has been crafting his own ricotta since he was at 42 Degrees. Today, he makes it with organic milk and cream, salt and Meyer lemon. The sweetness is countered with a lightly-dressed, handful of slightly bitter baby arugula and—of course—some rustic, toasted Acme bread. Laïola just started serving lunch on weekends, and now offers outdoor seating, which is perfect if you find yourself coming out of Dylan across the street with a new, spendy fuchsia get-up and a craving for ricotta. In cases like this, it can be a relief to know you had nothing to do with it.