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ABOUT ME: Name: Gutenberg Location: Somewhere near the Golden Gate Bridge. Occupation: BRPR (Bunrab public relations.) |
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Do you need to answer back? You can send me comments if you want to. If I want to, I'll post 'em in this very blog. -Gutenberg |
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June 1-8, 2008
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| Sunday, June 8, 2008 permalink
... wasn’t your garden-variety event. All of the participating wineries had to be approved by a two-fisted wine committee. who selected the over 120 wineries. Before the headliner, there were a couple of warm up acts. Gruppo "Gusto Piemonte" discussed their region and winemaking techniques before a tasting of wines that best represented their newly formed association. The next seminar covered New Zealand's wine production goal of 100% sustainability by 2012:
... before leading us though a tasting of zealous wines.
...where we saw the usual cook-nescenti. Toponia was char-cutting-up her Fatted Calf goods for a long line of ligament-lovers.
Peter:
... kept tongues wagging with his fantastic bollito misto of lengua and Cotechino sausage:
... which he serves up seasonally at Poggio. Bruce's baby hamachi skewers:
... were a Picco'ed clean. These fresh lemon lifted seafood sticks were worth the stake-out in the queue. Andrew Freeman was less queue and more GQ as he chatted with seminar curator, Erin Hunt and New Zealand wine PR wrangler, David Strada. We chatted with karaoke master, Alder, and asked him to steer us towards some of his picks. We loved the floral, peppery St. Pauls 2006 Sauvignon Passion and the cherry picked Prunotto 2005 Mompertone Monferrato.
Taking advantage of a slow moving line, we caught up with Brett whose Contigo Restaurant is opening in August.
... was trying to keep up with the traipsing traffic targeted towards his terrine:
Bi-Rite Creamery scooped up their chocolate ice cream:
... and capped it was some olive oil and Maldon salt. I remember when Pizzeria Picco started dishing out this soft serve combo and there were those that balked, but there was no sign of hesitation from the screaming masses today.
... capped off this great day of spit takes. Golden Glass was a choice chalice.
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| Saturday, June 7, 2008 permalink
... which took place this afternoon at the Pasta Shop in Berkeley. Thin slices were whittled off for salivating seekers of sensational saline satiation. The flyer had the feel of a larger event but we cone-soled ourselves with a couple of Boccalone's:
... inverted porcine party hats:
... filled with savory slices of salumi. The Berkshire pigs and salt in the La Querica Prosciutto:
... made for a buttery and clean tasting combo. It is clear that these flavorful food flaps are no Amateur-sciutto. David's Old World hamlettes:
... and chunks of the Pasta Shop's pork sausage were also dispensed to the kosher-free crowd who seemed happy to sample these porky products before hooving it out the door.
Hog Heaven
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| Friday, June 6, 2008 permalink
... with a shrugging woman behind the windows mouthing, "sold out" (which seemed like a loophole for shuttering at 11 a.m.) We aborted the back alley visit (since they wouldn't feedus) and went to another vendor of hole grain food. Most people think of chow mein and sushi as Asian cooking, but it seems to me that donuts are frequently fabricated by first generation fry-masters of the Far East.
... reinforced this theory. We got our Asian food to go:
... so we could wash it down with our java of choice as we frittered away our mealtime.
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| Thursday, June 5, 2008 permalink
Not all restaurants can afford to use linen napkins and the paper ones can give off a chintzy, eco-hostile vibe, but I cannot fabricate a reasonable excuse for subjecting diners to a devise that defeats its own purpose. These rustic rags:
... disintegrate like a Listerine strip for your lap. The dine-druff transferred during the normal use of this crumby shield:
... makes you look like you frequent a lap dancer with psoriasis. I don't think we need to have a black napkin option that you find in some other cities, just something that has a thread count higher than 2 digits or customers will be driven out of their cotton-picking minds.
From today's Bunrab email, Steve H. writes about the Pub closure in Sausalito: Gutenberg, Hamburgers on Bridgeway and Patterson's pub: like Burns and Allen. very sorry to hear that Patterson's is closed. Steve
Yeah, we're sorry we were the ones who had to say "Goodnight Gracie." -G
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| Wednesday, June 4, 2008 permalink
It's a good sign when you sit down to eat and see some of your favorite San Francisco chefs seated in the same dining room.
Mark your Calendars As we mentioned last week, The Golden Glass will be taking place at Fort Mason this Sunday with a great line up of wineries and some excellent eats, but they have now added some opera to the mix. Daniel Hendrick, Salvador Padilla, Martin Gonzalez and Roman Palacios will be the 4 tenors you get for your 5 tenners ($50 in advance, 6 tenners at the door.) The Golden Glass
From our Bunrab email, Steven C. writes: We miss Chubby and his burgers and bathrooms! Gutenberg is a wonderful daily addiction but Chubby is the special occasion, and we're so concerned, we are thinking about contacting Special Agent Eliot Ness in Chicago, where the Chubbster was last seen. Steven
Thanks for the encouragement. It got me in gear to write about a great new detour-worthy spot. Your pal,
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| Tuesday, June 3, 2008 permalink
Sausalito had its own version of this pub and grub partnership with Hamburgers on Bridgeway and Patterson's Pub.
Chubby and I were in the mood for this burger and beer circuit, but we were met with alarming news:
Patterson's is no more. They are building a Venetian-style eatery called Piccolo Teatro which was supposed to open in June, but they have already hit the usual snags (in the restaurant business? Shocking!) so look for them to open in July. We went with plan B and headed over to our normal non-beer spot at the waterfront to munch on our smoky, grilled, meat rounds ($6.60) topped with melted Lappi cheese:
One order of crinkle cut fries ($2.45):
... was enough to split, and for some reason, today there were none of the usual aggressively pomme handling gulls. If you are into streamlining, the savvy snacker phones in their order 15 minutes before arrival, picks up their meal without waiting in the long line and heads for the waterfront picnic tables or benches. But there's something to be said for watching the hypno-grill slowly rotating:
... an orrery of edible planets in this universe of burgers.
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| Monday, June 2, 2008 permalink
This chain stems from their Emeryville shop, but sadly, the Marin outlet dispensed with the Mr. Espresso coffee (which they dispense at their flagship.) This meant that I was disposed to be addressed as "your flagship" since I didn't have the necessary caffeine counterpoint (the nearby Tully and Il Forniao coffee isn't my thing.) We got a Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcake ($3.00) with a vanilla frosting:
... which was a moist, chocolate dough stump capped with a very sweet icing. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake ($3.00):
... was only okay. It didn't have the intensity of flavor that would have appeased our nutty desires. The crisp edges of the buttery chocolate chunk cookie ($2.00):
...were worth the caloric toll they housed even though I prefer ccc's that are thin centered (so that they never verge on cakey.) The one item to purchase here is the brownie bite ($1.00):
The crackly crust and moist, deep chocolate flavor is just the thing to kick your choco-craving for a buck. This store is too girly for me:
...(to be fair, it's a freaking cupcake parlor, not a machine shop) but the staff is friendly and efficient and those little chocolate brownies for a smacker will probably cause me to descend on this dainty, doughy detour again.
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| Sunday, June 1, 2008 permalink
We checked out of the inn:
... and bookended our journey with lunch at the Downtown Bakery and Creamery.
Joe's breakfast pizza ($9.25):
... had a nice crunchy and chewy crust lined with sautéed leeks, sliced mushrooms, mozzarella and asiago. Alchemizing bits of bacon rounded out this flavorful flatbread. The egg looked great, but it was cooked until the yolk was firm so it refused to act as a saucing agent, but this wasn't enough to eggstract our zeal for this 'za. Mexican scrambled eggs ($8.00):
... were nicely seasoned and served with avocado and a tomato salsa. I particularly liked the house made tortillas served along side this pepper and queso fresco accented scram. They serve their Friday through Sunday café menu counter service style. The crowd was mostly locals who knew the drill.
If Healdsburg is outside of your grazing area, you can always pick up one of their craveable fruit galettes at their Saturday Ferry Building Farmers' Market stand in San Francisco, but if you are taking a trip on the 101, it's an excellent place to pull off for a recharge.
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2008 by BunRabCo. All rights reserved.
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