Ritz Bites

The higher end of a weekend in San Francisco

Because I haven't spent a ton of time in San Francisco, especially in recent years, it was time to hit some of the classics. But asking for advice from friends and colleagues was quickly overwhelming.

Too many places. Too much good food. Too hard to decide. (Big problems, I know.) So I left it to fate, and my  trusty eater brother-in-arms MOP noticed a rez at Jardiniere on the Saturday night. I'm glad to cede OpenTable.com stalking to someone whose taste in food I trust.

Jardiniere's been around long enough that the taxi drivers know where it is, but it's not played out. At least not to my foreign SoCal eyes. The Nouveau touches, like the swag iron railings, make it feel like Fancy Special Occasion Place but also fun. I wish more restaurants had a balcony with such panoramic good views of other eaters and the room.

The menu again presented more tough choices, a situation for which the tasting menu took care of everything. And thankfully, everything was great. If only there weren't so many other restaurants to hit up on the next trip, I'd gladly go back just to order the luscious potato gnocchi with lobster, chanterelles and shallot jus topped with just about the best bread crumbs I'd ever tasted; the duck breast with blackberries, farro, and foie gras terrine; and the interesting wine pairings that totally did us in.

The meal felt like a perfect meeting of Northern California and France. If only international relations were this triumphant.

When I told Cicely that our other dinner plan included dinner at Zuni, she pointed out its CP-equivalent iconic status in her mind. Shame on me for never having been! (She didn't really say that. Instead I thought it.)

Compared to Jardiniere, Zuni's menu was well, not as exciting. But it's an impeccably sourced, sustainable apples and oranges comparison. Zuni is closer to the level of what a highly competent home cook can make, many of whom I know are Zuni fans.

Yet its comfort and sincerity is 100% Bay Area (4% "health surcharge" for the city's universal health care program!), and the food will never go out of style. Roasted chicken with bread salad, mustard greens, and pine nuts and currants (a Catalonia-inspired riff I often borrow) is indeed firmly in the Judy Rodgers canon. The crazy $48 price tag for a chicken who lived a happy life is also pure current day S.F. 

I've done my foodie duty. And just shot my street cred by using that word.
 

The best kind of vacation

My favorite type of travel -- and way of living, really -- is hanging out with good peeps and spending days going from one eating and drinking establishment to the next.

San Francisco makes doing that very easy. Even in a mere 48 hours you can get a lot accomplished.

Blue Bottle was ground zero for all social and caffeine-oriented activity. We didn't try their siphon brew because it's hard to wean us off the cappuccio, and apples vs. apples makes for better taste testing. But the apparatus is quite a thing to behold, as is the clean interior tucked inside an historic building at the edge of newly redesigned Mint Plaza. Limited seating means a focus on the coffee and friends (or strangers sitting next to you given the forced-friendly arrangement), not spending $3 to fritter hours away on the laptop. I also like the name of the intersection.

No trip to SF is complete without a visit to the Ferry Building. Check. Purchases at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant (Tintilla de Rota and Malvasia from Lipari), then a carafe of rose with charcuterie plate. Done and done.

Judging by the line spilling out the door at Tartine on a late Sunday afternoon, you'd never know that a major chunk of the Mission's residents have decamped for Burning Man. I get it. Pressed cheese sandwiches and perfect desserts are always in demand.

I never ever thought in a million billion years that there could be such a thing as too much insanely creamy smooth meringue. Tartine's blow torches are getting put to very good use for this noble cause. Yet as much as it hurt to leave some over on the plate, I couldn't finish all of the miraculous meringue frosting that encased the layers of cake and mild lemon curd. Truly a top 10 dessert for this citrus lover.

Now I can't think past the cake. Will cover dinners later.

   

Shut out of Slow Food Nation (sort of)

Here we are in San Francisco for the weekend. Slow Food Nation was the original impetus for the trip, but since I botched my chance to get tickets to the Tasting Pavilion -- which were being sold on Craig's List for upwards of 5X face value, apparently -- and other events, that wasn't happening. So, no tasting pavilion for us, but our font-of-SF-food-tips friend Tracie told us over delicious, perfect cocktails at Bourbon & Branch that it was like, ridiculous waits for a few bites of food. That made me feel a lot better. 

Instead we're spending a lovely, relaxing, pre-birthday, friend-filled, child-free, food/coffee/booze-soaked weekend up north, albeit one with a little too much time being spent along Market Street. But the open-to-the-public SFN Marketplace gave us enough of an idea of what the whole festival thing is about. (Proximity to Blue Bottle just around the corner helped get me over the initial disappointment, and it totally kicks Ritual and definitely Four Barrel's asses.)

To summarize: it was basically like a big farmers' market with better graphic design and lots of maps. Plus a nearly oppressive amount of geographically detailed information. I can't say the selection of products totally blew me away, since a lot of it was familiar: Weiser Family potatoes, Far West Fungi that I visited at the Ferry Building this afternoon, Let's Be Frank, etc. But we had some tasty bites of edifying eats, including the hand pulled noddles made with unbleached organic flour from Giusto's of South San Francisco (you get the idea about locational specificity overload) from the Imperial Tea Court.

Certain design elements were the highlight, like the shipping container turned info booth, the convivial group tables that used scaffolding components, and the awesome earthworks-y outdoor garden. Food plus public space is the most pleasing type of formula, and this one added up to something pretty cool.

Update: Turns out the Victory Garden will stay until November.

Santa Barabara Roundup

When I hit adulthood I lost interest in taking vacations to places like dull yet undeniably pleasant Santa Barbara.  That was until I had a baby, and I suddenly understood quite clearly why when we were kids my parents tossed us in the car and we'd head up the coast to spend weekends at the beloved Miramar. 

(I became, however, alarmed by the number of friends who have recently gone on cruises or to Club Med.  But I have no need to worry; one-stop-shopping ease and kid-amenable vacation destinations don't necessarily change people.  More often it's about grandparents footing the bill.)

After H's hellacious work schedule finally came to a close we needed to chill, hard.  Or so we thought.  Vacations in mellow spots with baby aren't relaxing as they once were.  Also, on this week's Top Chef Padma Lakshmi's description of Santa Barbara as "probably the most romantic destination in California" doesn't apply in the same way either.  Still, we actually enjoyed ourselves a' plenty, and even extended the stay a night to better enjoy the divine historic hotel and have breakfast on the outdoor patio overlooking the ocean and Channel Islands.

In addition to the obligatory stop at La Super Rica, we checked out a couple other well-regarded spots.  Lucky's is the place to be seen in the Montecito scene, whatever that is.  It was mostly upper crust locals eating incredibly expensive steak hoping Oprah or Ellen would show up that night.  Fortunately the New York steak was super seared on the outside with a buttery interior, with a side of chunky winey mushrooms.

Bouchon was recommended as the Lucques of Santa Barabara.  The seasonality, local focus, and intensity of the food certainly remind me of it, even if the restaurant 90 mies north could use some tips from Lucques's decorator.  At this time of year the menu was filled with root vegetables, mushrooms, and rich proteins.  Highlights included the poche chaude, a delicious filo pocket filled with ricotta di bufala and mixed vegetables.  Perfect for a chilly December night.  We also loved the signature duck breast with awesome sweet succotash, and ocean trout, which I'd never had before.  The pinkish orange color looks like salmon, but the flavor wasn't as fishy and texture a bit firmer.  

Instead of beach going and hiking, we spent a whole day up in Santa Ynez area.  We came back with our max of two cases plus a few bottles.  For those interested, here's a quick recap of the wineries we visited.

Zaca Mesa: Rhone style wines abound here, of which Z Cuvee is a favorite versatile blend.  The plucky young fellow working the tasting room had an amazing ability to keep track of where all the customers were in their tastings, and plus a shit load of enthusiasm to boot. 

Rancho Sisquoc: Further up the Foxen Canyon Trail and not entirely worth the schlep since it felt like we were in the car all damn day.  But it's a very picturesque spot, and we wound up with merlot, of all things.  The tasting room has a funky rustic vibe, ala Foxen's room, which we'll have to hit next time.

Rusack: We had to get some Rusack pinot  having drunk it at Bouchon.  Under better weather conditions the tasting room and outdoor benches that are perched above a small valley makes a perfect picnic spot.

Beckmen: We like them because Cut serves one of their syrahs at a fair price, and they were cool with letting us change James's diaper on the floor.

Kalyra: Fun vibe but not best wines by any stretch.  We came away with their chardonnay and sauv. blanc dessert wine.  Best known as Sandra Oh's character's workplace in Sideways.

Santa Barbara Winery: Nice space and peeps, and fun to be able to keep on tasting the following day with our friend Bo.  Yet wines pale in comparison to those bottled under owner Pierre Lafond's eponymous label.

The food at Los Olivos Cafe was unremarkable, but service friendly and wine shop's selection great.  If only more restaurants had such a gentle markup on bottles.  Cheers to that! 

And to S.B. showing us a lovely time and allowing us to relax a bit.