You can do just that on July 30 at any Cheesecake Factory with a fun promotion called “Any Slice, Half Price.”
Yup, diners who eat in the restaurant that day can choose a slice of any of 30 different cheesecakes for half the price.
Bistro Boudin at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf has upped the sourdough factor on its summer menu.
A variety of new dishes highlight the tangy, wonderful bread made by the cafe’s Gold Rush-era bakery.
Look for Bistro Shrimp Salad ($14.95) with grilled avocado, tangerines, chopped romaine and cilantro vinaigrette piled into a crispy sourdough cup; Grilled Salmon Al Tagine ($25.95) with clams, spinach, cherry tomatoes, Moroccan olives and capers served with sourdough crostini; and Sourdough Gnocchi ($23.95) with decadent chunks of lobster in a creamy pesto sauce.
Sure, you’ve heard of food truck crawls, where those culinary four-wheelers gather in one spot to ply their delicious wares. Now, get ready for a wine version of that.
SF Wine Crawl, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. July 24, affords you the chance to taste wines from 10 of San Francisco’s urban wineries.
Treasure Island is the location for this unique event — only appropriate since several wineries already make their home there. Sip wine, meet the winemakers and enjoy a breathtaking view of the Bay.
The event is accessible by car and #108 Muni bus.
Tickets are $40 per person; $60 VIP tickets include a VIP shuttle to ferry you around to each winery.
McEvoy Ranch — producers of spectacular estate-grown, certified organic extra virgin olive oils — is opening up its 550-acre property in the hills west of Petaluma for a garden walk plus lunch, 10 a.m. to noon July 22.
I know some people who turn up their nose at custard, thinking it suitable only for teething kids or seniors with denture issues.
They must be mad.
I don’t know about you, but a creamy, silky, custard is what I call one of life’s little pleasures. The moment your spoon breaks the top and scoops up some of that smooth, eggy goodness, you know you’re in for a happy mouthful.
The other good thing about custards is that they make for a fine way to use up extra egg yolks left over from baking an egg white-laden angel food cake.
In fact, that’s what prompted me to make these lovely “Maple Custards” from the classic cookbook, “Chez Panisse Desserts” (Random House). It’s by Lindsey Remolif Shere, who was the opening pastry chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, before she left to open the absolutely wonderful Downtown Bakery and Creamery in Healdsburg in 1987. If you’re ever in the area, you must visit it.
It’s a cookie. It’s a truffle. No, it’s actually both in one sweet confection known as a Lovie.
Oregon’s Leah Dancer and her mother, Denise Padgett, started creating these cookie-candy-like treats two and half years ago.
Made by their Love Bucket Baking Company, they’re akin to petit fours, only instead of cake, imagine chocolate ganache wrapped in a tender shortbread-like cookie, then dipped in chocolate.
The good news is that you no longer have to brave the humongous lines if you want a Bakesale Betty ginger molasses cookie.
The bad news is that you still will if you want Betty’s famous fried chicken sandwich.
That’s because blue-wigged Betty, aka owner Allison Barakat, has now packaged her popular cookie in a mix that you can buy to make at home. The Ginger Molasses cookie mix is sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma stores. It won’t be available on the store’s Web site until the fall, though.