Category Archives: Enticing Events

Celebrate Suds — Big-Time

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Beers galore. (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pub)

Brewski lovers will rejoice that “SF Beer Week” rolls around, Feb. 6-15.

The 10-day beer celebration will showcase the San Francisco Bay Area’s long heritage with craft beer. More than 150 events are planned throughout the Bay Area. They include beer festivals, beer dinners, meet-the-brewers evenings, home-brewing demonstrations, music, films, and even a museum exhibition.

“We want the public to know that San Francisco is a hot spot for artisan and craft beers. It is an artisan environment,” said Dave McLean, owner and brewer of Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery, and the Alembic bar. “San Francisco has the top examples of artists – from cheese, to wine, to arts and culture – and beer is a part of that excellence.”

Get ready for Beer Week. (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pub)

After all, beer is considered the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. The Bay Area’s connection dates back to the 19th Century, when it had nearly 50 breweries.

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Go Red

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February is American Heart Month, so be good to your ticker.

Alarmingly, heart disease is the number one killer of women. So resolve to eat healthier, exercise more, quit smoking, lose weight, and keep your cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure under control.

The Food Gal will be doing her part in all of this, too. Yours truly will be joining a handful of other women on ABC’s “View From the Bay” ( KGO-TV channel 7), 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, with hosts Spencer Christian and Janelle Wang. We’ll be participating in a fashion show organized by the American Heart Association and Macy’s. Basically, I’m just hoping I don’t trip over my own two feet walking down the runway.

You can do your part, too, by wearing red on Feb. 6, National Wear Red Day. Landmark buildings around the Bay Area, including San Jose City Hall’s dome, will be lit up in red that day for the occasion.

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Meaty Times at Poggio in Sausalito

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Tuscan porchetta every Monday through March. (Photo courtesy of Poggio)

Carnivores will want to head to picturesque Poggio for two marvelous meaty events.

First up, every Monday through March 30, the Italian restaurant will feature a Porchetta Dinner for $16 per person.

Executive Chef Peter McNee learned the Tuscan technique in Italy, in which a small pig is deboned and stuffed with herb sausage. Then, it is roasted in a wood-burning rotisserie until the skin is super crispy and the meat tender as can be.

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Charlie Ayers’ Calafia Cafe Opens

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Inside Calafia Cafe & Market A Go Go. (Photo courtesy of Ben Mayorga)

The long-awaited debut restaurant by the former executive chef of Google has opened for business at Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village.

Calafia Cafe & Market A Go Go is the brainchild of Charlie Ayers, one-time private chef to the Grateful Dead. Although the cafe is open, the market  — with its planned salad bar, rotisserie chicken, and pre-cooked meals to reheat at home — won’t open its doors until February.

The eclectic, global menu of the casual eatery emphasizes fresh, healthy, local, and sustainable. You’ll find everything from brown rice sushi ($9) to Crouching Chicken Pizza (Five-spice chicken, tiger sauce, mushrooms, white sesame seeds, and greens; $9), Chinese Chicken Salad ($7.50), Lacquered Beef Short Ribs ($16), and Vegan Sticky Buns with Maple Syrup ($7).

Carafes of house-filtered still or carbonated water are set on the tables. Lumber from a 1910 Pennsylvania barn was reclaimed for the ceiling. A chandelier of 66 recycled milk bottles graces the front dining area. Other custom table lamps are constructed from a found gas can and dairy can; and counters are made from recycled paper put under immense pressure to create a hard, dense surface.

Pizza -- Charlie Ayers' way. (Photo courtesy of Chris Schmauch)

The cafe and bar are open daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Happy Hour, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily, will feature select wines, beers, and appetizers at a discount.

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Take Five with Chris Cosentino, A Chef Who Is Offal Good At What He Does

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The one and only Chris Cosentino.

Chris Cosentino, the spiky-haired, take-no-prisoners chef of San Francisco’s acclaimed Incanto, is a man who enjoys extremes.

Particularly when it comes to sports, and cuts of meat.

A chef who designed stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “I Love Offal,” started his own salumi company last year, Boccalone, with Incanto’s owner Mark Pastore.

At Incanto, Cosentino is not shy about showcasing more unusual meat and seafood offerings, either. Bloater paste bruschetta, anyone? Get past the name to enjoy a luscious, creamy rich spread made from organ meats of a smoked fish. Wicked good.

Then, there’s the restaurant’s “Whole Beast Dinners” (starting at $55 per person, and you’ll need about 20 of your friends to enjoy it). Sit down to your choice of a whole roast suckling pig, lamb or goat carved tableside. Incanto sells two of those carnivore extravaganzas a month.

Braised beef shank (leg of beast).

They’ve proven so popular that the restaurant just started offering a smaller version of that family-style meal: “Leg of Beast.” The four-course meal ($200 for 6-8 people) is centered around a whole leg of beef. Enjoy unctuous marrow bones (God’s butter, as Cosentino calls it); melty beef tendon stewed with cannelloni beans and sage; a platter of chicory tardivo tossed with zinfandel vinaigrette; and the piece de resistance, a whole braised beef shank — a nearly 20-pound leg of beef that’s been cooked at 200 degrees for 6 hours until it is spoonable-tender.

I had the chance to enjoy the debut of this meat madness at Incanto, and to sit down with Cosentino afterwards, just days before the 36-year-old chef would have surgery.

He quipped, “It’s for implants. C-cups.”

Not quite.

For Cosentino, who enjoys telemark skiing, and raced competitively in single-speed mountain-bike 24-hour ultra endurance races, this will be his third shoulder surgery — the first one on the left shoulder for this right-handed chef.

His body produces a large amount of elastin, he explains, a natural protein that gives elasticity to tissues and organs. In the case of his shoulder, though, the elastin has caused the connective tissues to become like overstretched rubber bands, and they need to be repaired.

Cosentino expects to be back in the kitchen shortly after the operation. But he won’t be able to move his left arm much for about six weeks.

Q: Maybe you should take up hiking instead?

A: That would be too boring.

Q: So which came first — your love for cooking or your love for cycling?

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