Category Archives: Great Finds

Happiness Is Getting A Table At Happy Crane

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Hand-pulled noodles with hedgehog and shiitake mushrooms at Happy Crane.
Hand-pulled noodles with hedgehog and shiitake mushrooms at Happy Crane.

After opening in August in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, Happy Crane has garnered acclaim far and wide.

So, it’s no wonder that landing a reservation to enjoy Chef James Yeun Leong Parry’s contemporary take on Cantonese cuisine is as hard as getting invited to Taylor Swift’s upcoming nuptials.

A tip to the wise: Reservations open up 30 days in advance at noon on OpenTable. So, set yourself up with your phone, laptop or desktop five minutes before, and keep refreshing the page over and over again. When the reservations finally so pop up, immediately pounce.

That’s how I managed to secure a reservation for four a few weeks ago. And it was absolutely worth jumping through those hoops.

The dining room.
The dining room.

Like with Mister Jiu’s and Four Kings, both in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Happy Crane has reinvigorated Chinese food with fresh, young energy with the use of top-quality ingredients, time-honored and modern techniques, and playful reinterpretations.

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A Visit to Paso Robles, Part II: Michelin-Starred Six Test Kitchen

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Hamachi with Asian pear and chili crunch at Six Test Kitchen.
Hamachi with Asian pear and chili crunch at Six Test Kitchen.

Paso Robles, CA — Six Test Kitchen made history in 2021 — becoming the first Michelin-starred restaurant in San Luis Obispo County. It has held that honor ever since.

It’s a true achievement for Chef-Owner Ricky Odbert, especially when you realize his 12-seat restaurant’s very humble beginnings.

Odbert had worked at some of the Bay Area’s most acclaimed restaurants, including Postrio, Spruce, Masa’s, Aziza, and the Restaurant at Meadowood. But he wasn’t even making enough to afford a cab ride home at the end of the night after work when MUNI had shut down its lines or curtailed them.

So, in 2015 he moved back to his parents’ house in Arroyo Grande. It was there he got the notion to start a restaurant of sorts in his parents’ garage. Fortunately, his father, who built commercial kitchens for a living, was all in on the idea and helped trick out the space.

Chef-Owner Ricky Odbert.
Chef-Owner Ricky Odbert.
Sommelier John Seals.
Sommelier John Seals.

Odbert’s underground supper club — all six seats of it — took off. That is, until someone complained to the authorities, and he had to shut it down until he got the proper permits for what he then promoted as a “test kitchen” with “cooking classes.”

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What to Read

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“Care and Feeding: A Memoir”

Do you fantasize about being an assistant to a celebrity chef?

Read “Care and Feeding: A Memoir” (Ecco), of which I received a review copy, by Laurie Woolever and you will probably have second thoughts.

Woolever is a writer and editor who has written about food and travel for the New York Times, Food & Wine and GQ. She also was an assistant to the late-great Anthony Bourdain and to the now irreputable chef Mario Batali.

No surprise, Bourdain comes off as a thoughtful and professional boss while Batali’s antics are as lecherous and unseemly as you imagine.

But when it comes to telling all, Woolever doesn’t spare herself, either. Indeed, her writing is raw and unflinching as she describes this period in her life, where drugs, booze, and extramarital affairs nearly did her in.

Thankfully, as the title implies, she finally learns the importance of taking care of herself first, and in so doing, emerges as the respected and successful writer she was meant to be.

“I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories From the Restaurant Trenches”

He is one of the most storied restaurateurs in the country, having opened such iconic New York establishments as Tribeca Grill, Nobu New York City, Nobu Next Door, Batard, and Montrachet.

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Holiday Sips

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The perfect start to any holiday gathering.
The perfect start to any holiday gathering.

2023 Bloodroot Petillant Naturel

What would the holidays be without a glass of sparkling? Not nearly as festive, of course.

The 2023 Bloodroot Petillant Naturel ($48), of which I received a sample, will get the party started in lively fashion.

Not only is it the palest of blush in color, but it’s made entirely of the little-known Trousseau Gris, a French varietal that is grown in small amounts in eastern France and was once widely harvested in California as Gray Riesling. Healdsburg’s Bloodroot, so named in honor of the “blood” of the vines being nourished by its “roots,” makes this particular wine from Russian River Valley-grown grapes.

It is produced in the petillant naturel method, in which the unfiltered wine is bottled before the first fermentation is completed, trapping the carbon dioxide for natural carbonation.

It has a soda pop-type bottle top, and extremely lively effervescence to match. Pour it into a glass and the bubbles will foam up immediately like a just-opened soda.

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