Category Archives: Restaurants

Valentine’s Day Treats, Chocolate Dinner & More

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Make Valentine's Day especially sweet with these boxed macarons. (Photo courtesy of La Boulange)

La Boulange’s Valentine’s Days Offerings

From now through Feb. 15, your neighborhood La Boulange is offering three sweet treats especially for Valentine’s Day.

Choose from a box of raspberry and vanilla macarons for $12.50; a box of chocolate and raspberry macarons for $12.50; or a gorgeous heart-shaped raspberry fruit tart ($9.95).

Find them at any of the Bay Area La Boulange locations.

Chocolate hearts filled with raspberries and strawberries. (Photo courtesy of La Boulange)

Sent Sovi’s Savory Chocolate Dinner

Who says chocolate is only for dessert?

Not at Sent Sovi in Saratoga, where Chef-Proprietor Josiah Slone will be hosting his third annual “Savory Chocolate Dinner” at 7 p.m. Feb. 28.

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A Taste of Luxury at Spruce in San Francisco

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Grilled steak with duck-fat potatoes at Spruce in San Francisco.

Step inside Spruce in San Francisco to be cocooned in plushness.

Baccarat crystal chandeliers in the otherwise dimly-lit, 70-seat restaurant create an intimate ambiance of drama and mystery. So much so that the chocolate mohair walls look almost black in the evening, all the better to showcase the eye-catching, over-sized charcoal sketches of whimsical figures, including a torso draped in an Adidas sweatshirt and the the backside of a bald man clad in a natty suit.

The six-year-old restaurant, with its hammerhead banquettes and faux ostrich chairs, is all about glam. Indeed, it makes you want to have an excuse to, err, spruce up just to go there.

The glam and dramatic dining room.

Recently, I was invited to be a guest at the restaurant, part of the Bacchus Management Group of restaurants that also includes the Village Pub in Woodside, Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto, Cafe des Amis in San Francisco, and Pizza Antica locations throughout the Bay Area.

Chef de Cuisine John Madriaga has a deft touch with local ingredients, especially vegetables, not surprisingly since he cooked at Manresa in Los Gatos and apprenticed at Copenhagen’s famed Noma. He also has access to SMIP Ranch, the Santa Cruz Mountains farm that supplies produce to all the Bacchus restaurants.

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Delicious Doings For Chinese New Year

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Don't miss the noodle-pulling demonstration by M.Y. China's chef at Bloomingdale's. (Photo courtesy of Blair Heagerty)

M.Y. China Ushers in the Year of the Snake

Martin Yan’s M.Y. China restaurant in the Westfield San Francisco Centre will be offering two special menus, Feb. 1-26, for the Chinese New Year celebration.

The first menu, $88 for two people,  includes: “Juicy Dumplings Sampler”; Peking duck (1/2 duck two ways –“Skin in Sliders” and stir-fried meat in lettuce cups); “Seafood Treasury” (shrimp, scallop, and calamari with mixed greens and mushrooms); “Forbidden Fried Rice”; and sugar puffs.

The second menu, $68 for two people, includes: “Seafood Dim Sum Collection (shiu mai, har gow, spinach dumpling); Peking duck (1/2 duck two ways — “Skin in Sliders” and stir-fried meat in lettuce cups; green pepper beef rib eye; vegetable egg white fried rice; and sugar puffs.

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Scenes from Chefs’ Holidays, Part II: With Lucques, Peet’s, CulinAriane and Wilshire

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The grand dining room at the Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA — You may know that Chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques, AOC, the Tavern and the Larder, all in Los Angeles, is married to Chef David Lentz of The Hungry Cat in Los Angeles.

But you might not know exactly how the two met.

I knew part of the story, but not all of the details — until I asked Goin about it when I was the moderator for her cooking demo at the 28th annual Chefs’ Holidays event at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

Thankfully, she was a good enough sport to spill the beans before a rapt audience.

Chef Suzanne Goin of Lucques on the demo stage.

“So, Suzanne…” I asked, “David just happened to be dining at Lucques. And your sister just happened to be dining next to him that night? And the two of them just started talking?”

Goin chuckled and said, “There’s a part of the story that David doesn’t like me to tell, so don’t tell him I’m telling you all this. He thinks it makes him sound like a stalker.”

Suzanne Goin's curried cauliflower with roasted carrots and tahini yogurt.

She went on to explain that in 1999, she was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s “Best New Chefs.” She appeared on the cover with the other honored chefs. She was the only woman among them.

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Valentine’s Treats at Baker & Banker, and More

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Red Hot Red Velvet and Strawberry-Champagne cupcakes from Baker & Banker. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Never too Early To Think About Valentine’s Day Treats

Especially when it comes to holiday treats from San Francisco’s Baker & Banker bakery.

While Chef-Owner Jeff Banker will be offering a five-course tasting menu on Valentine’s Day, his wife, Pastry Chef-Owner Lori Baker will be whipping up a bevy of specialty baked goods.

They include an adorable Conversation Heart Cake (red velvet caked with cream cheese frosting or dark chocolate cake with ganache frosting — both shaped like hearts; 6-inch one for $50 or 10-inch one for $85), as well as Red Hot Red Velvet cupcakes ($14 for four), Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes ($14 for four), and a passion fruit cheesecake with guava caramel (a 6-inch one for $30 or a 10-inch one for $50).

Passion fruit cheesecake. (Photo courtesy of Baker & Banker)

Reserve your picks ahead of time to ensure they’re available when you drop by the bakery.

Islands Opens First Bay Area Locale

The beach-themed burger joint, Islands, which started in Los Angeles, has opened its first Bay Area location — at the Crossroads Shopping Center, 20750 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino.

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