Category Archives: Spirits/Cocktails/Beer

Dining At the New Little Original Joe’s

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The Mount Midoriyama of zucchini fries at Little Original Joe's in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco.
The Mount Midoriyama of zucchini fries at Little Original Joe’s in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco.

When I was a kid growing up in San Francisco, it was a treat on the rare occasion that my family trekked to Daly City to dine at Westlake Joe’s.

The prices were affordable for a working-class family. The big, cushy booths added an air of specialness. And the food was both different enough from our regular fare yet familiar enough so that my Chinese American parents felt comfortable around the menu.

Those memories flashed back to me last week when I was invited in as a guest at the new Little Original Joe’s in San Francisco’s Marina district.

Located on a prominent corner spot on Chestnut Street, the restaurant is housed inside a1920s Art Deco building with soaring ceilings and tall windows that let in loads of light. The expansiveness does mean that the 100-seat dining room with 12 bar seats gets pretty noisy, which might make it difficult to hear your dining companions but definitely adds to the lively bustle of the place.

A view to the open kitchen.
A view to the open kitchen.
The Art Deco-trimmed bar.
The Art Deco-trimmed bar.

This is Italian-American fare that may not be cutting edge, but it satisfies with pure comfort and nostalgia.

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Dining at Downtown San Jose’s Aji Bar and Robata

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Lemongrass chicken potstickers at Aji Bar and Robata.
Lemongrass chicken potstickers at Aji Bar and Robata.

Years ago, the lobby of the downtown San Jose Fairmont Hotel was elegant if a tad sleepy. But since taking over that prime spot in 2022, the luxurious Signia by Hilton Hotel has transformed that space into a splashy, happening restaurant, Aji Bar and Robata.

Done up with loungey couches, an artsy angular chandelier, arches galore, and a horseshoe-shaped bar that’s dramatically lighted underneath, the restaurant serves Nikkei or Japanese-Peruvian cuisine. On Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, there’s also a DJ or live music.

I had a chance to dine there last Thursday, a more sedate night in comparison, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.

Executive Chef Joe Derla. Can you guess that he grew up in Hawaii?
Executive Chef Joe Derla. Can you guess that he grew up in Hawaii?

Executive Chef Joe Derla oversees Aji, as well as all other food operations at the hotel. Raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, he may have been destined to be a chef — even if at one point he trained to be a Nascar driver. After all, his mother was a chef (and his dad the chief of police). One of nine children, Derla and all of his five brothers are all chefs. Talk about runs in the family.

The name of the restaurant works two ways: Aji can be pronounced “ah-hee” as in the Japanese word for “taste” or “ah-jee” as in the Peruvian word for “spicy pepper.”

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A Visit to the New Fitoor in Santana Row

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The signature appetizer sampler, "Chaats of India,'' at Fitoor.
The signature appetizer sampler, “Chaats of India,” at Fitoor.

You’d be hard pressed to recognize the space at San Jose’s Santana Row that formerly held Amber India. Gone is the once dramatic celestial ceiling complete with shooting stars, which was cutting edge back in the early aughts. In its place is Fitoor, with modern luxuriousness and an elegant clubby vibe, an archetype perhaps more in keeping with this sleeker day and age.

Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Anu and Vikram Bhambri have completely revamped the space down to the studs, creating three distinct dining areas, a rear dining room done up in shades of emerald, a middle dining room gilded in gold accents, and a front lounge with floor-to-ceiling accordion glass windows that can be completely tucked away to make it open-air.

It’s been a busy year already for this enterprising ouple, who also opened the Mediterranean Alora on Pier 3 in San Francisco just two months prior. It joins their other restaurants, Rooh in Palo Alto and San Francisco, and Pippal in Emeryville. And more may be in the works.

The bar/lounge area.
The bar/lounge area.
The glam green dining room.
The glam green dining room.

Fitoor is Hindi for “passion,” and weekends exemplify that with added high energy, courtesy of a live DJ plus fire dancers. On weeknights, such as when I was invited in recently as a guest of the restaurant, the atmosphere is more subdued, with plenty of tables filled with tech types gathering after work.

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San Francisco’s Landmark InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel Nears Its Centennial

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The Margherita naan flatbread at the Nob Hill Club at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel.
The Margherita naan flatbread at the Nob Hill Club at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel.

As someone born and bred in San Francisco, I am mortified to admit that until last month, I’d never taken the elevator all the way up to the Top of the Mark, the iconic 19th floor bar in the grand dame InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel.

With such a celebrated landmark in your own backyard, it’s easy to get jaded, thinking it’ll always be there, so you keep promising yourself to get to it one day.

Well, one day finally came this month, when I was invited to stay overnight, and enjoy dinner and cocktails at this venerable hotel that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026.

Everywhere you turn, there is a sense of history in this gilded property. As the saying goes, “They don’t make places like this anymore,” and they sure don’t.

The grand entrance atop Nob Hill.
The grand entrance atop Nob Hill.
The lobby.
The lobby.

Mark Hopkins was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railway, and a bit tightfisted with his wallet, jested Connie Perez-Wong, the hotel’s creative director, as she gave me a tour of the property. It was his wife, Mary, who convinced him to build her dream home here on top of Nob Hill — all 39 rooms of it. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to ever move into it. Instead, in what some might call a cougar-like move, Mary ended up marrying the home’s interior designer, who was considerably younger than her, and moving into the hilltop home with him.

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Psst…The New Suspiro at Santana Row Has A Secret Speakeasy

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Paella de carne at the new Suspiro in San Jose.
Paella de carne at the new Suspiro in San Jose.

The new Suspiro, which opened in San Jose’s Santana Row last month, offers up delightful Spanish and Peruvian specialties, along with an intriguing attraction:

A secret, reservation-only speakeasy tucked away in the back with its own private entrances.

How surreptitious? The press materials I received never even mentioned it. If you go to the Suspiro web site, you won’t easily find anything written about it either. That is, not until you scroll to the very bottom of the page to find a red star symbol underneath the restaurant’s phone number. Click on it, and it will take you to the Instagram page with a link. Click on that, and you’ll see yet another link to make a reservation at the speakeasy via Resy. You’ll also see a link there for “members,” where you can apply to be one. Although I was told it’s unlikely a membership will ever entail a fee, it may entitle you in the future to special perks.

The stylish dining room.
The stylish dining room.

So, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant a few weeks ago, this was all news to me. As was the fact that the executive chef is Yerika Munoz Rodriguez, a woman who had Frida Mexican Cuisine and Cantina Frida in Beverly Hills, and worked with celebrated Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio at Astrid y Gaston in Mexico City. That’s because all the press materials only included the name of Oscar Santos, the chef de cuisine, a Barcelona native who spent time working at that city’s Michelin-starred Enigma by Albert Adria.

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