Category Archives: Wine

Restaurant Architecture Tours, Bobby Flay Comes to San Jose, New Splashy Sonoma Winery & More

Posted on by 4 comments

The interior of Twenty Five Lusk in San Francisco. (Photo by Paul Dyer)

Behind the Scenes Look at San Francisco Restaurant Design

The San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects is presenting a program this month that will have you looking at your favorite eateries in a whole new light.

Part of its “Architecture and the City Festival,” this “Tour, Talk, Taste: Food and Design in the City” series invites you into a couple of San Francisco restaurants, where you’ll have a chance to listen to the design and culinary teams explain their visions for each restaurant. Then, you’ll get to sit down with them over food and drink to learn even more.

Find out what went into creating Local Mission Eatery, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 25, which was built with environmentally conscious materials.

Learn about the creative process for hip Twenty Five Lusk, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 27.

And find out how designers created a Ligurian Italian restaurant in the Mission at Farina, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 30.

Tickets to each event are $40 for AIA members; $50 for general admission. To register and buy tickets, go here.

The interior of Local Mission Eatery, which boasts environmentally friendlyl materials. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Get Your Beloved Meetinghouse Biscuits

Long-time Bay Area foodies know well the legendary biscuits that Chef Joanna Karlinsky used to turn out when she owned the Meetinghouse restaurant in San Francisco.

That restaurant may be long gone. But you can still get your fix of those impossibly fluffy, tender biscuits a couple of ways. First, Thursday and Friday evenings from 6 p.m. on, she’s doing a pop-up at the Oasis Cafe in San Francisco, where she’ll be selling her wonderful chili and biscuits, both freshly baked and frozen ones to take home for later.

Second, she’s cooking brunch on Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at The Corner in San Francisco. The simple, sit-down brunch will include such offerings as eggs Benedict, chili, Southern sides, and plenty of biscuits.

Finally, you also can buy the frozen biscuits via her Web site. A box of 24 frozen dough squares is $35.

Bobby Flay Book-Signing Event at Santana Row in San Jose

Meet New York celeb Chef Bobby Flay at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at Sur La Table in San Jose’s Santana Row.

Flay will be signing copies of his new book, “Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook: Celebrate America’s Great Flavors” (Clarkson Potter).

Read more

Chocolate Fest, Tomato Dinner, Grilled Cheese Galore & More

Posted on by 10 comments

Enjoy the fun at the sundae-eating contest. (Photo courtesy of the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival)

16th Annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Fest

Celebrate all things wonderfully chocolate at the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival in San Francisco, noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 10-11.

Enjoy chef demos, live entertainment, ice cream sundae eating contests, and plenty of chocolate to swoon over.

The event benefits Project Open Hand, a San Francisco-based organization that provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as seniors.

Tickets are $20 each, which entitles you to taste 15 samples.

VIP “Sweet Sixteen” Affair tickets also are available for $50 each for a noon-4 p.m. special event on Sept. 10. You’ll forgo the lines to enjoy exclusive sweets, wine and music, along with your standard 15 sample tastes and full access to the rest of the festival.

Live Out the Fantasy of Being a Chef for a Day

You can do just that at Puccini & Pinetti Restaurant in San Francisco.

Under the tutelage of Executive Chef Richard Hodge, you will don chef whites, and get behind the line at this bustling Union Square restaurant. You’ll learn about food safety, shadow various cooks throughout the day, chop herbs, wash veggies and make pasta. Dress requirements include comfortable clothing and closed-toed, slip-resistant shoes. Participants also must be at least 18 years old, germ-free from colds or the flu, and willing to sign a release form.

The “Chef for a Day” experience is $125 for a five-hour shift and includes dinner afterward prepared by Hodge at the chef’s counter. Proceeds benefit the Larkin Street Youth Program, which helps provide services for homeless and at-risk youths.

Read more

A Wine-Tasting Staycation in West Sonoma County

Posted on by 18 comments

The signature salmon dish at Corks restaurant at Russian River Vineyards.

If the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Highway 29 and the shoulder-to-shoulder squeeze in tasting rooms have left you anything but relaxed in the Napa Valley, there’s an antidote to that.

It’s Wine Country in West Sonoma County in the beautiful Russian River Valley.

Picture the Napa Valley before big-time tourism development took hold. Or even Lake Tahoe back in the day with its natural, picturesque scenery dotted with cabins rather than sprawling, gazillion-dollar resorts. That’s what this region of Sonoma County is like, from what I saw on my first visit there recently. It’s a little like stepping back into time, when wine-tasting still had a small-town feel to it all.

Soaring redwoods will leave you humbled.

I was invited to be a guest of Russian River Vineyards in Forestville, to come taste wines and stay for dinner at the restaurant, Corks. It’s the only restaurant at a winery in the Russian River Valley. So, it’s easy to see why it’s become a popular locale for weddings.

The drive there is breathtaking, as the Gravenstein Highway (116), winds through soaring redwood groves, whose lush canopies provide plenty of shade so that this part of Sonoma County remains fairly comfortable even on days when the rest of the region is sweltering.

Read more

Chez Panisse 40th Anniversary Public Lunch on Maiden Lane, Oyster Time & More

Posted on by 9 comments

The Alice Waters-designed T-shirt by Levi's. (Photo courtesy of Levi's)

Chez Panisse Joins With Levi’s For A Special Event in San Francisco

Make a lunch date at 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 24 at San Francisco’s tucked-away Maiden Lane (between Grant Avenue and Stockton Street) to enjoy locally sourced, organic box lunches from Chez Panisse and the launch of a cool new T-shirt collection by the iconic restaurant in collaboration with Levi’s.

It’s all to celebrate the 40th anniversary of  the landmark Berkeley restaurant.

Proceeds from the sale of the all-organic T’s will benefit the Edible Schoolyard Project, the organization that Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters established to integrate kitchen and garden education into grade-school curriculum. The T’s feature designs by such celebs as Waters, herself, as well as Sofia Coppola, David Byrne, Dave Eggers and Maira Kalman. Beginning Aug. 24, the shirts also will be available in select Levi’s stores around the country and online at Levi.com.

Read more

A Fine Wine Time at Enoteca La Storia and a Food Gal Giveaway

Posted on by 15 comments

Petite carrot cakes made by the mom of one of the owners at Enoteca La Storia.

I always loved the camaraderie and goofball spirit of the ol’ “Cheers” bar on TV.

But Entoteca La Storia in Los Gatos is the kind of bar I really want to spend time in.

And I’m glad I finally got a chance to experience it when I was invited to be a guest there recently.

The wine bar and wine shop opened in a strip mall on N. Santa Cruz Avenue in 2010. Not unlike Sam Malone in “Cheers,” Enoteca La Storia was founded by two guys who have a knack for welcoming folks to their establishment with warmth and humor.

Co-Owner Joe Cannistraci, a New York native who moved to Aptos more than 20 years ago, has a background in construction and contracting. But a childhood friend who grew up to become an accomplished New York chef and restaurateur got him so interested in wine that Cannistraci ended up taking a part-time job at the Wine Club in Santa Clara. Cannistraci, of Sicilian heritage, worked his way up to assistant manager and the store’s Italian wine buyer before leaving to help found the Vintage Wine Merchants in San Jose’s Santana Row.

He later met his fellow Co-Proprietor Michael Guerra, a third-generation San Jose native of Calabrese heritage, who for years was a mental health clinician, before deciding to pursue a passion for wine. Guerra worked at the Wine Club in Santa Clara, too, before also joining the team at Vintage Wine Merchants.

A glass of prosecco, emblazoned with a corkscrew insignia.

Cannistraci’s construction skills came in handy when he opened Enoteca La Storia. He designed the industrial-meets-vintage interior, which has an inviting, long, wrap-around bar in the main room along with high tables for more intimate seating near railings old pipes, their worn patina adding a lived-in look.

Read more

« Older Entries Recent Entries »