27 Feb
(02-26) 17:38 PST SAN FRANCISCO — An unusual French investigation into the death of a French national in San Francisco concluded that the man was stabbed in a surprise attack outside his apartment and could not have committed suicide, as local authorities once suggested, the man’s father said Thursday.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/27/BAUP165QSD.DTL
27 Feb
Monday, February 23, 2009
Western bluebird (Eddie Bartley)
27 Feb
San Francisco artist and environmental types this morning revealed a handful of improvements in Civic Center
Plaza to help cheer up the rather rundown town square.
Some of those improvements: Planters! Tree sculptures! Outdoor cafes! With tables and chairs! And free wi-fi!
26 Feb
AP – In this Jan. 20, 2009 file photo, Pressman Niel Nielsen checks the print quality of a copy of a San Francisco …
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – San Francisco may lose its main newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, as owner Hearst Corp cuts a “significant” number of jobs and decides whether to shut or sell the money-losing daily.
24 Feb
Yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom giddily unveiled some sort of Green Vehicle Showcase, ushering in bragging rights for SF to call itself the “EV Capital of the U.S.” Which is to say, there are now plug-in stations at City Hall for your ass-ugly Prius. Continue reading
20 Feb
19 Feb
Feb. 19, 1939 – The eyes of the world were on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay as the Golden Gate International Exposition opened with pomp and circumstance. The fair drew 127, 222 for the first day. Meanwhile, the clouds of war grew darker as Italy called up reservists, France shipped heavy artillery to Tunisia and FDR warned about the “ugly influence of autocracy.” (Chronicle archives / Chronicle archives)15 Feb
Bar Drake, redux
One of the great things about living in San Francisco is that perfect pairings are available in all parts of town. Let me explain what I mean by this term: often, an evening out for me will involve dinner and drinks before or after at a location that is in the general vicinity of dinner. When the food and the drinks combine to make for a perfect dining experience, I consider this to be a “perfect pairing.”
Some perfect pairings are across town. For instance, I happen to think that dinner at SPQR preceded by a drink at The Alembic is a perfect, if high maintenance, pairing. But that pairing usually involves a cab ride in between as The Alembic is in the Haight and SPQR is in Pacific Heights.
However, some pairings are not quite as far flung. And some have proven to be perfect time and again.
A new “perfect pairing” for me is close to Union Square and therefore perfect for entertaining out-of-town visitors who are already downtown and looking to meet for dinner. I’ve done it several times recently, and have complete confidence whenever meeting visitors and friends alike for this outing.
My perfect pairing suggestion is Bar Drake and Bar Crudo.
Bar Drake is a lovely bar that is located in the downstairs lobby of the Sir Francis Drake hotel. The drinks are delicious, the setting is intimate and usually pretty mellow, and the service is fantastic. Customers can choose to sit at the five-person bar, or can relax on couches and comfortable chairs throughout the lobby. I usually have the Bar Drake Manhattan that is made with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Port, Angostura bitters and maple syrup and is served with delicious brandied cherries. If you’d like a snack, Bar Drake serves snacks and entrees from Scala’s next door (where Top Chef 4 contestant Jen Biesty is the executive chef).
Bar Crudo is known throughout the San Francisco food community for its impeccable execution of raw fish. The restaurant almost exclusively serves fish, and only a very few dishes are cooked. In December, I placed Bar Crudo’s arctic char on my “Top 10 Tastes” list, and a few of their other dishes could easily have been on that list as well. The dishes are inventive — most recently I tried a yellowtail dish with lobster cream, vanilla salt, and licorice greens — and are almost always delicious. I’ve taken visitors here with great success because the restaurant feels very San Francisco, and pleases anyone who likes raw fish.
Bar Crudo is a tiny restaurant with a small bar downstairs and a handful of tables upstairs. Because of this, reservations are highly recommended.
13 Feb
Vintage ArticleJan. 28, 1969
The young filmmaker started his directing career with “You’re A Big Boy, Now” filmed in N.Y., “Finian’s Rainbow,” at the W7 studio in Burbank and recently (also for W7) “The Rain People” on locations in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and N.Y.”… Coppola has been shopping for the “facility” (not a studio, he points out) in the SanFran area and almost nabbed an old estate as headquarters where he’d mix, dub, edit his pix. He may have to settle for a less artistic site — an industrial building. “I’ve sunk all my own money in the equipment,” he admits, “and it may take everything I have for the place” First film in the new surroundings will be “The Conversation” which he’s writing and describes as a “personal film.” It’s a man on his 50th birthday … 2009 Update: I reached Francis (by phone) at his studio in Napa, Calif. He is working on “Tetro,” the film he shot (for a year) in Buenos Aires and which will be released this summer. It’s his first original screenplay since “The Conversation.” Vincent Gallo stars in the family drama — and while it’s about an Italian family in Buenos Aires, he assures it is not the Coppola family — “It’s about Argentinean Italians who speak Spanish,” he laughed… Wasn’t “The Godfather” also a “family film?” “Yes,” he said, “But — I HAD to write that one” (he needed the money). “My big pleasure it to write — I’ll never stop — and direct these kind of personal films.” He says he is able to do so “because I am blessed with my successful wines” — two labels, the Coppola and Rubicon. He also has three resorts — in Beliz and Guatemala, and he still works in his portable editing studio, “The Siiver Fish” parked alongside shooting sites. I’ve seen him work in it from the General Service Studio stages in the heart of Hollywood to setside at stages at Cinecitta in Rome. He has offices in SanFran’s Sentinel Building, also home of Coppola’s movie memorabilia-decorated Cafe Zoetrope. Could it be the site for Francis’ birthday celebration April 7 — his 70th?
Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000075.html
13 Feb
Eric Luse/The Chronicle
At Zuni Cafe, the kitchen will replace a dish when diners aren’t satisfied.
That’s an interesting and somewhat complicated question and goes to the core of an implied trust between the diner and the chef.
I remember talking to Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe about this subject more than a decade ago and her philosophy has stuck in my memory. She pointed out that a restaurant is one of the few businesses where the owner knows that when someone walks through the door, he or she will spend money. If you don’t like a sweater, for example, you don’t have to buy it. If you get home and don’t like it you can return it. Generally when you order a dish in a restaurant, you pay for it. Should you have to eat a dish you don’t really like?
She says no. If someone doesn’t like what they order, she will replace it; she wants diners to be happy with their meal. Most chefs feel the same way, and most patrons would never dream of sending back a dish simply because they don’t like the addition of red pepper in the sauce. That is where the trust comes in: a chef trusts that a diner knows his style of cooking and a diner trusts that the chef will deliver.
Sitting down and ordering is almost like a mutual understanding between the two parties. I think diners should be judicious in sending back food. It is fair to complain when the food is improperly cooked, or when the dish isn’t as described, or has an ingredient, not mentioned, that the diner is allergic to or doesn’t like.
Whatever the reason, a dish shouldn’t be sent back if half of it has been eaten. In most cases, instead of simply taking the dish off the check, the waiter will likely try to steer the diner to another dish on the menu.
| February 12 2009 at 05:11 AM
12 Feb
<!–
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A regular customer at a San Francisco bank was arrested after he allegedly robbed the branch and left his ATM card behind, police said today.
Daudet Muimpe, 33, walked into the Bank of America at 500 Battery St. about 3:45 p.m. Monday and asked a teller for help with his ATM card, authorities said.
As the teller was placing bills in her money drawer, the robber reached over the counter, grabbed some cash and ran, police said.
The problem was, Muimpe had been in the bank before, and the teller recognized him, authorities said.
Investigators also had no problems identifying him because he left the ATM card behind, police said. Officers arrested him shortly after the holdup.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
12 Feb
Craig Lee/The Chronicle 2003
Zuni Cafe and its chef, Judy Rodgers, have had a huge impact on Bay Area dining.
In the world of food, 1979 was a watershed year for San Francisco: Three restaurants that helped define the way we eat opened — Greens, Zuni Cafe and Hayes Street Grill.
Each brought something unique to the dining scene.
Greens, owned by the Zen Center, literally redefined what we thought of vegetarian food; first under Deborah Madison and now under Annie Somerville. Not only did it offer a great wine list, but the chefs prepared food that appealed to meat eaters. In addition, through the various cookbooks written by Madison and Somerville, the message was passed on to home cooks and other chefs.
Hayes Street Grill was one of the first restaurants to offer pristine, simply prepared seafood, which is accompanied by the diner’s choice of several sauces. Years later, Craft in New York garnered national attention for doing a similar thing with its meat and fish dishes. But Hayes Street Grill pioneered this straightforward style of eating.
Zuni Cafe embodies the casual San Francisco style of dining. Like the city itself, it is a restaurant about passion, which grew from the vision of its now deceased owner Billy West. He opened the cafe on a shoestring. The food had a vaguely Mexican and Southwestern bent during its first eight years, and people loved it. When Judy Rodgers took over as chef in 1987 she built on its eclectic nature, and it became a true San Francisco icon.
Both Zuni and Hayes Street Grill are celebrating this month: Judy Rodgers is offering a special menu of Zuni classics, along with wines from 1979, on Sunday Feb. 15 and Tuesday Feb. 17.
At Hayes Street Grill, Patricia Unterman is taking diners through three decades with three dinners for $30. The menus from the 1980s will be featured on February 12; the ’90s on March 4; and a big anniversary celebration on March 17.
Whether you join in the celebration or not, you should rediscover each of these places if they’ve fallen off your radar. Each continues to make significant contributions to the Bay Area dining scene.
| February 11 2009 at 05:18 AM
6 Feb
| By Michelle Durand
from the Daily Journal |
|
The manager of Roti, an Indian bistro in downtown Burlingame, stole identifying information from restaurant customers and used it to buy gift cards and other items from his wife who worked at a South San Francisco Safeway store, according to prosecutors.
Atin Singh, 23, and Iris Singh, 27, of South San Francisco, are both charged with 42 crimes including identity theft, credit card theft and commercial burglary, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. They have pleaded not guilty and return to court Feb. 25 for a Superior Court review conference. According to prosecutors, Antil Singh took customer information from his work place and used it to purchase goods from his wife’s register at the Safeway deli counter. Antil Singh was reportedly arrested at the restaurant while his wife was apprehended at home and prosecutors charged the couple Jan. 21. The exact amount of money allegedly taken was not available and a call to the Park Road restaurant went unanswered. Both Singhs remain in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail. Neither have a criminal history in San Mateo County, according to court records.
Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. |
6 Feb
Restaurant Horror Stories —Ever wonder about a restaurant stealing your identity and credit card information? Well, maybe you should: “The manager of Roti, an Indian bistro in downtown Burlingame, stole identifying information from restaurant customers and used it to buy gift cards and other items from his wife who worked at a South San Francisco Safeway store, according to prosecutors.” [SMDJ]
5 Feb
America‘s craft beer movement began in the San Francisco Bay Area. With Anchor Brewing’s rescue by Fritz Maytag in 1965 and the founding of New Albion Brewing in 1976, craft beer grew into the Silver Age of American brewing, with over 1400 small craft breweries today. Northern California alone has more than most states and enjoys an unrivaled reputation for the quality and diversity of its craft beer.SF BEER WEEK will be a ten-day celebration of that legacy, showcasing the Bay Area’s brewing heritage with as many as 150 events. The week will be anchored by the Bistro Double IPA Festival, the Toronado Barleywine Festival and will end with a bang at the Celebrator’s Best of the West Beer Fest
. In between there will be beer dinners, cheese and beer pairing events, other gourmet food events savoring our world-class cuisine, meet the brewer evenings, homebrewing demonstrations, music, films, and even a museum exhibition exploring the history of Bay Area brewing, from Monterey to Sacramento and beyond.
Add to that a wealth of tourist destinations like Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz, Cable Cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, and there’s never been a better time to visit San Francisco and the Bay Area.
The Manilla Folder 
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