The table, the room, Karl, our hot and yet attentive French waiter, and of course the food...all VERY impressive. They were even kind with corkage. If you have read any of my other posts, you know I do not impress easily. So this was a night to remember.

We didn't have reservations but they agreed to let us hang out at the bar.  Cool room, reminds me of Fraiche.  Industrial look, lots of stone.  Awesome drink list and tons of wine by the glass.  Dinner is a motley assortment of small plates, salads, pizza, big plates, etc.  Their thing is the whole local/sustainable/organic movement that has invaded LA.  This place may look casual, but their prices say otherwise.  ...

Interesting piece in the NYT today: The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party's Over

The gist of the article is that there are a bunch of foodies and especially foodie bloggers out there revelling in Pork Fat and are all finally getting to a point where they have to come to terms with the terrible things they are doing to their bodies.  ...

We love oysters.  Such tasty little creatures.  Ordering a dozen at a restaurant is such a tease.  We want LOTS of oysters.  I have happy memories of sitting at Felix's in New Orleans eating four or five dozen at one sitting.  While I have bought two oyster shuckers, the few times I attempted to shuck an oyster or two has ended in disaster so it was something I never really pursued. 

But this time, it was going to be different. ...

It's called Kula Sushi Bistro. A Sushi "Bistro" in Century City? This was going to be an adventure. From reading all the reviews and descriptions, I was expecting a fairly authentic Japanese dining experience but with some "dumbing down" for the American palette, all in a funky, modern setting.

We loved Alinea in Chicago, and since that experience have been questing other great Molecular Gastronomic experiences.  I had heard that Coi (pronounced "kwa") is the best (only) experience SF has to offer in Molecular Gastromony...(meaning they have exactly one more option than LA...) so of course this was at the top of my list.  ...

Cav was the surprise of the trip. My original expectation was just to share some wine and snacks with a friend I know from when I worked at Wally's about 5 years ago. She had left Wally's while I was there and opened Cav some months later. I was certainly looking forward to some good wine (she was the sommelier.) The wine did not disappoint, but it was the food that really blew us away.

We stopped for a drink and just to try the signature dish - the crudo. They were very nice about accommodating us at the bar, where we could watch them shuck oysters and prepare the dishes. Pictured was the house variety; there were three of us and they offered a combo of 3 pieces each. It took us 4 tries to find a bottle of European white wine from the list that they had in stock.

Since the Sunday brunch we were originally going to go to at Nikko looked awful and un-Japanesed, we decided to let our friends take us to to their new-found treasure, an authentic NY Deli called Miller's East Coast West Delicatessen.  We HAD to go, as they professed to have awesome Nova and bagels flown in daily, which is my husband's favorite.  ...

This event was the primary impetus that prompted our recent SF visit.  Having visited the Burgundy region last year and being completely blown away, we were excited to be able to try so much wonderful burgundy in one place.  We only attended the luncheon, which at $300/pp we thought it to be quite extravagant.  Clearly money was no object to most of the attendees, and/or they were industry people. I definitely spotted many familiar faces from Wine Spectator and other publications.  It seemed most people were also attending the dinner event, which was $1500 AND you were expected to bring some special wine to share.  We decided to skip that event, lol.  ...