One of my favorite artisan chocolate makers is Scharffen Berger. I visit their booth often at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco on my ferry ride back to Marin County. Now, they’re hosting a recipe contest where the Grand Prize is $5 grand. Just show them your spirit of adventure by choosing a type…
Get ready for a long weekend of culinary and autumnal merriment with organic food, wine and beer tasting, wool spinning, butter churning, cooking demos, book signings, and other gerunds featuring farmers, food artisans, vintners, musicians, and beekeepers. It’s the Fifth Annual Ferry Building Marketplace Harvest Festival, October 26-28, along San Francisco’s Embarcadero.
The details are staggering… 32 stories high. 550 rooms. $195 million. Translucent blue glass skin. San Francisco Bay, Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge views. Flat-screen in-room plasma TVs. A 5,000-foot spa. A terrific SoMa 5th & Howard Streets address, adjacent to Moscone Center and a a few blocks from Nordstrom’s and Bloomies in the…
If you answer “No”, that’s perfect because: A) You must be a really nasty person with no passion for life, so we don’t want you anyways! B) And — since the Annual Fundraiser La Soirée 26th Beaujolais and Beyond Festival is definitely gonna be a sell-out event — it just means more tickets available for…
Belly up the bar, folks. It’s time for the 1st Annual WhiskyFest in San Francisco, on Tuesday, October 23rd at the Hyatt Embarcadero. This event is an extension of the respected WhiskyFest NYC and Chicago, the largest and most prestigious whisky tasting and distiller tour (with a focus on independent producers) in the US. It…
I was part of the inner circle when I attended the pre-opening party a few weeks ago at Sozai Restaurant and Sake Lounge in my childhood neighborhood, San Francisco’s Sunset District. With a convenient location at 16th Avenue and Irving Streets near UC Med Center, Sozai is now open. This sake tavern serves small bites…
“Tiburon” means “shark” in Spanish, but “Waypoint” means “delicious” in pizza. This new restaurant along the waterfront in Tiburon, a 20-minute drive north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge, is delightfully appointed with photos of sailboats and a galley full of nautical gear in a building dating back to the early 1880s. My…
After what seems like years of hammering, pile driving and stopping traffic, Barneys New York opened today in San Francisco’s most famous shopping area, Union Square. It takes over the iconic I. Magnin Builiding at 48 Stockton Street, one block from the Powell Street Cable Car, with 60,000 square feet over six floors. Barneys New…
There are dozens of city dining guides for restaurants. The best-known is Zagat’s for major cities. Now, Hungry? is publishing city guides for Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and now, San Francisco. I’m proud to be a contributor to the latter for a number of restaurants in Marin County, north of the Golden Gate…
BOLD wines, BIG flavors, and an extremely talented new chef, whose skills and enthusiasm are BOUNDLESS! As a culinary tourism writer, I am often on the road scouting out new restaurants, chefs, wineries, markets — you name it. Which means that sometimes I miss out on the latest food happenings right here in San Francisco….
The Joy of Sake´is the largest sake tasting event outside of Japan. Join them to taste 300 great sakes, including many labels not currently available in the US. Presented by Betelnut, Ebisui, Hana, Hime, Kiku of Tokyo, Kirala, Kyoya, Memphis Minnie’s Barbeque, Namu, Ozumo, Poleng Lounge, Roy’s, Sanraku, Sushi Ran, as well as Beau Timken…