Archive for 'food-drink' Category
2008.10.31
Happy Halloween 2008!
Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope you’re having a great one.
If you’re in San Francisco feel free to stop by!
2 Comments | Catergorized: food-drink friends life san francisco2008.10.09
3rd Annual Bury These People in a Cemetery Party
It’s time for our third annual Halloween party… Save the date and invite your friends! Dress up! We’ll have dancing, chill out rooms, the ever crowded kitchen, a bonfire, drinks, snacks and a freaking ton of fun. The third time is the charm, and after the two previous excellent parties, I can’t imagine how amazing this one will be!
Start Time: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 8:00pm
End Time: Whenever it ends! Last year: 4AM
Location: The French Embassy (just ask…)
Street: 768 16th Avenue (between Fulton and Cabrillo in the Richmond District)
City: San Francisco, CA
Phone: 415.577.2754
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=39229902164
Previous Invitations and Pictures:
1st Party: Invitation; Pictures
2nd Party: Invitation; Pictures
2008.09.05
Save the Date; Halloween Party Time!
Just so you know, you should save the date for our Third Annual Bury These People in a Cemetery Halloween Party. It will be on October 31st from 8PM at my place. Invitations will start flowing (as well as an official announcement here on the site).
1 Comment | Catergorized: food-drink friends life san francisco2008.09.01
Big Surf Day
Though this happened 8 days ago, I see that Zionvlad finally posted up his excellent pictures from our big group surf day. A little over 20 of us went. I gave lessons to seven people; all of them managed to stand up at least once which is amazing to me. I guess that’s why he gave my picture the caption The Professor.
No Comments | Catergorized: food-drink friends life surf2008.08.18
Dear Stinking Rose
Dear Managers and Owners of The Stinking Rose,
I used to love your restaurant. Not just because I love garlic, but because the food was genuinely good and the service friendly and considerate. Yet the last few times I was there, and particularly last night, have left me feeling bitter and a bit betrayed.
I understand that your location is a popular place for tourists to visit but I never felt like I was being treated as anything but a local when I started eating in your establishment many years ago. Now I feel like even the IHOP at Fisherman’s Wharf has better service than you. Scratch that, I know the IHOP has better service. Listen, just because you have tourists doesn’t mean your waitstaff can get away with ignoring tables, getting an order wrong, and being clueless. When someone at our table asks for water, the waiter should not just got fetch a new jug of water and plop it on the table (as if we’re sending him out of his way). Poor the bloody glass of water! Five seconds and we’re happy.
Incidentally, the past several times I was at your restaurant I felt like the goal was to take the order, deliver the food and deliver the check as quickly as possible. I don’t know about the tourists but I happen to enjoy conversations. For the prices you are charging, even with rising fuel costs driving up stock, I shouldn’t EVER feel like I’m being hurried. Ever.
Your kitchen, at least according to your waitstaff, does not know how to cook meat. Asking for rare should not raise eyebrows, nor should asking for a “black and blue” cut. Medium rare should not be the reddest your staff can prepare, especially for the UNGODLY prices you are charging. Yes, your food is far too expensive. When is $20 considered acceptable for a reasonable sized (and a bit dry) pork chop with a spoonful of “caramelized” (read: soaked in some… something) apples and a bit of mashed potatoes that looked like they’d been sitting on a hot plate for half an hour?
Look, I’m not so pissed off that I won’t go back. I’ll go back one more time, sometime in the future, and try you out again. If the food isn’t worth the money, and the waitstaff is a pack of rejects from some suburban TGIF, then I simply won’t go back. I will also let everyone I know not to go, as well.
PS: The one thing that was excellent last night was the hostess. She was smart, efficient and very courteous. She even went the extra step and guided two of our guests to the table when they were lost. That is service. Give that woman a raise.
PPS: Maybe you should give anyone with San Francisco residency a discount if you won’t make efforts to improve service. It’s not a solution (you still need better waitstaff) but it would be something.
1 Comment | Catergorized: food-drink grrr san francisco2008.04.13
Heat Wave in San Francisco
I am generally not one that enjoys the heat. It’s humid often, you sweat, there’s little escape. I prefer cooler climates. It’s easier to put on layers; at some point you can’t take off any more clothing. This is at times it’s own benefit but not when you have to goto work.
Contrary to my predilection, however, we’ve been going through a little heat wave here in San Francisco and topped 80ºF (27ºC) and it’s been great. Especially at night. Normally once the sun goes down here you’re wearing at a minimum a thin jacket. Friday and Saturday nights were t-shirts only.
Friday my company celebrated an anniversary with a mini-offsite meeting and bowling party. When that ended a group of about 30 of us went to a bar and played pool, threw darts, talked, drank and had a lovely time. When I got home at 11PM (keeping in mind we’d all been drinking since 2PM) it was cooler but quite comfortable.
Last night was amazing, though. A group of us went to my neighbor’s birthday gathering at Zeitgeist and spent hours on the patio in the shockingly warm night air. I’ve never seen the place so crowded. Sadly I’d also never seen so many huppies (hip young professionals) there, either. Poor Zeitgeist, you were discovered and made popular and you’ll probably never be a proper motorcycle bar again.
Today is looking to be just as amazing as the past several. Sadly this scuttles my plans to go for a ride on my motorcycle as far too many people will be out in droves on the roads today. Still, I think I might go find an outdoor cafe somewhere, read a good book and enjoy the day. Temperatures that hold to warm into the late evening generally only happen a few times a year here. I’m planning on taking advantage of it.
1 Comment | Catergorized: food-drink friends life san francisco work2008.03.23
Going to the Happy Beyond
I drove up to Tahoe on Saturday for my friend Bill’s bachelor party. I met up with everyone on the slopes of Heavenly and, naturally, I wiped out on my first run. I think this was the first wipe out I’ve ever had where I thought I might have a serious injury. Somehow I caught a bad edge, propellered through the air and slammed the inside of my right knee on the hard pack. Fortunately it’s just bruised and swollen. I kept snowboarding but kept it easy.
The weird thing about South Lake Tahoe is that it straddles the California and Nevada border. We stayed in a hotel right on the CA side, and walked out the front door and into Harrah’s and Harvey’s. We had a huge steak dinner and drank a lot, and then hit the tables. Or, I should say, some of us hit the tables. I did not. If I gamble and don’t put money down I win most of the time. If I do put money down I always lose.
It was quite a drunk, but overall well behaved. The married men in the group wanted to get a stripper but, counter-intuitively, the single guys were not interested. I think the bulk of us went to bed around 3AM.
Now I am absolutely exhausted but pretty content. If I ever get married (and that “if” looms larger and larger every year) I think I would do something similar to this party… Goto Tahoe and hit the slopes, hang out with friends, repeat to fade. There are definitely worse ways of going to the happy beyond.
No Comments | Catergorized: food-drink friends life tahoe2008.03.18
“Stranger” Visiting
Doug and Erin at Vesuvio’sThis past weekend Erin McCain, a friend from college, came to visit me here in San Francisco. I hadn’t seen her in almost sixteen years now and had really just had sporadic contact after years of silence in the past couple years. When she said she wanted to get out of Ohio for a bit I told her she should come out here, so she did!
Having moved around so much in my life, my memory is a bit sporadic and definitely contextual. Seeing Erin brought back a lot of memories but also showed me how many gaps there were from back then. For instance I have no real recollection of her boyfriend in college. You’d think that would have been important! Sorry, Erin, I guess he never made much of an impression on me…
Anyways, I played tour guide around the City. We stopped in Berkeley so she could sample Betty’s Oceanview Diner’s espresso filled chocolate “twinkies”. We rode my motorcycle to the Japanese Tea Gardens, out to Ocean Beach, walked around the Haight and Fisherman’s Wharf. Got completely sauced at Ireland’s 32 with Mookee (and learned that one of the previous owners that we liked killed himself, which came as a shock). Walked from where I work near Pier 39 all the way to the Metreon by way of North Beach, China Town and Union Square and took the Hyde Street cable car back to Ghirardelli Square. It’s amazing how much of this City you can see in just a couple days, and yet barely scratch the surface!
It was great to see her and I realize that I really like having guests in town!
3 Comments | Catergorized: food-drink friends motorcycle photos san francisco2008.03.03
Tired, Sore and Satisfied
Doug in Tahoe, 2008I’m back from Tahoe. Three days of boarding, one at Sierra at Tahoe and two at the California side of Heavenly. By the end of Sunday, before we left Tahoe, my thighs would burn at the end of each run. It sounds disgusting, but it felt like I pissed down my leg it was so hot!
Every day was great, though Saturday was irritating because they closed the Nevada side of Heavenly and many of the lifts on the California side. This created huge lines, and one of the best runs, Sky Express, was closed. All was remedied on Sunday with Sky Express opened and much shorter lines. If only there wasn’t gale force winds, the day would have been perfect.
My favorite stories from the slopes, probably because I’m involved, involves Mookee. I’m going downhill probably too fast and my friend Redge was ahead of me. Unexpectedly he changed direction and I cut fast to get around him, and then tried cutting back to get back on course. I went one direction but my feet didn’t and in a cloud of snow I went down. It didn’t hurt but it was a little embarrassing with Mookee pointing at me and laughing. To my chagrin, Redge stopped to see if I was OK and hit me with a spray of snow. I thought Mookee would have an aneurism he was laughing so hard. Which is what made events five minutes later so satisfying.
I was following Mookee at a distance when I saw him go over one of the occasionally unexpected bumps on the slope that are far bigger than they look. One of his skis went to one side and the other ski went the opposite direction and suddenly he was down in an explosion of powder, tumbling, sliding way down the hill. I swooped past him laughing and yelling, “How does it feel? How does it feel, Big Boy?” He wasn’t hurt at all, but the wipeout looked so bad that two members of the ski patrol came to make sure.
The lesson: I will always have my revenge. The awesome: both wipeouts were caught on video camera! Alas, I stopped recording a few seconds before Banana Boy bounced down the slopes himself.
Of course this was a group affair and 14 of us were in two condo/cabin/unit things and we drank, ate and made merry every night. I made Meat Purse again (this year’s addition was bread crumbs) and some of my Japanese female companions made curry. I’ll eventually post a gallery of pics and Mookee has threatened to make a video of the weekend from footage and stills. After all of this I’m glad I took today (Monday) off so I could recuperate somewhat. I am tired and sore, but so satisfied. I’ve needed an escape for weeks now.
3 Comments | Catergorized: food-drink friends tahoe2008.02.11
Consumer Darwinism
Working in IT I get to see a lot of strange things on and around peoples desks when I go to help them. What follows isn’t the strangest or funniest thing (by a long shot!) but it did make me roll my eyes just a little bit. See if you can guess why.
What you’re seeing is a bottle of Trader Joe’s vitamins. It’s cranberry concentrate, which I’ve been assured contains tons of vitamin C. What gets me is the brand tag line, “For the Survival of the Fittest.” This is the most ironic thing I’ve seen in quite a while. If you were -evolutionarily speaking, of course- “the fittest” person and most worthy of passing your genes on to improve the species then you wouldn’t need vitamins. You would need vitamins if you were not genetically superior, though. The fittest don’t need help (unless they want it). The less fittest need help (unless they want to die out).
This is yet another fine example of marketers doing what they do best… Creating an image that distorts reality. For truth in advertising the tag line should read, “For the Survival of the Not-Quite-Fittest.”
3 Comments | Catergorized: food-drink grrr photos work
