Culinary Voyages

Early Fall 2025 – Insider Edition

Hello Friends,

How is it already October? Maybe it was the week off I took in September that sped up this month's arrival? I went with my mom and another mother-daughter pair to Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, and what a week it was. The 4,000 acre ranch is a dreamy, very intentional place, with windy, salvia-strewn paths between casita and dining room, activity pool and basketball court. It was easy to be active from morning to night – those Strength for Longevity classes don't take themselves – and I could eat literally everything, too. (Fresh masa every day for the win.) Plus, excellent coffee at the two coffee/juice and coffee/wine bars. What a place!

I'm now knee-deep in sampling and writing in the ramp up to the holiday season gift guides. As I've done since I started this newsletter a few years ago, November and December's cadence will pick up: There will be two drops in November and at least three in December. My Best Bites of the Year will wait until January. Why? 'Cuz there is still 2025 eating to be done in December – the year's richest meals arrive at the Winter Solstice.

What are you eating and drinking now to get ready for the onslaught? I hope it is delicious. 

What's Hot: Listening Party, Masquerade, Equinox Experience, 35 For 35, + Tacos! 

Not all together and not all at the same time. These are just a few of the food and food-adjacent events that have caught my attention in October and November.

Listening Party at Parche (Oct 20)

Well, look at that. Bad Bunny is in the news again. First for headlining the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show (which will be in Santa Clara). And now – and more closely related to food – his new album is part of a month-long listening party at Oakland's Parche.

To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, Oakland’s Colombian hotspot hosts an immersive dinner that, this time, honors iconic Latin artists through music and food. The Parche Listening Party celebrates Latin culture all month long with new food and music drops each week. The week of the 20th brings Bunny's  "Debí Tirar Más Fotos". It's Bunny's 6th album and a love letter to Puerto Rico.

Parche Chef Paul Iglesias will launch two new dishes for Bad Bunny's residency: Tenderloin Carpaccio and Bone-In Posta Negra – but you can try all eight new Listening Party dishes during the event. Also new? A Papayazo cocktail. Think of it as a funky & savory mezcal margarita – savory, tropical, refreshing, tart. 

Make a Reservation 

My Taco, My Choice Competition (Oct 21)

Taking place at Merkado in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, the third edition of a lighthearted taco competition which began after the overturn of Roe v. Wade features female Bay Area chefs and supports an important cause – women's reproductive rights – and this year, takes place as the Federal First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to allow the Trump Administration to prohibit funding for Planned Parenthood health centers delivering care to Medicaid patients in September. Uuuugggghhhhh.

Last year's winner, Monique Lopez Feybesse, former Top Chef 19 contestant, James Beard Award 2025 semifinalist, and chef-owner of Tarts de Feybesse

returns as a judge. Ten contestants will make tacos of any cuisine or culinary culture. 

Tickets: $50 in advance ($55 at the door) and includes one taco from each competing chef, plus a dessert from My Bakery, My Choice, an organization created to raise money for organizations that support access to abortion around the country.

To drink? Select and purchase from 300+ tequila and mezcal selections.

Reserve Now

Midnight at the Masquerade (Oct 30, Nov 26)

Guests will become part of the plot as professional actors from The Murder Mystery Co. guide an evening of murderous suspense at Carlotta’s Cocktail & Wine Bar, the moody, Hitchcock-inspired hideaway inside San Francisco's Hotel Julien.

$75 per ticket, which includes two non-alcoholic “Mystery” cocktails and reception-style food offerings. A full bar and dinner menu are also available.

And please, dress to KILL. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

Reserve Now

Equinox Experience at Ram's Gate (as of Sept 21)

There is, perhaps, no better season to visit the Carneros region of Sonoma than early fall, when produce is simply gorgeous and, if you've never tried it, unbelievably delicious. Curated by Winemaker Joe Nielsen and Executive Chef Michael Diaz De Leon, the seasonal indulgence of five courses paired with Ram's Gate wines should be an any eater's bucket list.

Recent pairings included Prawn Crudo with 2017 Carneros Blanc de Noir; Tomato, Melon and Stone Fruit Salad with 2022 Estate Chardonnay; Dry-aged Duck with Cellar Note Pinot Noir; and Lamb Ragú with Cauliflower Fettucini paired with Cellar Note Red Wine Blend.

$185 per person, all-in

Make a Reservation 

Palio's 3-Course Menu Celebrates 35 Years (ASAP)

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Palio in the FiDi, is a classic Italian trattoria in all the best ways. This year, they are honoring their 35th year in business (crazy) with a 35 dollar menu (also crazy). 

From now until November 26 and only in the bar and lounge, stop in for plates of Romana Salad or Salumi before transitioing to Pasta con Ragú Napoletana or Pasta al Salmone. Dessert is Tiramisu. 

Did I mention its only $35?!?!?!? This calls for a Bellini-- salute!

Monday - Friday 2 - 6 p.m.
Saturday 5 - 8 p.m.

Drop by or Make a Reservation

Where to Read My Work

If you are into cheese and/or into eating local, check out A Taste of Place in the Autumn issue of Edible Marin & Wine Country. I reviewed the cookbook from Toluma Farms and Tomales Farmstead Creamery, calling it "a love letter to the farm and to Marin." Ah, the taste of the place I call home.

A little further up the road, in Sonoma, Chef Craig Stoll and his team are growing piennolos. Read all about their unique character in Piennolo Tomatoes Take Root at Fryer Creek Farm (and head to Pizzeria Delfina to try Napoli's iconic tomato in their pies).

In a three-part series for Marin Magazine on sustainable packaging, I went deep down the rabbit hole of packaging, the waste stream it generates, and compostable alternatives. In Part One, published in February issue, I looked at new wine and spirits bottles.

Published in May, Part Two, A Clamshell By Any Other Name, looks at the surge in takeout container waste and what restaurants and packaging companies are doing to make takeout more sustainable. 

Part Three, The Time for Compostable Cutlery Is Now, looks at the evolution in sustainable straw and cutlery materials, published in August issue.

I've been helping Kevin at The Marin Dish with new restaurant news and September brings a new batch.

I covered new restaurants (and the farms they source from) for Visit Petaluma.

And for Eater SF, I updated my list of where to eat in Sonoma (alongside fellow writer @bicoastalista) and jotted down a few favorites for San Jose, too. 

Whew!

Restaurants On My RADAR

While Detroit is not (yet) known as a center of gastronomic delight, I reveled in the city's architecture and marvelous Art Deco interiors over a recent weekend. The Whitney is a stunner of a spot and my friends and I found it imperative to sit at the Ghost Bar upstairs where I enjoyed a Flora's Flight cocktail. 

In Bodgea Bay, a tiny town slung along the Sonoma Coast, Drakes at Bodega Bay Lodge has always had stunning views and now has stunning food to match. I stopped in for a cocktail and happy hour treats, including a beautiful hamachi crudo with hazelnuts, stone fruit and nuoc cham. Weather permitting, you can eat on the patio and take in the sublime views while sitting next to a roaring fire, your feet cozied into a warm blanket.

A bit further up the road is one of my favorite Sonoma restaurants, Terrapin Creek. (Stefan and I went regularly before kids.) This time, the charred octopus and cauliflower with smoked red pepper aioli stole the show. The homey vibe is still intact and the wine list is as exceptional as ever.

Sticking with the North Bay, in Saint Helena, I had the good fortune to have dinner at Violetto at Alila Napa Valley. Chef Mark Shoemaker is bringing it with exciting flavors all over the menu. I fell for his Tuna Carpaccio, its texture enhanced with micro-cuts, then topped with burnt Sungold tomatoes and Castelfranco chicories. It's just one of the many exciting dishes on the new fall menu. 

Down the road a stretch in Yountville, Chef Jeffery Hayashi at RO Restaurant & Lounge wowed me not for his Hokkaido Scallop, which I expected to be excellent, but for its charcoal-grilled Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Ribeye. Hayashi cures the beef with koji culture, adding texture and an unbelievable umami to the sublime beef. It took the dish to 11. Or maybe even 21. Crazy. Hayashi "kojied" cream to make the most insane ice cream I've ever tasted, too. Not to be missed.

And in the Carneros region of Sonoma, Executive Chef Michael Diaz De Leon at Ram's Gate Winery launched the Equinox Experience menu, as noted above. If you like duck, you won't want to miss Diaz De Leon's expression with plum barbecue sauce and goji berry-anchovy tapenade. If you thought demi-glace was enough zhuzhing for duck, just you wait. Yum. (center image above)

Niki and I stopped at Scolari's(right image above) in Alameda (because, of course) and to my surpirse, he ordered the Wimpy Burger! No matter the size burger, this is one of the East Bay's best burgers and will be a regular stop after Alameda Flea. (Thanks, Roberta!)

I caught the last of the season's soft shell crab (left image above) at Waterbar in San Francisco's FiDi. I'd rather have the curry sauce on the side for dipping but deeply appreciated that this dish was gluten-free. I ate every available morsel of crab, leaving only the carapace.

Lastly, Chef Brad Kilgore and Kilgore Culinary Group are not yet done trasnforming the area around the Transamerica Building into Eater Central. First was Cafe Sebastian and new on the scene is its hip younger sister, ama and ama Social Club. Enter through the unmarked door along the wide, white wall across from the pyramid (none of these restaurants are actually in the pyramid) and note  that there's a mere 18 seats (24 including the copper-wrapped cocktail bar).

Waft through the curtains to behold the miracle of the social club, a cozy, perfectly-lighted space where the Japanese-influenced menu will (presumably) compete with the sound of pinballs ricocheting around the two pinball machines in the corner.

Monthly Cookbook Column

Quick and wholesome recipes for feeding a family are the premise of “Farmhouse Weeknights,” a new cookbook from Oregon’s Melissa Bahen.

Read the entire cookbook review on my website.

Here Come the Holidays

I have wrapped up sourcing for my holiday gift guides and will soon dig in on all of the writing and visual storytelling to get the word out about the glorious goodies I've trialed. 

Please note that, during peak holiday months of November and December, I'll be in your inbox more often – at least two times a month or more. No rest until January when my newsletter pacing resumes its monthly cadence.

What I'm Reading & Watching

I've not been very good about reading much of anything this month (sigh) but I did manage to watch the first episode of Next Gen Chef, the Culinary Insitute of America's take on Top Chef. (Above, the host, Olivia Culpo [whose cheekbones could slash a trompo into ribbons) hemmed in by co-hosts and CIA graduates as judges: Top Chef Season 16 winner Kelsey Barnard Clark and master sommelier Carlton McCoy.

How is the show different from Top Chef and its ilk? For one, it's filmed at the Hyde Park campus in the Hudson Valley. CIA instructors are in the kitchen with the contestants (who do not have to be CIA-affiliated to compete). The instructors also act as judges, giving the show an insider look at what goes on in a professional culinary classroom. It also adds an air of gravity to the proceedings -– know your sanitation skills or you're out.

About That Image

My friend, Maya and I stopped by RO Restaurant & Lounge recently to try the food of Chef Jeffery Hayashi. It's a fun menu with uni toast and a chirashi bowl and that unbelieveable Wagyu and ice cream. The Hokkaido scallop cured in kombu stole the show. You can see why.

Thanks for reading and be in touch.

Christina

Christina Mueller

Lifestyle journalist and marketing consultant. Creative storytelling at the top of the funnel for lifestyle and hospitality brands and businesses. How can I help your business tell its story? cmw@christinamueller.com