I hope you survived the 100 Days of May, which, according to my calculator, doesn’t end until the time of the last graduation you attend or your kids finish school, whichever comes first. I’m on Day 96. Are you ready for summer? Looking at the fog outside my window, summer has arrived in the City by the Bay.

1. What’s Hot

Are you a part of the. media “doom loop“? The “doom loop” is real and, as a member of the media, I am part of the problem. However, I refuse to snub my nose at my second city (New York is forever my first city. Plenty of cities in-between). I’m up for meeting for a drink at Bar Agricole, a stroll through SFMoMa, a cup of coffee at Golden Goat or a meal at any of the places I mention in my latest for SFGATE about how to have a great day in SoMa and downtown San Francisco. Awesomeness, aplenty in the City by the Bay.

2. What’s Still Hot

We’ve been talking about artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI, for months. And while I don’t believe any AI will supplant humans, it will change how we work. Read A Guide to Collaborating With ChatGPT for Work by Alexandra Samuel in the Wall Street Journal. You may already be practicing some of Ms. Smalls suggestions. If not, consider it an AI starter kit. And, as I discussed a few months ago, human writers are still valuable and valued. This super-topic is not going away anytime soon. Buckle up.

2. What I’m Reading

As a food and lifestyle writer/editor/marketer, I enjoy reading work of others in the field. Since I recently wrote about crunch as part of an entire issue of Plate dedicated to crunch, I keep rereading Ligaya Mishan’s Why Do American Diners Have Such a Limited Palate for Textures? from the May 8 issue of the New York Times Style Magazine for her nuanced deep dive into ‘crunchy.’ The gradations of “crunchy” and”crispy” that Mishan explores are just a small insight into a world we have all surely struggled to describe in English.  English needs better words to describe the myriad palate sensations that are over-simplified by the one word.

3. That Column is Named!

May I present:

Field Notes: Restaurant, Hotel and Food News

Keep an eye out for it every other week for newsy bits about food, restaurants and other things I’m excited about.

I’ve sorted out the names of other columns, too, for the relaunch of my website, post-GA4 updates (IYKYK). The plan is to launch with a revised column structure in early fall.

4. About That Image
Dinner at President’s Terrace, the rooftop restaurant and lounge at The Graduate Palo Alto, struck me for its focused seafood and veggie-forward menu, relaxed atmosphere and Spanish Colonial style (I want to live in the lobby). I swooned for a glass of Kutilda’s Thai Tea (brandy! vegan foam!) but it’s the Weekend At Burning Man in the cute olla that graces the top of the newsletter.

I look forward to catching up with you again after the July 4 holiday.

Until then,

Christina