Hello Friends,

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 89 – I still have a graduation dance, an end-of-season party, and a graduation ahead. Are you ready for summer? Looking at the fog outside my window, summer has arrived in the City by the Bay. And yet somehow, I managed to get a sunburn this weekend while watching a Little League play-off game that went 13 innings. Yes, I said 13. Maybe I’m only one day 79…My California life and its contradictions, oh how sweet they are!

Since I last wrote, I have not traveled, other than to my kids’ schools (to proctor an AP exam, sell tickets for the carnival fundraiser and attend my final middle school PTA meeting), to the garden store and farmers’ markets for dahlia bulbs and local clarkia seeds (thanks, Marin Master Gardeners!) and Marin’s west coast for Mothers’ Day. A hike in the Pacific breeze followed by dinner is my go-to, now that the kids are older. (More on that below.)

Plentiful travel is coming up – I’ll be on the other side of the Atlantic for the next two months – so I’m a merry homemaker while I can. But tell me about YOU.  What’s news in your pocket of paradise? What would you like to read here, come fall? What restaurant or food trends do you want to know more about? I’m all ears.

My gift guides will definitely be back – I’ve already started sourcing for Foodie, Boozy, Sparklers and Cookbooks and I’m looking for hidden gems. Got ideas? Send ’em over.

What’s Hot: Nick Balla Returns, Seth Stowaway Cooks Outside, A Food Bash, +

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 as we move through June.

Chef Matt Alfus of Tomales’ Nick’s Cove

Foodwise Summer Bash (June 22)

MESKI, 7 Adams, Nopalito, Piccino, Dalida – these are just a few of the 50 Bay Area restaurants and beverage makers serving unlimited bites and drinks at a foodie festival at San Francisco’s Ferry Building. It’s all in the name of highlighting in-season produce and supporting local farms, food access, and education, while toasting our shared sustainable, equitable, and nourishing food future.

Check out the full list of participants and Get Tickets

Seth Stowaway in Marin at OITF (June 26)

Chef Seth Stowaway, who recently closed his San Francisco restaurant Osito, is popping up in Marin. Point Reyes’ Black Mountain Ranch will host an epic dinner by perennial roving restaurant, Outstanding In the Field. Yes, dinner will be served outside at the ranch, no matter the weather. (Bring layers.)

Live-fire cooking is at the heart of Stowaway’s style and so is insane creativity. No word on the number of courses but arrive on time (4 p.m.) to truly appreciate the setting by taking a wander around the ranch with a glass of guest winery Clos Du Val’s wine in hand.

$385 per person

More Details and Make a Reservation

Where to Read My Work

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the story of the cuisine of Mendocino. For Authentic Food, I wrote about the flavor of Mendocino, a region of Northern California tempered by fog and rain, leavened with coastal sunshine that warms the spirit rather than pounding it into submission.  People have been emailing to tell me they can taste the region through my writing – I hope you find that to be the case, too.

More coming soon!

Burgers Comin’ In Hot

Every restaurant looks for ways to bring customers through the door again and again. In this weird moment, comfort food is making a comeback in plenty of places. I’ve got my eye on burgers like the one above, from Side A in San Francisco’s Portrero-Mission neighborhood. Chef Parker Brown (most recently chef de cuisine at now-closed Michelin-starred Aphotic) built a burger with so many layers of flavor. What thrilled me was the bone marrow.

Eat it like an Italian, scooped from the bone straight into your mouth. The finely minced onions, sauteed with red wine and a hint of sugar, and minced parsley are perched on the bone making the Italian approach commendable. I recommend scraping the whole thing onto the burger. Marrow adds an element of light and bright fat to the sturdier beef fat. Buttered bun, goat cheese from Point Reyes, house-whipped aioli – they all add character to this insane burger. If you have any left over, the fries are right there. Swipe away.

Near San Francisco’s Union Square, The Redwood Room at The Clift Royal Sonesta San Francisco launched a Farmer’s Market Smash burger.

Snugged into a potato bun, two 3-ounce patties are topped with roasted and balsamic-glazed oyster mushrooms, melted Tillamook cheddar, wild arugula, and signature sauce.

And in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, Prospect debuted a crave-worthy stack of Schmitz Ranch beef, melty Wagon Wheel cheese, house spread, rosso bruno tomatoes, pickles, and crisp lettuce. Insider tip: a secret off-menu burger is also in the works. Be sure to ask next time you stop in. I love the bar there so much – it’s one of those places where I always feel right at home. I’ll go for the burger or the Prospect fried chicken anytime.

Restaurants On My RADAR

Before I head to Europe for the summer (blame my hard-knock life), I’ve packed in many California eating experiences. Here are just a few:

In San Francisco, the savory freshness of the house Woodlands amaro was unmistakable in a Blood & Sand cocktail at Brucato Amaro. And I cannot recall the last time I ate gribenes (crispy, chewy baked chicken skin) but if that’s your jam, these were perfect. Octopus confit skewers were sweet with tomato glaze and we liked the harissa-spiced hangar steak, too – the allium salsa should be jarred so we can take some home next time. (Please?!)

For the first time ever, I sat upstairs at Zuni Cafe for brunch. I’ve never eaten a mediocre dish there and this time, my highlight was a Black Tonic – espresso + tonic + lemon (right image, above). Delish! My dining companion and I walked around the block to Buoy Desserts & Coffee. They’re known for rice flour desserts but I was smitten by the sesame latte (left image, above).

I expected to like the anchovies at The Anchovy Bar. I even went so far as to order a San Sebastian, a vermouth cocktail, for its anchovy and olive garnish. Vermouth was a good call – it paired beautifully with a dish of Monterey seaweed and tofu and everything else we ate. Highlight: anchovy tostada. It’s lime-pickled which softens the briny tang while charred serrano crema added texture and warmth. Nice.

Over at Trestle, they’re celebrating 10 years in the business, no small thing. The place was packed on a recent Tuesday, guests waiting outside for Chef Jason Halverson’s four-course, prixe fixe $52 dinner. Mine included a perfect Romaine salad, black truffle risotto, sweet tea brined pork loin and, though I longed for a slice of the Black Forest Cake, blood orange sherbert.

And I haven’t been yet but I’m delighted that chef Daniel Morales Vallejo’s pop-up phenom Pacifico has found a home. You don’t need tickets to SFJAZZ to have dinner at his new restaurant in the house’s B-Side space. Latin-tropical dishes like pancakes de choclo with caramelized quinoa crunch at brunch and ñoquis de cangrejo (cassava gnocchi with Dungeness crab, sofrito, coconut milk, and red
peppers) make my gluten-free head spin. If you go, will you tell me about your experience? 

In the North Bay, I finally made it to revamped Vin in San Rafael. Be sure to try the Shrimp Toast – I’ve never seen it done in quite this way and it’s fun and flavorful. Smoked Sweet Potato zhushed up with kohlrabi salad was a highlight and the wine list remains as interesting as before. Chef de Cuisine Dan Costa and Sous Chef Kendall Mazet are killing it and I love having this energy back on the downtown strip.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that a May visit was my first ever to Bolinas’ Coast Cafe. Bolinas is as low-key as it gets in Marin and this unassuming little spot won over my family with fresh oysters, creamy carrot soup, hearty and nicely done Fish & Chips, a pork chop with mashed potatoes and pickled onions, even a lobster tail with coconut rice.

I popped by Sebastopol’s Campanella on an ideal day to hang on their cute patio. With a fizzy ume spritz in hand and Sinatra on the radio, a plate of roasted and pickled beets and red wine-braised beef over GF pasta lifted my spirits in a way that only neighborhood restaurants can.

On the way home from Seabstopol, I popped into Pupuseria Blankita in San Rafael’s Civic Center neighborhood. Owner Blankita is from El Salvador but her masa is second to none – so fresh. My bean-stuffed pupusa was the perfect size for a snack. Yuca-chicharrón tamale is wrapped in banana leaf and impossibly soft. Even better was my sesame horchata – dairy-free and touched with the warm sweetness of toasted sesame seeds. Yum.

East Coast To-Do’s

Traveling with my youngest brother, Doug, is an ever-changing experience. During an April East Coast trip, we had one evening in Boston. We chose a restaurant, Moncusser, within walking distance of our hotel and it was a delight. It bills itself as a fish house but I don’t think this description tells the story. A four-course tasting menu included an exceptional white asparagus vichyssoise, spring parsnip agnolotti and beautiful English lamb with fresh peas. You could choose seafood at each course, except dessert (rhubarb bombolone or key lime semifreddo) but the fresh flavors spin the menu into something more than “fish house” may imply.

We took the train to New York, arriving at the new Patrick Moynihan Train Hall which is approximately a billion times nicer than Penn Station ever was. It’s been at least 35 years since I stepped foot inside the Russian Tea Room, but a bowl of borscht and a perfect dirty martini were just the thing before walking to the Tehater District to see Glen Garry, Glen Ross (meh all around). Instead, I do recommend heading to One Wall so you can see the Red Room. Inside what was once the headquarters of the Irving Trust Company, stunning mosaics by Hildreth Meière are now a shoe salon for the French department store, Printemps. I hope to come back and have dinner at Chef Gregory Gourdet’s Maison Passarelle, where Chef reimagines French cuisine through the lens of its former colonies. All the spaces here are eye-popping.

For lunch, we were seated with Brooklyn views from the 60th floor at Manhatta but easily switched tables, the better to cast a gaze uptown. (Sorry, Brooklyn.) The dish of the meal was Beef Tartare (center image, above), the black sunchoke and Asian pear lifting the dish, the rice flour crisp a graceful touch.

After a few hours marveling at the wonders of NYPL’s Treasures, the Polonsky Exhibition, we met up with more family for dinner at Cafe Carmellini. The restaurant is peak, of the moment, New York. The cozy, well-lighted interior boasts soft blue banquettes and washed blue wallpaper studded with gilded frames from which images of human eyes peer out. Oysters arrived with pearls of apple gelee; snap pea and almond came together in a delicate tart; and quail with mandarin arrived in a hammered copper pan. It’s French, Italian and so New York. I loved every minute I spent there.

Doug and I both wanted to see the John Singer Sargent exhibit at the Met and the revamped Frick Collection so we made a day of being uptown, stopping in at Ralph’s which was bougie X 1000. I also felt very underdressed in my basic New York black – everyone there seemed to be celebrating a bridal shower, a birthday and were DRESSED.

One more meal of note – my SIL wanted to try the Peking Duck at Hutong in my old stomping grounds near Bloomingdale’s. All the vibes in a beautiful, low-lit room that thrummed with energy. The tableside presentation of the duck is oh-so Instamgrammable, too – fire! Knives! Action!

Monthly Cookbook Column

How does a chef step into a restaurant like Greens and its storied legacy? Chef Katie Reicher, who took on the role of Executive Chef in 2020 after five years on the line, honors the legacy of the legendary Chefs Annie Somerville and Deborah Madison with her cooking, holding onto classics while finding new ways to bring flavor to the dishes served at the long-running farm-to-table San Francisco restaurant. Reicher’s vegetarian cookbook, Seasons of Greens, updates the vegetarian idyll of the Grande Dame to one that is globally-focused while honoring its farm-to-table roots.

Read the entire cookbook review on my website.

Find the book for purchase here.

What I’m Watching

In anticipation of PBS’s “The Mirror and the Light,” I re-watched all of 2016’s “Wolf Hall.” The two series are a reminder of just how poorly women were treated, even wealthy, well-connected women. Of interest for this newsletter is the food. There are not many depictions of meals but when there are, it’s plentiful slop on a plate, bread, and wine. Lots of wine. I also noted how napkins were worn. No matter the dining scene, the actors have linen draped over their shoulders. Were they called ‘napkins’ when they graced shoulders instead of legs? It took a few hundred years for them to move towards our lap. Are we the better for it? Watch.

About That Image

I am not great on social media and even less great about posting images of myself. I’m of a generation where incessant self-awareness is not a thing. I love talking to anyone and everyone about food, though. Thus, this newsletter and – hopefully in September – a new website and rebranded me. I’ll probably never be good at posting pictures of myself so here’s one of me in New York in April. I’m seated at the Russian Tea Room. My youngest brother, Doug, took the photo. My hair doesn’t look too bad and the half-smile on my face (I’m told) is classic me.

I love this image for how it captures the moment. I probably took two sips of the cocktail –– look at the size of the thing! – the red pepper garnish somehow perfectly matching the red of the banquettes, the red of the ceiling lamp and the red in the carpet. It all reads very Art Deco. Doug and I are probably reminiscing about my Aunt Eileen who we called NeeNee, who took us here with the rest of my family when I was a child. The room looks better than ever. And my adult self will never forget the martini. It was good to be back.

Thanks for reading and be in touch.

Christina