CONFESSIONS OF A                                                                  
     
RESTAURANT WHORE
A San Francisco Girl's Down and Dirty Adventures in the Culinary Playground

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

At This Point It's Just False Advertising

I'm a sucker for Christopher Elbow chocolates, particularly the fleur de sel caramels. In fact I love them more than Recchiuti's caramels (the shock! the horror!). CE's caramel is gooey liquid covered with chocolate that breaks when you bite it, whereas Recchiuti's is chewy and soft. I prefer the goo. I also swoon for CE's passionfruit caramels, despite the fact that they are enrobed in white chocolate, a substance I normally equate with the devil's work.

So it is only fitting that Jon and I were jumping up and down like a couple of rabbits on crack when we saw that CE was opening a store mere blocks from our home. This was spring, and the sign read "Coming Late Fall."

So we watched. And we waited. And spring came and went. As did summer. As did fall.

Now I can provide a bit of leeway but at this point you need to be takin' down your "late fall" sign. I mean that shit just looks stupid now that we are approaching February. It's just fucking ridiculous at this point.

I have hope as there appears to be actual construction going on in the store now. Still, you need to be changing the sign, peeps.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

P.S. Major huge thank you to the Slow Club for kicking some major ass for my birthday and Jon's birthday this past weekend.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

I haven't been 'round these parts in quite some time, mostly because Diner #3 likes to eat more than I do. I do not have a full restaurant re-cap, review, what have you at this point because I have precious few moments before the aforementioned tyke awakens and wishes to continue snacking on my rack. Moo.

In any case, I present you with this conversation that Jon and I had in the car, after leaving Los Pastores where owner Irma held and kissed and cooed at Diner #3:

Me: Do you think that when Diner #3 gets bigger he'll think it's weird the first time he goes into a restaurant and the people there don't know his name? I mean, do you think he'll just think that restaurant people have magical name knowing powers since he's generally greeted by name wherever we go?

Jon: Oh my God. I hadn't thought of that.

My son has been presented with a teddy bear from the folks at Delfina. Cuddled and snuggled by the folks at the Slanted Door. Presented with the birthday bong at Cyrus. Greeted warmly as "Diner #3 #2" at SPQR and A16 (chef Nate's son carries the same moniker and is therefore Diner #3#1), and given the best table in the house at Zuni. Now what is fucked up there is that while the folks at Zuni know us, I'm not sure they know our names. They know his and use it whenever he sees them.

I'm not complaining as we've been on the receiving end of several lovely comps simply for making Diner #3. But it's pretty fucked up that the kid is already a restaurant VIP when he a) drinks only breastmilk, and b) has no teeth.

Lucky bastard.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld