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Friday, May 16, 2008
There's One In New York Too
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The Bitter End
Picture this: you're huddled around a sticky wooden table in an Irish pub throwing around ideas for team names. You might be sitting on an empty keg, because it's Tuesday night and all the chairs are taken by 8. Someone on your team throws out a wildly inappropriate, yet topically funny name involving Heath Ledger and the phrase "I wish I could quit you." You (a) shake your head disapprovingly and say, "Too soon," or (b) crack up. At the Bitter End trivia night, if your team name gets reaction (b), you'll win a round of free shots. For those simply in pursuit of the trivial, there are cash prizes for the winning team of the 2 hour extravaganza, which includes two general knowledge rounds, one round naming celebrity faces, and a music identification-round. The host, Tim, is a fresh-faced prepster who has the dirty mind of a 7th-grader and the best damned announcer-voice in the city. To top off the rotating Newcastle and Sierra Nevada specials, there's a standard bar menu, and a healthy enough dose of competition to keep the post-college crowd coming back for more. |
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
San Francisco Cocktail Week
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Drinking cocktails is an American pastime every inch as important as pie and baseball. And San Francisco is one of the country’s revered cocktail meccas, up in the dizzy stratosphere with New York and New Orleans. As a sister to New Orleans’ own Tales of the Cocktail festival, San Francisco now boasts its own Cocktail Week from May 13th through May 19th. Put together by the gentlemen behind the great city bars Absinthe (Hayes Valley), Cantina (Tenderloin), and Elixir (The Mission), the festival is sure to keep you cheery and well-informed. Highlights are Farmers’ Market Cocktails on the 14th, which will demonstrate San Francisco’s preeminence in fusing fresh ingredients and liquor; and Literature, Booze, and History on the 17th, a lecture that will feature noted historian and Esquire columnist David Wondrich. |
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Pasta Shop
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I'm a food sample whore. Yeah, I said it. No apologies. No qualifications. My heart begins to flutter when I'm near the sample island at Trader Joe's, and don't even get me started about the pretzel dog bites at Costco. But the place with the most highfalutin' samples has got to be the Pasta Shop on Fourth Street on a Saturday or Sunday. On a recent trip, I sampled two different English cheddar cheeses; goat milk gouda; four olive oils (with chunks of baguette) including Olio Verde, a young, very green, small batch oil from Sicily that retails for $35 a pint; fig jam; 20-year aged balsamic vinegar; tomato salsa; prosciutto; pretzels and horseradish mustard; and truffle salt. It was an international gourmet orgy right there in the middle of the market, but I wasn't alone if the proliferation of used toothpicks and tiny plastic spoons was any indication of how many other people were as excited as I was about being in the middle of upscale sample mania. Oh, and The Pasta Shop is also a nice place to shop for fine cheeses, delicious sandwiches, beautiful pastries, and, as their name suggests, some great, fresh pastas as well. Too bad there weren't any samples of those. |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Full Disclosure
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Bombay Ice Creamery
I love ice cream, and there's certainly no shortage of those joints in the Bay Area. But after a while, ice cream is just ice cream--unless it's Indian ice cream. Bombay Ice Creamery is surprisingly the only ice cream shop on Valencia Street, and much needed on this drag of tasty restaurants. Creamier and made with less sugar than traditional American ice cream, the smooth texture won me over instantly. What makes it even more appealing than even the best gelato are the exotic traditional Indian flavors, like chikoo, falooda, cardamom rose, and chai tea. For those who would rather indulge in "safe" flavors, there are strawberry, mango and butterscotch, but even then you will taste the heavenly texture of Indian ice cream. Even if you're not into desserts, you can always pick up a samosa or indulge in some curry. |
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Monday, May 12, 2008
Mother of All
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Lee's Deli
Lee's Deli is practically an institution in downtown San Francisco for the suits or business-casuals that make up most of their midday clientele. Go for a nice selection of salad bar goods at a decent price and cheap sandwiches to boot. At my most recent job, I found the mother of all Lee's Delis located at 170 Spear Street. It doesn't really matter what you're in the mood for because Lee's has it: Dim Sum, Pizza, Sandwiches, Breakfast Bar and a huge never-too-crowded cold and hot Chinese salad bar. We're talking sushi and Chow Fun, Beef Broccoli and Mixed Veggies, beets and Chicken Curry. Lee's offers a trans-fat-free experience (and condiments), all at the amazing price of $5.75 a pound. Today I walked away with a GIANT spinach salad with avodaco, chickpeas, beets and broccoli, plus 1 inari, dried sauteed string beans, spicy tofu, and some mixed veggies to boot, all for $6. Now that's the kind of lunch that keeps you full till dinner-time. I've truthfully found that the food quality is decent to good. What can I say, I go back for more. |
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Archived Radars |
San Francisco’s Indie Flick Havens
San Francisco boasts not one, but three—count ‘em—three amazing independent movie houses that keep it real, totally devoid of commercial blockbusters and overexposed A-Listers. Cythina Popper makes the rounds to give you the details.
Archived Features...
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