Email Author Matthew Stafford

1999 Stories by Matthew Stafford

• Location, Location, Location

  published December 29, 1999

  I lived for two years in an apartment at the corner of Jackson and Taylor, right next door (incidentally) to Jack Lemmon's apartment building in... More >>

• And to All a Good Night

  published December 22, 1999

  In Travels With Charley John Steinbeck, trundling down Highway 101 after crossing the continent in his custom-built house on wheels, tired... More >>

• Home for the Holidays

  published December 15, 1999

  Respite from the dark chill of night has, since prehistoric times, been the driving force behind solstice celebrations from yule logs to menorahs,... More >>

• Champion of Breakfasts

  published December 1, 1999

  Did you see Ric Burns' documentary on New York a couple of weeks ago on PBS? It had a nice way of serving up basic yet little-known facts about... More >>

• Here's Looking at You

  published November 24, 1999

  One of my more oblique hobbies is collecting bartender's guides, the more arcane the better. Bar guides reflect their time and place as subtly... More >>

• Dinner (or Not) and a Show

  published November 17, 1999

  My first exposure to jazz was in the form of a Fats Waller record titled Don't Let It Bother You. I was 10 years old, on the brink of God... More >>

• 20th Century Limited

  published November 10, 1999

  North by Northwest has just been rereleased in a crisp new print that only enhances the adventures of protagonist Roger O. Thornhill as he... More >>

• Hospitality's Sweet

  published November 3, 1999

  People have been cooking for other people ever since some unnamed caveman dropped a bit of woolly mammoth into the campfire, passed it to the guy... More >>

• Livin' La Dolce Vita

  published October 27, 1999

  The curmudgeon celebrated his birthday last week with a dozen of his closest friends, and I was the designated restaurant-picker. "Well," I said,... More >>

• Several Jugs of Wine and Thou

  published October 20, 1999

  It's simple: A bunch of grapes feels the pull of gravity and falls to the ground, breaking its skins in the process. It's sunny out, the weather's... More >>

• Back to the Future

  published October 13, 1999

  It was the kind of a day, as Raymond Chandler never said, that made the Market Street palm trees seem right at home. The Farallons, San... More >>

• For Whom the Dinner Bell Tolls

  published October 6, 1999

  You get off the J Church in Noe Valley and walk through the streets that are quiet on a Saturday evening and then you are in the Mission and... More >>

• Spicy Sanctuary

  published September 22, 1999

  It was a dark and stormy night. If this had been January, that would not have been my, or anyone's, lead sentence. But this was early September,... More >>

• Just Eat It

  published September 15, 1999

  Tea is both forefather and companion to those tasty little bits of sustenance known as dim sum. For several centuries after the Emperor Shen Nung... More >>

• Brought to You by the Letter "R"

  published September 8, 1999

  I had to wait all summer, so almost the very minute I found myself in a month whose name contained the letter "R" (Sept. 2, at the unseemly hour... More >>

• Dinner in the Diner

  published September 1, 1999

  The Universal Cafe is even further removed in style and substance from the original model; so far, in fact, it's of an entirely new genre... More >>

• Shanghai Express

  published August 25, 1999

  Maybe it's inevitable after writing about movies and food on a concurrent basis for a decade or so, but most of the restaurants I've been to... More >>

• Golden Oldie

  published August 18, 1999

  Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant 374 Bush (between Kearny and Montgomery), GArfield 1-0594. Open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9... More >>

• Carlo Still Cooks

  published August 18, 1999

  When I was a kid growing up in the Western Addition, my entire knowledge of Italian cuisine derived from an ancient Shirley Temple opus that... More >>

• Cool World

  published August 11, 1999

  xyz 181 Third St. (at Howard), 817-7836. Open daily: breakfast 6:30 to10:30 a.m., lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.... More >>

• Upscale Down-Home

  published July 21, 1999

  The Blue Plate 3218 Mission (between 29th and Valencia streets), 282-6777. Open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 or... More >>

• Fillmore Best

  published July 7, 1999

  Florio 1915 Fillmore (between Pine and Bush), 775-4300. Open for dinner Sunday through Thursday 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until... More >>