Email Author Matthew Stafford

2002 Stories by Matthew Stafford

• Stormy Weather

  published November 6, 2002

  Let me say right off the bat that there's no particular downside to being a restaurant critic. You go out to eat and a few weeks later a check... More >>

• Supper With the Sultan

  published October 23, 2002

  Go just about anywhere in the world and you'll find that the tastiest, most authentic regional foods aren't found in four-star hotels or carefully... More >>

• The Times They Are A-Changin'

  published October 9, 2002

  A great city is by definition a great restaurant town as well: You can't have one without the other. A great restaurant town is a global... More >>

• That's Amore

  published September 25, 2002

  A friend from North Carolina once told me that one of the more popular snack items in the Raleigh area is something called California pizza.... More >>

• Climbing the Hill

  published September 11, 2002

  Now that the 2002 baseball season has been preserved and the Giants just might be headed for the playoffs, it's especially crucial to find an... More >>

• Stick to the Suds

  published August 28, 2002

  The art of matching food to beer hasn't quite attained the snob appeal of pairing the perfect wine to that juicy slab of porterhouse, but we're... More >>

• Toga Party

  published August 28, 2002

  Among the most treasured items in my personal matchbook collection is a souvenir from the Greek Islands, one of Chicago's more popular Greektown... More >>

• Park Yourself

  published August 14, 2002

  Like any city worth its asphalt, San Francisco is actually a loose confederation of small towns, each with its own politics, personality, and... More >>

• Eiffel Towers

  published July 31, 2002

  Motoring around in that slice of ungentrified real estate just south of the 101 overpass and just north of the Mission, we were peering out at the... More >>

• Hop on Chop

  published July 17, 2002

  When Traci Des Jardins opened Jardinière back in 1997, post-Panisse California cookery reached a sort of apex. Like Alice Waters, Joyce... More >>

• World Beat

  published July 3, 2002

  Up in the towering reaches of the Andes, in present-day Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, the descendants of the Incas still indulge in an age-old... More >>

• Missed Saigon

  published June 19, 2002

  The history of San Francisco, reduced to its essence, is a long succession of settlers arriving on the premises, looking around for the end of the... More >>

• On the Waterfront

  published June 5, 2002

  If Fisherman's Wharf symbolizes San Francisco at its tourist-pimping ticky-tackiest, Pier 39 is the neighborhood's quintessential microcosm. Built... More >>

• Look Again

  published May 22, 2002

  What do you have to do to get noticed in this town? Two weeks ago I sat in an empty restaurant eating three courses of opulent, marvelously... More >>

• Steaking a Claim

  published May 8, 2002

  Living among the orchards and farmlands of California, we tend to forget that there are plenty of people out there beyond the Tehachapis who go... More >>

• In the Night Kitchen

  published April 24, 2002

  In the jungles of South America there's a nocturnal primate known to the Rio Negro tribe as the douroucouli. These tiny, orb-eyed monkeys are an... More >>

• The Comforts of Home

  published April 10, 2002

  The neon sign over the entrance reads "Welcome Home," but Home isn't like any home I've ever been in. Its mood leans more toward the hipster... More >>

• Catching a Buzz

  published March 27, 2002

  "The most beautiful sound in the world," said E.B. White, "is the tinkle of ice at sunset." San Francisco has always lived and breathed the music... More >>

• Bayou by the Bay

  published March 13, 2002

  Last fall, eager to clear my brain and spirit after a visit to anxious New York, I boarded Amtrak's southbound Crescent City and headed for New... More >>

• Rock 'n' Bowl

  published February 27, 2002

  In a childhood crowded with Curious George, Augustus Gloop, and the collected works about Tintin and his dog Snowy, Stone Soup was one of... More >>

• Pro Fusion

  published February 13, 2002

  Hanging in my apartment is a detail drawing of San Francisco in 1915, nine years after the great earthquake. The perspective is from a biplane or... More >>

• Seedling

  published January 30, 2002

  When Elisabeth Daniel opened for business at the edge of the Financial District a little over a year ago, the times were still ripe for a... More >>

• Fry Me a River

  published January 16, 2002

  It seems to me that every human being I know lives in, on, or around the Duboce Triangle, the pivotal San Francisco neighborhood of the new... More >>

• You Shouldn't Go Hungry

  published January 2, 2002

  My earliest impressions of faraway New York City are a jumble of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, King Kong on the Empire State Building,... More >>