St. Helena

Bottle Rock: Napa Festival's Attempt To Combine Food, Wine, and Music Falls Short

It seems like a good idea on paper: Throw a music festival in wine country where guests can go wine-tasting and sample some of the region's best restaurants in between musical acts. That was the focus of Bottle Rock, a new festival thrown in a park in downtown Napa that combines stadium-filling rock ... More >>

State Bird and Other Bay Area Greats Win James Beard Foundation Awards

When Nicole Krasinski and Stuart Brioza, the couple behind San Francisco's popular State Bird Provisions, entered the packed media room at last night's James Beard Foundation Awards at Lincoln Center in New York, they were quickly devoured by a hungry press corps like some tiny little quail. And wit ... More >>

Nancy Pelosi's Napa Valley Home Burglarized

Napa police are investigating a break-in at Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's Napa Valley home that happened long before voters started heading to the polls on Tuesday. Thieves reportedly broke into the House Minority Leader's Napa Valley house on Monday afternoon, the day before she was reelected to Con ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Best Warm Weather Cocktails

As if we needed a more dramatic celestial gesture to signal the start of Indian Summer in San Francisco, Wednesday's dramatic sky -- complete with double rainbow, no less -- was almost as grand an entrance as a skydiving queen of England. With a full 52 entries (yes, a full year) into my tenure wit ... More >>

Dixie: Southern Meets Californian Down Home on the Presidio

After 75 Years, Tapatio Tequila Finally Arrives

Talk about late bloomers. Tapatio* Tequila ($33/one liter bottle, 40% alcohol by volume), a new spirit hitting shelves in the US, is a 75-year old brand that is popular in Mexico for having a balance of flavor, quality, and value. Produced at La Alteña (NOM 1139) in the highlands of Jalisco with 1 ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Cucumber Collins at Goose & Gander

For most people, it takes a talented bartender to make them enjoy a complex spirit in a cocktail, especially whisky or one they might have developed a terrible aversion for (usually tequila). For me, it takes a skilled person to have me enjoy the most basic spirit: vodka. There's nothing wrong with ... More >>

Cindy Pawlycn's Newest Cookbook Promises a First Class Ticket Around the World

Cindy Pawlcyn's latest cookbook, Cindy's Supper Club: Meals from Around the World to Share with Family and Friends, takes readers on a sophisticated and diverse culinary journey around the world. The book highlights menus from a weekly informal supper club that Cindy hosts at her restaurant in ... More >>

Cocktail Preview of Upcoming Goose & Gander

With Goose & Gander opening tonight, the former Martini House restaurant has been given an Aspen-ski-lodge-meets-duck-hunting-club makeover, with decoys and antique weapons, but it's the downstairs bar run by bar manager Scott Beattie that has us the most excited. With help from Michael Pazdon (for ... More >>

James Beard Awards Announce Semifinalists: Bay Area's Well Represented, Obviously

​The day has come for the James Beard Foundation to announce the semifinalists for the 2012 Restaurant Awards. As SFoodie has written before, the finals can resemble the Oscars in that they're often career awards rather than a measure of how the nominees are performing at this very moment. Tha ... More >>

English Muffins Good Enough to Have Overnighted

Ben Narasin​Model Bakery's English muffins are all about anticipation and fulfillment. From the moment you take a light, thick disk out of its sleeve, the buttery touch on your fingers -- in stark contrast with the crisp, dry, dusted crust -- makes you want to take a bite. But you have to to ... More >>

This Weekend: Learn How to Create Farm-to-Cocktail Drinks at the Ferry Building

CharbayOld stills in Charbay's garden in St. HelenaDIY Cocktails With Scott Beattie and Charbay SpiritsWhere: Ferry Building Marketplace, One Ferry Building (at Embarcadero)When: Saturday, June 18, 2-4 p.m.Cost: $50; reserve online via EventbriteThe rundown: Scott Beattie's cocktail class series ret ... More >>

Let Him Prey: High-Ranking Jesuits Helped Keep Pedophile Priest Hidden

Glen Ellen 2009 Old Vine Zinfandel Proprietor's Reserve

dr_XeNo/FlickrAt last year's ZAP Festival, plenty of old-vine Zin, not enough scandal.​In January, we attended the largest single-variety wine tasting in America: the ZAP Festival at Fort Mason. We sauntered through the pavilions, glass in hand, point-blank asking winemakers how old their "old ... More >>

Jon's Street Eats Wraps It Up This Week

Tamara PalmerJon's Street Eats' Jon Kosorek, who got his start at the CIA at Greystone, is returning to the Napa Valley.​A pioneer of the Emeryville food cart scene is heading for the exit. Jon Kosorek says Saturday is the last night for Jon's Street Eats, a cart that since August 2009 has ser ... More >>

The Brixton Ratchets Up the Opening Buzz, Sea Salt Loses Its Founding Chef

​ ​The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene.Urban Daddy is first to call an opening day ― Friday ― for The Brixton (2140 Union, at Webster, 409-1114, brixtonsf.com). The pitch: Britrock-themed bar with pubby-sounding food from Michel ... More >>

Three Artisanal Spirits We're Hoping Santa Brings

Annie JessemanSt. George's latest batch of single malt whisky is its best yet.​Cocktails and hot drinks rule the holiday season, but there's something just as festive, not to mention warming: a glass of a special brandy or whiskey. The Bay Area's expanding roster of artisanal spirits producers ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Bandit Chardonnay

Three Thieves​Straight outta St. Helena in Napa County, Three Thieves' Bandit beverages are a slick alternative to two-buck Chuck or one's favorite box of wine. Priced around $9 for one liter (or $4.79 for a juice box-sized half liter), they're kind of a steal.It's not exactly outdoor picnic weath ... More >>

In Town Last Night, David Chang and Local Chefs Ponder S.F.'s 'Monotone' Restaurant Culture

David Chang (right) with Chris Cosentino before last night's discussion at Cafe Du Nord.​If there's a takeaway lesson from fig-gate, it might be this: Don't drink on stage. At a 7x7-sponsored panel discussion at Café Du Nord last night, N.Y. chef David Chang took heat for having being what ... More >>

Another Display of Butchery and Upscale Eats, This Time in Napa

J. BirdsallRyan Farr dispatching a beast at Bloodhound.​Yet another butcher-chef-fire event (this one called Primal) is happening Saturday in Napa -- observe the breakdown of a pig, a goat, a cow, and a lamb, and taste the results. Incanto's Chris Cosentino, Perbacco's Staffan Terje, Fatted Ca ... More >>

The Dining Depression

The latest tidbits of restaurant news about Jardinière, Ozumo, and Eastside West

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