W. Blake Gray

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Blogs
April 5, 2012
San Francisco's 10 Best Wine Lists
San Francisco is one of the best places in the world to drink young wines, particularly those with attitude, from many different places. Sommeliers here are passionate and their wine lists reflect it. We don't have many older wines on lists because restaurants turn over so quickly that they don't ... More >>
Blogs
February 8, 2012
San Francisco's Top 10 Dim Sum Restaurants
What better way to spend a weekend morning than over dim sum? Waitresses keep offering you tidbits of pork and shrimp, your endless pot of tea gets refilled without asking if you leave the lid up (there's a veteran tip), and at almost every place on this list, six people can eat until you're bore ... More >>
News
September 28, 2011
SF Weekly Letters
What better way to spend a weekend morning than over dim sum? Waitresses keep offering you tidbits of pork and shrimp, your endless pot of tea gets refilled without asking if you leave the lid up (there's a veteran tip), and at almost every place on this list, six people can eat until you're bore ... More >>
Blogs
September 19, 2011
Submit Your Pickles, Jams, and Liqueurs to the Eat Real Fest Contest
syntheticaperture/FlickrBring us your pickles. And jams, jellys, krauts, beers, and liqueurs.San Francisco is one of the few counties in California that doesn't have a county fair, and to our discredit. For all the dog-judging, carnie-haranguing, and deep-frying that we're spared, our urban count ... More >>
Blogs
September 16, 2011
Fiveten Burger: Imagine McDonald's as a Food Truck
Photos by W. Blake GrayOrder a burger and fries together and this is what you getI thought Fiveten Burger proprietor Roland Robles might be insulted when I compared his French fries to McDonald's. But he was pleased. "That's the idea," Robles said. "Can you think of a better French fry? Thos ... More >>
Blogs
September 14, 2011
The Burger For White Men with Sleeves
W. Blake GrayThe burger I could have but Game couldn'tLast week, the rapper Game got kicked out of a Hillstone restaurant in Santa Monica and claimed it was because of racism, while restaurant employees claimed he violated the dress code.According to TMZ, Hillstone won't seat men in tank tops, bu ... More >>
Blogs
September 14, 2011
Dove Hunting: The Birds of Peace Are Delicious
Ben NarasinBBQ Dove BreastWhen my wife and I began dating, I started carrying a gun. Not immediately, and not consistently; I was initiated into the manly ritual of killing birds over a Christmas break with hunts for pheasant (great fun and great food), and ducks (wetter, colder, and harder for a ... More >>
Blogs
September 14, 2011
Fog Harbor Fish House Cooks Sustainable Fish For the Masses
Photos by W. Blake GrayTrout ($18)Fog Harbor Fish House recently became the first restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf to commit to using 100% sustainable seafood. SF Weekly had never written anything about the restaurant, so I joined the flock of German and French tourists walking down Embarcader ... More >>
Blogs
September 14, 2011
USDA on Unlabeled Beef Irradiation: Not Now, Maybe Later
Pixelpeter/ShutterstockThe USDA is doing a public-relations campaign about food safety this month, and sent a Bay Area native -- now a Deputy Under Secretary -- to our offices to talk about e. coli. I, however, wanted to talk about food irradiation. The two topics are related. In July, the ... More >>
Blogs
September 9, 2011
Swedish Chocolatier Cooks Up $29 Chocolates with Goat Cheese, Cigars
Photos by W. Blake GrayWhen Swedish chocolatier Emanuel Andrén offered to visit us with chocolate truffles that cost $29 each, we were intrigued. We thought they might be the most expensive chocolates in the world, but were disappointed to learn they aren't even in the ballpark. Still ... More >>
Blogs
September 9, 2011
Local Diners, Local Gin, & Clay Pot Rice: This Week in Food Bloggery
Jeremy Brooks/SF Weekly Flickr pool Highlights from SFoodie this week: 1. Joe Eskenazi, whose love for diners surpasses all of ours at SFoodie, writes a great guide to the five best diners in town -- one of which, he points out, is actually a hofbrau but feels like a diner. Also, we're reminded ... More >>
Blogs
September 2, 2011
Bar Bambino, Sisig Surprises, & Pinkie-Wavers: This Week in Food Bloggery
CT Young/SF Weekly's Flickr stream Highlights from SFoodie this week: 1. Alanna Hale interviews Bar Bambino's Lizzie Binder (here's part 1 and part 2) about the Mission restaurant's switch from all-around-the-boot to Northeast Italian food, how she California-izes heavy traditional recipes, an ... More >>
Blogs
August 19, 2011
Snack on Bugs at the Street Food Festival
Monica MartinezIf you're looking for something adventurous at the Street Food Festival this weekend, consider this: crispy wax moth larvae tacos, or toffee-crisped mealworms on ice cream. That's what Monica Martinez, owner of Don Bugito, will be selling at her stand. Martinez, an artist, fi ... More >>
Blogs
August 17, 2011
Chili Up! Still Dishes After All These Years
Photos by W. Blake GrayPork 'n tomatillo chili with all the toppingsWe hadn't been to our favorite chili place -- and in fact, the only chili place in town that we know of -- in a while, so we dropped by Chili Up! recently to see if it's still cooking. Wow, the Crocker Galleria is depressing ... More >>
Blogs
August 16, 2011
River Side Seafood Restaurant: Good Enough if You're Nearby
Photos by W. Blake GrayPea sprout & white nuts in brothWhenever we hear of a dim sum restaurant -- heck, any restaurant -- that has people milling around outside waiting to get in, we're intrigued. Such is the case on Sundays at River Side Seafood Restaurant. If you don't get there well befo ... More >>
Blogs
August 12, 2011
Permit-Free Bees, Tip Pooling, and Hot Sauce Bars: This Week in Food Bloggery
Albert Law/porkbellystudioFrom Albert Law's Rice Paper Scissors slideshow 1. If you ever want to start a fight in a bar in San Francisco, don't hit on somebody's partner. (Which is more likely to get you a three-way than bruised knuckles.) Tell them you think their favorite cafe sucks. W. Blake G ... More >>
Blogs
August 11, 2011
Crude Drugs Chicken Feet: Best Chicken Feet Ever?
Photos by W. Blake Gray"Crude Drugs Chicken Feet"We admit that we ordered Crude Drugs Chicken Feet as a joke. Was the joke on us? It turned out to be the best chicken feet we've ever had. And it made Golden Gate Dim Sum Seafood Restaurant feel like quite the find. We ran "best dim sum ... More >>
Blogs
August 9, 2011
San Francisco's Top Five Coffee Shops
Photos by W. Blake GrayCoffee is such a personal thing. If I like cappuccino, you like drip coffee black, and Bill Cosby likes a triple-tall nonfat extra-hot no-foam latte (apparently true), we're not going to agree on what the best coffee shop is. But I'm the guy with the pen keyboard soapb ... More >>
Blogs
August 9, 2011
Outside Lands Food Gets Even Better
W. Blake GrayThe huarache Alambre from El Huarache LocoOutside Lands last year had what might have been the best lineup of food purveyors ever at a music festival -- not hard because at most big outdoor shows, people are happy if they can even get food. This year the music lineup is signifi ... More >>
Blogs
August 9, 2011
The Food at Outside Lands Is Gonna Be Even Better This Year
The huarache Alambre from El Huarache Loco, which you can eat at Outside Lands this year. Ostensibly one goes to Outside Lands for the music, right? I mean, spending three days in Golden Gate Park amid throngs of crazy young ravers, rock dads, children of rock dads, hipster trash, and jaded a ... More >>
Blogs
August 8, 2011
We Ordered "Crude Drugs Chicken Feet"
W. Blake GrayWe saw this menu and of course we had to order No. 46. We think drugs are simply too refined these days. Who needs heroin, for example, when you can have opium? So how was the dish? We had an extreme reaction. We'll tell all in the next installment of our ongoing series of revie ... More >>
Blogs
August 5, 2011
This Week in Food Bloggery
CT Young/SF Weekly Flickr pool Highlights from the blog this week: 1. Caroline Chen discovers that huge numbers of San Francisco restaurant staffers are working illegally. The San Francisco Health Code declares no one with a venereal disease -- or bubonic plague, for that matter -- should be al ... More >>
Blogs
August 4, 2011
At Happy Garden, Dim Sum Is Only an Appetizer
Photos by W. Blake GrayShanghai dumplingsWe wound up at Happy Garden because Good Luck Dim Sum across the street had a long line, and we felt like sitting down. Happy Garden has a dim sum menu. And we ordered from it. We were hungry. Only after we ordered and began paying attention to what e ... More >>
News
August 3, 2011
SF Weekly Letters
Photos by W. Blake GrayShanghai dumplingsWe wound up at Happy Garden because Good Luck Dim Sum across the street had a long line, and we felt like sitting down. Happy Garden has a dim sum menu. And we ordered from it. We were hungry. Only after we ordered and began paying attention to what e ... More >>
Blogs
August 1, 2011
House of Banquet Proves the Cabbage God Knows Dim Sum
Photos by W. Blake GrayGreen tea ballsThe cabbage god is the first thing you see when you step inside House of Banquet in the Inner Richmond. We eat a lot of dim sum, but we haven't gone anywhere else where cabbage is worshipped. All hail the cabbage godIt's possible that House of Ban ... More >>
Blogs
July 29, 2011
If New Restaurants Get to Amp Up the Hype, Why Shouldn't They Get Reviewed Immediately, Too?
On the food blog for DC's City Paper, restaurant critic Chris Schott asks why, in the Yelp age, critics still obey the rule that they should wait a month or more to visit a new restaurant: These days, a new restaurant is able to access vast new media resources in order to pump up its reputation ... More >>
Blogs
July 29, 2011
Broadway Cafe Believes in Bulk Sales
W. Blake GrayBroadway Cafe's green beans with XO sauce, $6.50.Rice Plate Journal is a yearlong project to canvas Chinatown, block by block, discovering the good, the bad, and the hopelessly mediocre. Maximum entrée price: $10. How many menus should a restaurant give you? At Broadway Cafe, the ... More >>
Blogs
July 29, 2011
The Defeat of Mickey D's, Caffeine Jitters, and Duck Eggs: This Week in Food Bloggery
Joseph SchellFrom this week's slideshow of the Peruvian Food FestivalHighlights from SFoodie this week:1. W. Blake Gray checks out Le Cordon Bleu, which claims to be San Francisco's first Vietnamese restaurant (opened in 1968). It's now owned by a Chinese-American woman who's never been to Vietna ... More >>
Blogs
July 28, 2011
Cordon Bleu: Vietnamese Country Meat Sauce Still Rules
Photos by W. Blake GrayNumber 4: half a roast five-spice chicken, country salad, and meat sauce on riceWhen we're feeling very poor and very hungry, we sometimes drop in to Cordon Bleu to quietly scarf down a mountain of food at the counter. On our most recent visit, we got to talking with Ka ... More >>
Blogs
July 28, 2011
Jasper's Corner Tap Gives Pub Food an S.F. Locavore Update
Photos by W. Blake GrayJasper's mini burger doesn't come with a quarter; that's for size comparisonThe worlds of food buzz and drinks buzz are different, and that's the only reason we were able to easily get a good seat and fast service at the official opening of Jasper's Corner Tap last nigh ... More >>
Blogs
July 27, 2011
South Sea Seafood Village: Special Tea, Good Siu Mai
Photos by W. Blake GrayMost dim sum houses have a selection of tea, but don't usually advertise it. Somebody says, "Tea?" You say yes, and you get a pot of watery oolong made from the cheapest tea bags available. South Sea Seafood Village has a small sideline in selling imported teas, includ ... More >>
Blogs
July 26, 2011
Coffee with 40x Caffeine: Drugs for Breakfast
50 ml does of Funranium Labs' "Black Blood of the Earth"Thanks to the potent combination of radioactivity and government grants, the Bay Area has more than our share of mad scientists. And now, one of them has done something really useful: he created coffee with 40 times the caffeine of regul ... More >>
Blogs
July 25, 2011
Yet Wah: Dim Sum That's Close to Ton Kiang (Physically, Anyway)
Photos by W. Blake GrayPan fried chive dumplingsBecause it's only a couple blocks from Ton Kiang, which has some of the biggest crowds outside of any dim sum restaurant in town, Yet Wah gets occasional spillover business. But the main crowd is mostly locals, mostly speaking Chinese. The room ... More >>
Blogs
July 25, 2011
Hing Lung: If the Congee's Not Doing It for You, the Noodles Might
W. Blake GrayChow mein from Chinatown's congee king, Hing Lung.Rice Plate Journal is a yearlong project to canvas Chinatown, block by block, discovering the good, the bad, and the hopelessly mediocre. Maximum entrée price: $10. The loud static of Hing Lung's perennial rush hour -- spoons cl ... More >>
Blogs
July 22, 2011
Le Truc: Burgers on the Bus
Photos by W. Blake GrayThe bleu burger. We'd need three-dimensional photography to capture its juicinessIn one sense, Le Truc is one of the most stable food "trucks" in San Francisco. The owners pay rent to Wells Fargo bank to park what's actually a converted school bus in its lot at 470 Bran ... More >>
Blogs
July 22, 2011
GoGo Squeez: Fruit in a Pouch
W. Blake GrayWe were biking around on the Great Highway recently during Sunday Streets when we spied this booth offering free samples of something called a GoGo Squeez. The Go-Go'sAs you can see, the booth seems to offer multiple flavors. "Do you have Belinda Carlisle flavor?" we aske ... More >>
Blogs
July 22, 2011
Doughnut Burgers and Durian Pastries: This Week in Food Bloggery
jrodmanjr/SF Weekly Flickr poolThe meatloaf at Presidio Social Club. Highlights from the blog this week: 1. W. Blake Gray goes and names San Francisco's five best ice cream shops: No-brainers like Humphry Slocombe make the grade, but so do a few curveballs. 2. Carina Ost hits the new Little Gr ... More >>
Blogs
July 21, 2011
San Francisco's Top Five Ice Cream Shops
Albert LawWe are no longer seven years old. We need to get that out of the way early when discussing San Francisco's Top Five Ice Cream Shops. Here's what that means: We don't care about toppings, mix-ins, family-friendly furniture or specials on your birthday. We don't even care about waffl ... More >>
Blogs
July 18, 2011
Freddie's Sandwiches: Still Hot After 85 Years
Photos by W. Blake GrayEddie Sweileh, Maura Mancia and Maria López make the sandwiches at Freddie'sFreddie's Sandwiches is tucked away on a quiet corner downhill from North Beach and uphill from Fisherman's Wharf. You'd think the location would be challenging, but owner Ed Sweileh has ... More >>
Blogs
July 15, 2011
Ignoring the '10 Famous Dishes' List at Yuet Lee
W. Blake GrayYuet Lee's shrimp with scrambled egg rice plate, $6.50Rice Plate Journal is a yearlong project to canvas Chinatown, block by block, discovering the good, the bad, and the hopelessly mediocre. Maximum entrée price: $10. (Thanks to Caroline Chen for additional reporting.) Anyone unfa ... More >>
Blogs
July 15, 2011
Mojitos on Tap at AT&T Park: We Love 'Em, Hate 'Em, or Both
Photos by W. Blake GrayOne of the idiosyncrasies of drinking at baseball games is that the obvious choice -- beer -- is almost always the worst value. Our friend paid $9 for a small-looking plastic cup of Anchor Steam; a 6-pack at BevMo is $8. But beer isn't the only thing on tap at AT&T ... More >>
Dining
July 13, 2011
SFoodie Has a New Editor: W. Blake Gray
Photos by W. Blake GrayOne of the idiosyncrasies of drinking at baseball games is that the obvious choice -- beer -- is almost always the worst value. Our friend paid $9 for a small-looking plastic cup of Anchor Steam; a 6-pack at BevMo is $8. But beer isn't the only thing on tap at AT&T ... More >>
Blogs
July 11, 2011
Bottle Cap: First-ish Look
Photos by W. Blake GrayUnlike most of the fooderati, we went to the second night of the soft opening of Bottle Cap, the new restaurant in the old Washington Square Bar & Grill space (1707 Powell St. at Union). The Chronicle has already written two stories, Yelp has seven reviews and count ... More >>
Blogs
July 8, 2011
Stupid Kids, Truth in Advertising, and Vegan Cons: This Week in Food Bloggery
Albert LawPork roll from Hiyaaa! Five highlights from the blog this week: Luis Chong announces himself a fan of Fins on the Hoof, Todd Middleton's new food truck -- though he disappoints SFoodie by realizing that the truck doesn't serve exotic genetically modified seafood. Tired of lists procl ... More >>
Blogs
July 6, 2011
Bring Wine to Mission Chinese Food (But Which Wines?)
Mission Chinese Food chef-owner Danny Bowien goes through this many chiles pretty fast. Mission Chinese Food is a great challenge for wine lovers. It's great, because corkage is only $8. It's a challenge, because some of Danny Bowien's food, like the kung pao corned beef, is so spicy that dri ... More >>
Blogs
June 27, 2011
SFoodie Has a New Editor: W. Blake Gray
W. Blake GraySFoodie is pleased -- more than pleased, actually -- to announce that we have a new blog editor: W. Blake Gray. If you've been following the local food press, you'll be familiar with his name. Blake has been writing about wine in the Bay Area for more than a decade. He's been a sta ... More >>
Blogs
July 23, 2010
Spurned Varietal Tells Wine Writer to Go to Hell
The man (right) who fell out of love with Pinot.Our favorite morsels from the blogs. The blogosphere is a cruel place. That must've occurred to local wine writer W. Blake Gray earlier this week, after the response to his clever piss-off post about falling out of like with Pinot Noir. Gray, ... More >>
Blogs
February 9, 2010
Crushpad Leaving Dogpatch for the Napa Valley
InfodivaMLIS B./YelpThe custom winemaker is gettin' the hell out of Dogpatch.S.F. wine writer W. Blake Gray dropped the news on his blog yesterday that DIY winemaking company Crushpad is leaving its facility in Dogpatch (2573 Third St. at 22nd St.) for more idyllic surroundings in the Napa Va ... More >>
Blogs
October 13, 2009
Mexican Coke: Is There a Diff?
joel8x/FlickrSometimes, a Coke is just a Coke.The New York Times isn't always on the ball. Lately we've read some seriously Onion-esque doozies, like last month's recession-friendly human interest story about a young, high-earning Brooklynite redecorating her new downtown loft -- "on the chea ... More >>

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