I had two spectacular meals at All Season Restaurant, an expansive, second-floor dining hall with tall windows in a Diamond Heights shopping center with a sea of parking. A picky Shanghai friend of mine hosted a dinner there that I loved so much, I returned with a group for mid-week dim sum.
I can’t imagine approaching All Season’s long and perplexing menu cold, especially if you cannot read Chinese.
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I took a look at last year’s wine forecast to see how accurate I was — and if I skew things a bit, I could say very on target.
As predicted, natural wines have continued to be popular and the idea to employ organic viticulture has become more mainstream.
I would not say there has been a proliferation of second-label wines, but as I thought a year ago, they are certainly a presence on wine shelves and lists.
Slovenia and Eastern Europe has not gone away and while the wines are not knocking California wines off the shelves, they are more commonplace.
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By:
Erik Cummins
01/05/12 4:40 PM
Smack dab between the teeming Westfield San Francisco shopping center and a soon-to-be-reimagined block is a site experiencing a renaissance of its own. With the reopening of San Francisco’s Old Mint by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society closer to reality than a fantasy, the tiny block just north of the Mint has been transformed into a pleasant pedestrian walkway, replete with outdoor seating and several enticing restaurants and bars, including the European-inspired Chez Papa Resto, where the worldly Sophia Mauchly Ho Sing Loy tends bar.
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We are almost there, the dreaded 2012. We survived 1984 and Y2K so with a little luck, which means that Earth-shattering asteroid will miss us and we’ll make it past Dec. 21, 2012.
You know, the end of the world.
Just in case though, let’s go out in style with bubbles galore.
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The best restaurants of 2011 may not be trend setters, but they give San Franciscans more of what they love — gentle innovation, skillful cooking, local ingredients and moderate prices. There was, however, geographic groundbreaking with major openings in North Beach, San Mateo and a cornucopia of eateries in Oakland, which more and more resembles a new Brooklyn. BART makes them all accessible. Here’s my list of 10 to try in 2012.
Boxing Room
399 Grove St. (at Gough Street), S.F. (415) 430-6590
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San Francisco is a food town all around, even for nursing what ails you after ringing in the new year.
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Evans Horn has been making cocktails since, well, he was old enough to legally drink them. And after working at multiple establishments in The City, Horn, 26, is now technically the beverage director of Dobbs Ferry, though he prefers to view himself as a “bartender who just gets yelled at more than the others.” With a passion for whisky bullets, skeet shooting and taking care of his guests, Horn seems a perfect fit for this Hayes Valley bistro, owned by Scott Broccoli and Danny Sterling and located at 409 Gough St., San Francisco, dobbsferrysf.com, (415) 551-7700.
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Nova, an überfriendly neighborhood bar just off South Park, is popular with young techies who work at local video game companies and baseball fans who come in after games at nearby AT&T Park. Nova, which took over the spot that formerly housed the Infusion bar, has a relaxed atmosphere that features red velvet booths facing a long bar. Weekend brunches are especially popular, and customers can pick which sporting events to watch on the TVs over the bar while downing bottomless mimosas.
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Diversity peppers this year’s best bites. The range seems particularly wide, though as usual, I had a terrible time narrowing the list to just 10. Not included but should be: ramen at Izakaya Sozai, shrimp and grits at Criolla Kitchen, the moto pizza at Ragazza, kakiage — deep-fried vegetable fritters — at Chotto, the sloppy bun at Bun Mee on Fillmore, quail with mushrooms at Txoko, fried chicken at Beast and the Hare ... stop me.
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It was nearly three years ago when Oliver Lee, 30, heard of an opening at a Four Seasons restaurant in California. Having honed his bar tending and managing skills at a Four Seasons Hotel in his native St. Louis, he figured it was time to move out West. After a brief stint in Palo Alto, Lee is now the bar manager at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, which will be open to holiday travelers and families this Christmas. And to make his guests feel at home, Lee prepares a Wassail from an old family recipe. 757 Market St.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17556/17556?page=21&type[story]=story
