Volume 1 Issue 1 February 4, 2009
Hi, I’m GraceAnn Walden. I came to the Bay area in 1973, after living in Manhattan and growing up in Newark, New Jersey.
Like most San Franciscans, I became smitten with Herb Caen’s column in the San Francisco
Chronicle. If you wanted to know what was going on in the City, you had to read Herb.
I came here to be a union organizer and wound up in dead end jobs. You know, the kind where you are counting the minutes until you’re free and your life begins at 5:01 on Friday night.
All the while I was cooking and learning about cooking. I had a good foundation from my mother and slavishly learned French cooking from Julia Child and later Chinese cooking from Joyce Chen watching them on TV.
Eventually, I left offices behind and began cooking in some small restaurants in the East Bay. Zowie!
Around the same time, I began writing a recipe column for the Montclarion newspaper and later, in 1989, I proposed a column about restaurant and chef news, a la Herb Caen, to the editor/publisher of Bay Food magazine.
“Food Scene,” as it was called, became a hot read. In 1991 the San Francisco Chronicle approached me. In New York and all over the Bay area, restaurant news columns blossomed.
With the rise of the Internet, they continue to pop up in a plethora of blogs, Web sites and e-letters.
I retired from the Chron at the end of 2005 and edited and wrote a cookbook, tried to conduct cruise adventures, while continuing to freelance and offer my history, food and cultural tours of San Francisco neighborhoods.
Two weeks ago, my editor at Northside San Francisco magazine and friend, Susan Dyer Reynolds, told me she wanted to publish a free e-letter, supported by advertising. I could write anything.
“How about SCOOP?” I said.
For wine, I suggested the grape goddess® and Master Sommelier, Catherine Fallis, while Susan called on Bill Knutson, a great home cook and author of the column, “The Kitchenless Cook” in Northside, for recipes. Susan will write restaurant reviews and chef profiles, something she has done for nearly a decade, both online and in print.
We started feverishly selling ads, gathering material, eating out, and looking up old contacts. Of course, all of our efforts would be just a pile of paper without uber-designer Jeremy Joven. Kudos.
I hope you will become loyal fans of the Yummy letter and those of you that can will buy an ad. We’re affordable, with rates starting at $50 a month.
Why call it the Yummy letter? When I began writing for large publications, the one word that was consistently edited out of my column was the word “yummy.”
But we all know, sometimes it’s just “love” and sometimes “yummy” says it all.
GraceAnn
As I was saying, before I interrupted myself…
Although, I haven’t been writing a news column for three years, I’ve kept my eye on the scene. When I’m driving around I always brake when I see the signs of a new restaurant about to be birthed.
In that spirit, I’d like to begin this inaugural column with what’s in store for you hungry hordes. Later, I will get to the death notices, unfortunately.
Café Claude owner, Frank LeClerc has plans for a space next to his popular Café Claude on Claude Alley in San Francisco. It will eventually house a casual spot offering charcuterie, cheese…
In the meantime, his
Gitane, also in Claude Alley, knocked our socks off. I could munch on chef Lisa Eyherabide’s bacon bonbons, sautéed prunes stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in bacon with a port demi-glace, right now.
(In the photo: The 3 Gs, Liz Hunt, Susan Reynolds and GAW at Gitane.)
In Novato, restaurateur Shahram Bijan will debut another Toast (there is one in Mill Valley) offering breakfast, lunch and dinner. Located in the Hamilton Marketplace, it happens to be almost in my backyard, in a part of Novato, where only
Boca is a worthwhile eatery.
The chef, Michael Garcia, has some good bona fides. He was the opening chef for Sociale in the City, before cooking at Toast in Mill Valley, where he now lives.
In Novato, Garcia says he and owner Bijan (who also owns
First Crush in the City) are expanding the dinner menu.
“I’m quite proud of our beer selection 25 to 28 labels and 25 wines; 70% of the beers are local,” says Garcia. They will also have a wood-fired pizza oven, which they don’t have in the Mill Valley location.
One dish he’s going put on the menu is a breakfast pizza topped with two eggs. Opening date is February 23.
On February 9, chef Heidi Krahling and partner Patrick Coll will open
Marinitas at 218 Sir Francis Drake Blvd in San Anselmo. They also own Insalata’s in San Anselmo.
Whereas Insalata’s has a Middle Eastern-Mediterranean vibe, at Marinitas the food will be inspired by Mexico and Latin America. Here’s the ultra cool part – no dish priced over $17.
Larry Bain, the king of healthy hot dogs (
Let’s Be Frank is his company) has new flavors coming out. Think chicken, gonna be called Bird Dog, and a vegetarian. His Brat and regular dogs, produced from grass-fed beef, are now available in retail outlets. But that’s not the SCOOP. He’s now looking for a space in the Marina to open up a stand. Yes!
(Image: Let’s Be Frank package)
I spoke with Gordo, that would be chef Gordon Drysdale to you, about his Mayfield Bakery and Café coming on February 9, near the Town & Country shopping center at 855 El Camino Real in Palo Alto.
It’s the same gang from Pizza Antica; there are four Anticas, the Village Pub and Spruce – the Bacchus Management Group. In 2010, Pizza Anticas will open in Sunnyvale and Santa Monica.
The space is 1800 square feet in Palo Alto and will have an onsite bakery. It will supply all their restaurants with “old world style bread,” says Drysdale.
“When my Gordon’s House of Fine Eats closed in San Francisco and I began opening Pizza Anticas with Bacchus, I realized that there are millions people in the ’burbs with no place to go,” he explains.
Back in the City, Des Amis in the former Prego space, Union and Buchanan, has taken more than three years to be born. But Drysdale says when it does it will be a 175-seat French brasserie luxe backed by Bacchus and Perry Butler. Look for maple floors, real gaslights, a big bar and an oyster bar. The food will be town and country French. Fais voir!
At the end of February, the
PlumpJack Café on Fillmore will close for an extensive remodel and a new concept. “We’ve been in the business for 14 years,” says Hilary Newsom-Callan, “it’s time to refresh it and bring PlumpJack into 2009.” PJ chef Rick Edge will transfer to another property, but will be the reopening chef at PJ, Fillmore Street. The ETA is next fall.
In Lafayette, my favorite CoCo county restaurant,
Gigi will close after Valentine’s Day. Chef-owner Jeffrey Amber is looking for a larger space or a job. He said with only 46 seats, it was hard to get ahead. He has a wife, Roxanne, and two kids.
“I can wait until the economy comes back,” he said. God, how I loved his funnel cake!
Andale, the casual Mexican eatery, in Palo Alto has closed. Los Gatos remains open.
Gaylord in Sausalito closed; the San Francisco branch remains open.
So did Caffe Trieste on Fourth St. in San Rafael. Several other locations remain open.
The rumors about the death of the Fifth Floor restaurant in the Hotel Palomar are untrue. Chef Laurent Manrique sounded surprised, when I asked him. “I’m doing a special dinner in March,” he said with a chuckle.
It’s about time dept: All February, chef David Lawrence and his wife Monette White of
1300 on Fillmore are offering a Black History month four-course menu for $65; the menu can be paired with selected wines for $95. And listen to this: all the wines are from African American owned and operated wineries.
(In the photo: Here is Monette White, on the left, and her friend Clothilde “Cloey” Hewlett at the Inauguration)
Observation: A chocolate aficionado told me last year, that after mega corp. Hershey’s bought Joseph Schmidt, our formerly local truffle star, it took about two years for the quality to go down. I’m sorry for the folks that lost their jobs at Scharffen Berger in Berkeley and Schmidt’s in San Francisco. Scharffen Berger’s chocolate line will now be produced in Illinois. But don’t cry in your cappuccinos about Scharffen Berger, it’s only a matter of time.
“We’re living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.”
– Alfred E. Newman, long-time Mad Magazine mascot
Not to be snarky, there’s plenty of that on Yelp, but two dishes that need to be deep-sixed from menus: anything that mucks up a perfectly good lobster – one example; macaroni and cheese with lobster – and anything with that putrid-tasting truffle oil. Be gone!
Bargain of the Week: Crab is in very short supply this season. My neighbor, a crab-man, pulled his pots and is going out for fish – he says what we have is coming from up north. At my local Safeway, Dungeness is $8.99 a pound and $6.99 with a club card.
But the goddesses down at the Wharf at Alioto-Lazio are selling those succulent crustaceans for $5.50 a pound live, kept in their own saltwater tanks, and $6 cooked. Did I mention they ship? (Alioto-Lazio, 440 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, 1-888-673-5868)
Observations: You know a restaurant - one with a small staff - is really good when you dine there on a Saturday night, the executive chef is MIA, and the food is spectacular.
But Louis Maldonado, executive chef of
Café Majestic, had a good excuse. Just as we were raving about our yummy desserts, Benjamin Oliver Maldonado came into this world, 8 pounds, 10 oz. Bravo!
Out there department: Some former baseball players become sportscasters, some used car dealers, but Jeremy Umland, who played professional baseball in Japan, decided in 2001 to open an authentic Japanese restaurant. Ozumo in San Francisco debuted then, Oakland late last year.
Hold onto your sake box, he’s opening an 8,000 square foot Ozumo in Santa Monica, where he lives. It’s due in a year and is located in the old Santa Monica Place, which is being torn down and rebuilt. It will house all kinds of retail including a Bloomies.
There will be a roof top deck with 8 restaurants. Straits and Modern Mexican will be Umland’s neighbors. (3rd and B’way, Santa Monica)
(Photo: Chinese Black Truffles)
Taste of the Week: Run don’t walk to Shanghai 1930, George Chen’s wonderful subterranean restaurant on Steuart Street’s restaurant row, to try dishes with his special Chinese truffles.
As many of you know, he’s spent the last four years ferrying between his restaurants in Shanghai and here. One closed and his Roosevelt Prime is doing well.
How is this for a perspective: “There are 25 million people in Shanghai and 30,000 to 40,000 restaurants,” says Chen.
What he discovered while in Shanghai was truffles. Yes, Virginia, France and Italy aren’t the only truffle growers and hunters.
In Yunnan province he has a forager who gets him golf ball size truffles, has them processed, and an importer brings them into the states. These truffles are Tuber sinensis, not the Tuber melanosporum, which are from the Perigord region of France.
Frankly, dining recently on his Chinese New Year menu, I couldn’t tell the difference.
Until mid-March he will be serving steamed shao lung bao dumplings with truffles, $19.88; a scallop soufflé with wolfberries and shaved black truffles, $25.99; and my favorite, filet mignon with Chinese porcini, straw, trumpet, shiitake and black truffle mushrooms, $33.88.
How can he serve truffles at these prices? They cost him about $25 an ounce, rather than $250 an ounce wholesale for Perigord.
Yummy contest: The first person (sorry only one person can be a winner) to email me the translation of this phrase, which I have often used on my North Beach walking tour, will win dinner with me:
“Se non t’ammazza, ti ingrassa.”
Reply to: graceann@yummyletter.com
GraceAnn
For more information about GraceAnn’s tours of North Beach, Chinatown, The New Mission, and Nob Hill, visit
www.graceannwalden.net or contact her at gaw@sbcglobal.net.
To read GraceAnn’s monthly column in Northside San Francisco, “Chef’s Chat,” visit
www.northsidesf.com/chefschat.html.
