Lil’ Abner doesn’t live here
In Dogpatch, I mean. The latest area of San Francisco to gentrified, upscaled and made hip, slick and cool. Way out 3rd avenue, past the ball park, down around 22nd St. and further south.
I was there for the opening of a new museum, the Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) Founded in 2004, they were near Union Square for a few years, then spent 3 years in pop-up sites before opening tonight at 2569 Third Street in a small but beautiful new space.
You know you’re in the tall cotton the place you’re looking for is obvious due to the lineup of valet parking attendants. So I dropped the car and wandered in.
This was an invitation only event, but our friend Kevin Nierman is somehow attached and he greased the skids and got me in. It was pretty impressive when the young woman with the clipboard checking people off actually recognized and could spell my name. I wonder if Kevin told them I was rich? They’ll find that out the hard way, I fear.
The MCD is a non-collecting museum: they don’t own any of the art, they just exhibit it. The opening show features the work of three artists.
First up, Michael Cooper, a fantastic craftsman from Northern California. The show is a retrospective of his work for the last 45 years, and when you see it you think it must have taken him every bit of that time to make these exquisite pieces. The complexity and workmanship are incredible.
This piece is about 4 1/2 feet tall
This lawn chair/go cart works. I’d love to take it to the grocery store.
Close up of the incredible detail work–a hand made, wooden, drive chain
I could include another 20 photos of the intricate, beautiful work this man creates but you’re getting the idea, and I’d rather you went to see it in person.
Reflection of the crowd in a piece of another work.
Go to a museum opening, and you’ll see plenty of people dressed in their best, and a few characters. The characters are the interesting ones:
It’s good to have your own style
A couple clearly made for each other.
This next one is a friend of ours, Ray Kaplan. That doesn’t make him any less of a character, though:
Always dapper Ray
Back to the exhibits. I was entranced by the work of the aptly named Arline Fisch, who knits, crochets and weaves copper wire to create jellyfish, mimicing the movement of these boneless wonders.
The tabletop size
The third artist featured is Rebecca Hutchinson, who came out from her home in Massachusetts to create this site-specific installation, working with porcelain paperclay, paper and natural materials.
Trees and leaves created onsite over 4 days by the artist, interns and assistants.
Rebecca Hutchinson and the ubiquitous Ray
This was the opening gala–the Museum opened officially to the on Saturday. There was quite a crowd in attendance–Ray kept pointing out this or that luminary of the art world, but I didn’t know them except for Phil Linhares, former curator of the Oakland Museum.
Far too many people for the space, but we all had a good time.
The Museum of Craft and Design is a pretty interesting stop, in an area of the City you probably don’t know well. There are galleries and workshops and hip new restaurants opening everywhere in Dogpatch these days, you might want to grab Daisy Mae and go take a look.
My birds are back
I had about given up on seeing our traveling ducks, Sir Francis Drake and Queen Elisabeth I, this year. They usually show up in early March and here it is 4 April but, when I came out today, there they were paddling in our pool.
I guess it doesn’t take much to get me all excited. This is the fourth or fifth year Frank and Elizabeth have decided to visit with us for a few weeks. I just always enjoy them for some reason.
Of course, I rushed out to give them a handful of corn. It was clear they remembered, if not me, then the taste of corn because they came running and ate everything I threw out.
I never know when they will arrive or when they will depart. All I can do is enjoy them while they are here.
Stelle Bistro
The interior is modern yet warm.
Once, there was Chile’s, on Locust Street, but it folded.
Once, there was Delle Stelle, on North Main street, but it, too, folded.
Now, there is Stelle Bistro, in the building where Chile’s was. It isn’t the greatest restaurant in the county, but it’s a decent place to get a solid meal for a fair price.
I started with the caprese salad. I always start with the caprese salad.
Fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil
Think of this salad as a Buick–good, solid, reliable. Nothing to complain about. It isn’t a Mercedes or a Ferrari, but it doesn’t pretend to be. Stelle is a Buick kind of restaurant, and there is a good market for that.
Gail ordered a small spinach salad. What she got was the house salad, which leads into a discussion of the service. Our waiter was clearly a professional, a man who moved here from Milan many years ago and has made a career of waiting tables. But there is only so much one man can do–and Stelle keeps prices down by keeping labor costs down. No runners to bring out the food, the waiter has to do it all himself. And when there are 5 people at the table, he can’t possibly bring it all at once. I hate waiting at the table when half the people have food and half don’t.
The entree I chose was apparently a house specialty at Delle Stelle, and they brought it over to the new place.
Pasta Rustica
I’ve never had anything quite like this–orecchiette (little ears) pasta, potato, carmelized onion and fontina cheese. This may be the ultimate comfort food.
Mike Rippey had the Osso Bucco, large chunks of veal shank, a pile of polenta and the bones, dripping marrow. It sure looked good, and I saw Gail stealing Mike’s marrow.
Although this is nominally an Italian restaurant, there are a number of South American dishes on the menu–notably the Lomo Saltado (sirloin strips sauteed with onion) and the Chuleta de Cordero, lamb chops.
For dessert, we had another South American specialty:
Wish I knew what this was
Some kind of ice cream, flavored with a South American fruit. Sweet, of course, but no tang or tartness. A squiggle of chocolate ganache on top. It isn’t listed on their website menu, so I don’t know what it is, but I liked it.
Prices are moderate–my pasta was $15.95, the Osso Bucco $22.95.
Stelle Bistro is a Buick in the restaurant business, and there is no shame in that. I wish they could get all the food to the table at once, but you get what you pay for. I’d go here again for a simple, easy dinner.
Just Skating along
The view is worth the price of dinner all by itself
Dinner tonight at Skates On the Bay, built over the water at the end of the Berkeley Marina. Take University Avenue west until you have to park or swim and you’re there. I was trying to think of someplace to eat between Lafayette and San Rafael, where Kate and Brad live. It’s easy to forget about an old standard; I’m glad Skates came to mind tonight.
Skates has been there, in one incarnation or another, since 1984. The building is beautiful; mostly glass with a direct view to the Golden Gate. Skates attracts not only locals but tourists interested in the view–I had to point out to the man at the next table which island was Alcatraz, which was Angel Island. We had the good fortune to get a window table, but every seat in the place has a view.
The food is as good as the view. I started with a smoked salmon bisque which was so rich and heavy it could easily make an entreé by itself.
Then came the Sockeye Salmon
Wild Sockeye salmon over Israeli couscous.
Do you eat the skin on fish? I don’t, and didn’t much care for having to remove it. Maybe the fishistic intelligentsia eat the skin, maybe it’s just for show.
In any event, the fish, sans skin, was excellent. The Israeli couscous is much larger than the other (goyische? gentile?) style, like a good sized barley. The tomato slices weren’t cooked, but they tasted smoky. I wish I knew how to arrange that.
Brad had the King salmon:
The dish made a beautiful presentation even without the dappled setting sun.
The King salmon was just as good as the sockeye, and there was none of that pesky skin.
Skates also has a small sushi menu, which you could either make a meal of or just order a couple of pieces instead of a salad or appetizer.
Success is often doing all the little things correctly–I have to be impressed when they put a half a loaf of Acme Breads “Ears of Wheat” bread on the table.
Service was swift and efficient. The wine list pleased the wine drinkers. They probably have great desserts, but I was so full from the incredibly rich soup that I didn’t even look at the dessert menu.
The restaurant scene in the Bay Area changes constantly, with hip new places opening and closing at the speed of light. It pays to give a look to the solid established places that have been around for 30 or more years–there is probably a good reason for their longevity.
Farewell, my friends
The store is emptying out
Our friends Steve and Elizabeth have chosen to close their store, Zipper, in Sonoma’s Cornerstone center, and I’m both heartbroken and jealous. Heartbroken because Zipper was my favorite store in the entire world, always filled with unique and fascinating treasure I coveted and sometimes brought home with me. Jealous because they plan to spend the next year travelling the world.
Having managed to sell almost all of their inventory, in the coming 5 weeks until they shut the doors forever they will turn their store into a gallery for art works their friends have created.
Of course, we had to help them out a bit, so Gail bought some new earrings and reading glasses:
New earrings, new glasses. There is a ring to match the earrings, she may buy it yet.
I have always enjoyed shopping in Zipper, and will miss the store, and Steve and Elizabeth. They promise to blog about their travels so I can enjoy the trip vicariously.
Bon Voyage, my friends.
Bridge is a social game
Sigrid and Gail socializing over dinner
So there we were at dinner in Napa with Sigrid, and were we having a polite conversation? No.
All three of us had our eyes glued to the tiny screens of our iPhones, watching the finals of the Vanderbilt in St. Louis as the Auken team, captained by only the 9th woman in history to be in the finals, scratched and clawed their way to a win.
It isn’t usually considered polite to be watching your phone at the dinner table with friends, but when an event is this exciting (if four people, 1500 miles away, playing cards at the speed of mud, can every be considered exciting) I guess it can be forgiven.
In any event, we enjoyed our meal, we enjoyed the company, we enjoyed the competition Perhaps we’ll have to change the definition of good manners to adapt to the times and the internet.
Sushi in Sausalito
There is good sushi and there is great sushi–Sushi Ran in Sausalito has the latter version.
Daughter Kate, who doesn’t like sushi, is out of town this weekend, so her two daughters thought it would be a great idea to con the Gran into taking them to Sushi Ran tonight. They were right, it was a great idea.
Sushi Ran is a block off the main drag, in two adjoining buildings. The sushi bar is in one, the liquor bar is in the other, there are tables in both and the waitstaff runs back and forth like crazy.
This is big time upscale. I think they may be the only sushi place in the Bay Area that merits a mention in the Michelin Guide–not a star, yet, but mentioned in the list of good places to eat. Prices are steep, but you get what you pay for.
We started, as always, with the edamame, boiled soybean pods. You have to pop the seeds out, like peas, and not eat the pod, which is inedibly stringy. I know that now.
Edamame.
The girls had the seaweed salad. Not exactly my taste, but it was pretty:
Seaweed, cucumber and avocado.
Gail loves pot stickers, and the Japanese equivalent, gyoza. Sushi Ran doesn’t offer the gyoza, which are pan fried after they are boiled, but the do have these spectacular dumplings, which are not fried:
Scallop-Chive Dumplings
Gail would have been happy with two or three orders of the dumplings, but there was much more to come.
Wagyu Beef carpaccio
I guess the Japanese just don’t like to cook much. The fish is raw, and so is the beef. We love carpaccio, and this was wonderful. Gail is no fan of wasabi, but the wasabi oil the beef was dressed with was just the right amount of spice. We tried not to fight over it.
Spiced roasted cauliflower
So I’m accustomed to wine flights and cheese plates, Sushi Ran offers a vegetable tasting–this roasted cauliflower, kale with dates and puffed rice, and kimchi brussels sprouts. They were all interesting and different, but I just want an endless bowl of this cauliflower. We ordered another portion.
Tempura spring roll
Sushi rolls are often wrapped in nori, sheets of seaweed. The tempura shrimp roll came wrapped in something white, I have no idea what, but the roll was great.
Demi and Chloe, the adored granddaughters, are not eating wheat or sugar, and they found out that Sushi Ran adds sugar to their sushi rice, so they ordered sashimi instead. Here is why sushi is often called “edible art”.
Maguro, albacore tuna sashimi.
Dessert was not required.
Sushi Ran is by far the best sushi I’ve ever had. Everything is both beautiful and delicious, and I’m not the only one who thinks so–the place is jammed, every seat is full. Don’t even think about going without a reservation. Bring money. Bring your appetitie. Bring your camera–you’ll want to remember this meal.
Saint Louis wrapup
We’re home. One or two masterpoints richer, many dollars poorer. I love NABC’s, but they are costly.
The tournament was well run, as we have come to expect, but there are always glitches.
The Marriott had no coat racks, and there was no good place to keep the many pounds of outerwear necessary to keep from freezing some days.
Sodas were $2.00 at the Marriott, $2.50 at the convention center. They are completely separate business so each can set a price, I just think it’s weird.
The new league policy on only 13 table sections in National events is a good idea that needs some work on implementation. There isn’t enough flexibility for last minute problems like someone not showing up.
I really like President Mamula’s idea of not selling seeded entries after 12:45. When we had to duplicate the hands ourselves there was some slack time to complete the seeding, but that isn’t there anymore.
We had some miserably dirty, sticky cards. I don’t know if the league replaces cards on a schedule, but it’s clearly time for many of the decks we were using.
They tried to trick me with an ersatz Ask Me Girl, who turned out to be the Ask Me Girl In Training, Lulu. I want Wendy, the original AMG.
Something I noticed about St. Louis–when you make a reservation on Opentable.com, you get 100 “points”, which you can eventually redeem for $1. Some restaurants, in an effort to increase business, offer 1000 “points”, or $10, if you make a reservation. That rarely happens in the Bay Area, except for very early or very late times. In St. Louis, I got 1000 point reservations 3 times–at Mike Shannon’s, at Gio and at Mango. I think this means that they are having trouble filling the seats.
I may say NABC’s are costly, but I saw valet parking at the movie across the street from my hotel for $5, and a parking lot for $1/hr. Already noted were the prices at the $$$$ restaurant, Kemoll’s, which were 20% lower than they would be here.
Putting the hand records in baskets marked with balloons is a good idea.
The ACBL iPhone app is nice, but it didn’t work all that well. The first night it sent me to the wrong site, other days it just said “see daily bulletin for details”, which isn’t very useful for a bulletin replacement. Decidedly needs work.
The quality of the Irish Cream has gone way up in the Presidents suite. Bailey’s is much better than Carolans.
The entertainment was first rate. After event hospitality is always appreciated, and I liked both the food and the music.
I wish I played better.
You’re on your own about the summer tournament–I won’t go to nationals with the 10 and 3 schedule, and neither will many other people. Expect that tournament to be about 1000 tables smaller than it would be with normal hours. Can anybody explain to me why the organizers want to build a pile of $100 bills on the floor, $65,000 worth, and set it on fire? Because that is exactly what they are doing with this silly schedule.
I managed 7 days in Saint Louis without once having toasted ravioli. A record that may stand forever.
See you in Phoenix after Thanksgiving.
Deadly terrorist weapon
Packing to go home, and I must make certain that my pocketknife is in my checked luggage. I have had more than one confiscated when I forgot.
Today, this is considered a deadly weapon. In a month, on April 25, that will no longer be true. The federales have decided to bring American law into unity with what the rest of the world is doing, and will allow pocketknives of less than 6 cm.
Airline unions are screaming, claiming that this is hugely dangerous. Given that there have been precisely zero incidents in the rest of the world, this argument hardly seems valid.
I think it is surreal to imagine that my knife is considered a weapon today and will be only a tool in a month. I don’t understand the waiting; once you have made the decision, act on it. Still, I’m glad that some level of sanity, not much, is returning to air travel. The less time the TSA rocket scientists spend on meaningless security theater the more time they will have to be doing something useful. Sweeping the parking lot comes to mind.
Living high
Combine good food and a great view, and you’ll have me at hello.
We ate tonight at Kemolls Italian, a fine dining establishment on the 40th floor of the Met Life building. It’s just a few blocks from the Mississippi River, and overlooks the Gateway Arch.
Looking across the Mississippi to Illinois
There were 4 of us for dinner–me, Gail, David Bryant and Nancy Ferguson. We played and lost today in the compact KO, and were scheduled to go back and play in the loser Swiss. Kemolls was so inviting that we quickly chose to forego the bad bridge and just have a leisurely dinner. It was a wise decision.
Starting out, we ordered the house specialty, Carcioffi Fritti. Deep fried artichoke hearts with Mrs. Kemolls special sauce. If you start with the high cholesterol appetizer, it gets your heart ready for the following onslaught.
Carciofi Fritti
The service here isn’t so much slow as deliberate. The meal is designed to be savored, and nothing is going to be rushed. They don’t need to turn the table 3 times a night and they think you should just enjoy and not be in a hurry.
I had the baby lettuces salad. I think some spinach snuck in with the baby lettuce, but that’s OK with me.
Baby lettuces, red onion, blue cheese and toasted walnuts with balsamic vinaigrette
The fish of the evening was black grouper, a species that we rarely see on the West Coast, so that’s what I ordered. You get your choice of 6 different preparations, and I chose the lemon and capers–just like the veal piccata Gail had.
Black grouper, lemon, butter and capers.
Grouper is denser than most white fish, but not as dense as swordfish. To my California-tuned senses, this one was a little overcooked, but probably normal for here.
The sun went down while we ate:
Skyline to the west
David regaled us for quite some time with his interesting take on politics and economics. He promises to start a blog designed to shed light without heat on the issues of the day, just to help people be informed regardless of their political orientation. I promise to be the first subscriber.
All that talking made dessert a necessity. I had the Italian Cream Cake, something I’d not seen before. It was a very dense, heavy cake that we all ended up sharing. I could barely get a photo before David had his fork in it.
Italian Cream Cake
Gail had spumoni, Nancy had sorbet, David had a fast fork. It was all good.
Kemolls was listed in the tournament restaurant guide as a $$$$ eatery. The bill for the 4 of us, with considerable wine, three desserts and an appetizer, was $275. At a comparable restaurant in San Francisco, like the Carnelian Room atop the B of A tower, the bill would have been at least $350. These people don’t know how good they have it.
I had to get another shot of the arch on the way out.
Things often look better at night.
Kemolls was great. It won’t work if you’re in a hurry, or trying to eat on a budget, but it was by far the best meal I had in Saint Louis.
Totally Unauthorized 