Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

Review: Gialina

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About a month ago I moved into a new house (new to me) across town, and have been busy trying out the sights and tastes of my new neighborhood in between the seemingly endless quest for new furniture. My new ‘hood is Glen Park, and they have the tiniest, most adorable one-block strip of “town” where we can shop, drink, and eat. One of the highlights in this micro neighborhood is Gialina, an Italian-style pizza joint by the same owners as Ragazza on Divisadero.

Asparagus w/ preserved lemon, leeks, Campagnolo & ricotta $18

Asparagus w/ preserved lemon, leeks, Campagnolo & ricotta $18

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New Restaurant: Blaze Pizza Opens in SF & Free Pizza!

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Hey y’alls! Blaze Pizza is coming to San Francisco! You may remember when their Fremont location opened last year and they gave me some sweet vouchers for free pizzas. Well, this weekend you don’t need a voucher — come build-your-own FREE artisanal pizza on Saturday, March 28th from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in exchange for simply following Blaze Pizza on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. The new digs are at Stonestown Galleria over near SFSU, and this is their inaugural SF location.

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What is Blaze Pizza, you ask?… 

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Giveaway: Blaze Pizza!

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Earlier this year, Blaze Pizza caught fire in the Bay Area, just one of many places where the flames are spreading around the nation. The concept is simple: home-made, thin crust dough; artisanal choose-your-own toppings; 180 seconds in their open-flame oven for “fast fire’d” perfection. Sounds good to me.

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From the Blaze Pizza facebook page

If it sounds good to you too, and you’re ever around the Fremont area, they’ve kindly given me some gift cards for one free pizza each. Leave a comment below or email me at brocandchoc@gmail.com and you can try your own pizza for free. Yeay!… 

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Review: Il Casaro – New Restaurant

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When I first saw Il Casaro as I was walking by a week ago, the menu was posted as a “soft opening menu”. It looked intriguing, so (with difficulty remembering where exactly it was) I returned yesterday. They are now fully open, and I think they’re off to a good start.

Marinara Pizza - $12

Marinara Pizza – $12

The owners of Il Casaro are not new to the area; they’ve owned nearby Vicoletto for some time. Which, oddly, I’ve never been to. Perusing their menu, I would now really like to try their pappardelle with fresh crab meat, among other things. More new restaurants, yeay!

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Review: Capo’s

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Extra, Extra, ReadAllAboutIt! Capo’s Now Open in North Beach!

Say that in, like, one of those Dick Tracy Chicago gangster accents to get the full gist of what’s happening in that sentence, y’shee. Capo’s is the newest gig from world champion pizza tosser Tony Gemignani of Tony’s Pizza Napolitana, one of the famous SF pizza joints (also the owner of Pyzano’s in Castro Valley). This time he’s gone old school with Capo’s — red patent leather booths, brick walls, and mood lighting chandeliers. And a specialization in Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I can dig it.

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Review: Tommaso’s

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Two “m”s, one “s”. Tommaso’s. Opened in 1935 (under the name Lupo’s), this Italian eatery has stayed the course for over 75 years donning the same cave-like location and winning awards for their pizza. They’ve got an interesting story and are one of the great restaurant successes of SF.

Margherita pizza from Tommaso’s

When you ask for restaurant recommendation in SF, particularly in North Beach (technically FiDi, but still), you’ll often hear the name Tommaso’s. At least I have. And since I walk by the place every day (no joke) on my way to work, it’s a wonder it’s taken so long for me to go. But alas, now I can say I have experience the great Tommaso’s.

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Review: Ironside

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Atmosphere: 4/5  ♦  Service: 3/5  ♦  Food Quality: 4/5  ♦  Value: 3/5
Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Sure

Ironside is a hip little restaurant on Second Street between Townsend and Brannan in San Francisco. It’s one of the (great many) places that makes SF what it is in terms of food and ambiance. The decor is a sort of modern wild-west: heavy timber framing (the stairway landing is a 4′ cube of solid wood pieces!) and steel connectors and accents fit in with the polished concrete floors and steel-railed mezzanine. Like other top SF restaurants, it looks great.

The order-at-the counter style adds a bit of casual-ness to your lunch (though they are also open for dinner, and brunch on the weekends), and the paper menu has lots of tasty things to choose from. The list itself is nothing particularly fancy: soups, salads, pizzas, and sandwiches; but the execution is key.

Inside Ironside

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Review: B

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Atmosphere: 3/5  ♦  Service: 3/5  ♦  Food Quality: 2/5  ♦  Value: 3/5Times Visited: One  ♦ Will I Return?: Unlikely.

No, my keyboard did not break one letter into writing the title of this post. The proprietors of B Restaurant in Oakland apparently decided their time could be better spent on things other than coming up with an extravagant name for their establishment.

Bar and transom windows at B

B boasts floor to ceiling transom windows which give the space a modern open feeling. You can enjoy the view from the windows while sitting at the contemporary bar that serves a full range of cocktails…. 

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B&C Hits Chicago, Discovers Pizza

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Extra, extra, read all about it…

Deep. Dish. Pizza. As a California native, I’ve heard these words before. But until last week, I had never truly tasted them. Cue montage sequence of me packing my bags, flying to Minnesota, enjoying a wedding, then flying to Chicago. When the little airplane follows the arched red line to the dot on the map marked “Chicago”, fade to me enjoying this pizza:

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Chicago deep dish pizza from Giordano’s

Literally the first thing we did in Chicago was seek out Giordano’s Pizza in downtown Chicago, at the recommendation of a friend who used to live there. May we forever be in debt to him for leading us to this heavenly pizza. Like ambrosia on our lips, it enlivened us from the fatigue of our travels, it healed us our ails, and it relieved us of our sins, past, present and future. That’s how good the deep dish pizza is. I’m only hardly exaggerating…. 

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Review: Lanesplitter

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  Once   ♦   Will I Return?:  Sure
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LanesplitterThis pizza place and pub on San Pablo in Berkeley is a cute spot for a good slice of authentic New York pizza (or so they tell me) and a fancy glass of beer. It’s neat because you can actually order just a slice of pizza for yourself, and it doesn’t have to be one of the ones sitting out already made. You can order any slice you want and they’ll make it fresh!

They have a few combos (which don’t seem to be listed on their relatively limited website), one of which is a salad and slice combo. One slice of one topping pizza and a side salad was around $8 and was pretty good. You have to like NY Style pizza, which I have mixed feelings about*, but I think it was good for what it was…. 

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