Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

Review: The Corner Store

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This adorable little gem opened up not long ago at the corner (ah, hence The Corner Store) of Masonic and Geary in the Inner Richmond, SF. It’s classic San Francisco with a quirky little menu, fun cocktails, and a cute space. I’ve been twice. This time, I was really happy, see?

Yeay, food!

Yeay, food!

There aren’t actually a lot of veg options on the menu, unfortunately, but I found something out the second time I went: they’ll make non-veg things veg if you ask. Because they’re chefs and that shiz doesn’t phase them. I love this city.

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Products: Nespresso

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Nespresso. Have you heard of it yet? It’s like espresso, but with an “n”. It’s a Swiss brand of single-serve coffee makers that markets to high-end clientele. Starbucks has gotten on the single-serve bandwagon, but, come on, they’re not Nespresso.

I was invited to the grand opening of Nespresso’s newest flagship boutique in Union Square in SF a few months ago. When I showed up, the place was still sorely under construction. I later found out that I was somehow not on the list when they told everyone about the cancellation of the event. I was sad. They sent me a $200 Nespresso machine and probably another $50 worth of accompanying paraphernalia. Apology accepted.

My very own Nespresso U machine

My very own Nespresso U machine

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Review: Stacks

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“My mom and sister are coming to the city for breakfast, where should we go?”

“Stacks.”

Excellent. One question, one answer. No fuss. No reservation. It was a Monday (New Year’s Eve), so none of the hip brunch-y places in North Beach near my place were going to be open. And, apparently, my knowledge of City breakfast places outside my brunch neighborhood is slim. So, Stacks it was.

Bloody Mary with bacon. Mother was pleased.

Bloody Mary with bacon. Mother was pleased.

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Events: Thorny Rose Wine

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Dear purveyor of every other brand of everything, ever:

Hi, thank you for coming to my website. I hope you get a moment to look around before racing to my contact page and immediately emailing me about events and products that may only be mildly relevant, if at all, to my blog topic. I will try to respond, but only because I’m sort of anal-retentive about responding to emails. I will probably say no thank you politely. For those of you in the food and restaurant industry, thank you for your email; I really appreciate the invitation to your event, tasting, or product trial. You guys rock. Now, listen up.

thorny rose logo

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Review: Ashley’s Cafe

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So you’re in the Richmond. And you want breakfast. And you don’t want to wait in line for an hour on Clement. Enter: Ashley’s.

I love this place. It’s a small cafe, order at the counter, (wo)manned by two nice ladies. They have wireless. And coffee. And fresh-squeezed orange juice from one of those fancy machines. And home-made, organic pastries and breakfast snacks. And onigiri. It’s like Japanese/breakfast fusion that was made just for me. Love.

Inside Ashley's Cafe

Inside Ashley’s Cafe

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Review: Millennium for Thanksgiving

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What do you do if your family doesn’t do a big Thanksgiving anymore, and you don’t even eat turkey? Go to Millennium! Millennium is an upscale vegan restaurant near Union Square in SF, and mom was smart enough to make a reservation for Thanksgiving months ago when no one knew what their plans were going to be. I mean, you can always cancel the reservation, right? Good thinking, mom.

Schmancy salad!

They had a prix fixe menu for Thanksgiving evening, which included an appetizer plate for the table, soup, salad, choice of two mains, and choice of two desserts for $65 per person. An optional wine pairing was offered for an additional $28, in which our party did not partake due to being: a) cheap, and b) already sufficiently pre-partied. Sadly, since I didn’t snag one of their menus (or a picture of it — what was I thinking!), I don’t have the huge list of superfluous descriptions for each dish. In fact, I will probably barely be able to even describe what the damn things were since Millennium has a way of creating highly enigmatic menu summaries*.

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Review: House of Nanking

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House of Nanking is a Chinese place over here in North Beach (technically Chinatown). The story is, apparently, that it was just a regular hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in a sea of a million Chinese places (just on the outskirts of Chinatown), but that this one was the place. Like, you know how there’s 50 billion restaurants in the City, but there’s only lines out the door at a proverbial handful? It was one of those. So they spruced the place up (a little bit), donned a multi-colored sign, and continued to attract lines down the block and guidebook tributes.

Salt and pepper shrimp with mushrooms

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Events: Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2012

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Oh, wow, did I really not blog about the festival last year? That’s sad. Well, some shit was happening in, like, my real life right around then. Do excuse me.

So… though I only have a 2010 blog entry to prove it, this was my third annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. This year’s fest was by far the best in my opinion, and I say that not only for rhyming purposes.

“Spiked” watermelon at the Starlight Room. They were weird.

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Review: State Bird Provisions

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For real, this time.

Ok, so, I may have gotten a bit frustrated with the reservation process and popularity of State Bird Provisions recently. But, in response to my sad/ranting/obnoxious blog post, my good friend and personal savior, Ms. Mala B. won the refresh-the-reservations-webpage game. The day after my “I’m so grumpy that I can’t get a rezzo at SBP” post, I received a text:

“Holy crap”

Ms. Bingham had won the culinary lottery; the stars had aligned to reveal a reservation at SBP the following Friday at 5.30pm for two people. And she, being the most kindhearted, loving, awesome, beautiful (not relevant, but still true) person ever, bequeathed this reservation to me.

Obligatory above the fold photo. Carry on.

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State Bird Provisions – WTF?

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I cannot review SF’s newest addition to the list of “must eat”s. This is because I cannot get a reservation. And I bet you can’t either.

Welcome to San Francisco. We have amazing food. And you have to either wait 2 hours to be seated or 60 days for a reservation. Grrr.

State Bird Provisions is a tiny American food restaurant that serves their reportedly heavenly fare on dim-sum style carts that roam the microscopic aisles. Or so I hear. Because they haven’t yet let me inside the doors. Harumph.

SBP has a reservation list on their website that is updated in real time. You can reserve up to 60 days in advance. But there’s never a reservation spot. It’s like World Series Giant’s tickets just went on sale every single day. It’s a veritable online elbow fight to get a seat. I have yet to win.

Ok, fine. Doing some research, I see that this place is not only good, it is hailed as the best in the land. Like, nationally, apparently. Best New Restaurant in America. Jesus Christ. That’s a lot to live up to. Now I almost feel sorry for them. Are my hopes too high?

In the meantime, I will keep refreshing the webpage at work to see if I can get a reservation at any other time besides 10.30pm on the Saturday before Christmas. Or maybe I should just start scooping up rezzos and scalping them out front? I bet I could make some serious bucks that way… (and only at the small cost of dignity…)

State Bird Provisions… you will be mine…