San Francisco

Last week, we took a trip to San Francisco.  Tim had a conference, and Maya and I explored the city with some friends.  We had several delicious and memorable meals.  First up, Wednesday evening, we met a large group of friends at Buca di Beppo.  It was a great dinner to catch back up with everyone and have some delicious (and way too much) Italian Food.

Thursday evening, just the three of us went to dinner at John's Grill, a supposedly iconic restaurant in the Union Square area, famous for steaks and seafood.  While our service left something to be desired, the food was pretty good.  Maya discovered Shirley Temples (the drink).  I had the Chef's Special Red Snapper, served with shrimp and crab in a deliciously rich butter sauce.  Tim had Sam Spade's Lamb Chops (this restaurant is apparently one in which the fictional Sam Spade, of Maltese Falcon fame, hung out quite a bit).  It wasn't the best meal we've ever had, but it was good, the atmosphere was nice, and Maya behaved (I wouldn't necessarily label this place "kid friendly," but it catered ok to her, especially since we brought along "Henrietta").

Friday morning, Maya and I met our friends Trish and Tyler at Mama's, another iconic San Francisco spot, this one famous for breakfast.  Now, Maya and I, we LOVE our breakfasts.  And this place did NOT disappoint.  I had a pretty standard bacon and eggs breakfast.  Maya ordered the banana pancakes, which, I hear, are the best pancakes on the planet.  (Being allergic to bananas, I didn't really sample them, but Trish helped Maya finish off the grown up sized portion.)  Mama's was super high on atmosphere--it was a cute restaurant with delicious looking (and tasting) pastries behind a counter where you ordered before getting a table.  It was also so popular that we waited in an outdoor line for about an hour before getting seated.  This worked ok with a kid though; there's a nice playscape right across the street in Washington Square.

After breakfast, we wandered over to meet Tim.  Tim needed lunch... the rest of us didn't.  But we went with him to a place Tyler had been recommended, 54 Mint.  This was a trendy Italian food place...right up Tim's alley.  They had a great outdoor patio, right on the square, and a little music group was just finishing up playing in the square.  However, the service here was TERRIBLE.  It was a good five minutes after Tim had ordered his food before the waiter brought the asked for wine list.  Lunch took FOREVER.  The food was pretty good, in the end, but it was just completely spoiled by the service.  They have a fixed price lunch menu where you get a soup and a pasta or panini for $15.  The portions were the right size and the food tasty.  The bar inside looked really neat, and they had a great downstairs space for larger parties.

Friday night, we had the best meal of our weekend in San Francisco.  It required a trolley ride (on the N) out way west of the main part of San Francisco, into Sunset.  We were almost to the beach (just a few blocks away) when we arrived at Outerlands (another restaurant Tyler had been recommended).  The neighborhood around this place was relatively unremarkable, and I can't imagine why you'd find yourself out here unless you were headed to this place.  And you should head to this place.  We had a slightly larger party, (we met Tyler and Trish, and our additional friend Justin), and it was a long wait for a party of 6.  In fact, we waited about an hour and a half.  The place is small and mostly caters to parties smaller than four.  While we were waiting (outside, where it was pretty chilly), the host brought us their special hot lemon ginger apple cider.  It was delicious.  This is the kind of place it would be really nice to have right around the corner.  They don't have any kind of standard menu, and seem to just make great food out of the fresh ingredients of the day.  They have a combination of small plates and large plates... we had a savory bread pudding, a pasta dish, cornish game hen, a corn and shrimp bisque, a squash dish, minestrone, delicious homemade bread, shredded pork, all of it super delicious.  This is definitely a place worth seeking out if you're in San Francisco.  Outerlands doesn't have a kid's menu, but if your kid doesn't mind trying things, it will work fine, and the staff and clientele seemed fine with kids.  We were not the only party with a toddler in tow.

Saturday, our friends Brian, Sarah, Claire, and Lucky also joined us.  While Tim was still at his conference, we started the day with breakfast at a place called Squat and Gobble.  They are famous, apparently, for crepes, and it was another breakfast to recommend.  I had bacon and eggs (again), but Maya had crepes with strawberry and whipped cream.  This was a small place, too, (we went to the one in Castro) but they had plenty of room for our larger party, even on a Saturday morning.  It was SUPER kid friendly.

For dinner Saturday night, we were in the Embarcadero area, wandering along the Embarcadero, when we passed a restaurant Lucky had been to before with some people from work.  He said he remembered it being good, so we headed in.  It was fabulous.  It's called La Mar, and it's a peruvian restaurant, that basically small plates for sharing.  We had a whole combination of things: yellow tail cebiche, a tasting of causa (fancy whipped potato columns with various toppings), anticucho de pulpo (skewers of octopus with chimichurri sauce), anticucho de pollo (the same thing with chicken), and chicken empanadas.  It was all delicious.  Really delicious.  They also had fabulous drinks (yes, including Shirley Temples); Lucky had a Pisco Sour (they're known for them, apparently), Tim had a San Martin, and I had a Waikicha---these were all various drinks that incorporated various kinds of pisco, which is a Peruvian brandy.  This place is decidedly NOT kid friendly.  We got lucky because we got a table in the lounge right by the door and Maya was in a good mood.  It really is a reservation, night-out kind of place.

ate.cafe

Last night, our Maya spent the night at Addie's house (thanks James and Laura!).  We took the opportunity to go out to dinner and a movie.  There's a place in Lakeway called ate.cafe we'd been intending to try, and we had a coupon that expired next week. So we tried it out.  The idea is fabulous.  It's a no frills but pleasant and comfortable tapas restaurant... small menu of sharable plates with a mostly Spanish flair.  They also had some salads and sandwiches on the menu.  They had a small indoor seating area, and a lovely outdoor shaded patio (where we sat).  Tim ordered a class of wine, I ordered a Strongbow, which I don't often find.  So it started off great.  We decided to order some tapas to share.  We had Bacon wrapped dates (Tim had them, he said they were good), the Tortilla (Spanish style, so potatoes and eggs), meatballs (a combo of veal, beef, pork) and shrimp in garlic sauce.  The shrimp were good.  Both the tortilla and the meatballs were, well, fine.  They were just quite underwhelming.  And the meatballs were even served partially cold.  Not, oh, they could have served these quicker so they would have been hotter, but actually cold, as in these have been in the refrigerator and didn't get heated all the way up.  They did have EXCELLENT bread, and Tim had the pecan tart for dessert, which he also reported to be great.  Overall, it was really underwhelming, and not worth the trek to Lakeway. The place, however, is actually surprisingly kid-friendly.  There weren't any kids there, but the outdoor patio would have been great for Maya, and she would have been fine eating tortilla, meatballs, and shrimp.  And dessert.

Johnson's Backyard Garden: July

Just a sampling of what's different about our CSA "box" six months later.  This week we got a bunch of peppers, a couple of tomatoes, various squash, watermelons, eggplants, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, basil, and garlic.  Yum.

Cipollina (Lunch)

Tim met me "downtown" for lunch a couple of weeks ago.  We tried out a little neighborhood place called Cipollina.  It was a really cute place with a really good vibe and nice decor.  The menu looked great!  Tim ordered a tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad and the smoked red trout, while I ordered the goat cheese ravioli.  I have to say we waited a REALLY long time for our food, but when it arrived, it was excellent.  We'd go back to this place if we were in the area.  I wouldn't necessarily label it "kid-friendly," but it also wasn't "kid un-friendly."

Johnsons Backyard Garden

A few months ago, we decided to jump in and join a CSA (community supported agriculture).  Here in Austin, there were a lot of choices, but we settled on a place called Johnson's Backyard Garden. Once a week, we stop by a nearby pickup point and get a good amount of a good variety of vegetables, freshly picked.  We get some things that I just can't quite acquire a taste for, but Tim is creative enough in the kitchen to make almost everything palatable and most things quite delicious.  We know Maya's getting a better share of vegetables these days.  Here are some photos of our first haul of veggies back in January 2010.

Eating Austin (and Elsewhere)

We're starting a new blog to chronicle our food adventures (if only for us to keep track of where we eat, what we like, and what we don't like).  If you're in the Austin area and like food (who doesn't) or maybe have a kiddo you want to eat out with from time to time, you might benefit, too.