Showtime

It was a big weekend in Alameda. The movie theater renovation and the new Cineplex completion drew big crowds for the Grand Opening weekend. From my perspective the opening was a huge success seeing people on the street, dining and seeing old friends in the crowd.

I watched movies in the theater prior to its closing and then later worked in the skating rink that lived in the building for a few years. It was one fun job, spinning records and skating, but I never saw the building in this state. The renovation is spectacular, the screen in main theater is large and the sound is awesome. This is just a great place to watch a movie.

My wife and I wanted to make the opening a event of our own, so instead of spending a $100 for the gala we decide to spend money on Park Street. We made a dinner reservation at Pappo, 2320 Central, for Friday and walked across the street for the 7 PM showing of Indiana Jones.

Although we had been to Pappo in the past, it was good to see that the restaurant was also taking advantage of the theater opening. Pappo has created a new “Movie Menu” for dinners to get a selection of tapas plates. We started with the Sangria, very tasty and refreshing; I went through my first glass pretty fast. If they offer the Spanish influenced drink give it a try.

We order off the Movie menu trying Kefta Sliders, Fringz, Eric’s Gnocchi and the Arugula salad. Off the regular menu a bowl of the potato soup with bacon. The slider were a lamb/beef mix with cucumber and goat cheese, the fringz a mix of French fries and Onion rings. Both dishes were very good, but it was the Gnocchi that was the hit of the evening.

The house made Gnocchi sauce was so good that we began dipping the French fries in the left-over. This dish is so decadent that it is good to share, but I could see hoarding this it very easily. The server told us that they call it “Crack Sauce” because it is so addicting.

The meal was great and the staff kept us on time for the short walk across the street to make our movie time. I have to say the entire staff at Pappo was very attentive and made the pacing of the meal very relaxing.

Pappo does not have a full bar, but does have a large wine list by both the glass and bottle.

We had such a good time that we went to the free showing of Singing In the Rain on Saturday and another movie on Sunday. I had a chance to see the theater before its opening during the restoration for some photos see my Flickr page: http://flickr.com/photos/john-alameda/sets/72157603681539844/

http://papporestaurant.com/
2320 Central Ave.Alameda, CA510.337.9100

http://alamedatheater.com/
2317 Central Ave.
Alameda, CA
510-769-FILM

F.O.

When I travel to Los Angeles, there is only one dining place that is a must stop. Father’s Office (F.O.) in Santa Monica. This pub is not that big and the bar is simple; draft beer. What F.O. delivers is great food and a beer for anybody.

The “Office Burger” is not your typical all American burger, and if you need to have ketchup on the burger this is not your place. The burger is served just one way. There is no substitution, there are no changes, do not try asking. The burger is awesome, but comes with a side of attitude. The Office Burger made from dry aged beef and contains, caramelized onions, applewood bacon compote, gruyere, matag blue cheese, and arugula. They meld all of the additional ingredients together before placing them in the bun. Not a cheap burger around $12.


The sweet potato French fries are worth the trip to the West Side. The Sweet Potato French Fries are seasoned with roasted garlic, herbs, and served with a blue cheese aioli. Their regular fries are also great, but these offer a nice complement to the burger.


F.O. has 36 Beers on Tap most are staples but they do rotate part of the stock. This is a beer drinkers paradise. Plus Santa Monica is not a bad place to hang out while visiting SoCal.

Go early! F.O. opens at 5 PM most nights, 4 PM on Fridays and Noon on the weekend. If you go on the weekend, go before the 20-somethings awake from a night of clubbing. The Santa Monica place is small, and gets packed very quickly. Also when its crowded expect dealing with the door-man, positioning yourself for a table and waiting. When I mean staking out a table I literally mean boxing other people out for a table. To snag a table you pretty much just have to hang out over someone's table till they clear.

If you don’t like the crowd, phone your order in and head down to the beach.

F.O. has just opened a second location in Culver City, in the new trendy redeveloped area. Same hours, same menu, slightly larger place to serve the hungry and thirsty.

Santa Monica
1018 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90403
TEL: 310 393 BEER (2337)

http://www.fathersoffice.com/

Back on the Wagon an a Maverick

The Cozy Maverick

Okay I have been off the blogging wagon for a while, new job obligations and mucho traveling the last few weeks. So here we go to get the blog jump started. Today a restaurant in San Francisco and in the next couple of days some really great out-of-the Bay Area places that I have visited while traveling. Just a heads up I will be doing a lot more traveling in the next eight weeks so if you have tips for Phoenix, Boston, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach or DC drop me a note.

The wife and I really love the Mission and all the great places to eat and have a drink. We now have a new place to have dinner or brunch. Maverick, (3316 17th Street, San Francisco) is American comfort food with a fine dining twist.

With side plates Collard Greens, Mac n’ Cheese, Grits and Gravy the southern influence hits you right in the face. The Southern Fried Chicken looked awesome, and was flying out of the kitchen, but I passed on it for the Grilled Wagyu Beef Bauvette Steak and my wife had the Butter Braised Sturgeon. Both dishes were very taste.

Maverick does not have a full bar, but the wine list is very good. They bill themselves as an eatery and wine bar and succeed on both levels. The offer 15 wines by the glass and there is a varietal for almost every person. If you are more a hops and barley person, Maverick offers 14 types of beer. One of my favorites Trumer Pils is served.

We have also had brunch at Maverick and that experience was even better than dinner. The chorizo and eggs is house made chorizo with scrambled eggs, green onion and cheese grits, cornbread muffin with Marshall’s Farm honey. The cheese grits are awesome and I am not a big grits fan. The biscuits and gravey and cornmeal pancakes are worth the visit. Add a blackberry mimosa and it is a great brunch.

Make a reservation! This is a very small restaurant and it fills up very quickly. Maverick is on OpenTable.com for reservation convenience. The staff is very attentive and helpful.

http://www.sfmaverick.com/

Http://www.opentable.com/

A Drink of History

From the Buena Vista Website. The Irish Coffee Lined-up

So I was reading

So I was reading, yes booze hounds and foodies read, a NY Times article (link) titled “Pub Crawl Through the Centuries” that talked about England’s oldest drinking establishments, some dating back to the 13th Century.

This got me thinking about some of the Bay Area’s more famous place to sit a while and have a libation. These places are not as deep rooted as the English Pubs, but still have great history for the West Coast of the Colony.

The Oldest is Tadich Grill, (1849) sitting at 240 California, San Francisco. Tadich Grill is a favorite among the Financial District crowd and the bar is always full.

Home of the first Irish Coffee is the Buena Vista, 2765 Hyde St (@ Beach) San Francisco, a bustling bar with locals and tourist. Although I believe that some Irish man was putting Irish Whisky in breakfast drink well before the Buena Vista perfected their receipt in 1952. Great marketing and a good drink, well worth stopping on a foggy San Francisco evening and watch the freezing tourist in their shorts and newly purchased fleece jackets.

One of a kind Trader Vic’s in Emeryville is a surviving location in a chain of Polynesian-themed restaurants that bore the nickname of founder Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. Trader Vic, and one of two people who claimed to have invented the Mai Tai. Bergeron opened a small bar/restaurant across from his parent's grocery store in Oakland, California named Hinky Dink's, which soon became Trader Vic's during the Tiki fad of the 50’s. The Emeryville location is one of the last two in the Bay Area. The San Francisco location closed at the beginning of the year.

Right across the street from City Lights bookstore, the Beat Generation’s unofficial headquarter, is The Purple Onion. This North Beach Club, 140 Columbus (between Jackson and Pacific), offers an intimate, 80-person setting and was a popular influence in local music and entertainment during the Beat era. Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Maya Angelou, Phyllis Diller, the Kingston Trio, and the Smothers Brothers (who recorded their first album, Live at the Purple Onion there) all played the club in the 1950s and 1960s. Richard Pryor has also performed at The Purple Onion. Now day it is a shadow of its former self, but a place to have a private party or channel Allen Ginsberg and have your very own poetry reading.

Eli’s Mile High Club now The Mile High Club (3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94609) opened in 1974 by Eli and Alberta Thornton as a West Coast Blues venue. The club has had several owners but and is not the same in heyday, but for blues fans it is legendary.

A good start to the history, will try to do part II in a couple of weeks.

NY Times Story
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/travel/13Journeys.html?st=cse&sq=Pubs&scp=1

TGIF

Thank God Its Friday , sans Donna Summers singing in the background, and with the terrific weather we are having today in the SF Bay Area I started think of great places to have an outdoor cocktail to enjoy the start of the weekend.

So with the Sound Track of the TGIF Movie as inspiration I will make a couple of suggestions.

"Easy" -- Right around the corner from the house is Speisekammer (2424 Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA) . Large outdoor patio, great place to sit and drink German Beer. If you get a little hungry the Brawts are awesome.

"Take It to the Zoo" -- Lucky 13 (1301 Park Street, Alameda, CA) can get a little wild on Friday. Good size patio out back, real spartan setting but the music is loud and the drinks flow.

"Trapped In a Stairway" -- Forbidden Island (1304 Lincoln, Alameda, CA) Aloha, Mr. Hand! Although you will be inside it will feel like you are outdoors with the tropic theme. If you are into mixed rum drinks with little umbrellas, this is the place. Loud shirts are encouraged. The patio is pretty much for smokers.

"Too Hot To Trot" -- Pier 23 (the Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA). The deck is a great view of the water out on the deck and Coit Tower from the interior. This is a total outdoor hangout and the crowd is ready to have a good time. You can get buckets of beer and good cocktails. Bar food is available.

By the way, just in case you were wondering, the songs artist were: Commodores, Sunshine, Paul Jabara, Commodores.

Enjoy the weekend and remeber to save the last dace for LOVE.

Cheers

Old Standby

Just like anything in life, we have things we like to experiment with and some things we always fall back to out of comfort. A favorite t-shirt, a date buddy (someone that you can always call-on), and places we go to to eat, drink and be merry.

I tend to write about new places that I have tried in the last couple of days, but this past weekend I went back to a couple places that are tried and true. Places were you feel comfortable and treated like you are the friend of the owner. Think of "Cheers" without Sam Malone/Ted Danson.

On Friday Night, after sailing (opening of the season, very happy) and a few cocktails at the Fireside, my buddy and I traveled across the street to Nations Giant Hamburgers on Webster Street in Alameda. It had been a while, since I stop into the old burger joint and much of it had not changed over the years. It a simple menu, big old greasy burgers, but for a moment it brought me back to the countless runs we made to Nations for burgers over the past 20 years. These are burgers have all the fixings and my option of grilled onions and pickels. Fries and pie round out the menu. After midnight this is a great stop, not the best burger I have ever had, but a lot of memories waiting for my burger to come up. Some of the memories are little more difficult after some very late nights.

On Saturday, headed into McGees Bar and Grill on Park Street in Alameda. Owners John and Linda Costello are great people and treat every customer with care. Tim, the bar manager always calls me by name and looks to see if I have a drink. The NCAA Basketball games were on so it was a full house. McGees has a great pub menu burgers, wings, fries and few items with a slight mexican slant. I end up at McGees more often than I will admit because of their diverse menu. You don't need to know what you want until your are ready to order. McGees has a full bar and is well worth a stop.

Nations http://www.nationsrestaurants.com/

McGees
http://www.mcgeesbarandgrill.com/

See old review of Fireside
http://cocktailcocktailscocktails.blogspot.com/2007/12/fireside.html

HIGH ROLLER

Hard Rock Pool

Living like a HIGH ROLLER!!!

Some things do get better with age. As you get older and meet more people opportunities open up to experience things you never have had chance in the past. One person in our group of nearly 20 guys has become very successful in business and with it comes some very influential contacts. So, this trip to Vegas I got a chance to see what it was like to live like a High Roller.

A must, once in your life, you need to spend a day in a Cabana at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Pool. First, I was impressed that the Cabana was a comp but the location right next to the pool with an impressive service and a television to watch all the NCAA basketball games. The Hard Rock Pool is one of the most coveted locations in all of Vegas with its young and hip crowd that loves a good time. During the summer the Hard Rock’s ReHab is the best afternoon Sunday Party in town. So with the Captain and Cokes flowing, Sun and a Party atmosphere I was in prime real estate. Although I am way outside the target demo for the pool, it was good energy to let you know that you Vegas vacation is in full swing.

Pool Cam at Hard Rock: http://www.hardrockhotel.com/las-vegas/pool/pool-cams/

ReHab: http://www.hardrockhotel.com/las-vegas/pool/rehab/

The experience did not end with the pool. My buddy was also able to get us access to Body English one of the busiest Night Clubs in town. No cover charge, right pass the long line of anxious part goers and the velvet rope was opened and you could see many in the line envious that we did not have to wait. We were escorted right into the club just like I was one of Hollywood’s elite. The doorman treated me and our group like we played thousand dollar hands of blackjack and come to Vegas once a week, just like old friends. Cool experience.

Body English: http://www.bodyenglish.com/

So, I got to play like one of the big boys. It only took 10 minutes to break the spell as I entered the Airport. The Southwest Airlines Cattle line waiting for flight brought me back to reality, and those great little bags of peanuts. Oh well, I have next year.