Whew! I spent a fantastic three hours knocking around the San Fran War Memorial Opera House last Thursday at the first ever SF-based Toast of the Town event. Put on by Wine Enthusiast Magazine, the splashy affair featured hundreds of wineries, lots of fantastic food purveyors, live jazz and a pretty good scene, if I do say so myself. Read on for a quick review and some snaps of the swank affair.

At $185 a pop, a VIP ticket would've gotten you into the first part of the evening - the VIP tasting from 5 to 7 pm. It also would've gotten you a goodie bag on your way out, something I forgot to pick up myself. Word has it there was some pretty good stuff in there - some sort of wine hand held device, a glass, etc. Woops.

Clearly, I enjoyed myself at the event otherwise I would've surely remembered to score this booty on the way out the door. So what, exactly, was all the fuss about? Well, let me start off by saying it wasn't about the wine: although there was definitely some good stuff there (you may recall I included a list of highlighted producers in my earlier entry on the event) I found the majority of it to be the mostly large-scale production stuff you can find on the shelves of your local grocer or wine warehouse store.

Is that harsh? It's not meant to be so - it's just a fact. Several other industry folks I saw there agreed - there wasn't much small-production or new stuff to be discovered. After all, it was a consumer event and - unlike the many trade tastings I attend - it wasn't necessarily geared towards introducing folks to new products. If you like Gallo, great. It was there. Not new, but then again the gussied up guests weren't really looking for wine epiphanies that night - they were there to get their eat and drink on, and boy let me tell you - they were in the right place for just that!

Not only was there plenty of booze (insane amounts, really - literally hundreds and hundreds of wines to taste) there was a fabulous array of food stuffs to sample, many of which I've captured in pics here in the blog. Among my favorites were the treats from Tartine Bakery (HelLO I can never get enough of those cocoa nibs!!!), fried quail eggs from award-winning eatery Pacific's Edge in Carmel, a really pretty if not-quite-as-tasty-as-it-looks concoction from Kyo-Ya sushi in The Palace hotel (served up by a very dapper dude in the first pic of this entry) and some cute mini burgers from Cole's Chop House in Napa. And finally, the whole milk organic yogurt from Straus Family Creamery was TO DIE FOR.

When it came to the wine, I managed to find a few favorites amidst all the big name hoopla. My absolute favorite new "find" of the evening was a Merlot-based red from Bordeaux's Right Bank. The 2003 Chateau Magdelaine from St-Emilion was plush, round, earthy and a total delight. The producer only makes about 2,500 cases of the stuff a year and it clocks in at about $75 a pop (I know, eek!). I wasn't surprised to see that the property's owned by venerable Right Bank proprietor Jean-Pierre Moueix - although I'm still flabbergasted at how someone could have so many vowels in a row in his last name.

Amongst the whites I enjoyed old stand-by Marques de Riscal white from Rueda in Spain - at less than $10 a bottle and widely available it's great stuff - as well as a Sauvignon Blanc/Chenin Blanc blend from new French mega producer Chamarre. Although the deliberately New World-styled packaging was hardly appealing (with its token butterfly and generic font it struck me as a totally unveiled attempt at looking exactly like what's already lining the shelves of supermarkets stateside), I found the blend charmingly unique and - if uncomplicated - totally quaffable. Watch for these wines to hit the West Coast soon - pending Chamarre's nailing down a distributor. Carmel Valley producer Bernardus also had a great limited production Sauv Blanc (2005 Griva Vineyard) I really enjoyed.

What else? Not much. I ran into a bunch of people I know, including my friend Greg O'Flynn, proprietor of the California Wine Merchant in the Marina. I also saw gal about town Rebecca Weeks, the tall blonde pictured next to mini me, and some others. A few snaps of folks I found "hip" round out the shots, and I hope you enjoy!

Cheers

Posted by Courtney at 03:55 PM • Comments (0)

Sasha Wizansky is a mighty talented young lady. Not only did she design this blog (props!!), the entrepreneur/designer/all around nice gal also recently launched a new magazine. Dedicated entirely to meat culture - including its alter ego topic - ANTI-meat culture - Meatpaper debuted with a superbly peopled meatfest last Tuesday night at Sugarlump Coffee House here in the city.

Besides a very good selection of wine, beer and custom mixed drinks, the event featured the dapper Ms. Wizansky herself, copies of the mag's "Issue Zero" and a plethora of cured, cooked and dried meats from the likes of restos Perbaco, Incanto and Bovolo (how's that for lots of "o"s?!), amongst others.

When it came to the meat, the weirder the better seeemed to have been the direction (if any) given the purveyors. I'm pretty sure I had some pork heart, the back fat of another animal (I'm thinking pig here too), some snout and maybe even a little trotter. Never one to shy from a weird food fest, I dug straight in. The place was packed so it took some time to make it to every table, but I eventually succeeded. And it was mighty good, let me tell you!

When dieting and socializing stars align
And this is totally random, but: in a strangly fortuitous twist of fate, my trainer just put me on a protein-only diet every day after 4pm - and the launch party was my first day! Needless to say it was pretty easy to stick to the rules that night, although he doesn't need to know about the piece of fabulous French bread I sneaked from the Cote Sud table.

Where's the beef?
For all you curious carnivores out there who are wondering just what a magazine dedicated entirely to meat encompasses, read on for a few highlights:

Meat as Art - Issue Zero includes artwork and an interview with Michael Arcega, a local artist whose installation called "SPAM/MAPS" explores the role of Spam as symbol of American commercialism/influence in Philippine culture. And as you might imagine, his work is literally a map of the world created from pieces of dried SPAM tacked to a wall. Weird? Yes. Interesting? Absolutely.

Carnivorism as Responsibility - An interview with SF resto Incanto's head chef, Chris Cosentino (pictured here in pink), includes some interesting remarks, including his position that Americans need to be more responsible in their meat consumption. How to? For starters, we need to try to eat the whole animal, rather than letting what Tony Bourdain ("Kitchen Confidential") refers to as the "nasty bits" (think entrails, head, skin, kidneys etc.) go to waste. And don't worry - Cosentino's interview is much too amusing to seem like a lecture. The guy pens the popular food blog "Offal Good" (mostly about cooking these "other parts"), so readers are in good hands.

Pig Slaughter as Philosophical Journey - An American Fulbright Scholar chronicles the butchering of a pig in a tiny Italian town east of Rome, where the traditional act is a source of pride for community members. Chronicler John Caserta describes watching the life leave the pig and contemplates the year-long cycle it took to get a piece of sausage from the same pig six months later (six months raising the animal followed by six months of making the sausage). What's the point? Mostly that this cycle probably seems unimaginably long to most Americans.

True indeed, and thought-provoking. Not the most hilarious piece in the mag, but definitely interesting and proof of the fact that this mag's about more than just surface-level meat culture.

I hope you enjoy a few snaps from the launch party, including one of moi with Ms. Wisansky. Happy carnivoring - or abstaining - whatever floats your boat!

Subscribe to Meatpaper

Posted by Courtney at 04:38 PM • Comments (1)

This Thursday more than a thousand priviliged tasters including yours truly will descend upon San Fran's glam War Memorial Opera House for Wine Enthusiast Magazine's first-ever West Coast Toast of the Town event. Held annually in New York, the wine and food extravaganza's been such a success on the other side of this land that the mag decided to host one here this year, which is music to my ears. More than 500 wines will be poured alongside fab fare from some of the city's top restos (Fifth Floor, Delfina, Bart Tartine & Myth are just a few of 'em), along with live jazz to boot.

Tickets to the swank affair run a hefty $185 for the VIP tasting from 5pm to 7pm (admission includes a gift bag and private pre-event tasting of rare, reserve and estate wines as well as admission to the Grand Tasting) or the more reasonable but still steep (admittedly!) $95 for the Grand Tasting portion of the evening from 7pm to 10pm. The difference is really in the numbers: folks attending the later portion only will have more competition when it comes to scoring pours and my guess is that some of the best grub will be gone by then too.

But overall I'm expecting general gustatorial fabulousness from 5 to 10, with the most hedonistic stuff to be had early on. This is a pricey tasting indeed, but if you've got a little extra cash in your wallet this week and a hankering for some really top wine & eats, all signs point to this one being a good bet. If you're wondering just who'll be there (wine & eats), here's a quick overview of a few that stuck out to me:

Grub: same as above plus Michael Mina, Tsar Nicouli Caviar, Plumpjack, Bix, etoile (that's the resto @ Domaine Carneros), Bistro Don Giovanni, Fringale Restaurant, Marnee Thai (random with this mix but I LUV their food so whatevs!), Peppoli at Pebble Beach and Postrio.

Booze: Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Beaulieu Vineyard, Bernardus, Bouchard Aine et Fils, Casa Lapostolle, Champagne Louis Roederer, Champagne Piper-Heidsieck, Charles Heidsieck, Charles Krug (clearly, I like bubbs), Domaines Ott, Frei Brothers, French Rabbit (shout out to Hip Tastes supporters!), Laetitia, Marques de Riscal, Perrier Jouet, Ramos Pinto, Sterling Vineyards and Wente Vineyards.

Charity: All this plus a silent auction with items benefiting America's Second Harvest, an organization that provides nutritious food to more than 25 million low-income people in the US each year. Nice!

Location:
War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Avenue at Grove Street

Get your tickets here.

See you there.

Posted by Courtney at 06:25 PM • Comments (2)

Who needs celebrities when you've got star-caliber wine? I was thrilled to check out the brand spanking new Hollywood K&L store on a visit to the southland this weekend, and things are sure looking dapper there. Besides a super friendly staff, the spot's got A-list wine, a swank tasting area just primed for fabulous in-house tastings and an unbeatable location in the heart of revitalized Hollywood.

If you're down south permanently or on vaca, be sure to check the spot out. I've posted a few snaps from my visit here, including a look at the spot's interior (looks like the San Fran store but with a more contemporary urban loft feel), a shot of me with store manager Tom Martinez (right, down from Nor Cal) & helpful staffer Joel Nicholas, along with some other gratuitous shots including more bubbly, a view of the store from Vine and a pic of myself alongside a gigantic bottle they've got on display there (top).

Who doesn't love a wine store with gargantuan bottles, thousands of unique wines from all around the world and shopping carts full of bubbly sitting around?!! Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about the July GRAND OPENING - sure to be a red carpet affair.

Details:
1400 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 464-WINE (9463)
OPEN Monday through Saturday from 10am to 8pm, and Sunday from 11am to 6pm
9000 square feet, thousands of wines

Posted by Courtney at 06:01 PM • Comments (3)

Sometimes I forget that dining is a sport in San Francisco. And I don't mean sport in a fun, recreational sort of way - no, I'm talking competitive sport here. I was patently reminded of this the other night when I met a food publicist pal out for dinner without a reservation at new SF hot spot Salt House.

Salt House is so popular that it's managed to ratched up in excess of 180 reviews on Yelp in its short tenure as a resto. It's also, according to my pal, one of the most in-demand spots for reservations on OpenTable. Which means, in short, that it's always ridiculously crowded. So much so, in fact, that I nearly had a panic attack while waiting to eat the other night in the spot's obscenely congested bar area.

Frustratingly, my pal was perfectly at ease amidst all the hoopla.

And that's when it dawned on me: as a food publicist who dines out literally every night at the city's hottest and most difficult-to-get-into restos, she was in her element. When it comes to diners, she's the foodie equivalent of a well-conditioned athlete. And me, well - as a writer who's just spent several months in mostly deadline-induced solitude, I was at the other end of the spectrum. I was, you might say, the panting out-of-shape couch potato struggling to complete a single lap around the track.

Or - in the context of our evening - to make it through an agonizing hour of standing around while trying to poach a couple of bar stools where we could perch while eating a few morsels of highly contrived comfort food. And just when this goal seemed impossibly out of reach, I noted the determination in my friend's eye and knew we'd succeed. You see, the game of survival of the restaurant-of-the-moment fittest was upon us and, damnit, this girl was gonna win.

And win we did, just as I thought I couldn't take another moment of elbow jabbing in the waiting area. What followed? A couple hours of girl talk, industry jabber and some decent food, although I'm hard-pressed to recall any details. As a food critic I failed miserably that evening: I can barely recall what we had, let alone if I liked it. I think I was the dining equivalent of a dehydrated athlete: after the excrutiating wait my head was kind of fuzzy, things were a little out of focus and it was all I could do to stay erect upon my stool.

The moral? Don't dine with the fittest unless you're in decent shape yourself. (That, and I need to get out more, stat!) For a real review of Salt House - AKA Crowded House - and its cuisine go here.

Posted by Courtney at 06:24 PM • Comments (1)