San Francisco is My Home

31
Jan

Fentons

Author: kris, Category: Food, Oakland

I went to Fentons last night. Sometimes I forget that such awesomeness exists just on the other end of the bridge, but there it is.

Fentons is one of the last old-fashioned ice cream parlors in the area. It’s so old-fashioned that I want to spell parlor as parlour, but of course I can’t. Spellcheck won’t let me. At any rate, they serve extremely high quality ice cream in a huge variety of flavors, as well as many, many toppings. You can get one of their sundaes or, and I can’t recommend this enough, create your own. Do not miss out on the peanut butter chocolate fudge topping. Seriously, you will kick yourself for weeks if you don’t order it.

Fentons also serves diner food, which is perfectly fine, but the ice cream is where it’s at. The diner food just confuses me. I order a huge sundae and suddenly I’m craving onion rings when the air from the kitchen wafts out to my table. Fortunately, you can also take stuff to go.

Image is from the Fentons website. That’s me on the left. I don’t even need a spoon, I’ll just shove my face right in there.

31
Jan

The Parkway

Author: kris, Category: Food, Movies, Oakland

The Parkway is maybe the best thing ever. I’m not sure, because I don’t know everything there is in the world, but I think it’s at least in the top ten.

What makes this movie theater so good? Here is a small primer:

1. It’s independently owned.

2. Rather than showing commercials or previews before movies, you get a video of two of the owners — at least I think they’re both owners; Kyle definitely is, but I’m not sure about Will the Thrill — chatting about upcoming films and events and joking around with each other.

3. There are several two-person (three if you’re cozy) couches at the front of the theater where you can kick off your shoes and snuggle like you’re in your living room.

4. The theater is combined with a full-service restaurant. You can get good beers and excellent thin-crust pizza (now with vegan cheese available, made right on the premises). They deliver it to your table while you watch the movie. There’s a lot of other food available, but for me the Parkway will always be about pizza.

5. They show a fantastic selection, from blockbusters to classics, from cult favorites to little-known monster movies.

6. They have great deals and themes. Wednesday is 2-for-1 night, and the first two shows on Mondays are always Baby Brigade — bring your tots. They also do Superbowl and Oscar nights, Rocky Horror shows, and frequent showings of favorites like Joss Whedon shows (i.e. Buffy, Firefly).

7. When you email Will the Thrill, he always emails you back. Immediately and personally. Can you think of any other movie theater where that is true?

They’ve also opened a second theater, the El Cerrito, but I haven’t been there yet. Thoughts on the new place? I’d love to hear a review.

31
Jan

The Trappist in Oakland

Author: kris, Category: Bars and Clubs, Oakland

I don’t know how you feel about Belgian beers, but if you like things that are good then you probably like them. Imagine your excitement, then, to hear that a new bar has opened in downtown Oakland devoted almost entirely to Belgian brews. Called The Trappist, it’s tucked very snugly indeed into a small space on 8th Street. The bar is all lovely dark wood and exposed brick. Get there when they open at 4:00 Wednesday through Friday and ensure you get seats, or show up around 6:00 for the post-work rush. With 15 rotating beers on tap and tons and tons of bottled beers — none from a giant corporation — you can drink here every night and never get bored. Added bonus: the owners, who tend the bar themselves, are both knowledgeable and handsome.

Photo from the Trappist website.

30
Jan

San Francisco Indiefest

Author: kris, Category: Movies

It’s almost time for the SF Indiefest! This is the independent film festival that claims to be “what Sundance used to be but is no more.”

I love film festivals. They remind me that there are some truly excellent moviehouses in and around this town (the Castro Theatre, the Kabuki, the Roxie and so on). They also open me up to new filmmakers and alternatives to the blockbuster films that I also enjoy. For example, I found Komaneko at the SF Animation Festival in November. It’s one of those films that makes you want to have kids just so you can show it to them. (Other films of this nature, for me, are every film by Miyazaki, and the Back to the Future trilogy.)

The festival runs from February 7 through February 20. Check out the website for schedules and tickets.

30
Jan

Luna re-opens!

Author: kris, Category: Castro, Food

Sometimes, without warning, the gods drop a gift in your lap. This time it happened to me as I was walking up Castro Street. I passed the site where Luna, my favorite neighborhood restaurant, once stood, before it closed about a year ago, and while I normally avert my eyes out of respect, this time I forgot to. This time I glanced in, and found — Luna? Open? What?

Yes indeed. It appears this peerless place had closed merely for renovations (man, I wish they’d posted a sign or something). It’s re-opened now under the best kind of new management: one of the former longterm waiters and his boyfriend bought the place. Now they’re committed to customer service in the way new restaurant owners often are. I had dinner there last night and my fellow’s burger came with a head-high stack of bacon, multiple slices of fresh avocado, sweet, non-mealy tomatoes, and so on. My glass of champagne was almost overflowing.

The things that are awesome about Luna are as follows:

• The restaurant is almost all patio. It’s covered in the rainy months, and liberally strewn with heatlamps. Even in the coldest weather, the Luna patio is warm and dry.
• The food is excellent: fancy fare but not overly-fancy prices. This was our favorite breakfast place in a three-block radius that’s almost entirely breakfast places, because you can get eggs and fruit and potatoes and bacon and a really good biscuit for fairly cheap.
• Right now the management is trying hard to woo new customers and retain old ones. If you don’t like anything on the dinner menu, you can always ask for one of their awesome burgers, something that used to be on the menu and isn’t now. They will cheerfully make this for you.
• Your waiter will probably be the owner, which means you get to have a normal human conversation as equals instead of getting that ishy feeling when you’re served by a customer-service automaton.

Luna is half a block up from Castro and 18th, and for some reason there is no sign out front except one that says “Heated patio dining.” It’s easy to miss. Just look for the Nirvana sign (another excellent restaurant, but not good for breakfast) and Luna is once door further.

NOTE: There is another restaurant in SF called Luna Park. Very different.

29
Jan

Noise Pop 2008

Author: kris, Category: Events, Music, News

Set your watches for the countdown…Noise Pop approaches again.

Noise Pop, as if you didn’t know, is an annual festival of music, but not the kind with folk songs from around the world and hot dogs on a stick. No, this music is cool. It happens in the best local venues, and collects the most exciting indie artists around. Previous years’ performers have included harp-playing songstress Joanna Newsom, local favored Jeff Buckley sound-alike Devendra Banhart and throaty sister act Cocorosie. (They get other, bigger acts — Modest Mouse, The White Stripes — but these are the ones I liked, and who’s writing this post, anyway?)

A few of this year’s big names include The Magnetic Fields and Quasi. You can also catch The Mayfire, whom I got to review in my alternate life as a music critic. For the complete list of bands, click here.

Perhaps most interesting to me is the show of photographs of Elliott Smith, my most favorite of musicians, now tragically deceased. If this is your thing as well, click here for more info.

Noise Pop will occur in your eardrums from February 26 through March 2. Check the website for details on venues, times and tickets.

29
Jan

Filming at the Castro

Author: kris, Category: Castro, Celebrities, News

One morning many years ago, long before I moved to The City and became Cool, I spotted Adam Duritz (lead singer of Counting Crows, a band some of us cut our teeth on thanks very much) out the window while breakfasting at All You Knead. My friend, who did live in the city and was and always will be Cooler than me, stopped me from leaping up and running shrieking into the street after him. Apparently, that is not very Cool.

Now that I’ve lived here for a while, I know better than to chase celebrities down the street. And that’s good, because there’s yet another movie being filmed here in the SF, and specifically in the Castro, a block away from my house. This one stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold political office, a local hero. They’ve seventies-ized much of the area around the Castro Theatre, where filming is currently happening. Head down and check it out if you’re interested, but remember to only stare out of the corner of your eye. That is how the Cools do it.

Other movies filmed in SF include So I Married an Axe Murderer, Dirty Harry, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Check out my friend and neighbor’s amusing tales of running into the props from the last film here and here.

Do not run after this man, cools.

29
Jan

The Chalets

Author: kris, Category: Food

If you’re looking for the perfect restaurant, and you’ve got a car, check out the Chalets at Ocean Beach.

This double restaurant is nestled in what is essentially the perfect spot. One side faces the ocean — surfers, sunsets, bonfires, the occasional leaky tanker. This is the Beach Chalet. Perfect for first dates and romantic anniversaries, the Chalet’s view is stunning, its beer is home-brewed, and its food is good and reasonably-priced.

After you’ve had the first date, the anniversary date, the wedding and a couple of kids, you might switch to the downstairs Park Chalet. Facing, as you can imagine, onto Golden Gate Park, the Park Chalet has all the food and home-brewed drinks of the Beach Chalet. It also has a giant patio and lawn outside where antsy kids can run around.

You’ll often find live music in both restaurants, though I prefer the Park Chalet for performances and the Beach Chalet for staring out to sea.

As if this weren’t enough, check out the building’s lobby for a giant room-sized fresco on every wall. The fresco was painted under the WPA program, and it’s outstanding. Also check out display cases detailing the creation of GG Park, as well as a tiny, enchanting model of the park itself.

29
Jan

The It Girls of San Francisco

Author: kris, Category: People

On Saturday, some friends and I got together to watch the Miss America pageant. All the participants dutifully stuck to the party line in their pre- and post-contest interviews: This year’s Miss America will be the “it girl,” confident, strong, smart — and, of course, thin enough that you could add her to your cheese plate when you run out of crackers. (”Carbs! Carbs!” the host shouted to the contest losers, waving a plate of muffins in front of them like snausages in front of a good dog.)

Well, I enjoy beauty pageant irony as much as the next it girl, but let us take a moment to enjoy a brief reality check. Allow me to present a few of the real “it girls” currently haunting San Francisco and environs:

Carmen Chu

Replacing the notoriously corrupt Ed Jew on the SF Board of Supervisors, Chu had worked as the deputy director in the mayor’s office of finance before he offered her the job on the Board. Many were skeptical at first, given her age (29) and lack of hands-on political experience, but most have since admitted that she is smart and capable. Chu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and worked in her parents’ restaurant growing up before graduating magna cum laude from Occidental. She will kick ass, take names, and eat carbs.

Image from the Chronicle website, by Deanne Fitzmaurice.

Janie Spahr

You might not expect a 64 year old mother of two to be a Presbyterian minister. You certainly wouldn’t expect her to be an out lesbian who has spent much of her career fighting tirelessly for the rights of “all second-class citizens,” from LGBT people to women to people of color. But all of this is true about Janie Spahr.

Spahr founded the Spectrum Center in Marin, which provides HIV awareness training and support, youth counseling, and political advocacy. She has also spent most of her life working with conservative religious groups to gently open their minds to the notion that LGBT people are just as human and normal as everyone else. You can check out the full bio of this amazing woman here.

Photo was taken from The Bay Area Reporter website.

My mom

The Vice President of a local software company, Eydie Larson began her career as an ordinary programmer. Because of her dazzling technical skills, her strong work ethic, her intelligence, and her eerie ability to manipulate people into doing what she wants, Larson rose through the management ranks to become a VP and Board Member. She also spent many years during my childhood leading my Girl Scout troop, and if you think it’s easy to steer four kids through the rocky shoals of adolescent backstabbing and insecurity, think again.

Larson is currently rehabilitating a neurotic rescue dog, and has spent the last few years tirelessly campaigning for grandchildren.

28
Jan

Benefit for Rocket Dog Rescue

Author: kris, Category: Bars and Clubs, Charity, Events, Groups, Music

Those of you who were struck by the sad destruction of Rocket Dog Rescue’s headquarters but didn’t know what to do about it are in luck. On Friday, February 1, you can attend a benefit for the non-profit dog rescue group at Slim’s, featuring a dazzling lineup of performers, plus some disco funtimes. Show starts at 8:30, and you can buy tickets here.

Flyer from Rocket Dog website.