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Fri., Mar. 25:
Queen of the Sun Filmmaker Screenings
Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. (at Valencia), 7 and 9 p.m.
Director Taggart Siegel will be on hand for two screenings of his bee documentary, Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?, before its week-long run at the Roxie. Complete description here.
Citizens of the World Beer Event
The Trappist, 460 Eighth St. (at Broadway) Oakland, 8 p.m.
Shelton Brothers Imports sponsors a night featuring breweries from over the border and across the pond. Highlights include brews from Montreal's Dieu Du Ciel, Norway's Nogne-O, and rare kegs of sour beer from Belgium's Cantillon Brewery. Complete description here.
Free Food and Tequila
Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison (at First St.)., 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
Jose Cuervo is staging an event with free cocktails and Mexican snacks all night long. The hitch? They want your image as fodder for future tequila commercials! Complete description here.
Today in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene.
Eater looks at Napa Valley Register reporting on the probable end of Food Truck Fridays in Napa, the monthly truck gatherings that SFoodie's Lou Bustamante finds genuinely fun. Organizer Andrew Siegal needs to get a use permit, the city says, but considering it could cost 10 grand, that's unlikely to happen.
The Tender deploys its password to get into Wilson and Wilson, the Sam Spade-y speakeasy just launching in the Tenderloin at 505 Jones (at O'Farrell), from Future Bars, the Bourbon and Branch folks. Tender explains the name, talks Tenderloin history, generally gushes.
Inside Scoop takes a twirl around the renderings for SFO's Terminal 2, which is about three weeks out from opening. Highlights: An Equator coffee bar, a mini-me version of Napa's Rotisserie and Wine, and what promises to be the fanciest minimart in the U.S., Napa Farms.
Also from Scoop, the heavily scheduled Erik Hopfinger (Long Bar) has stepped in as consulting chef at the Republic: "His new dinner menu ... is already up and running, with his New American comfort food slant, similar to what he did a few blocks away for years at the popular Circa."
Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com
Britney's last-minute venue change isn't the only disappointment hanging heavy on the Castro these days. Late last month, the owners of Kasa Indian Eatery ― which opened in the Castro in 2008 ― shuttered its year-old second restaurant, on Fillmore Street in the Marina/Cow Hollow. Writing on the Kasa blog, owner Tim Volkema made reference to his partners Suresh and Anamika Khanna, in a goodbye wrapped in a very honest assessment of what went wrong:
Kasa Castro was the first restaurant venture Anamika, Suresh, and I have ever participated in, and honestly we took its success for granted. We thought: provide delicious and unique food and good service at a reasonable price, and you'll make a profit. And amazingly we were right! Until we weren't.But while 2010 proved a tough year for Kasa's owners (Anamika Khanna says the closure felt like a "miscarriage"), 2011 has been crowded with new projects.
This month, Anamika Khanna ― who grew up in a Punjabi enclave in London ― began orchestrating a Wednesday-night $20 prix-fixe pop-up at the Corner ― all but one has been vegan. And three weeks ago, the Kasa partners joined dozens of other mobile vending hopefuls in a weekend camp-out to secure a good chance of getting permits to launch a food truck ― Kasa Indian: The Kati Roller ― in the Financial District. SFoodie had back-to-back phone conversations yesterday with Anamika Khanna and Tim Volkema about Kasa's present, past, and future.
SFoodie: Why go vegan for the pop-ups?
Anamika: I did vegan food for the first one, and for the second one I wanted to do authentic Punjabi food, with fish and so on. But after that, I just felt that for San Francisco, they could really benefit more from vegan than from Punjabi. It's really hard for vegans to go out and get an all-vegan meal somewhere. These are the first pop-ups that we've done, and the first night we were overwhelmed ― everybody just comes in at once! But we're trying to keep it casual. The first couple of pop-ups have been just Kasa fans following us, but over the last couple of weeks we've been picking up other customers, even chefs from other restaurants.
How long do you plan on doing them?
Anamika: We said we'd try it for the month of March, but they've been going so well the Corner suggested I keep going. So I don't know when we'll stop. The only problem is it's so much work!
And the Kati Roller truck? When do you think you'll have that up and running?
Anamika: The city is always up and down with their timing, so it's pretty hard to say. Do we start renting a truck, do we buy a truck ― we're literally going in circles. We've been looking at trucks for months now, but we already have the design, we have a menu.
What's the menu looking like?
Anamika: We'll have the kati rolls [we do at Kasa]. We won't do the thalis, but we'll probably have rice bowls, and definitely some Indian street food, like the little vegetable fritters ― pakoras ― and pav bhaji. We've done those here at the restaurant, they're a very authentic Indian street food, like an Indian sloppy Joe but vegetarian. Tim's been messing around with Sandwich Fridays in the Castro ― they've been happening every other Friday. We've done French baguettes with fillings inside.
It's hard not to be smitten with the décor of the new Lower Haight burger spot, Greenburger's. Floor to ceiling front windows let sunlight stream onto pale green walls dotted with planter boxes and family photos. Cool knickknacks, including a vintage working milkshake machine and the owners' old roller skates and board games, are featured behind the back counter. An antique Coca Cola cooler has been repurposed as a condiment table.
These are early days at week-old Greenburger's, so we kept it simple with a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake. The generously salted, seven-ounce oval patty in the burger ($10) was cooked well past the medium-rare we asked for, and its griddled brioche bun was a bit soggy, unable to stand up to a tangle of sautéed onions and glob of melted cheddar. A few more seconds in the fryer would have done wonders for the house-cut fries ($3), though a salted coffee caramel milkshake ($6), the day's special flavor, tasted as good as it sounded, even if it wasn't as think as we would have liked. Prices are high: Greenburger's uses primo local ingredients, including Five Dot Ranch beef, Bakers of Paris buns, and Straus ice cream. We ended up dropping more than $20 on lunch for one.
Still, considering the glitches attendant on newness, we'd return to Greenburger's, especially for the "Thanksgiving dinner" featuring deep-fried turkey. In time, better execution might just make the food as appealing as the space.
Greenburger's: 518 Haight (at Fillmore), 829-2491.
SFoodie's countdown of our 92 favorite things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition.
Maverick may be known for upscaled s'mores and fried chicken ― both worth the hype, incidentally ― but its new chef de cuisine, Matt Brimer, is looking at Americana anew with dishes like warm Brussels sprouts with an egg cooked sous-vide.
Brimer braises ham hocks until the meat can be parsed out into fine shreds, then takes the deeply porked-out liquid and infuses it with vadouvan, a seasoning mixture that combines Indian spices with caramelized onions and shallots. He sautés Brussels sprouts and oyster mushrooms with the shredded hock, then lays a wobbly, slow-cooked egg on top and crowns the plate with a froth made from the spiced stock.
Subterraneo
Where: Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison (at First St.), 896-1234
When: Fri., Mar. 19, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
Cost: Free
The rundown: What will you do for free food and drinks? Tomorrow night the nonartisanal juggernauts at Jose Cuervo are staging an event with free cocktails and Mexican snacks all night long. Supposedly Jose just wants to "toast the pleasures of life in the storied tradition of Mexico," but for some reason we're suspicious. Could it be that you have to agree for Jose Cuervo to use your image in videos and photos? That's right, you will be fodder for future tequila commercials! So get ready to purse your lips, flip your hair in the wind machine, and at all costs, pretend you're having fun. Beats provided by DJ Kool Karlo.
RSVP for the event at Subterraneo
If you've ever been out and about and wondered where's the best place grab a good gin and tonic or get your bike fixed ― as chosen by seasoned pros like ourselves ― you're in luck. We've just launched a completely free iPhone app that takes all the goodness of our Best Of... issues and crams it into your pants (or purse).
Locanda Cocktail Preview at Blackbird
Where: Blackbird, 2124 Market (at Church), 503-0630
When: Sun., Mar. 27, 8 p.m.-1 a.m.
Cost: $9 per cocktail
The rundown: Anticipation for the Delfina sibling Locanda (expected sometime this spring) is building as fast as a construction crew can hammer. Meanwhile, bar manager Brian MacGregor and staff are providing a sneak preview of the bar program this weekend at Blackbird. It'll feature only two of the cocktails from the menu at last week's Dalva preview, the Coriandolo Correcto and the Empres Bianca, as well as five brand-new drinks.
MacGregor made a name for himself at Jardinière with restrained and spirituous cocktails. His shift to an Italian palate should be a nice fit with the modernized Roman osteria chefs Craig Stoll and Anthony Strong are planning for Locanda. Like the Coriandolo Correcto aperitivo cocktail, Sunday's preview should be a nice appetite-whetter for what's to come.
Cocktail menu: Coriandolo Correcto: Campari, coriander-infused tequila, Dolin blanc vermouth, ruby red grapefruit; Einstein in Flight: Benesin mezcal, St. Germain, lemon, cucumber; The Pony Express: rye whiskey, Qi white tea liquor, lemon, maple syrup; Saratoga: rye whiskey, brandy, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters; Tesero Pirata: Pusser's navy rum, Dolin dry vermouth, lemon, chestnut honey syrup; Villar Perosa: gin, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, lemon, Lambrusco; Empres Bianca: Martini Rossi Rossato vermouth, yellow chartreuse, lemon, grapefruit bitters
We are still in it, and the real season finale for Top Chef: All-Stars is still not even upon us. Let the torture stop and the recap begin!
Last night's Quickfire Challenge was the Quickfire of all Quickfires. The cheftestants each got to assign a Top Chef Quickfire classic to their competition. Antonia made Richard do hot dogs, which he was excited about because the guest judge was Wolfgang Puck. According to Richard, Austrians love hot dogs. Smart Richard also gave Mike, the guy on the winning streak, a one-pot challenge. Antonia pointed out that was stupid because now Mike had access to the whole kitchen. She dissed him by saying, "Blais, not the sharpest one in the drawer." There is nothing that we love more than the irony of an unfinished putdown.
Antonia was stuck having to make a dish using canned food, thanks to Mike. After the cooking began, Padma came in and the cheftestants got to assign each other a Quickfire twist: one hand, no utensils, or the double-apron twist. Once again, Richard choked on his assignment and gave Mike no utensils after his cooking prep was already done.
The result: Wolfgang thought Richard's hot dogs were too ketchupy, and Mike won on the strength of a single dish. The beauty of winning was that Mike was now the guy who got to orchestrate the Elimination, which was the celebrity chef last supper: Each cheftestant would have to make a famous chef's dream meal.
Mike picked Michelle Bernstein for himself; she wanted fried chicken with biscuits and gravy. Richard got paired with Wolfgang Puck -- his last supper was goulash, spaetzle, and strudel. And Mike stuck it to Antonia with a Morimoto pairing. He craved a bento box.
Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.
1. More Beard-worthy stories. Continuing this week's survey of stories up for Beard journalism awards, the Houston Press's Katharine Shilcutt is nominated in the multimedia category for a combo print feature and video about chefs cooking nose to tail. And nominated for best columnist is Grist's Tom Philpott, one of the most eloquent voices advocating for agriculture reform today. He eviscerates Big Ag, argues for policy reform, and puts urban farming in context, without ever sounding shrill or reductionist.
2. About that radioactive spinach. The prospect of food contaminated by radioactive fallout is scary ― especially since it's hard to tell how the contamination is spreading through the food chain. It's also unclear how harmful that contamination may prove to be. Writing on the Atlantic's lifestyle blog, Food Safety author Marion Nestle says that governments will have a hard time reassuring the public unless they're completely honest what the actual risks are ― and don't treat the public's fears as hysterical.
