This week's roundup of San Francisco's best pop-ups and temporary restaurants.
When: Tuesday, Nov. 19; seatings at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.
Where: Naked Kitchen
Cost: $95 per person (includes dinner and cocktails)
The Rundown: Joshua Oakley is at it again. Celebrating cooking traditions of Jalisco, the dinner is part of a travel series of exploring the vibrancy of different regions throughout Mexico. The four-course meal will also feature cocktail pairings from Jen Ackrill of Rye. Continuing his style of spirit-driven cuisine, Oakley's menu will spotlight dishes like tequila-braised baby octopus sopes, blistered salsa, and house-made creme fraiche paired with Ackrill's traditional frozen margarita made with Espolon Blanco Tequila, Heirloom Pepper Granita, Jalapeno Tincture, Meyer Lemon, Candied Fresno Chile and Smoked Masa Salt. Buy tickets on Eventbrite.
Get in a holiday mood (Bad Santa-style) with 21 Amendment Brewery's new video promoting its winter seasonal, Fireside Chat. In the short film, co-founders Nico Freccia and Shaun O'Sullivan, dressed as FDR and Santa, play poker with some quarrelsome elves.
We've all been on tours that go south. Sometimes the docent is an up-talker with stale jokes who can't handle a follow-up question, and you learn only after you've already paid that the good part is closed for renovations, and you're just bored out of your skull. Or you fell in the chocolate river only to have moralizing Oompa-Loompahs chronicle your misdeed in song.
Short of the Sistine Chapel or Angkor Wat, the Sierra Nevada Brewery tour is one of the best -- and it's free! (The 90-minute Brewhouse Tour, that is. A separate, "Beer Geek" tour runs for three hours and costs $25.) If you've got a hankering to get out of the city for a day or a weekend, Chico, Calif. is stunning in its autumnal splendor, and this particular fall happens to be a great season at America's second-largest craft brewery.
If you're venturing out to the East Bay but are still in a Marina kind of mood, treat a special someone to dessert at A16 Rockridge, Oakland's upscale taste of Italy on College Avenue. The romantically lit restaurant attracts a sophisticated crowd, but with Chef Rocky Maselli's menu and an impressive wine selection, there is something for everyone. Finish off a great meal with A16's seasonal dessert: the pumpkin fritters.
See also:
To say that Emily Wines understands wine (yes, her name is undeniably perfect for her profession) is like saying that Julia Child understood French cuisine. It's one of the grossest understatements I could make. Before meeting Emily, I knew that there were not many Master Sommeliers in the United States, let alone the world. I knew that a very small percentage of that already-diminutive number was made up of women. I knew that there were tests, and that they were supposedly extremely difficult. I knew that it took some people years to pass, and that many others never did.
I knew nothing.
