Culinary Muse

Summer in the City

I realize that the rest of the country is sizzling, so it may be a bit unfair to flaunt our lovely, cool, SF summer fog. But flaunt it, I must. My new morning walk takes me down the hill, through Chinatown, across Broadway, a brief stop at Caffe Trieste for cappuccino, along Grant, another brief stop at the French American Bakery for an anise biscotti and then up the hill to Coit Tower. If I am there early, it is just a few ladies practicing Tai Chi and me. Any later than 9:45, and I am joined by lots of tourists, mainly from Germany or France. Weak $ = more tourists. Good for them, and us (at home).

SCOOP: LOTTA'S BAKERY COMING TO TOWN

Before there was a Starbucks in every San Francisco neighborhood selling scones that weigh two pounds there was the full service bakery. Never heard of a full service bakery? This was the neighborhood place that your parents could drop by in the morning for a fresh Danish and a cup of coffee (no espresso drinks). Or your mom could buy a loaf of freshly baked bread and a cake for dinner’s dessert. Or you would stop by after school and buy a chocolate chip cookie. There is good news for those of us who live near Polk Street. G. Earl Darny is opening up ‘Lotta’s Bakery" in mid April. Earl was the pastry chef at Bay Wolf, Sweet Adeline Bake Shop in Berkeley and he assisted Emily Luchetti in writing Four Star Desserts.

His press release reads as follows: ‘Lotta’s will bring a full service bakery to the neighborhood. All of our products will be created on site, baked fresh. Lotta’s will offer a full line of breads, cookies, cakes, and morning pastries as well as savory treats for your mid day snack. As a full service bakery Lotta’s will offer birthday cakes, special celebration cakes and wedding cakes. With enough notice, if you can dream of it we can probably produce it for you.

I am looking forward to opening my bakery and serving this neighborhood. For 17 years it has been my dream to have a bakery that was like the bakeries that once populated the neighborhoods of San Francisco and now I have that chance." G. Earl Darny.’

We look forward to having a place that reminds us of the great SF bakeries of the past like Blum’s and Fantasia. Good luck, Earl!  1720 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington St.) 415.359.9039

AMEDEI OF TUSCANY CHOCOLATE, ITALIAN WINE AND THE MUSE!

Join us this afternoon from 4 to 6 pm at Biondivino Wine Boutique on Russian Hill. Owner Ceri Smith will be pouring Italian wines. I will be behind the AMEDEI OF TUSCANY CHOCOLATE table where I will be talking about how to taste and derive as much pleasure as possible from a bite of this divine chocolate which some believe to be the best in the world. Chocolate and wine buying opportunities abound. Liz Rivera of URBAN DAHLIA NYC/SF will be present to take flower orders for Valentine’s Day. $5.00 tasting fee.  Don't let the rain scare you off!

BIONDIVINO WINE BOUTIQUE 1415 Green Street, SF, 94109, 415.673.3230.

WELCOME BIONDIVINO!

biondivino is a new wine boutique that opened last week in the Russian Hill neighborhood. While the collection of boutique wines is truly divine, it was the collection of AMEDEI ITALIAN CHOCOLATE FROM TUSCANY that had this Muse gasping for air. There is no other place in San Francisco that is carrying the breadth of this great chocolate house. Hurry in before we buy everything! And while you are there be sure to have owner, Ceri Smith, suggest a bottle or two of wine for dinner tonight. Wine prices start at $11.00 and most are in the less than $25.00 range. What you save on wine can be spent on chocolate...biondivino is at 1415 Green Street, between Polk and Van Ness. 415.673.2320.

NEW NEIGHBORS

So what is it with these huge black crows? It really is like something out of Hitchcock’s The Birds. I first noticed them in 1998. Bob, our Boxer, was 3 months old. We were walking in Huntington Park on Nob Hill and he came to a dead stop. His ears went back and his shoulders hunched up as he slowly lifted his head to peer up into the sky. I looked up and saw a crow flying low, in circles. Odd, I thought. I had never noticed a crow in the neighborhood. And odd, I thought, because Bob was clearly disturbed. Did he know something I didn’t? Had he been carried away by crows in a previous life? Were we about to be carried away? I flashed on Suzanne Pleshette. The chain smoking, depressed, sweater-set wearing spinster school teacher, Suzanne Pleshette, wasting her life away in Bodega Bay, only to be pecked to death by a flock of maniac crows. Should I start singing ‘knick, knack, paddy-wack, give your dog a bone..."? Should we flee for our lives? Where were my Camels?