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October 17
In celebration of her latest Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen will appear at local veg favorite Greens for a special luncheon on October 17 at noon. For thirty years, Katzen's inspired recipes based on dishes from her revolutionary little restaurant in Ithaca, NY, have helped add color, flair and creativity to sustainable and organic meat-free diets. The lunch with Katzen is hosted by the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and tickets are available through their box office for $50-$60. Call 415-292-1233. Greens, Fort Mason, 204 Bay St., Bldg. A, San Francisco, CA 94123, 415-771-6222.
October 28
Gourmet grocery Cheese Plus is hosting its 4th annual Fall Harvest Festival, and this year the emphasis is on the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Visitors will be able to taste artisan cheeses from a number of local dairies, including Cypress Grove, Redwood Hill, Bellwether Farms, Point Reyes, Three Sisters and Franklin Peluso. More than two dozen Bay Area producers will sample their handmade foods throughout the day. Chuck Siegel, owner of Charles Chocolates, will demonstrate how to make chocolate mendiant and French jazz act Duo Gadjo will perform. Cheese Plus, 2001 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109, 415-921-2001.
November 30, December 7, 14 and 21
Celebrate the holiday season at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay with the Teddy Bear Tea, an afternoon featuring holiday storytelling, a selection of tea pastries, mini finger sandwiches and a Christmas candy buffet table. The cost is $75 per guest plus tax and gratuity; $65 for children. Each child will receive a teddy bear. Two seatings: 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.; 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m. For more information, please call 650-712-7040. The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, One Miramontes Point Rd., Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, 650-712-7000.
December 7
The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay's Holiday Tree Lighting Celebration and "open house" features visits with Santa, Dickens-era costumed carolers and live choral music. The winners of the Gingerbread House competition will be announced following the tree lighting. Hot chocolate, eggnog, apple cider and cookies are offered throughout the evening for all guests. The event will be held from 5 p.m.7 p.m. For more information, please call 650-712-7040. The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, One Miramontes Point Rd., Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, 650-712-7000.
BEER, BRATS AND LEDERHOSEN
Top
U.S. Oktoberfest Celebrations
The fall months deliver scores of Oktoberfest parties, which celebrate German heritage with plenty of sauerkraut, oom-pah bands, and best of all, steins full of beer! |
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Ongoing
Bibby Gignilliat, founder of Parties That Cook! has launched The Kitchen Challenge, an event inspired
by some elements of the Iron Chef cooking competition and
The Apprentice. This is a timed cooking competition where
a group is divided into teams and each team must prepare
an entrée focusing on three ingredients. Teams are
given recipe guidelines, a pantry of ingredients and one
hour to meet, create, prepare and make a plated presentation
for a panel of judges. Available for corporate groups and
private celebrations, The Kitchen Challenge offers "exercises
in the kitchen that can be taken right back to the office,"
notes Gignilliat. For more information, call 888-907-COOK
(2665) or visit www.partiesthatcook.com.
Daily
Finally, a happy hour as “real as a $2 bill.” Café
Maritime is offering $2 off all drinks,
5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. every night of the week. All beers, wine
by the glass, well drinks, plus its signature cocktails
like the Wipeout and Man Overboard are all $2 off. They
come served on a $2 bill “coaster” to help pay
the tab. (There are also special $5 bar bites like fish
tacos that will be available.) Café Maritime, 2417
Lombard St. at Scott St., San Francisco, 415-885-2530.
Nightly
Chapeau,
Clement Street's casual French bistro, offers a three-course
prix-fixe dinner for $19 nightly between 5 p.m.
and 6 p.m. Chapeau, 1408 Clement St., San Francisco, 415-750-9787.
Nightly
One
of the better prix-fixe menu deals in the city, Côté
Sud lets you choose an appetizer,
an entrée and a dessert off its appetizing French
seaside-inspired menu for $25. Their duck confit
with a potato galette is especially delicious. 4238 18th
St., between Diamond and Collingwood Streets, San Francisco,
415-255-6565.
Nightly
Rue Saint Jacques restaurant is offering a three-course menu and a glass of wine for $23 every day from 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Guests can take their choice of appetizers (soupe du jour or pâté du jour), a choice of main course (New York steak or moules frites) and a choice of a dessert (crème brûlée or mousse au chocolat). Rue Saint Jacques, 1098 Jackson St. at Taylor Street, San Francisco, 415-776-2002.
Mondays
Don’t let the beginning of the week
get you down. On Monday nights at Luna
Park, they’re making it easy to revert to the
good ole days of childhood and forget your adult woes. Each
Monday night there is a weekly art contest (each table has
crayons and white paper placemats) and the “Feed
Your Inner Child” menu with dishes like adult
“Spaghetti-Os” and make-your-own bite size caramel
apples, with a prix-fixe option for $22.95. (Don’t
spill your milk.) Luna Park, 694 Valencia St.
Tuesdays
2223 Restaurant has a $12 Buck Tuesday Menu, with appetizers like roasted pepper and tomato soup, beet salad and smoked salmon flatbread for $6, while entrées like classic meatloaf, mushroom risotto and pulled chipotle pork shoulder are only $12. 2223 Restaurant, 2223 Market St. at Noe Street, San Francisco, 415-431-0692.
Tuesdays
Café
Maritime has started Prime Rib Tuesdays:
for $24.95, you get a choice of house-made clam chowder
or wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and bacon, plus
prime rib, twice-baked potato and comforting creamed spinach.
And for extra comfort, $5 martinis (vodka or gin) to go
with this very retro meal. Café Maritime, 2417 Lombard
St. at Scott St., San Francisco, 415-885-2530.
Tuesdays
Andalu also hosts “Taco Tuesdays”
with their fantastic tuna tartare tacos for only $1. Enjoy
a glass of wine off their extensive list and it suddenly
gets extra-special. Andalu, 3198 16th St. (Guererro St.),
San Francisco, 415-621-2211.
Tuesdays-Saturdays
South
Park Café offers an incredible deal: a three-course
prix-fixe dinner for $32, with your choice of one
appetizer, one entrée and one dessert (don’t
miss the “pig salad” and steak and frites).
Dinner served Tuesday-Saturday from 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m. South
Park Café, 108 S. Park St. at Third Street, San Francisco,
415-495-7275.
Tuesdays-Saturdays
RNM offers a $28 prix-fixe menu from 5:30 p.m.-7
p.m. It includes a variety of items, like a few of the small
plates to start and a larger plate, like a pizza, duck breast
or the mini burgers, and your choice of dessert (cheese
plate not included). Orders must be into the kitchen by
7 p.m., so don’t be late! RNM, 598 Haight St., San
Francisco, 415-551-7900.
Wednesdays
Jack
Falstaff Jack Falstaff has launched "Happy Jack Hour" featuring $5 cocktails and $5 bites, including Dungeness-jalapeno crab cakes, spiced lamb meatballs, house-cut fries with shaved cheddar, and more. Enjoy a bite al fresco on the enclosed patio or in the lounge. Happy hour is every Wed.-Fri. 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Jack Falstaff,
598 Second St. at Brannan St., San Francisco, 415-836-9239.
Wednesdays
Craving fish ‘n’ chips? Magnolia fries some up each Wednesday, using a variety of fish that
is sustainably farmed, from Scottish salmon to local rock
cod. Magnolia, 1398 Haight St. at Masonic Avenue, San Francisco,
415-864-PINT.
Thursdays and Fridays
For
those who love oysters, it's tough to beat the happy hour
at SoMa favorite, bacar,
with $1 oysters and cocktails and beer at half-price. On
Thursdays, happy hour runs from 4 p.m.-6 p.m., and Fridays
from 2:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays
Opaque - Dining in the Dark takes place at Crimson Lounge (in the downstairs lounge from Indigo) on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for dinner only. Guests enjoy a three-course meal in a literally pitch-black dining room where they are guided and served by blind or visually impaired individuals that have been specially trained to serve meals in the dark, casually and comfortably offering guidance and reassurance for sighted guests. Upon arriving at the Dining in the Dark venue, guests are welcomed in a lighted lounge area where they can order their drinks and food from the special prepared menu. $99 including tax (no host bar). For more information or to order make reservations, call 800-710-1270 or visit www.darkdining.com. Reservations required. Opaque, 689 McAllister St. at Gough Street, San Francisco.
Fridays
There are happy hours in the city than you can shake a martini
at, but very few are Monday–Friday and extend until
7 p.m., unless you’re at the ever-charming Cafe
Maritime. Dig in to a dozen oysters on the half shell
for only $16 and take your pick of a $3 draft beer or perhaps
a $4 Fernet (if you’re a bartender). Slurp. Café
Maritime, 2417 Lombard St. (Scott St.), San Francisco, 415-885-2530.
Saturdays
On Saturdays, join food writer and restaurant critic GraceAnn Walden on a five-hour romp through San Francisco’s North Beach. Visit the Italian cathedral, taste artisanal food and enjoy a three-course lunch with wine at Rose Pistola. The cost is $80. For reservations, please e-mail gaw@sbcglobal.net.
Sunday-Thursday
Local beloved Firefly has one of the city’s tastier prix-fixe deals:
for $30 Sunday-Thursday, you can take your pick of any appetizer,
entrée, dessert and coffee or tea. You’ll be
buzzing over their eclectic and comforting cuisine, like
many have for the past ten years. 4288 24th St. at Douglass
Street, 415-821-7652.
Sundays
Luce at the InterContinental San Francisco is now hosting Sunday Suppers, a “farm to table” tasting menu inspired by executive chef Dominique Crenn’s Saturday visits to the farmers’ market. $45 per person, and $65 with wine pairings. InterContinental San Francisco, 888 Howard St. at Fifth Street, San Francisco, 415-616-6566.
Sundays
Globe hosts a Sunday Farmer Dinner each Sunday,
a prix fixe menu for $29 that highlights chef Jason Tallent’s
discoveries from the farmers market that weekend. Regulars
have been coming for the past two years, so be sure to get
there early enough before the ingredients run out. The special
dinner is taken off the menu by 11 p.m.
Sundays
Luella has started Kid’s Night each Sunday,
so parents can bring their tykes in without fear of the
restaurant shooting them the evil eye. The “little
luella” menu is designed for diners under 10, with
affordable dishes like chicken pot pie ($6) and mac ‘n’
cheese ($4), with sides like French fries ($2) or mashed
potatoes ($2). Dessert brings ice cream sundaes or strawberry
shortcake.
Sundays
Levende hosts a weekly "Boogie Brunch" from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Local and visiting DJs will mix the
soundtrack. Chef Lauren offers an eclectic menu including
crab cake Benedicts, truffled scrambled eggs and buttermilk
biscuits and gravy. Brunch includes one main dish, one side,
a warm basket of breakfast breads and one special trip to
the “Make Your Own Bloody Mary” bar, all for
$14. Levende, 1710 Mission St., San Francisco, 415-864-5585.
 Wine
dinners & tastings at Novus Vinum.com
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