Preview: 2011
INSIDERS’ SHORT LIST: 29 VERY NEW THINGS WORTH THE BUZZ THIS YEAR
M O D E R N LUXU RY™
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PLUS: MRS. JERRY BROWN TO THE RESCUE
PLAY “SPOT CLIVE AND NICOLE”: Admit it: That’s what we’ll all be doing once filming begins on Philip Kaufman’s new biopic, Hemingway and Gellhorn, starring Owen and Kidman in the title roles. Rumor has it that Bay Area locations will stand in for Key West, Spain, and Cuba. SEE PAGE 50
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DETAIL IN MASTER BATH OF PAUL VINCENT WISEMAN OF THE WISEMAN GROUP Photography courtesy of Matthew Millman
DETAIL IN MASTER BATH OF PAUL VINCENT WISEMAN OF THE WISEMAN GROUP Photography courtesy of Matthew Millman
january 2011
President’s note letters contriButors start
12 14 16 18
The city in my crystal ball. By steven dinkelsPiel High-alcohol-wine chatter keeps flowing. The people behind the stories. Our business is previews. By Bruce kelley
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san francisco january 2011
real estate
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From a contemplative clown to a DIY motorcycle build-off, the month’s best photographs. PhotograPhs By amal mongia, chess macalinao, and Justin Beck January, on a need-to-know basis. What’s new, what matters, what’s next, including: vegan upgrade. Finally, those who shun meat and dairy can eat like kings. hoarders, hit delete! You don’t need a basement to be a pack rat today. singing in the pain. Dynamic rhythms and family dynamics make for a thrilling new musical. not for the faint of heart. Inside the city’s very busy foreclosure-auction racket.
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the talk 27 food 28 technology 28 theater 31
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snaP Judgments rePorter’s noteBook
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Our critics weigh in on new books, albums, and films. mrs. governor to the rescue. During her husband’s underdog race for governor, former Gap exec Anne Gust Brown managed to both steady Jerry Brown and rock his billionaire opponent, Meg Whitman. Will she help Jerry save California next? By danelle morton
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critic’s taBle
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crowdsourcing for color. Darius Monsef, of Colourlovers.com, helps us find our own It-palette for the new year. By Joanne furio lee’s laundry. The elegant new Benu delivers on only part of its advance billing. By Josh sens
the drinker
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Bacchus on the half shell. Oyster season calls for just the right white. By Jordan mackay
eat this
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cereal thriller. Boulettes Larder’s nine-grain porridge will bowl you right over.
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san francisco january 2011
By Jan newBerry
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style counsel
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Feature 50
2011: The year in preview.
We’ve combed the sources we most trust and analyzed their intel. Now, the payoff: 29 beguiling scenes, lasting trends, rewarding performances, and fast-rising people that everyone will be talking about this year (that is, once they’ve heard about them here). edited By nan wiener
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50 kQed guide
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outtakes
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scientific methods. This month on the social circuit. By elizaBeth varnell
eats
87 152 n Restaurant reviews, food news, and great bites from around the Bay. Chef Brandon Jew and barmaster Thad Vogler team up at SoMa’s beautiful new Bar Agricole. By Josh sens n Plus: Five great warm winter cocktails.
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san francisco january 2011
Back story
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the elegs prophecy. A five-year-old forecast from San Francisco’s crystal ball comes true. By nic Buron cover. illustration by jonathan williams
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Te International Rescue Committee (IRC) held its eighth annual Humanitarian Awards Dinner at Te St. Regis San Francisco. CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley hosted the evening in honor of five IRC humanitarian aid workers—Claude Agnero, Rebecca Chandler, Jennifer Doran, John C. Lamin, and Jimmy Lu—who received Sarlo Foundation Distinguished Humanitarian Service Awards for their heroic work serving refugees. THE SCENE More than 300 guests attended the wine tasting reception and dinner which raised $500,000 for IRC’s humanitarian relief programs worldwide. THE PARTY
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PrESIDENT’S NOTE I love Koko Taylor’s blues classic “Twenty-Nine Ways (To My Baby’s Door)”. It’s a sexy, raucous, soulful tune, and maybe it’s what our editors had in mind when they decided to kick off 2011 with that prime number of previews and predictions— about what’s going to make the next twelve months sexy, soulful, maybe a little raucous, and just plain terrific. Anyway, it’s what I’m thinking of as I join the party with 29 of my own prognostications for the year ahead— some real and some not so real: n
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The island of Bali arrives at the Asian Art Museum: gamelans, paintings, dance, and more! Batik clothing becomes all the rage. n Charles Phan returns to Valencia Street, and the endless stream of cars circling in search of parking spaces results in permanent Mission gridlock. n Moneyball, the movie, opens in September. Billy Beane immediately signs three of Brangelina’s children to play in the A’s outfield. n Izakaya restaurants continue to proliferate, bringing a new style of casual Japanese drinking and dining to the fore. n Zynga launches a new game, VentureCapitalVille, and uses its new online creds to buy Electronic Arts. n The Social Network wins the Oscar for Best Picture. n Mark Zuckerberg responds by defriending all of Hollywood. n The city is named as host community for the America’s Cup in 2013. Larry Ellison promises to pay the entire cost of the new Bay Bridge if he doesn’t win the Cup. n The Tell Tale Preserve Company pâtisserie opens on Maiden Lane, and the women-who-shop all move up a dress size as a result. n Sales of Mark Twain’s autobiography reach 2,000,000 copies (the original UC Press print run was planned for 7,500!), thereby solving the University of California budget crisis. n The Warriors…oh well, forget about the Warriors. n Carrots are the new pork belly (ask your foodie friends to explain). n WikiLeaks releases a trove of internal documents detailing political positions taken by the S.F. Board of Supervisors. Outside observers think they are a parody issued by the Onion. n Marijuana becomes legal in California, and no one in the Bay Area notices a difference. n Gavin and Jennifer have another baby. Gavin wants to name him Sacramento; Jennifer says no. n The magazine industry enjoys an economic resurgence as advertisers realize that people actually spend lots of time reading magazines, rather than simply scanning web pages. (I am allowed to plug my own product, aren’t I?) And, of course: n Our beloved Giants repeat as World Champions!
Have a great New Year, Steven DinkelSpiel, PrESIDENT SDINKELSPIEL@SANFrANMAG.COM
Sara laf le u r-v ette r
San franciSco JANUArY 2011
I join the party with 29 of my own prognostications for the year ahead—some real and some not so real.
Lots of rain and snow fall early, creating a great ski season, eliminating drought concerns, and generating endless complaints from transplants asking where they can find “California weather.” n The iPhone comes to Verizon at last and Apple stock shoots past $400 a share. n More than 100 Picasso masterpieces come to the de Young in the summer. Dede decides to buy them all and keep them in San Francisco. n No midterm elections are scheduled, which means the Democrats have an entire year in which to plan their next strategy for crashing and burning. n My daughter does indeed graduate from college and promises me at least one year’s tuition moratorium before she starts looking at graduate schools. n The Bay Area saves Sacramento after Jerry, Gavin, and Kamala head north and fix the mess that L.A. Arnie and friends left behind. n Andrew Luck enters the draft and he is still available when the Niners pick. (A guy can dream, can’t he?) n The Board of Supervisors can’t agree on the next mayor, and Tim Lincecum is appointed by popular acclaim. It is suddenly cool to be a politician. n The California Academy of Sciences celebrates the Summer of Slither with their blockbuster exhibition of ophidians. n Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 comes out, and all the snakes escape the Academy, hoping to meet Nagini. n The homeless escape Golden Gate Park, hoping to not meet the snakes. n San Francisco magazine holds its 11th annual Best of the Bay celebration on June 29. The party of the year is so popular, we move the event to Moscone Center.
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letters Watching the angel revolution take place in the Valley from outside is almost scary. It seems as if things are evolving so fast that something really new is happening.
Tech’s New Angels The POWER Issue
MONEY MAGNETS: How a clique of fierce, visionary nerds is rebooting the future
STAR OF THE SMALL SCREEN: Angel turned entrepreneur Brian Pokorny made an early investment in Twitter and now runs a Twitter-like photo site, DailyBooth, one of the Bay Area’s hottest new startups. www.sanfranmag.com
see Page 86.
M O D E R N LUXU RY™
The great wine debate There are certain templates in wine journalism that writers drag out when they can’t figure out anything better to write about. One of these is to bash California wine for being too high in alcohol. The latest comes from Jordan Mackay (“The Fruit-Bomb Resistance,” December). People have been complaining about high alcohol in California wine for a decade, and I wonder if they make up their minds by simply looking at the label and thinking, Hmm, if it’s 15-plus percent, it can’t be good. Most of my highestscoring wines are below 15 percent, and that’s true across the varietal board. But that’s precisely my point: When people like Jordan criticize California wines that are well into the 15s, they’re deliberately seeking out unbalanced, high-alcohol wines. Jordan is putting down an entire class of wines that have enjoyed the support not only of consumers but also of a majority of the world’s wine critics.
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San fRanciSco january 2011
Steve Heimoff, steveheimoff.com, oakland
It’s not high alcohol that’s at fault, but unbalanced wine. High alcohol means that you probably need higher levels of a wine’s other constituent components—acidity, fruit—to counterbalance the impression made by the booze factor. So, one could easily say that in those cases it’s low acid that masks the wines’ true potential. Joe RobeRtS, PhiladelPhia, 1winedude.com
This is like arguing that Fellini is a better director than Hitchcock. Only the fanatics on either side give a damn. comment on steveheimoff.com
cominG Soon:
the end of the line with local fish stocks depleted, sausalito restaurateur kenny belov has set out to make sustainability more than just a marketing term. Gentlemen’s quarters a glimpse inside the house of coup d’etat’s darin geise reveals enough velvet and period portraits to fill a 19thcentury men’s club. How to ReacH uS:
write to us c/o letters, san francisco, 243 vallejo st., s.f., ca 94111. email us at letterssf@sanfranmag .com. (include your name, address, and phone number.) visit our website at sanfranmag.com. Send a fax to 415-398-6777. call us at 415-398-2800. letters may be edited for length or clarity.
Nice article. We’ve been thinking a lot about this recently and are convinced that a big part of the move toward higher-alcohol wines in California is the state’s reliance on irrigation and the consequent inability of the vines to recognize what season it is. I also think that a part of it is that young vines (which most California vines are) tend to produce ripeness at higher sugar levels than older vineyards. We’re not actively trying to reduce the alcohol in our wines (although we do favor balance rather than power as a general rule), but we’ve seen our average Brix at harvest decline each year for the past five years, from 24.6 in 2006 to 22.7 in 2010. Thanks for giving the issue some focus. JaSon HaaS, tablas creek vineyard, Paso robles
Don’t forget to figure in that the average American male weighs 17 percent more than he did in 1960 (up from 166 to 194) and the average American female weighs 17 percent more (up from 140 to 164). Oddly enough, that’s almost exactly the same increase as the alcohol percentage increases you cite from 1970 to 2001. Does that mean average Americans can drink the same amount of average wine as they always did, without added effect? adam Lee, siduri wines, santa rosa
We have liftoff Thank you so much for this article (“On the Wings of Angels,” December). Watching the angel revolution in the Valley from outside is almost scary. It seems as if things are evolving so fast that something really new is happening. I was at YC Demo Day last March as a potential investor, and it was surprising to observe how good this new breed of founders actually is. Will it last? Or will it just be a different bubble than the one we got at the end of the ’90s? I’m ready to bet that it will. comment via sanfranmag.com
Def an Angel Bubble when SFMag start writing about it!
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CONTRIBUTORS 16
san franCisCo JANUARY 2011
CeDriC Glasier The photos of Benu (Critic’s table, page 44) look beautifully effortless, so it may come as a surprise that the night before the shoot, photographer Glasier sliced his finger and had to get stitches. “I had finally just gotten my knives professionally sharpened,” he says, “and I was chopping while talking on the phone.” Luckily, the cooking accident didn’t prevent the Nice native (the one in France) from capturing Corey Lee’s spotless digs and gorgeous food. Glasier’s photos have appeared in Elle Decor and Diablo magazines; he’s also done some catalogue photography for Target and West Elm.
sheerly avni Avni practiced what her subjects preached when she wrote about the revolt against Wi-Fi for our peek at the year ahead (“the year in Preview,” page 70): She composed her stories for this issue while riding the 5 Fulton bus, because it’s Internet-free. “The web distracts me from getting anything done,” she says. “I use the Internet and Twitter regularly, so all my thoughts are about 120 characters long.” Avni also wrote about a would-be jazz star (page 54), the potential genius of a Google-Muni team-up (page 59), and—for a quiz in the talk (page 32)—the who’d-a-thunk-it highlights of 2010. Her work has appeared in Salon and the Huffington Post, among others, and she is now writing a teleplay.
Jonathan WilliaMs Williams’s illustration of the scene he imagines during the upcoming filming of the HBO movie Hemingway & Gellhorn (“the year in Preview,” page 52) may look whimsical, but it’s based on meticulous research into the body language, attire, and mannerisms adopted by its stars, Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen, for their title roles. One thing he noticed, he says, is that “they never strike a lovey-dovey pose.” The artist also created a reality-based drawing for a story about the mini shopping emporium that promises a revival of the Dogpatch district (page 62). Williams is based in Scotland, and his work has appeared in GQ and the London Times.
Jenna sCatena “People were definitely scoping me out,” says San Francisco style assistant Scatena, about the afternoon she spent on the steps of city hall at an auction for foreclosed homes (the talk, page 33). Acting on a tip from a security guard, Scatena found a group of regular bidders who had come to strike a deal and watched the auction unfold. Would she ever put down a bid herself? “If I had $250,000 cash and a few years of training,” she says. For this issue, she wrote another talk story, plus three pieces for “the year in Preview,” and she is a contributing editor for TheGreenGirls.tv and TheClimateCommunity.com.
susan Kostal Listening to her male friends brag about their 1- and 2-terabyte drives as if they were discussing muscle cars piqued Kostal’s interest in digital storage and information hoarding (the talk, page 28). Though reassured that she was not the worst offender, she did realize that keeping dozens of files on her desktop was “wrong, wrong, wrong.” She explains the importance of purging your files with an apt analogy: “It’s like flossing. You may not enjoy it, but it’s good for you, and you should probably do it regularly.” Kostal’s profile of city attorney Dennis Herrera ran in San Francisco in June 2008. Her work has also appeared on Caring.com and in California Lawyer.
Carrie CizausKas When Cizauskas isn’t shooting clothing lines, selfportraits, or bike trips, she’s chasing zebras around in the African bush. The 34-yearold photographer leads quite the hybrid life, devoting half of it to researching disease ecology among the wildlife of southern Africa and the other half to art and photography. For her first shoot for San Francisco, Cizauskas snapped the young founders of Taylor Stitch (“the year in Preview,” page 56), which, she says, was almost as much fun as chasing zebras. Her future plans? “Well, usually I would go back to Namibia in March and April for anthrax season, but this year my husband and I are having a baby instead.” We wish her the best!
Danelle Morton Morton has a particular interest in the subject of first ladies—her recent book Jenny Sanford: Staying True was a collaboration with the wife of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford—so she was happy to take on the assignment of profiling Anne Gust, the very accomplished wife of Jerry Brown, in “Mrs. Governor to the rescue” (page 36). “First ladies in the past have had to hide their power,” Morton says. “But Gust and Brown are unashamed of the fact that they have a partnership.” Her December 2009 feature for San Francisco, “War of Values,” about the Lembi real estate empire, was a finalist for a National Magazine Award.
WINE COUNTRY WEDDINGS The Lodge at Sonoma, a Renaissance Resort & Spa, embodies the spirit of Sonoma wine country with stylish venues and elegant amenities to create dream-come-true weddings. From the rustic Stone Building and charming Ballroom to the heralded Carneros Bistro and 2010 CondÊ Nast Top 10 Resort Spa Raindance Spa, you’ll experience the finest traditions of wine country hospitality and personalized attention. Rehearsal dinners. Room blocks. Ceremonies. Post-wedding brunches. Receptions and Relaxation. Start planning your wine country wedding today!
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Let the carnival begin
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At this point, I confront the choice facing all barkers: Give you, the onlookers, examples of what you will find inside, or offer vague but enticing teasers? I might say, “Among our picks, you’ll find a dark-horse neighborhood that will suddenly be on all style-conscious minds, the one play every literate citizen must attend, and the surprising movement away from wireless culture.” But I might not want to risk giving away too much—or underwhelming you with examples that don’t move you—so I could say instead, “Inside, you will find the future. Don’t miss it.” But a good barker never limits himself. He uses all the tools at hand. So in you go, friends. You won’t regret it. ■
BRUCE KELLEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LE FT: M I C HAE L RAU N E R; R I G HT: SVE N W I E D E R H O LT
SAN FRANCISCO JANUARY 2011
How do we know that Tara DeMoulin, a 27-year-old jazz singer with no record deal, will blow up this year? We don’t. But, based on the evidence on page 54, I wouldn’t bet against her.
I like it when San Francisco reports intelligently on what’s just happened, as in this month’s “Mrs. Governor to the Rescue,” on page 36, in which Danelle Morton recounts the critical role played by Anne Gust Brown in her husband’s defeat of Meg Whitman. But let’s face it: This magazine is largely in the preview business. Every issue is filled with us giving you advance knowledge of what’s about to break; each headline is a minipreview; the cover is an überpreview; the ads are the advertisers’ previews. I might as well break it to you, friends: Even this column is a preview. What makes a good preview is no mystery. Think of the carnival barker: “Step right up!” What he promises surely sounds far-fetched at first: “Inside, you will find a three-headed bullfrog, the likes of which…!” But the longer you listen to a good barker, the more believable and compelling the attraction becomes. Perhaps you won’t fork over your money and wander in. But given his voice of experience (“I’ve seen a lot of amphibians...”), his mastery of detail (“imagine six bulging eyes”), and his amusement value (“the triple ribbits reverberate like the Mighty Wurlitzer!”), that’s a preview worth standing in the sawdust to listen to. In the magazine context, an issue filled with previews has got to be the biggest carnival of all. And that’s what you are holding in your hands: the spectacle of the next 12 months of Bay Area life, as predicted by our editors, correspondents, and critics. They know people who know people and also know the real dope from the hype. And for this month’s cover story, they’ve looked ahead and—culling from prebuzz whispered by publicists, dropped hints from friends, and insider scoops from powerful sources—picked the 29 things they think will draw the biggest crowds in 2011. It’s “The Year in Preview,” and it starts on page 50.
Refresh.
Recharge. Indulge.
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Don’t be fooled by the somber expression; Julio Cruz is actually enjoying rare downtime. When the 40-year-old professional clown isn’t entertaining kids, he’s at his full-time job caring for terminally ill patients. So when he finds himself on a quiet train, as he did this rainy Saturday evening, he lets himself just watch the blur of houses go by. These moments of repose don’t last, though; inevitably, a fellow passenger asks him to perform a trick or make a balloon animal, and because he loves what he does, he obliges. PHoToGraPHEr:
amal Mongia
January 2011 san francisco
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BarT train between Glen Park and Balboa Park stations, San Francisco
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san francisco January 2011
Quesada ave. and Griffith st., San Francisco What’s more badass than riding a chopper? Building your own for just $1,000 in one month. That’s the idea behind the Dirtbag Challenge, an annual competition for D.i.y. bikers. Each year, organizers keep the dates hush-hush, then one day they make the announcement and— bam!—the race is on. at the end of the 30 days, bikers meet in Hunters Point to show off their handiwork by performing “burnouts,” which produce clouds of smoke like the one pictured here. Dirtbag may attract bikers who scoff at a polished $60,000 ride, but its impetus lies elsewhere. “When i was a kid, i wanted a cool motorcycle that would attract girls, and i couldn’t afford one,” says cofounder Poll Brown. “So i built my own.” PHoToGraPHEr:
chess Macalinao
January 2011 san francisco
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san francisco January 2011
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a nightmarish Garfieldmeets-Godzilla vision of San Francisco? When asked about her new mural, kittenzilla’s, which was unveiled at the Harding Theater on Divisadero on november 17, San Francisco artist Bunnie reiss didn’t quite concur. “i would be more than happy to deal with large kittens coming into our city if that were our only problem,” she says. indeed. reiss insists that she and fellow painters Ezra li Eismont and Garrison Buxton were just having fun with two of their favorite things: urban culture and images from the 1968 children’s story The kitten Book . PHoToGraPHEr:
Justin Beck
January 2011 san francisco
g utte r c r e d it h e r e
616 Divisadero st., San Francisco
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SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL PRESENTS:
HEROES AND HEARTS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10
San Francisco General Hospital Foundation recognizes the 2011 heroes who inspire others through exceptional community service at the sixth annual Heroes and Hearts Luncheon. In addition to spotlighting exceptional community heroes, 14 new Hearts in San Francisco artworks will be displayed and six table-top hearts will be sold. All proceeds support the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. sfghf.net/hh
THE PARTY Shreve & Co. celebrated 158 years old and one month new with their annual Evening of Luxury. Chairman Richard Horne and President Glen Ross joined San Francisco magazine President Steven Dinkelspiel in hosting the event that debuted Shreve & Co.'s fresh, new look. Partygoers shopped for a cause as a portion of proceeds went to the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter. THE SCENE Guests got into the holiday spirit with the musical stylings of Terrence Brewer, noshed on Asian fusion bites from Osha Tai, and sipped signature cocktails and the finest Pinot Noir from Black Kite Cellars.
SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL PRESENTS:
HEARTS AFTER DARK FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Under a tent on Union Square, Hearts After Dark is an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and live entertainment from Chris Clouse and DJ Solomon. In addition to raising funds, the evening introduces a new generation of San Franciscans to the programs and services offered by San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. sfghf.net/hearts_after_dark
SAN FRANCISCO BRIDES PRESENTS:
JANUARY ISSUE RELEASE
Feeling love in the air? It isn’t just the holidays—this month welcomes the spring /summer 2011 issue of San Francisco Brides. The second anniversary edition features the season’s best wedding trends including gowns fresh from the runway, Betty Draper-inspired headpieces, private estate venues, and postSitting wedding brunches that give the reception a run for its money. Check out the real weddings of Ali Sandler and Steve Rivera of Rivera Public Relations, Jerod Nethaway and Tasha Cohn of BR Cohn Winery, Amazing Race winner Tammy Jih and Mark Murray, and more. San Francisco Brides presents the hottest trends in style and design for every reader—engaged, married, or fabulously single. San Francisco Brides: gracing newsstands January 1. modernluxurybrides.com/sanfrancisco SAN FRANCISCO
Pretty
VIEW FROM THE TOP: LOCAL FASHION GETS ITS DAY IN THE SUN Private Estates: Bay Area dream home venues
WEDDING DECOR THAT’S GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT After-party: Post-wedding brunches with San Francisco flavor
CONARD HOUSE PRESENTS:
CONARD HOUSE 50TH ANNIVERSARY GALA
PHOTOS BY MATT NUZZACO
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Honorary Co-Chairs Glady Thacher and Merla Zellerbach, along with Event Co-Chairs Mylea Charvat Walther and Donna Ames-Heldfond, are excited to announce the Conard House 50th Anniversary Gala Benefit and Celebration. Prepare to take a stroll on the red carpet to an extraordinary fun-filled event featuring a superb silent and live auction, unforgettable entertainment, and an elegant epicurean experience you won’t soon forget. This inaugural event marks 50 years of providing dedicated service to those in San Francisco suffering from mental illness and takes place at the beautiful Golden Gate Club at The Presidio in San Francisco. conardgala.org
| January 2011
ILLuSTRATION BY PETER OuMANSKI
EDiTED BY nan WiEnEr
the talk
What’s new, what matters, what’s next
Bidding on a foreclosed home—either to buy for yourself or flip for profit— can feel like a game of blindman’s buff. TUrn To PaGE 33
tech For some folks, the computer is just another basement to fill up with junk.
FooD
90,000,000
green
the talk san francisco January 2011
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Hoarders, hit delete!
Vegan upgrade There was a time when starving vegans roamed Bay Area streets looking for a twig or spare tire to gnaw on. We pieced together unsatisfying meals from salads (hold the dressing) and side dishes (hold the butter) and survived parties on nothing but champagne. Actually, the champagne part wasn’t so bad, but a crazy thing has happened to the vegan food scene since then, particularly in the East Bay: It’s gotten good. Really good. Here’s a sampling of our favorite new meat-and-dairy-free or vegan-friendly restaurants. n LAURA HOOPER BECK
No Worries
Souley Vegan
the last time we encountered Filipino food, even the green beans were made of pork, so brand-new vegan Filipino restaurant no Worries is a triumph, serving its own version of classics such as crispy lumpia and savory pancit . 1442
the vegan fried tofu (their version of fried chicken) is crisp and delicious, and the red beans and rice are seasoned with garlic, herbs, and spices. Bonus: you can eat your food next door at Beer revolution, which has one of the best craft-brew selections in oakland.
Franklin st., oaklanD, 510-444-4466, FiliPinoVegetarianFooD.com
301 BroaDWay, oaklanD, 510-9221615, souleyVegan.com
Cinnaholic oversize, fully customizable cinnamon rolls straight out of a Willy Wonka acid flashback are the specialty here. caramel frosting with graham cracker crumbs is our current favorite combo, but that changes as often as the shop’s options—which is to say, we just changed our mind. 2132 oXForD st., Berkeley, 510-647-8684, cinnaholic-Berkeley.com
Saturn Cafe if you want real food to cushion the cinnaholic sugar bomb, start next door at saturn cafe. three words: vegan huevos rancheros. 2175 allston Way, Berkeley, 510-8458505, saturncaFe.com
Encuentro Cafe and Wine Bar millennium’s eric tucker brings us this tiny, haute-vegetarian neighborhood gem, which serves vegan specials ranging from daily soccas and market-fresh salads to artisanal chocolates and nondairy cheese plates. 200 2nD st., oaklanD, 510-832-9463, encuentrooaklanD.com
Patxi’s, Amici’s, and Escape from New York Pizza Pizza is still pizza, but these places all offer pies made with the glorious new Daiya vegan cheese, which actually melts. multiPle Bay area locations; PatXisPiZZa.com, amicis.com, escaPeFromneWyorkPiZZa.com
Songs you’ve never listened to. Movies you’ve never watched. Ebooks you’ve never read. And buried beneath it all, thousands of emails and outdated software you have no intention of deleting. Most people think that being a pack rat means not being able to get rid of fleshand-blood stuff, but the giga-elite know that digital hoarding (some therapists call it information hoarding) is the new frontier. Take my buddy Mark.* He was OK with his nearly 450 gigs of music and Disney films— plus how many more of who knows what else—until one day he actually tried to look for something. The more he slogged through, the more overwhelmed he felt. But he still couldn’t bring himself to send any files to the trash. “I thought at some point I was going to need these things,” he says. “Like, I would need this email to show I bought this thing that I had already given away to Goodwill a long time ago.” Silicon Valley loves people like Mark. Why else would Seagate have recently come up with its new GoFlex 3 Terabyte external drive, which can store 120 HD movies or more than 45,000 hours of music? And the research firm Parks Associates predicts that by 2014, the average household will have up to 900 gigabytes of data it wants to store. But for Mark and others like him, this new capacity may just feed the monster. “For some people, getting rid of information makes them feel they are losing part of their identity, their history,” says Renae Reinardy, a clinical psychologist in Fargo, North Dakota, who has treated digital pack rats. “Hoarders look for reasons to save things, not reasons to discard.” Still, if you’re determined to streamline in the New Year, start at least by creating order out of the chaos: Putting all the files cluttering your desktop into one folder may alleviate some anxiety, if not the actualmmess. If you still have trouble letting go, your best bet may be to hire a tech expert who can declutter for you—and bring him or her back every six months or so. If all else fails, there’s always that 3 Terabyte drive. n SUSAN KOSTAL
*not his real name
M ITc H TO B IAS
The estimated maximum number of plastic bags that will be kept out of landfill each year if the supes adopt Ross Mirkarimi’s new plan to ban plastic bags citywide. No one has an exact figure because, as part of a recycling bill in 2006, the California Grocers Association and the California Retailers Association lobbied to prohibit cities from keeping track of their plastic bags. Talk about theater of the absurd.
Vegans will feel like they’re eating haute cuisine with this truffled mushroom pâté at Oakland's Encuentro Cafe and Wine Bar.
FooD
art
Fashion
the talk
you probably left your resentment for the kid you envied in high school— hot wheels, cool shades—behind at graduation, but former yelp honchos nish nadaraja and michael ernst channel him as the muse for their new clothing line, rich Kid cool. the duo has designed t-shirts for the yelp elite squad, but this time they’re helping all richie cunningham types look street-smart. “it’s our way of leveling the playing field after all these years,” jokes ernst. their women’s shirt has a sketch of a black comb (à la Fonzie?), and the men’s features a guy wearing X-ray specs— and they plan to expand beyond t-shirts and, eventually, incorporate custom designs. the position of their logo on the shirt gives new meaning to the concept “vanity project”: rich kid cool is written backwards, so you can read it while admiring yourself in the mirror. Just remember to grow out your mustache before you yelp about this one. n JENNA SCATENA aVailaBle at canDystore collectiVe, 3513 16th st., s.F., 415-887-7637, canDystorecollectiVe.com.
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san francisco January 2011
They want revenge
PHOTOGRAPH BY SARA LAFLEuR-VETTER
Want to know which pear dessert in Deborah Madison’s latest (Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm, and Market) is perfect for an elegant brunch? Wondering whether the old Fannie Farmer you found on your bookshelf is still worth using? A new, homegrown online tool has just added a communal element to one of the country’s most popular food blogs, Heidi Swanson’s 101 cookbooks, written by local photographer and cookbook writer Swanson. Home cooks can now join Library.101 (the link is on the blog) and geek out with fellow aficionados to review cookbooks, highlight their favorite dishes (and dish their least favorite), and offer recipe notes based on their own kitchen experience. Already a couple of standout reviewers have emerged whom everyone likes to track. “I love witnessing the interaction between members,” says Swanson. “You see friendships starting and people helping each other, often from opposite ends of the globe.” n SARAH HENRY
art
Cookbook fanatics talk shop
Minuscule masterpieces A new show at the Berkeley Art Museum reveals the intimate side of an artist who was used to working big.
theater nearly a decade ago, sFmoma exhibited eva hesse’s sublimely visceral large-scale sculptures in a blockbuster retrospective. made of novel substances such as fiberglass and latex, which she often folded and stretched while they were wet, these sculptures have an arresting directness that, were it not for the deterioration of her materials, might lead you to believe she just left the room. yet equally crucial to her practice were her so-called studioworks, sculptural studies sometimes small enough to hold in one hand, which she periodically gave to her closest friends. those she kept were donated by her sister to the Berkeley art museum in 1979, and they form the foundation of Bam’s quietly moving exhibition “Eva Hesse: studiowork.” hesse’s great strength as an artist was her disciplined informality—even during illness (she died of a brain tumor in 1970, at the age of 34), she had the courage to work without knowing what, or when, the end would be. these most informal of her sculptures are therefore among her finest, each one a magnificent article of faith. n JONATHON KEATS Jan. 26–aPr. 10, 2626 BancroFt Way, Berkeley, 510-642-0808, BamPFa.Berkeley.eDu
Eva Hesse’s Untitled (S-117) measures only 13 by 11 inches across and 4½ inches high.
Shock therapy, bipolar disorder, and a family’s slowburn disintegration make unlikely fodder for a musical, but Next to Normal weaves these thorny subjects into a startling narrative bound together by a full-bore rock score. The show, which won multiple Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize last year, depicts the life of the Goodmans, a quotidian suburban family. At the story’s core is the matriarch, Diana, who struggles to hold her clan together as she confronts her own mental illness. Luckily for us, Alice Ripley, the originator of this impossibly complex role, left the Broadway production to lead the touring production. A wellcalibrated mix of raw-edged intensity and admirable restraint, her performance is so riveting that I saw the show twice in New York. Astounding as Ripley is in the part, Next to Normal would crumble into cliché if the libretto, songs, and direction were any less nuanced. But the relationships between father, daughter, son, and mother are crafted with such unnerving honesty that Next to Normal is more akin to cinema verité than to The Phantom of the Opera with a dose of electrocution. To leave a Broadway musical and swear that you just witnessed a documentary—now that’s shocking. n SCOTT HOCKER Jan. 25–FeB. 20, curran theatre, 445 geary st., s.F., 888-746-1799, shnsF.com
January 2011 san francisco
AB OVE: cOu RTESY OF BAM / PFA; G I FT OF M R S. H E LE N cHARASH, 1979. R IG HT: jOAN MARcuS
Singing in the pain
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genDer Politics
city liFe
the talk “Barbie is doing for engineers what Elle Woods did for lawyers.”
Oh, how the feminist wheel turns. San Francisco lawyer carLY Larson tweets about the November launch—at the Microsoft offices in Mountain View—of the iconic doll’s latest incarnation, Computer Engineer Barbie, who comes with her own hot-pink laptop, smartphone, and Bluetooth earpiece. Bay Area mothers’ groups, with whom any Barbie tends to be persona non grata, must already be gathering signatures.
2010
T HE Y E A R I T A L L S T O P P E D M A K ING S E N S E We won the Series and lost the House. Tens of thousands of jellyfish washed up on Ocean Beach, and a mountain lion stalked Berkeley’s poshest restaurants. A wealthy businesswoman running for governor spent more personal funds on her campaign than any nonpresidential candidate in U.S. history—and lost. A notoriously thrifty career politician who was once the laughingstock of the nation ran against her—and won. Take our quiz and find out just how much of the past 12 months actually sank in and how much passed you by in a cloud of confusion. n SHEERLY AVNI
CIRCLE ONLY ONE ANSWER PER ITEM.
san francisco January 2011
ROTATE PAGE FOR ANSWERS
1. On March 13, an author was hit in the face by pie throwers during her public reading. The assailants meant business—the pie was baked with chilies to make the hit extra painful. What was the title of the book that earned the pie throwers’ righteous wrath?
3. San Francisco is an openminded, liberal, freethinking city, and we’ll try to ban anything and anyone that gets in our openminded, liberal, freethinking way. But even we have our limits. Which of the following was not proposed for the chopping block in 2010?
A. In the Right: The Case for America’s Invasion of Afghanistan
A. circumcision of boys under the age of 18
B. Dubious Science: A Skeptic’s Investigation of Climate Change
B. Toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals
C. The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability
D. Sunbathing in Golden Gate Park
D. “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
4. When Forbes magazine published its list of America’s wealthiest people in September, only one Bay Area resident made the top 10. Who was it?
7. In 2010, Twitter was still the hottest startup in the Bay Area. But who is its hottest user, with more than 7 million followers (and counting)?
A. Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google
A. Pop singer Lady Gaga
B. Mark Zuckerberg, cEO of Facebook
B. Tween sensation justin Bieber
D. Too Liberal: California’s Distorted Visions of American Freedom
2. “She’s a ghost to me now. We spent all those years together. Now she's just gone.” Who said this, about whom? A. Senatorial candidate Meg Whitman, referring to her former housekeeper, who publicly insisted that Whitman knew she was undocumented the whole time she worked for her B. Lieutenant governor–elect Gavin Newsom, describing his ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, now an anchor on Fox News C. Actor-activist Sean Penn, who is divorced from Robin Wright for real this time, after three trial separations
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B AY A R E A A B S U R D I T Y I N D E X Q U I Z
D. Former Green Party vice presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez, in his official endorsement for Nancy Pelosi’s Republican rival
C. The sale of most pets in the city
6. The week the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, the number one song was “Like a G6” by Far East Movement. The top song on the charts the last time the Giants won the World Series was: A. “Hey, There” by Rosemary clooney B. “Shake Rattle and Roll” by Big joe Turner C. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles
C. Steve jobs, cEO of Apple
C. Mr. Demi Moore, aka Ashton Kutcher
D. Larry Ellison, founder and cEO of Oracle
D. Twentysomething train wreck Britney Spears
5. Which San Francisco author will be played by matinee idol James Franco in a movie based on his own life?
E. just reading this question has taken years off my life. Please stop.
A. Armistead Maupin, beloved author of Tales of the City B. Dave Eggers, memoirist turned nonfiction master and cofounder of the 826 Valencia tutoring center C. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beat poet and owner of city Lights Books D. Stephen Elliott, avowed masochist, online magazine editor, and advocate for the homeless
8. On Labor Day, cancer survivor Dan Goodwin scaled the 49-story Millennium Tower on Mission, in part to raise awareness of the disease. What was his other reason? A. To protest the new Spiderman reboot B. To raise awareness of our buildings’ vulnerability to terrorism C. To encourage urban extreme sports D. To avoid uncomfortable small talk in the elevator
real estate
Not for the faint of heart It was only a matter of time before foreclosure auctions skyrocketed, but it’s a world you enter at your own peril.
B O NU S R O U ND MATCH THE NAME TO THE QUOTE: 9. Carly Fiorina 10. Arnold Schwarzenegger 11. Mark Zuckerberg 12. Evan Williams 13. Jerry Brown A. “They trust me…dumb f***s.” B. “Nobody is tougher with a buck than I am.” C. “God, what is that hair?” D. “Over Anchorage, AK. Looking everywhere but can’t see Russia from here. Will keep you updated as search continues.” E. “Whoever said that things have to be useful?”
at considerable risk, as happened recently in Sonoma County, when a family accidentally bid $100,000 on a second mortgage instead of a house. Newbies are also more likely to become proud owners of a home with a crumbling foundation, a flea infestation, or rooms trashed by angry evictees. But sometimes, even money and a strong stomach aren’t enough to get you a good seat at this table, since the “poker club” often does what it can to keep outsiders away. One veteran describes (in the voice of Tony Soprano) the type of scene you’re likely to find: “Here’s the deal. We want this property, and we don’t want to see any competitive bids, so we’re going to pay you $10,000 to walk away.” He also says that when the competition heats up, veteran bidders often negotiate with each other to keep the bids low. Still, for those who survive the gauntlet, the potential rewards—and the thrill of a well-played hand—are more satisfying than ever. n JENNA SCATENA
January 2011 san francisco
The sun is high and hot, glaring off the granite steps outside city hall, where six people are immersed in the kind of small talk you’d expect to hear at a Saturday night poker game—one where the players have been together for years and don’t take too kindly to newcomers. A guy in his mid-20s, the youngest here by far, has two blank cashier’s checks dangling out of his back pocket. He asks if I’m planning to buy a home for myself or to flip, then points to an inconspicuous-looking older man wearing a Giants windbreaker and a Whole Foods hat. “That’s the godfather,” he explains, referring to the other man’s years in the business, his particularly deep pockets, and thus his power to push away pretenders. Then, with a quick reminder to “play nice,” the auctioneer starts the bidding, and the chitchat ends. It’s not exactly how you’d expect to buy a home: standing under the noonday sun, shouting out your bid on a property sight (or at least the interior) unseen. But that’s how enterprising “flippers” have always managed to make a living—and these days, business is through the roof. Four years ago, according to San Francisco County’s Assessor-Recorder Office, only 81 foreclosed homes were sold on the steps; this year, from January to October alone, 758 houses (from multiplexes to multimillion-dollar mansions) have gone through the process, and the prices are incredible. In 2006, you could expect to pay roughly the same amount the bank was still owed on the outstanding loan. But now, because of the sheer volume, banks would rather discount bids and wash their hands of the properties than stockpile empty homes. A crafty bidder may be able to get a $600,000 home for $160,000, put in $25,000 worth of cosmetic renovations, and sell the property at market value for a tidy profit of several hundred thousand dollars. Even with “Foreclosuregate” making headlines, no one expects the market to drop off much around here. Technically, anyone with enough cash in her pocket can walk up to the public auction and bid on a property. But amateurs do this
33 ILLuSTRATION BY PETER OuMANSKI
ANSWERS 1. C. 2. C, as reported in Vanity Fair. 3. D. 4. D. larry ellison, number three, with a net worth of $27 billion. 5. D. Franco has optioned elliott’s true-crime memoir the adderall Diaries, and he and elliott are currently writing the screenplay. 6. A. 7. A. 8. B. 9. C. Fiorina, caught off-mike making fun of Barbara Boxer. 10. D. on twitter. 11. A. Quoted from a 2004 im session that was published by Business insider in 2010. 12. E. 13. B. Brown, during a gubernatorial debate with Whitman.
SNAP JUDGMENTS BOOK
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SAN FRANCISCO JANUARY 2011
LINDA GRAY SEXTON: HALF IN LOVE (Phoenix Books) You’re 21. Your mother, the poet Anne Sexton, who won the Pulitzer Prize for writing about her suicidal tendencies, succeeds in killing herself, and you’ve been appointed her literary executor. Is it even possible to imagine yourself in Linda Gray Sexton’s shoes? In this stark, affecting memoir, the now 57-year-old Redwood City resident picks up where she left off in her 1994 tell-all Searching for Mercy Street, this time exploring her own attempts at suicide. Whether or not that’s her legacy (as she claims), some of her other inheritances are undeniable: alcoholism, depression, mental illness, marital discord, ambivalence about mothering. Understandably, Gray Sexton’s childhood is a painful personal obsession, but it’s only when she recounts her experiences after her mother’s death that her story gains momentum. Readers may wish she’d linger less in the mind and more in the moment; sentimentality and melodramatic metaphor often mar her prose, as when she writes of her first suicide attempt, “I was ready to make music with the keyboard of my wrist.” But beyond these difficulties lies a compelling candidness, especially about her deteriorating marriage and her predilection for cutting herself. In the end, we’re rewarded not by Gray Sexton’s inevitable listing toward harm but by her resilience in the face of it. BROBIN EKISS
FILM
SOMEWHERE (Focus Features) Sofia Coppola’s latest tone poem on film nails a microcosm of life in L.A. as enacted at 8221 Sunset Boulevard, where Chateau Marmont is tucked away above the Strip. The same lenses that the director’s father used to shoot Rumble Fish pan over sundrenched balconies and lowslung couches as leaf blowers and car engines compete with chirping birds. Even the vacant looks of cool kids in training, self-conscious pole dancers, and sycophants at flashbulbfilled parties are on the money. As in Coppola’s first three films, meta may as well be a character, but the insider references float by like smoke from Stephen Dorff’s Camels and make you smile rather than squirm. Dorff plays actor Johnny Marco, who lives at the Chateau for long, boring stretches—broken up only by press junkets, angry email from former one-night stands, and dalliances with new ones—until his 11-year-old daughter comes to stay with him. Slowly, shyly, they get reacquainted. All the standard Sofia-isms are here: the paralyzing lethargy of The Virgin Suicides, the rampant hedonism of Marie Antoinette, the older guy–younger girl pairing of Lost in Translation. And once again, what remains unsaid and unheard in this ode to Coppola’s Los Angeles is just as important as the words the characters speak. A ELIZABETH VARNELL
BOOK
ALBUM
BOOK
Anguish over his young daughter Chiara’s future frames this new book by San Francisco environmental journalist Mark Hertsgaard. Synthesizing the past 20 years of climatechange history and envisioning the world Chiara will grapple with decades from now, Hertsgaard aims to breathe life into the clichéd—if accurate— argument that we owe our descendants a habitable planet. In energetic prose, he revisits the alternately dry and stormy fates awaiting Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and the U.S.— California in particular, with West Marin’s rising coastline, our wine country’s nonchalance toward climate change (because the hot weather has been producing better grapes), and Sacramento’s flimsy levee system, which the author compares to New Orleans’ famously failed one. None of this is new information, but Hertsgaard summarizes it well. While he sees little hope of escaping a hotter world, he does look toward cities with aggressive environmental policies as potential safe havens for Chiara, and he urges the wealthy among us to pursue a Green Apollo program. Hertsgaard’s outlook ultimately corresponds with that of renowned German climate scientist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber: “On the one hand, there is selfishness and short-term thinking. On the other hand, there is compassion and concern for one’s children and grandchildren. We’ll see which one wins.” B
Over the past 17 years, the alt-rock scene has watched many trends come and go, from pop-punk and nü metal to garage and dance rock. During all that time, Sacramento’s Cake has remained resolutely unchanged: The band’s sixth studio effort—its first in seven years—sounds much like its 1994 debut, Motorcade of Generosity. (The title even seems to allude to that album.) Showroom of Compassion retains front man John McCrea’s talky, bemused vocals, Xan McCurdy’s thick guitar hooks, and the occasional mariachi horn sashay. If anything, Cake has grown less showy and jokey, as if they had fewer reasons to try for another hit like 1996’s “The Distance” (although the new album’s bouncy “Sick of You” has garnered significant radio play). McCrea sounds comfortable with becoming an American Ray Davies, spinning finely detailed, bittersweet tales of modern life, depressing holiday flights, and the unstoppable march of time. “Bound Away” contains perhaps the most perfectly succinct depiction of the aging process yet: “Seconds turn to minutes / Minutes turn to hours / Hours give you a lifetime / And a grave with pink flowers.” Cake may always be unfashionable, but the band’s subtle hooks and literate wordplay are still a breath of fresh air. A-
It might be cheating a bit to call Caribou Island a first novel. University of San Francisco professor David Vann’s first published work of fiction was also a novel of sorts: an award-winning collection of short stories that were also studies of his father’s death, appropriately titled Legend of a Suicide. In that book, which took the former Stegner Fellow a decade to write and even longer to publish, the tone shifted from piece to piece, skipping from Carver to Hemingway to Cormac McCarthy with a virtuosic agility that often approached mimicry. In his full-length debut, Vann again sets the narrative almost entirely in his native Alaska and again opens with a suicide—but this time, he has come fully into his own voice, from the striking opening scene to the fateful final sentence. In between, we encounter a half-built cabin, a failed marriage, a loyal daughter, a stoner son, a fishing boat, a troublemaking tourist, enough wind and rain to sink a ship, and an oddly exhilarating horror story in which human demons spring from the smoke of their own disappointment and regret. Caribou Island earns Vann a seat beside the masters—no longer as a student but as a peer. A+
MARK HERTSGAARD: HOT (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
VICTORIA SCHLESINGER
CAKE: SHOWROOM OF COMPASSION (Upbeat Records)
DAN STRACHOTA
DAVID VANN: CARIBOU ISLAND (HarperCollins)
SHEERLY AVNI
reporter’s notebook
Mrs. Governor to the rescue First she saved Jerry Brown from growing old alone. Then she used her insider knowledge to outfox Meg Whitman. Now Anne Gust Brown’s job is to help bring California back from the brink. DANELLE MORTON recounts how the onetime Gap executive and ex-Republican became the Democrats’ secret weapon.
36
was restless. They’d known for weeks that Brown would sail comfortably into his third term as governor, but nearly three hours after the polls had closed and the networks had called the race, Brown still hadn’t appeared. Finally, just after 11 p.m., the governor-elect stepped out onto the grand stage of the newly restored Fox Theater in Oakland and embraced his wife, Anne Gust Brown, who’s just 5 foot, 4 inches but looked taller as she returned the kiss. “So, looks like we’re going back again,” he told his cheering supporters. “This time, of course, we have a first lady, and I think that’s going to be the real difference.” Few at the Fox Theater that night knew how much of a real difference Gust had already made in her husband’s political revival. His first eight years as governor, from 1975 to 1983, featured romantic subplots with well-known women, notably Linda Ronstadt, and a freewheeling sense that Brown was making each day up as he went along. He was notoriously ascetic. He was also frequently late to appointments and kept his own hours, with bull sessions on policy decisions going far into the night. But this time around, he’s a man in his 70s with a million-dollar-plus home in the Oakland Hills who focuses and follows through, largely thanks to his formidable political partner and wife. Gust was reticent during the campaign, but since the election she has given interviews, and some of the basic facts about her influence are finally out. Gust is a former corporate litigator whose quick mind, management skills, and discipline helped her rise to chief administrative officer at the Gap—one of the company’s top jobs.
After her marriage to Brown in 2005, Gust—a warm, direct woman 20 years Brown’s junior—quit her job to help him win election as attorney general and then quietly served for no salary as a top policy adviser to him in his new post. When Brown decided to run for governor, she left the AG’s office to oversee fundraising and was also one of the campaign’s key strategists, along with Brown, campaign manager Steve Glazer, and consultant Joe Trippi. Yet Gust’s two greatest assets to the campaign are still largely unknown. I followed her role for four months and interviewed her twice at length. The 24/7 nature of her relationship with Brown, I discovered, gave him a discipline he’d never shown before as a candidate. And Gust brought something else invaluable: her intimate knowledge of how their billionaire opponent, Meg Whitman, worked and thought. Earlier in the decade, Whitman, then CEO at eBay, had served on the Gap board, where Gust—who attended meetings—had plenty of opportunities to size her up. “She was the Harvard Business School/Bain consulting– type businessperson where you don’t go with your gut,” Gust told me, referring to Whitman’s pre-eBay employment at the notoriously top-down consulting firm once led by Mitt Romney. “You’re not intuitive. You put everything on spreadsheets, and everything is supposed to be logical. I don’t think that’s the way campaigns work best. We had more like guerrilla warfare.” Gust said that this kind of mentality led Whitman to make a huge tactical error early on, when she told reporters that she was prepared to spend $150 million of her own money to win. “That’s like an army
E R i c R i s b E R g / AP
san francisco january 2011
The crowd aT Jerry Brown’s vicTory celeBraTion
The first time Jerry Brown was elected governor, he was in his thirties, famously single, and a handful. At 72, he’s still exhausting to be with, but with wife Anne Gust Brown by his side, he’s more likable.
january 2011 san francisco
37
reporter’s notebook
announcing, ‘We have a million soldiers and this is what we’re going to do,’ ” Gust said. “Once she announced that, it took away any sort of game theory. You just throw away the notion of keeping up with her on the money.” The record-breaking size of Whitman’s war chest meant that the team immediately decided to spend no money on TV advertising until the fall. It was a decision they would revisit and have to defend for the rest of the campaign. Once guerrilla-style campaigning began, Gust anticipated Whitman’s reactions. Just before the crucial debate in Fresno, sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision, Whitman’s treatment of her illegal-immigrant housekeeper hit the airwaves, and Latino voters—whom she had already spent tens of millions of dollars attempting to woo—were slipping away. The Brown team met to figure out how Whitman would try to regain the offensive. At one point, Gust mimicked Whitman turning to Brown during the debate, finger pointed in rebuke, accusing him of taking advantage of the housekeeper to score political points: “You should be ashamed of yourself.” Brown’s other advisers said Whitman wouldn’t do something so stupid. “You are correct that it would be stupid,” Gust responded. “But that is what they would do.” In fact, Whitman uttered almost those exact words. During the same debate, the candidates were asked to say something nice about their opponents, and Gust again had told Brown what Whitman would say: that she liked his wife. “And not because I think she thinks that,” Gust said. Sure enough, Whitman responded on cue: “I’m a big fan of Anne Gust.” I was in the audience that afternoon, and the glowing smile on Brown’s face as he locked eyes with Gust at that moment was something to behold. “We are together and it’s wonderful,” he told me in a phone conversation a couple of weeks after the election. “There’s nothing like it. It’s kind of a miracle.”
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san francisco january 2011
indeed, who would marry The man many ThoughT
too odd to ever settle down, and then make him love it? Dan Walters, veteran political columnist for the Sacramento Bee, covered Brown’s first stint as governor and views Brown and Gust with that history in mind. “Every family has a funny uncle, a perpetual-student type who everyone says is so smart but he can never quite get on track. I think he is in some ways our state’s funny uncle,” Walters said. “Intellectual curiosity is all well and good, but at some point you’ve got to resolve things in your mind and go with them, even if the result is not perfect.” Getting Brown to decide on a course of action is part of Gust’s role. Politics is in Gust’s blood, but not the Democratic variety. Born into a prominent Michigan GOP family—her father ran for lieutenant governor alongside George Romney, Mitt’s father, when she was quite young—she came to the Bay Area to attend Stanford and returned after law school to work as a litigator at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and then at Brobeck, Phleger &
When she predicted Whitman turning to Brown, finger pointed in rebuke, other advisers said that would be stupid. “You are correct that it would be stupid,” Gust responded. “But that is what they would do.”
Harrison. Gust was thirtyish and living in the same Pac Heights neighborhood as Brown—who was serving as chair of the state Democratic Party between presidential runs—when a mutual friend started trying to set them up. After a series of missed connections, they finally met at a dinner party in 1990. Even aside from Gust’s Republican voting record, it was not an obvious match, but Gust was smitten. “I’ve always found him very attractive,” she told me during an October interview inside the spacious warehouse near Jack London Square that served as campaign headquarters. Gust looks toned from daily workouts, often with Brown at her side, and she sat up a little straighter as an affectionate smile turned up the corners of her mouth. “He always would approach issues from a way I never thought of, which always has made him very interesting to me.” Soon she was doing pro bono work for him in his party chair role, and they started to date. For his part, Brown almost stumbled trying to describe the many reasons he was beguiled by Gust. “Just her being, her presence, her energy,” he said. “Clarity, insight, flexibility. I could give you a whole list and never stop. And wonderful to be with.” The other major relationship of Gust’s adult life dates from this era as well. In 1991, she left Brobeck to become an in-house attorney for the Gap, which was transitioning from successful San Francisco–based retailer to iconic global brand. Gust was soon a beloved figure at the company, rising quickly to general counsel and then to CAO. Her colleagues remember her as a shrewdly effective manager and leader, especially in times of crisis. “With Anne, what you find is an incredible level of honesty,” said Gap senior vice president Keith White, who praised her willingness to address “the elephant in the room”—the issue that everyone is thinking about but no one has the guts to bring up. He recalled how he once had to take an unpopular position on a project he was supervising. During a staff meeting, Gust asked the team what they thought of White’s decision, and they all voiced support. “Really?” White remembered Gust asking. “I wouldn’t know that from your actions.” It was classic Gust. “My little coalition was unraveling, and she tied it right back up,” White said. “She believed in me more than I believed in myself,” said another Gap ex-colleague, Lauri Shanahan, who succeeded Gust as CAO. “She’d tell us, ‘Don’t ask for permission. If you think you have a better way, go do it.’ She didn’t really have a sense of hierarchy. She’d take on [Gap founder] Don Fisher or Mickey [Drexler, the former CEO], or anyone on the board.” The incident that Gust’s ex-colleagues point to as her shining moment occurred in 2003–2004, around the time Whitman joined the board. The Gap, like many U.S. companies, was under attack for unfair labor practices in its overseas manufacturing operations—criticisms that were particularly painful given the company’s dogooder rhetoric and self-image. Other U.S. businesses hit with similar charges invariably responded with a P.R. offensive, including a barrage of ads highlighting their
charitable deeds. Gust, whose duties then included being the company’s chief compliance officer, took a gutsier, more transparent approach. After touring workplaces in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, she supervised production of a 2004 report in which the company came clean about health and safety violations and wage shenanigans at factories it contracted with around the world. The details were so “unflinchingly honest” that “jaws [were] dropping in corporate boardrooms and activist corridors across the land,” Fast Company marveled. Said Dan Henkle, one of the report’s authors and now the Gap’s senior vice president of human resources and global responsibility, “You can look at every section of that report and say Anne was instrumental in us telling that story.” During Gust’s research, she and Gap responded by pulling the company’s business from more than 100 factories and turning down bids from another 100 that refused to meet Gap’s labor standards. “You really had to approach [the issue] with an open mind and humility and not a set of fixed ideas,” Gust said. She added that although the Fisher family was completely behind her, the board took some convincing. “It was a little harder to get people to open up the kimono and say, ‘This is everything we’re doing. We’re just going to lay it out in a report and let you shoot at us.’ ” Bob Fisher, who serves on the Gap board and knows Gust well, said her gift for consensus building even in the face of enormous controversy will greatly benefit Brown. “What’s so important in politics is having relationships that are not all about power, no matter who you are,” said Fisher, the oldest of Don Fisher’s three sons, whose families together gave at least $250,000 to Gust and Brown’s campaign. “She’s got a good ability to build bridges.”
Brown was beginning the next phase of his political career. Before running for Oakland mayor, he sold the San Francisco firehouse where he had been living for years and moved into a new warehouse-like complex near Jack London Square along with his trusted friend and adviser Jacques Barzaghi. Barzaghi had been Brown’s confidant and bodyguard ever since they met at a party in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. He was with Brown through the years in Sacramento and during the ex-governor’s time in Japan studying Zen Buddhism, after his failed runs for senator and president. After Brown moved back to his native San Francisco in the 1980s, the much married Barzaghi lived for a time in a cottage behind his home. “My relationship with him was intellectual, spiritual, philosophical,” Barzaghi told me. The Oakland complex—which Barzaghi dubbed the Beehive—served as the hub of the nonprofit Brown established called We the People, where a dozen or so idealistic young lawyers worked free of charge on social causes, their living expenses paid by the organization. Meals were communal, but residents, including Brown, had private apartments on the second floor. Brown con-
“We are together and it’s wonderful,” Brown told me on the phone a couple of weeks after the election. “There’s nothing like it. It’s kind of a miracle.”
tinued living there after he won the mayoral election in 1998. Soon afterward, Gust gave up her comfortable Pac Heights house and moved in with him. “It was obvious that they both cared very strongly and very deeply about each other,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, a friend of the couple’s. “They lived in one room, and I couldn’t do that with anybody.” By this time, Gust had changed her political party affiliation from Republican to “Decline to state,” though she was voting Democratic—at least for Brown. “Over the years I had a real disconnect from my sense of being a Republican, which is fiscal responsibility,” she said. (She’s now officially a Democrat.) “I didn’t see the Republicans exercising that. But more important, the party was just getting off on all these social issues, which I didn’t tend to agree with. I still think both parties leave some things to be desired.” Gust liked that Brown wasn’t an ideologue, although she acknowledges that this sometimes frustrates true party stalwarts. Walters said that Brown slips through the political boundaries by following his “canoe theory” of politics, which he first articulated in a speech to a high school class in 1979, when he was governor. “The way you have to approach the political process is something like piloting a canoe,” he told the students. “If you stand up on one side, you’ll fall in. If you stand up on the other side, you’ll fall in. But if you paddle a little bit on the left side, then you paddle a little bit on the right side, you keep going right down the middle.” To find the balance point in that rocky middle, Brown has always needed to talk things through. For more than three decades, the person he talked with was Barzaghi. But after Gust moved into the Beehive, it was only a matter of time before Barzaghi was out. “Both of them being lawyers, they speak that law language,”
january 2011 san francisco
b R iAn bAE R / sacram e n to B e e/ z u m A P R E s s
while gusT was forging a corporaTe repuTaTion,
Gust and Brown in 2007, waiting at San Francisco City Hall for Brown to be sworn in as state attorney general.
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reporter’s notebook san francisco january 2011
40
Barzaghi said. “It’s challenging for both of them, especially Jerry. He loves a challenge. Them together is like a hand in a glove, like a foot in a shoe.” “Jerry almost talks through you,” said John Protopappas, an Oakland developer who is Brown’s friend. “After a while, you realize it’s not an insult. It’s a unique individual who can be with him 24 hours a day. He talks ideas and concepts all the time with Anne.” Protopappas and his wife, Randi, have spent weekends at a house in the Russian River with Brown and Gust, cooking and talking into the night. Protopappas recalled one trip: “As we fell asleep, the only thing I could hear in the house was Jerry’s voice. When I woke up the next morning, the only thing I could hear was Jerry’s voice.” “He can be exhausting to be around,” Gust told me. The end for Barzaghi began in 2001, after an Oakland city staffer sued him for sexual harassment (they settled out of court). A few years later, police were called to break up an argument between Barzaghi and his sixth wife. No one was arrested, but a few days later Brown fired Barzaghi. While at times Barzaghi sounds like a jilted lover—the two men don’t speak, and Barzaghi wasn’t invited to the wedding—he claims he is not bitter about the break. He now runs a yoga studio in Morocco with his wife. I met with him while he was in Oakland getting treated for prostate cancer, and he told me he sees his ouster from Brown’s perspective: “On one level, I totally understand. He has to protect himself. I cannot be preaching no attachment for myself and others and at the same time think anybody owes me. So Jerry Brown doesn’t owe me anything at all.” Some intimates say Barzaghi and Brown had to separate to create the space for Brown to marry Gust. Or maybe it was Feinstein’s hectoring that made the difference. She said, “I was very up-front. I said, ‘Jerry, you should propose to Anne or you will lose her. You will grow old alone, and she will find someone else. She is the best thing that ever came into your life.’ ” Brown proposed in March 2005, on Gust’s birthday, and pushed to get married right away. He also handled most of the planning for their 525 guests. “Maybe I’m unusual that way. I never thought, ‘Oh, I must be married,’ ” Gust said. “I wanted to elope.” One of the only things she had to do was buy her dress, but she couldn’t muster the enthusiasm even for this task. So Brown arranged for the couple to have lunch with Diane von Furstenberg in Los Angeles, and a few weeks later the designer—after sizing Gust up—sent a champagne taffeta knee-length wrap dress. “Me in a long white gown— I just couldn’t,” Gust said, laughing. “He took care of that too.” friends say ThaT The marriage has had a marked
effect on Brown. “Anne’s much quicker, more decisive and organized, and much better directed,” said Special Assistant Attorney General Clifford Rechtschaffen, who has seen her up close in the AG’s office, where for a time Gust sat in on job interviews and legal discussions and supervised legal efforts in the areas of corporate
“I was very up-front,” Feinstein remembered. “I said, ‘Jerry, you should propose to Anne or you will lose her. She will find someone else. She is the best thing that ever came into your life.’”
fraud and governance. “She can rein him in. No one else can talk to him with the frankness or the authority that she has.” In the famous “whore” tape, in which an unidentified individual upbraids Whitman during a campaign meeting for trading a political favor to get an endorsement, a voice that is unmistakably Gust’s can later be heard moving the discussion along. “Jerry,” she says. “We’ve got to focus... ” Randi Protopappas said Gust also serves as translator: “Jerry will go off on an intellectual tangent, and she can take it back to the words we can all understand.” Gray Davis, who was chief of staff during Brown’s first stint as governor (and briefly governor himself, until his 2003 recall), said of his ex-boss, “He’s on time. He sends thank-you notes. He calls you when he says he will. He expresses his gratitude when people show up at an event or give him an idea that turns out to be useful—a lot of things that fell through the cracks when I worked with him in the ’70s. Anne provides that stability and structure that, in my own way, I tried to provide then. Their skills are complementary.” At first, Gust didn’t want Brown to run for governor. “I was not the big cheerleader. I said, ‘Really think about this. Are you really sure? You like being attorney general. It is easy. You don’t have to raise a whole lot of money and run one of these really hard campaigns.’ That seemed more logical to me.” In the end, though, she gave in. “I thought if that was what he really wanted to do, let’s do it.” The couple’s affinity for loose collaboration was the hallmark of their underdog campaign. When I visited Gust at headquarters, someone would stop her every few feet to ask a question or get advice as she made her way through the scrum of campaign workers. Gust’s large brown eyes, the most striking feature of her face, missed nothing as she quickly dealt with each request. The area where top-level strategy sessions took place was open, and staffers wandered by to offer their thoughts. That’s why the campaign had a hard time determining who made the infamous “whore” remark about Whitman. Gust denied reports that it was her, but also said that after listening to the tape six times, she still couldn’t tell who used the word. “I know I was in the room,” she told me, “but if you saw that room—there were probably 10 different people walking in and out, and there is a loft area where people hang over and talk. There were at least 10 different voices going on. It clearly wasn’t Jerry. But then I thought, ‘Why am I listening to this? We’re sorry. We’re moving on.’ ” The call was recorded in the final stretch, when Brown at last was ready to open the purse strings and spend money on television ads. By then, Gust had been zealously calling on donors for two years. “I knew I had to get us to $35 million,” she said. “Jerry didn’t think we could get there. He thought we could only get to $30 million, but we ended up raising $40 million.’ ” Even with much of that left to spend, however, party pundits said the campaign was doomed. continued on page 76 “We were criticized until the
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sAN FRANcIscO JAnUARY 2011
Mug shots of Colourlovers’ Darius Monsef in front of vibrant Mission murals.
Crowdsourcing for color When it comes to chromatic enlightenment, Darius Monsef of Colourlovers.com suggests bypassing the prophets. BY JOANNE FURIO PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIA GALDO
What’s the hot new hue this year? Don’t ask the experts, says Darius A. Monsef IV, the brains behind Colourlovers.com. On his website, users invent and post their own palettes and then vote on their favorites, sparking trends not necessarily in sync with Pantone predictions. The six-year-old site is free, but its 450,000 registered users, 1.5 million unique visitors a month, and four years of Webby nominations for best online community have spawned color-matching software by CHROMAom, where Monsef is now CEO. Working remotely out of his San Leandro cottage and various Mission coffee shops, he’s also masterminding an iPhone app that lets users network and make palettes from photographs, and a collaboration that will allow users to match their palettes to cans of paint. Meanwhile, he tells color enthusiasts, they should look past the pros and trust their own instincts. “There’s no right or wrong color for anything,” he says. “Create what your heart wants and it will be great.” cOLOURLOveRS.cOm How did you get interested in color? I had been working in tech and took time off to study fashion at the Art Institute of Portland. I took a color theory course, and all we did for the whole semester was mix paint. I thought they missed something important about color: We all see it differently. Life and color are completely different experiences for everybody.
Pantone predicted 2010 would be the year of turquoise. What colors received the most votes from your community? Red, orange, and light blue. You actually did some market research on the most popular colors on the Internet. What did you find? Blue is the most popular, from light blue to the palest blue. Why do you think blue rules? There are a lot of theories, but I think that historically the Internet has been dominated by men, and about 1 in 10 men is colorblind. Mark Zuckerberg told me he’s color-blind, and that’s why Facebook’s header is blue. It’s the easiest color for the color-blind to see. When you think about the early computer industry, there was Big Blue, IBM. Any regional trends? San Francisco uses more red than some of the other cities. Is pink really for girls? Tell me about the way gender differences play out. Men preferred a little more blue and less pink. Red usage was almost identical between the sexes. Men also used a bit more gray. Otherwise they’re both using all the colors available.
“She Is Frenchy, Yes? ”
“Elegant Wedding”
But aren’t you an expert? I’m an expert on building community and incorporating technology into design. In terms of color, I see myself as a curator. What do you know about your members? Designers at places like IDEO have told me they use the site. Other than that, I know it’s a mix of professionals and ordinary people. Our most active user is a 63-year-old retired data analyst in Texas. What’s the attraction for ordinary folks? People are generally creative at birth, but creating art gets harder. Making a color palette is pretty easy. And there’s color in everything. How can colourlovers help if, say, you want to paint your kitchen? There’s a “Vintage Kitchen Look” palette they can print out and take with them to the paint store. Or, if you like the earth tones in a photo of Yosemite, you can use the Photocopa tool on the site, which turns the colors from your photo into a palette. You’re currently working with companies to help users find paint based on their palettes, but the color on my screen may not exactly match the color in the paint can. There’s no real way to control that. Even if you calibrate your screen to certain colors, brightness settings are different on every monitor and iPhone. You’re wearing a blue plaid shirt. Is that your favorite color? My color’s been green, but now purple is a big color for me because it’s my fiancée’s color. so, let me guess: A green and purple wedding is in the works? Her mom has an orchid farm, so there will be lots of purple and green orchids, and purple and green tablecloths. Are you really the fourth in a line of Darius Monsefs? I was named after Darius the Great and Darius III, of Persia. I added IV to my name to remind myself to be great. ■
Left to right: A rainbow of users’ cleverly named palettes, posted on Colourlovers.com.
Ask the masses These groups of hues received the most “love” votes on Colourlovers.com: “street Light Fashion” Equal parts deep green, teal, seafoam, light cornflower, and orange red. “contemporary” Tans, with a dash of slate blue and raspberry. “Arts & crafts” Lavender, pale lavender, flaxen, pale loden green, and deeper loden green. “The Lip Gloss Parade” Aubergine, mauve, salmon, light orange, and cornflower. “Elegant Wedding” Equal parts brown, light brown, gray, white, and light blue. “she Is Frenchy, Yes?” An even mix of black, off-white, camel, maroon, and slate.
JAnUARY 2011 sAN FRANcIscO
You toured three cities in the fall as part of a House Beautiful panel. What did you tell your audience of interior designers? Experts are dying out. They need to transition into curators. Historically, experts were people who had access to information because of geographical advantage or years of study, and they communicated it to everyone else. Now there’s such a mass of information, and all those barriers are gone. The people are the information. When everyone is creating content, the job of the curator is to find the best and pass that on.
“The Lip Gloss Parade”
“Arts & Crafts”
“Contemporary”
“Street Light Fashion”
Pantone makes annual predictions about the colors we’re going to wear and put on our walls. How does your site work? You can search and see what other people love and be pointed in that direction, but ultimately, people make their own decisions. And when they do, it’s usually not exactly what the forecasters say.
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Lee’s laundry At his beautiful new Benu, Thomas Keller protégé Corey Lee hasn’t quite lost the starch. By Josh sens photographs by CedriC glasier
From left: Chef-owner Corey Lee takes a rare break in his restaurant’s dining room; a gel of green apple is offered as an amuse bouche with the à la carte menu; the porcelain serving pieces were codesigned by Lee; French and Asian influences collide in a torchon of monkfish liver garnished with baby turnips; pastry sous chef, Baruch Ellsworth, at work plating a dessert.
Princely pedigrees inspire the highest expectations. But no one has to tell that to Corey Lee. After nine years under the tutelage of Thomas Keller, at Per Se in Manhattan and, more recently, as chef de cuisine at the French Laundry, Lee has stepped into the spotlight in San Francisco to helm his first solo project: Benu, a restaurant that has garnered no more notice than a striptease by Brad Pitt at a bachelorette soiree. The restaurant takes its name from the Egyptian word for phoenix, and it rises from the ashes of what used to be Two and before that Hawthorne Lane. During the run-up to its launch, faced with an avalanche of media attention, Lee took pains to point out that Benu wasn’t meant to be a rebirth of the Laundry. It was fine dining, yes, but in a more relaxed, urban context. Lee wanted to treat diners to impeccable technique without the rigid rituals, at an unbuttoned restaurant where, as he said, “people might just drop by on a Tuesday night.” In the most important respect, Benu lives up to that advance billing. The food is flawless. Yet little about the restaurant feels particularly laid-back. For all Lee’s best intentions, Benu is buttoned up.
The first thing you see there is the kitchen, through broad street-front windows. It’s a striking sight, as clean and orderly as an operating room. You enter through a serene courtyard, which gives way to a sunken dining room. This space, too, is tranquil, and, aside from a small skylight, windowless. The entire room, right down to the tabletops (they’re black, uncovered, true blank slates), seems geared not to distract. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated, and direct your attention to what’s on your plate. There are two menu options, à la carte and a $160 prix fixe, with some overlap between the two. Recently, a palate brightener called a lonsdale—a gel-like pouch filled with green-apple juice and set in a bath of apple, gin, lemon, and basil—was served to à la carte diners as an amuse bouche, only to reappear on the prix fixe menu, accompanied by a preserved quail egg nested on a spoonful of ginger cream, with strands of scallion sprouting from it like head feathers. You started with the egg, silken-centered, ginger-spiked, then let the lonsdale chase it, as refreshing as spring rain. In the kitchen, Lee is a polyglot, Asian accents inflecting a French vernacular. A torchon of monkfish liver provides a stage for a tiny dice of persimmon. It’s ringed by baby turnips, dabs of mustard, and buttery brioche. Spanish mackerel is stripped of its skin, then supplied a new one of pain de mie and sautéed. The crisp breadcrumb exterior presents a Gallic front. But the pickled ramps the fish is paired with are a nod to Lee’s Korean heritage. Mackerel and vinegary vegetables were the flavors of his youth.
soup. The large bowl is lined with black-truffle custard, ornamented with crab meat, cabbage, and faux shark fin, a molecular concoction of hydrocolloids that replicates the fin’s coveted texture. A server floods the bowl with a broth made from Jinhua ham and dried shellfish. The custard breaks, then rises, like silt from a seafloor. The brilliant flavors mingle. A dozen courses come and go, the pacing brisk, the service sharp and ninja-stealthy. The advance-order poularde? It’s split into two courses, a butter-textured breast with an artichoke glaze, then a leg with pork belly, wood-ear mushrooms, and fermented pepper sauce. Dessert brings chestnut custard with plump cranberries, mace ice cream, and a sugared puff pastry known as arlette, an interplay of tartness and just-so sweetness arranged in dots and discs and swirls, an edible Miró. The prix fixe dinner concludes with a tour of the kitchen. It’s brightly lit, hushed, systematized. Cooking so precise never arises from disorder. Lee greets you, smiling, as chilled out as a beach bum in a surf shop. Leaving through the dining room, you pass a serious crowd. Bankers spending post-TARP profits. Couples freighted with the weight of a special occasion. You think of the chef. No one in his restaurant looks nearly as relaxed. n Benu: 22 haWthorne st. (bet hoWard and folsom sts.), s.f., 415-685-4860. dinner only. reserVations reCommended. Valet parKing. $$$$
HHH½
Lee wants you to unwind, but it doesn’t quite work. There’s no escaping the weighty sense of purpose. The mood is as carefree as Meg Whitman at a pot club.
January 2011 san francisco
I ordered the mackerel off an à la carte menu intended to encourage spontaneity. But this isn’t exactly suddencraving cuisine. On that night, another à la carte option was poularde cuite en vessie, a classic French preparation of chicken poached inside a pig’s bladder (you knew it from their films: The French have a lot of time on their hands) that you order in advance. Not right when you sit down, like, say, the roast chicken at Zuni, but three days ahead. So much for a midweek drop-in meal. A table at Benu is the kind you book with forethought, and the cooking is the kind that drives food bloggers into hyperprose. Not that you hear much gushing in the dining room. Benu is a hushed place, cloaked in seriousness that the chef tries to dispel by piping in rock and roll, albeit at apologetic Muzak decibels. Lee wants you to unwind, but it doesn’t quite work. There’s no escaping the weighty sense of purpose. The mood is as carefree as Meg Whitman at a pot club. The real fun at Benu lies with the food, and there the pleasures abound, especially in the prix fixe dinner, which provides a fuller sense of Lee’s skill as well as his sense of whimsy. Sea urchin sits on a soft shell of almond tofu, crowned by caviar, enrobed in a kyohogrape foam. A “cigar” of eel, wrapped in brik (think phyllo with an even more fragile disposition) and then encased in paper, rests in a shallow dish, mimicking a fine stogie on an ashtray. You tap it out, as it were, in a dollop of lime salt–seasoned crème fraîche. The mock ashtray was custom-made, as was all the china, including the terrine for the stellar “shark fin”
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the drinker
Oysters from all over at Hog & Rocks find an ideal partner in a glass of Argentinian Torrontés Argie.
Bacchus on the half shell What to sip while you slurp. By Jordan Mackay photograph by cody pickens
What was going through the mind of the first person to eat an oyster? Certainly “I’m hungry!” must have been foremost among her thoughts, for what else could possibly have compelled someone to determine that this rocklike mollusk was indeed food, that it could—with great difficulty— be opened, and, finally, that the formless, slimy creature inside was worth the trouble? The calories expended in shucking the damn thing must have been almost equal to those gained by consuming it. Had good white wine existed at the time, however, I’m sure that none of this would have mattered. In winter, when oysters are firm and their flavor is bright and briny, I’m happiest spending an afternoon with a dozen or two on the half shell. Although delicious on their own, oysters are infinitely more palatable in the presence of the proper drink. I’ve enjoyed oysters with lager, stout,
An oyster lover’s tour of San Francisco Café des Amis the raw bar here is beautiful, and sommelier skye Latorre’s wine list is very oyster friendly. though i’m tempted by a bottle of patient cottat sauvignon blanc, there’s also a delicious muscadet by the glass, perfect for washing down a dozen on the half shell. 2000 union st., s.F., 415563-7700
Hog & Rocks there are a lot of good choices on the very small list here, but the torrontés argie from argentina is perhaps the most intriguing. Light, crisp, floral, and citrusy, it’s lovely with delicate oysters like kumamotos. 3431 19th st., s.F., 415-550-8627
Swan Oyster Depot the sineann pinot gris from oregon is bursting with acidity. it’s an excellent alternative to the honig sauvignon blanc that the sancimino family has been pouring for what seems like forever. 1517 poLk st., s.F., 415-673-1101
Islay whisky, and cold gin, but I always return to wine. But which wine? In the French-wine camp, muscadet has its advocates, as do chablis and sancerre. Fans of New Zealand’s Bluff oysters prefer vibrant Marlborough sauvignon blanc. The Spanish have their albariño with Galician bivalves. Some swear by champagne. Jon Rowley, ambassador for Washington’s Taylor Shellfish Farms, even hosts an annual competition in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to determine the best oystewr wines from the West Coast (see the results at oysterwine.com). What everyone seems to agree on is that the wine should be white and it should be crisp. And although Rowley’s competitions have turned up some worthy wines—inevitably pinot gris and sauvignon blancs from Washington, Oregon, and California—the white wines of France are considered the gold standard for oysters. For, above all, what a wine needs in order to brilliantly accompany an oyster is acidity and minerality, and French white wines have those in spades. The minerality of a wine parallels the saline and calcium–driven qualities of oyster brine while providing a firm contrast to the texture of the oyster itself. Acidity is a no-brainer, as it allows a wine to act like a squeeze of lemon—it enhances the oyster’s flavor, then bracingly wipes the palate clean in preparation for the next one. France’s excellence in producing these highacid, mineral whites is owed especially to a specific kind of calcareous soil—known as Kimmeridgian limestone—that’s composed of ancient seabed and is magic for wine. This soil runs from the Champagne region through Chablis and into a subregion of Sancerre called Chavignol. That it’s easy to find the suggestion of oyster shells in the nose of many chablis and to see actual shell fossils in the soils of that region cannot be a coincidence. But while Kimmeridgian wines are great, I have a couple of other favorites to recommend. Never overlook muscadet, the best of which is grown not in limestone but in granite-rich soils. The result is wines that are mineral driven but not as aromatic or complex as those from Kimmeridgian soils. Also worth noting is the fact that good muscadet is absurdly cheap. Txakoli, the racy white from Basque Spain, is perhaps the ultimate palate cleanser and also inexpensive. And cold manzanilla, the dry sherry from Andalusia, has its own incredible minerality, which pairs beautifully with an oyster’s liquor. n
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Cereal thriller Boulettes Larder’s nine-grain porridge makes luxury a virtue. Breakfast can be indulgent (eggs Benedict, bacon, pitchers of Bloody Marys) or virtuous (nonfat yogurt, granola, shots of wheatgrass juice), but rarely is it both. Then there’s the nine-grain porridge at Boulettes Larder, an eye-opener that manages to combine extravagance and righteousness in a single bowl. The grains include oats, rye, barley, millet, and brown rice, and they’re steel cut and cracked in the kitchen here to a texture that cooks up rich and creamy with just the right amount of bite. And because cereal is personal, it comes with a tray loaded with dried currants, brown sugar, flaxseeds, walnuts, and a pitcher of organic milk, so you can make your bowl your own. The porridge is best appreciated on a chilly morning at a table just outside the door, where you’ll feel like you’re being wrapped in cashmere from the inside out. That’s the luxurious part. As you’re leaving, pick up a bag of the cereal to make at home and celebrate your practical side. Ferry BuiLDinG MarKetPLaCe, eMBarCaDerO at MarKet st., s.F., 415-399-1155
By Jan newBerry
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san francisco january 2011
Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing eyeSpace in 2007. This March, the company will dance in Berkeley on its ďŹ nal tour before disbanding. The photo was taken by Mikhail Baryshnikov.
WikiLeaks has nothing on us. Here, from our intel to your ears, is an unauthorized advance copy of 2011â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the 29 shows, scenes, movements, and mavericks (and more) that no one will be able to ignore.
EDITED BY NAN WIENER
january 2011 san francisco
G utte r c r e D It h e r e
THE YEAR IN PREVIEW
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IllustratIon by jonathan wIllIams
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the whole town will be PlAYing “sPot cliVe And nicole”
Anyone who likes movies for grownups (plus all you Hollywood rubberneckers), take note: The new HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn that starts shooting here in February has a certain ineffable hipness written all over it. First, it’s got famous people playing famous people: clive owen and nicole Kidman star, respectively, as Ernest and his war-correspondent wife, Martha. Second, the whole film will be shot here, so San Francisco will stand in for places the couple visited or lived in, presumably including Key West, Spain, and Cuba. And third, James “Tony Soprano” Gandolfini is one of the producers, and the director is local class act Philip Kaufman, who has a fine track record as a movie matchmaker of strong, sexed-up literary personalities (think Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller in Henry & June) and a generous habit of keeping his productions local. If nothing else, San Francisco’s reigning deity of film criticism, David Thomson, will be excited because he likes Kaufman and has admitted to having a crush on Kidman—he even wrote a whole book about her. JonaThan Kiefer
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LEFT: Clive Owen— stache and all— and Nicole Kidman (depicted at the table in the back) will be playing Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Martha Gellhorn, in an HBO movie that starts shooting in San Francisco in February. Directing will be the city’s own Philip Kaufman (standing near the stars). BELoW: One & Co’s sleek new Winter Lounge chair (minus the footrest).
DesiGn aFicionaDos will scramble For a seat at this chair
historically, the chair has been the fetish item that every architect and designer wants to create. (eames, le corbusier, and mies van der rohe all designed sofas too, but it’s their chairs people remember them for.) this year, san Francisco design firm One & Co is unveiling its own contender, the winter lounge, at two of the world’s most prestigious furniture expos: salone Internazionale del mobile, in milan, and the International contemporary Furniture Fair, in new york. the thing about the maple lounger is that you don’t expect a shape like this from wood, which doesn’t naturally bend. the chair is sleek and devoid of sharp edges, which gives it an aerodynamic quality—especially when viewed from the side (hence the name, which is meant to evoke a sled). the play of proportions is another wink at the status quo, as is the unexpected way the seat wraps down the side. within days of the two expos, you can bet that san Francisco design editors and manufacturers will be parading this chair all around town— and waiting lists for it will fill up fast. Joanne fUrio
The owners of the Bagel Oasis, home of the finest bagels in New York City, reproduce their recipe—right down to imported New York water, because, yes, it makes a difference—in a small storefront on Market and Fourth, thereby rendering the one legitimate complaint of East Coast transplants completely moot.
january 2011 san francisco
what if?
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a DininG emporium to rival 18th street’s culinary power corriDor
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eVerYone who’s heArd her is rooting for her
It’s a crowded sunday night at the Dogpatch Saloon, a cozy neighborhood bar that once a week becomes one of the bay area’s best pick-up jazz jam sessions. hopeful up-and-comers fork over a $5 cover and the price of the two-drink minimum, then wait—sometimes for hours—to play just one song with the bay area’s bebop masters. the vibe is friendly, but the music is serious, and if you can’t keep up, you won’t be asked back. a tall young woman steps to the mike. she whispers instructions to the quartet behind her, then shuts her eyes and croons the opening verses of “les Feuilles mortes”—a cappella, and in perfect French. the entire room hushes. even when the saxophone and then the rhythm section pipe in behind her, all you hear is her voice, low and husky. she finishes up with a surprise three-octave scat, and the crowd erupts in applause, cheers, and the ultimate accolade in a venue where the musicians outnumber the patrons: spoons on glasses. but jazz musicians aren’t the only ones who admire Tara DeMoulin, who lived in the haight and then berkeley as a young girl. novelist leonard Gardner and gossip columnist leah Garchik are fans, and tom luddy, the telluride Film Festival codirector and Gladwell-esque “connector,” who first brought the 27-year-old Demoulin to Dogpatch, thinks “she has all the makings of a great jazz singer.” and yet, how long has it been since san Francisco has produced a genuine star? our brightest talents often fade away, or sign the wrong contracts, or, worst of all, discover surfing. but Demoulin is hungry, and she has a proven history of overcoming obstacles: childhood poverty, the early death of her mother, a bout of homelessness as an adult, and a recent accident that kept her out of commission for months. “I’ve got dozens of original compositions ready to go,” she says. “I just need the money to record them and get a band together. but first, I need to figure out how to pay this month’s rent.” sheerLy aVni
When a restaurant is so popular that not even steve jobs can get in, you know it’s time to expand. so Flour + Water—which in a little more than its first year was nominated for a james Beard Best new restaurant award and received a rising star chef award (for Thomas mcnaughton) from san Francisco and positive reviews in the new york Times and the Washington post—is getting ready to quadruple its operation. The result will be something bigger than a bigger restaurant. The new food temple (at 3000 20th st., two blocks from the mother ship), helmed by mcnaughton and his partners, david steele and david White, will be home to a 1,500-square-foot commissary kitchen that will supply a second restaurant as well as a new catering arm and deli. mcnaughton plans to stock the deli in part with international charcuterie and cheeses from an upcoming trek across France, Italy, and spain. He’ll also offer spit-roasted whole animals (sold by the pound). In keeping with the group’s uncomplicated naming strategy, the deli is tentatively titled Salumeria; the commissary, Central Kitchen. But the name for its new holding company is perhaps the most apt—ne Timeas, from White’s family crest: Latin for “fear not.” and with Humphry Slocombe opening a bakery café in the same courtyard and cocktail consultants the Bon Vivants starting a bar, that advice shouldn’t be hard to follow. eMiLy Kaiser
aBovE: The spiraling ramp at the new Ed Roberts Campus is a striking blend of art and function that encapsulates the building’s innovative “universal design.” LEFT: Aspiring jazz singer Tara DeMoulin croons for photographer Michael Rauner at his Lower Haight studio.
what if? Bay Area tech/political/money folks who helped elect Obama finally get so sick of seeing progressives upstaged by the Tea Party that they decide to start the Coffee Klatch. The lefty populist movement instantly attracts millions of people and dollars, and soon has Rand Paul, Jim DeMint, and Michele Bachmann decaffeinating.
DemoulIn PhotoGraPh by mIchael rauner
Builders have long considered handicapped-access ramps a necessary evil, but at Berkeley’s just-completed ed roberts campus, the red ramp that rises up boldly in a skylighted, two-story lobby is the defining architectural feature. Fifteen years and $36 million in the making, the campus is the first of its kind in the nation— and a stunning example of one of architecture’s hottest movements: “universal design,” or buildings intended to be used by everyone, no exceptions allowed. The 80,000-square-foot complex, designed by San Francisco firm Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, houses 14 agencies for people with disabilities. It will be an urgent trip for Bay Area designers and architecture buffs, because it delivers on the movement’s promise with an aesthetic panache worthy of the most renowned contemporary architecture. The ingenuity on display is beautifully logical. For example, “blind people like curbs, but wheelchair people hate them,” says Dmitri Belser, the president of the campus, who is legally blind. So, instead of installing a sidewalk, the architects introduced textured concrete, which creates a different sound when tapped with a walking stick, to guide the blind to the building’s entrance. Elevators open up on both sides so people never have to turn their wheelchairs around, and at every quarter turn on the red ramp, the concrete segment is flat, so users can rest on their serpentine journey to the second floor without fear of rolling back down. Joanne fUrio 3075 adELInE sT., nEar THE asHBy BarT sTaTIon, BErKELEy, EdroBErTscampus.orG
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An ArchitecturAl crown Jewel rAmPs uP
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PhotoGraPh by tIm GrIFFIth
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rIGHT: From left, Michael Maher, Mike Armenta, and Barrett Purdum, proprietors of button-front shirt company Taylor Stitch (they’re wearing their wares), just opened the Common, a space for artisanal lines, gatherings, and anything else they dream up. LEFT: Images sent via the revolutionary new iPhone app Instagram.
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GooGle, tweet —what will be the verb this time?
san Francisco–born iPhone app Instagram may well become the biggest thing to happen to photographers since Flickr burst on the scene in 2004. In each of the first three weeks after its launch late last year, it grabbed around 100,000 users, and any shooter can tell you why: It reduces the process of taking and sharing photos to a few simple steps. you take the picture, geotag it, and just click a button to send it to your Instagram network or upload it to Flickr, Facebook, twitter, Foursquare, and more. not only that, the app includes 11 photo filters that allow you to give your digital pictures more of a retro, filmlike look. and this year, the company will add localized features that allow you to search for photos of a particular sight and track the most oft photographed subjects in your city. just how popular will Instagram be? Digg founder Kevin rose recently said on twitter, “Facebook or Google should buy @instagram.” It’s certainly taking the right first steps: at press time, Instagram had just signed a lease to move into the old twitter office. Monica s. Lee
what if? Two words: Tartine delivers. Any questions?
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theY’ll do for the heritAgebrAnd set whAt AndY wArhol did for PoP Artists At the fActorY
In the time it takes most recent college grads to find a job in a new city, michael maher, mike armenta, and Barrett purdum, three lacrosse-playing friends from maine and philly, moved to san Francisco and started Taylor stitch, a custom and readyto-wear button-front shirt line. Fast-forward a year to 2011, and they’re at the helm of what promises to become the gathering space in town for the heritage-brand set— that would be anyone devoted to red Wing boots, Wm. j. mills bags, and farm-to-table food, like Four Barrel coffee’s jeremy Tooker, andrew and adam mariani of sonoma’s scribe winery, chef david Elias of Berkeley’s dine@, and patrick m. Horn and Bryan Hermannsson of pacific Brewing Laboratories. “There’s really nothing else like the common,” says Tooker. In their 4,300-square-foot lease on mission and seventh, the Taylor stitch boys are constructing a social, retail, and gallery space inspired by the town commons in many new England cities. The look is soma gallery meets woodsy maine lodge, and the cavernous rooms are populated with reclaimed materials the guys foraged and shaped with their own hands (and a little help from friend david pierce of missionbased design company ohio), such as clothing racks made from discarded pipes and lamp shades fashioned from old maplesyrup drip pails. so far, they’ve held art openings and pop-up markets for the lines they stock, which include pierrepont Hicks ties and cause and Effect leather belts, and now they’re dreaming up events as fast as they can type them into Twitter messages. communal dinners are on the way, and this month they’ll be hosting ice cream–social rock concerts for the under-21 crowd with the san Francisco rock project. january 2011 san francisco
Jenna scaTena 1077 mIssIon sT., s.F., THEcommonsF.com
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PhotoGraPh by carrIe cIZausKas
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9 s.F. opera
LEFT: Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov took many photos of dance legend Merce Cunningham’s productions, including this one of Crises, in 2006. BELoW rIGHT: A scene from S.F. Opera’s new production of Die Walküre, in which Wotan is portrayed as a titan of American industry and the Valkyries are 1940s war pilots.
taKes on the biG Kahuna
the entire dAnce world will be At this wAKe Merce cunningham, one of modern dance’s towering forces, decreed that his company would disband two years after his death (no perpetually touring Count Basie Orchestra for him), a moment that is now at hand. In what it calls the Legacy Tour, the troupe will dance its second-to-last California performance at UC Berkeley, a venue Cunningham and his partner and collaborator, John Cage, first visited in 1962 and revisited several times thereafter. The program offers a last chance to see Cunningham’s signature style in action: one gorgeous episode after another, as he fills the stage with expressive movement sequences that bear no causal connection to each other or to any external conceptual scheme. The Berkeley performance will feature music by Cage, Brian Eno, and David Tudor and sets and design by artistic giants Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein. Most exciting will be the valedictory revival of the 1983 Roaratorio, a meld of jigs, readings from James Joyce, and bouncing movement that should leave fans—and local choreographers influenced by Cunningham, such as Margaret Jenkins— with blissful memories. aLLan ULrich
Does Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung matter in today’s world? well, consider the number of critics who have rightly compared the ruthlessness of the protagonist in the social network to the unearthly ambition of the dwarf alberich. (another time the ring was performed in san Francisco, the chronicle music critic compared it to star wars. times change.) the new production that debuts here this summer makes the cycle even more culturally relevant. Director Francesca Zambello finds parallels between characters from norse mythology and archetypal plutocrats and proles from american history, so you won’t find any breastplates and winged helmets in her theatrically arresting version—more like three-piece suits, miners’ lamps, and denim. and by the way, the whole world will be watching, as it does anytime a complete performance of the ring is mounted. It’s an enormous undertaking—it costs a fortune ($23 million this time), requires a cast of 165, and plays for 18 hours over four days—and proclaims the importance of any opera company that attempts it. aLLan ULrich jun. 14–juL. 3, War mEmorIaL opEra HousE, 301 van nEss avE., s.F., 415-864-3330, sFopEra.com
what if? Moogle: Google and Muni do a merger we can live with. Google’s driverless cars reportedly have had only one accident in 100,000 test miles, and that car was hit from behind (no, not by an N-Judah), so why not let Google provide us with driverless buses? Drivers get a year’s salary plus two years of training in a new, nondeadly career of their choice.
january 2011 san francisco
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mar. 3–5, zELLErBacH HaLL, uc BErKELEy, BErKELEy, 510-642-9988, caLpErFs.BErKELEy.Edu
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All hAil the new heAdlAnds of the south, the tAm of the PeninsulA, the Presidio times two
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Finally, a stylish Green line For the Fashion set
aBovE: Designer Elizabeth Brunner in her Dogpatch studio, wearing one of her made-fromdiscarded-fabric crop vests. rIGHT: Say thanks to the Peninsula Open Space Trust for preventing this land from being turned into luxury estates. Rancho Corral de Tierra, with views of the Pacific Ocean, opens to the public this month.
nps.Gov/GoGa
pxp-sF.com. cLoTHInG avaILaBLE aT 440 Brannan, 440 Brannan sT., s.F., 415-348-0000; Eco cITIzEn, 1488 vaLLEjo sT., s.F., 415-614-0100, EcocITIzEnonLInE.com
G utte r c r e D It h e r e
what if? Like trees, wildflowers, and colors before them, grape varietals become the next great font of baby names, filling local playgrounds with cries of “Get down from there, Merlot” and “Don’t put that in your mouth, Viognier.”
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Elizabeth Brunner couldn’t stand seeing designers haul expensive remnants to the landfill, a practice she observed daily during her internship at s.F.’s Isda & co, so she decided to turn this landfill fodder into avant-garde fashion. her new clothing line, Piece x Piece, promises to be the must-have green label of 2011. each item in her collection of jersey tanks, vests, and flirty a-line skirts is hand-blocked, but not with a kitschy patchwork of hippie-style, oddly assorted fabrics. Designs stay within color families, the silhouettes are clean, and some items include raw edges that will fray over time. using this technique, brunner has created the ultimate layering piece perfect for the region’s seasonless climate: a chic crop vest that looks like the upper half of a tank top, fits over the head, and buttons below the arms. brunner, whose labor-intensive ideas were turned down by the factory she approached, found three local seamstresses to make the clothes, which was in line with her vision of her brand as “a san Francisco label, not a name label,” she says. Jenna scaTena
“Imagine hiking the Bay Ridge Trail along Skyline, dropping into a new campground in Denniston canyon, and finishing on the coast,” says Brian Aviles, Golden Gate National Recreation Area senior planner, as we stand atop Montara ridge. This isn’t some outdoors fantasy. This month, GGNRA will start creating a massive trail network on its brandnew property, rancho corral de Tierra, one of the largest stretches of wildland on the Peninsula. The full trail system, which will open up Montara Mountain’s entire western slope to hikers, bikers, and horseback riders, is many years off—but in the meantime, you can hike in a eucalyptus grove or climb 1,200 feet to points overlooking Denniston canyon for views of the ridge and the ocean. Some local residents, from Montara to El Granada, may be less excited (trailheads equal more traffic), but we promise to be quiet, drive slowly, and give thanks that your backyard is now ours too. MicheLLe haMiLTon
PIece x PIece PhotoGraPh by sara laFleur-vetter
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PhotoGraPh by Drew Kelly
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IllustratIon by jonathan wIllIams
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dogPAtch tries AgAin, this time with stYle
c o u rte sy o F b e r K e le y b I o n I c s
Dogpatch has been a neighborhood-on-theverge longer than Gavin Newsom has been in politics. Design types have been attracted to its large industrial loft spaces, but its urban sprawl lacked the central hub necessary for that cozy, in-the-hood feel. (The tanking economy didn’t help, either.) But this month, its fabled promise as San Francisco’s next Hayes Valley might finally be realized, thanks to a new shopping emporium that houses the second location of San Francisco design dream factory Modern appealing clothing; Dig, the specialty wineshop; Blue Bottle coffee; and an expanded version of the restaurant Piccino (the current location is closing). The original space, a 170-year-old converted horse stable, was right up MAC proprietors Ben and Chris Ospital’s eclectic alley: “When we first looked at the place, it still had a feeding trough!” Ben says. Their new store, in addition to expanded men’s and women’s selections (which will be all mixed up, in their signature “gender chaos” approach), will revive the lines of their concept home store, Chez MAC, so customers will have their pick of exclusives from the fabled Boulettes Larder apothecary, Mollusk, and Sherry Olsen ceramics. But the real draw will be the madeto-order services, offered by the likes of clothing designer Ryan Roberts. Ben notes, “You’ll be able to get a made-to-measure canvas jacket for $500 instead of $5,000, which matches the more proletarian sensibility of the neighborhood.” franKLin MeLenDez
13 technoloGy that has channeleD the hanDs oF GoD
LEFT: MAC boutique’s Chris (left) and Ben Ospital are helping to jumpstart the latest revival of Dogpatch (there’ve been at least three) with a new emporium that contains their second store plus some specialty culinary vendors. rIGHT: Bay Area resident Ted Kilroy, pictured here at the Berkeley Bionics workshop, was the first test pilot for the company’s new eLegs.
Imagine being in a wheelchair for 20 years, then suddenly—without a medical cure—being able to take the stairs. that’s the stunner Berkeley Bionics has performed with the introduction of eLegs, a batterypowered suit that lets people with paralysis get up and walk. the device is astonishingly simple to use: sensors located inside two hand crutches communicate with two onboard computers that, in turn, mechanically move the legs (and may also work as de facto physical therapy by getting joints moving). the suit can run for up to six hours before needing a charge and will debut in clinical trials and rehab centers in 2011, with a home model to follow (see back story, page 96). colorado resident amanda boxtel, who’s been in a wheelchair for 18 years, is one of the first to walk in the suit and hopes one day “to get onto mountain trails and sandy beaches.” whatever deity you happen to believe in, elegs, boxtel says, is nothing less than miraculous. nic BUron
what if? All San Francisco drivers must complete a guided tour of the city on bicycle to learn exactly what threats to life and limb most cyclists endure (getting doored recommended, though not required). Conversely, cyclists will have to spend a day behind IB (Idiot on Bike) impersonators, including a stoned, weaving bike messenger, an aggro racer in full spandex, and at least two oblivious hipsters on Fixies.
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PhotoGraPh by man ray/courTEsy oF sFmoma
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An Art historY– Altering Art collection
There will be plenty of “there” there in sfMoMa’s world premiere of the stein family art collection, which brings together the legendary works amassed by this esoteric clan, which lived for a time in Oakland and was spearheaded by poet, critic, and patron saint of expats Gertrude Stein. Along with her brothers, Leo and Michael, and Michael’s wife, Sarah, Gertrude championed some of the century’s most iconic masters, including Picasso, Matisse, and Cézanne. It was the Stein siblings’ gumption that transformed Matisse’s scandalous Woman with a Hat into one of the most important breakthroughs in modern painting. Their competitiveness helped the cause, too, as family members tried to outdo each other, snapping up one avant-garde masterpiece after another. It may be one of the few times that an acute case of sibling rivalry has helped change the course of art history. “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde” is being organized in conjunction with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paris’s Réunion des Musées Nationaux, but San Franciscans will get to see it first. franKLin MeLenDez
LEFT: A 1922 Man Ray photo of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Stein’s Paris apartment. This photo, and the Picasso on the wall behind Stein (Architect’s Table, oval) are part of the upcoming SFMOMA exhibit. rIGHT: Jerrold Avenue between Phelps and Third Streets before and after PlantSF’s greening renovation.
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may 21–sEpT. 6, 151 THIrd sT., s.F., 415-357-4000, sFmoma.orG
siDewalKs will bloom
last year the city went gaga over parklets, the mini-oases that transform parking spaces and stretches of pavement into gathering spots—but 2011 promises to be the year of the sidewalk garden. you could call jane martin the idea’s earliest adopter: since 2004, she has been working from her nonprofit, PlantSF, to transform the concrete on public sidewalks into something green. but this year, the San Francisco Department of Public Works (along with the S.F. Botanical Gardens and Parks Trust) plans to flex some civic muscle on behalf of residents looking to do the same. the three groups just received their first grant (of $80,000) to host free classes, build a demonstration garden in Golden Gate Park, and help interested parties design their own tiny slice of eden. and it’s not just about beautifying the city. sidewalk gardens also reduce stormwater flooding—an ongoing san Francisco problem—by replacing impenetrable concrete with soil and plants that soak up rainwater. In fact, martin got herself a grant, too, this year, to create demonstration gardens in noe valley, where letting storm water soak into the ground will help the mission, which is downhill. VicToria schLesinGer
what if? California legislators, recognizing the hypocrisy of banning foie gras production in a state that produces its body weight in veal, revoke its scheduled prohibition of fatty goose liver. At the same time, Lipitor sales go through the roof.
january 2011 san francisco
pLanTsF.orG, sFBoTanIcaLGardEn.orG (onLInE soon)
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PlantsF PhotoGraPhs by jane martIn
16 the bay
area becomes the Detroit oF electric cars This year, our clean tech–fancying region, spurred by $19 million in new federal, local, and private funds, will lead the nation in making the electric car a way of life. n the innovative Palo alto company
Better Place will install the country’s first battery-swap stations for electric cabs, in downtown san Francisco and san jose. n twelve Nissan Leafs (the company’s
electric model) will be added to san Francisco and the east bay’s city carshare fleet. n more than 400 new electric-vehicle
charging stations are now being mounted around the bay area as part of an Air Quality Management District pilot program; another 2,050 public charging stations are on deck for later this year. n Foster city–based SolarCity (with uc berkeley and tesla motors) will be researching and testing revolutionary software for an ev battery charger that will use solar power when it’s sunny, while monitoring the price of electricity and pulling it from the grid when that’s cheaper. n Coda is planning a move to benicia,
which would make it the largest massproducer of electric cars in california.
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Jenna scaTena
17 women of A
certAin PAge
Chabon, Eggers, Wolff, Lewis—the Bay Area’s modern men of letters are routinely hailed with fanfare and Sunday Times reviews. But our lit scene gets much of its oomph from wordslinging women, including a trio of established authors with distinctly local voices and new books out in 2011. All three have aged gracefully into midcareer success without the boon of a genre-defying debut or an Oprah pick. Narrative editor carol edgarian, 48 (“Guess I won’t be in ‘20 Under 40,’” she jokes), had the foresight to launch (with her husband) her online magazine eight years ago, when digital publishing was an outlier move for serious literature; today, Narrative boasts 1.5 million page views a month and a shiny new iPad app. Edgarian’s timely second novel, Three Stages of Amazement, about a troubled San Francisco marriage during the recent financial crisis, hits bookstores in March. In April, two-time bestselling novelist ann Packer, 51, will publish her first story collection since 1994, Swim Back to Me, which includes a novella. And the kid sister in the mix, Michelle richmond, who just joined the 40-plus club with an international bestseller under her belt, will start accepting submissions this month for her new indie press, Fiction Attic. We’ll also see her fourth novel, California Street, land in the fall. (Look for a cameo from Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, plus a host of familiar city roads.) “It imagines an outlandish circumstance that’s not really that far-fetched,” Richmond says. Like, say, a Time cover for each of these deserving ladies in the coming year? Mia LiPMan
aBovE: A rendering of the mural (superimposed on a photo) that Brian Barneclo will be painting on the wall near the Fourth and King Caltrain station. BELoW: Barneclo tries out a “first draft” at the Metreon’s Brief Space gallery.
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A new welcome mAt for sAn frAncisco
c o u rte sy o F b r Ian bar n e c lo
TayLor WiLes
what if? At noon on March 27, Giants fans everywhere break into “Don’t Stop Believin’” in honor of Buster’s birthday. It’s S.F.’s first known “random act of fandom” (see YouTube video of a zillion Philly-area choristers breaking into song inside Macy’s—pretty cool).
january 2011 san francisco
This summer, a spectacular new sight will force 17,000 Caltrain commuters to look up from their iPhones as they leave or enter San Francisco. Local artist Brian Barneclo plans to cover the looming, 600-foot stucco wall in Mission Bay with a mural (the largest in the city) that’s a schematic mapping of San Francisco’s neighborhoods and natural environment, in a style that’s part Dr. Seussian jungle and part cubist skyline. Barneclo wants his mural to have intellectual backbone but also to be “nice to look at,” he says. “I don’t want to be like Diego Rivera and cram something political down people’s throats.” (For a taste of what it will look like, check out the walls of Nopa restaurant, Foods Co in the Mission, and the Bay Guardian building.) Since the wall abuts Caltrain property, Barneclo had to become a certified rail worker in order to paint it, which meant paying $17,000 for permit fees and flagmen. This July, keep an eye out for him in a helmet, safety glasses, and orange vest, 40 feet in the air. And consider making a trip to San Jose just to see what everyone will be talking about.
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a music Fest FinDs a biGGer voice
rIGHT: Our new AG caught in a charmingly unguarded moment on election night as she watched the returns with her family at the Delancey Street Foundation. BELoW: Since 2007, the Treasure Island festival has been drawing knockout crowds (this one’s from ’08) of discerning indie-rock fans.
what if?
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Party photographer Drew Altizer creates a new service that satisfies socialites’ need to populate their Facebook pages and cures event fatigue. He’ll shoot you at home in all of your gowns, accessories, and hairstyles, and once you’ve sent in your charitable donation, he’ll paste you into the party pics, so you never have to attend a benefit or gala again.
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“a lot of festivals have come and gone,” says bryan Duquette, producer of the annual Treasure Island music extravaganza. but in its fifth year this fall, tI will be the northern california party of the year for indie-rock fanatics, retail-working club kids, and anyone who is constantly checking Flavorpill or the weeklies to see what acts are coming through town. even during hard economic times, attendance has skyrocketed, rising from approximately 17,000 during the first two years to 24,000 during 2010. “these are the tastemakers of the music scene,” Duquette says, and more and more of them keep showing up because of the event’s unique formula—saturday devoted to electronic dance music, such as lcD soundsystem and mGmt, and sunday to indie-rock bands like belle & sebastian and the Flaming lips. this year’s acts haven’t been chosen yet, but the staff is already working on ways to gussy up the environment, which last year included the festival’s signature Ferris wheel, a giant pirate skull, a three-story pink flamingo, and a silent disco, which allowed everyone to dance to a Dj via wireless headphones. there’s certainly no better place to catch the sun setting from a Ferris wheel, while listening to the best in indie music. Dan sTrachoTa
treasure IslanD PhotoGraPh by alejanDro chavetta
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mercY, whAt A toP coP
Kamala harris’s unexpected victory
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january 2011 san francisco
over Steve Cooley as state attorney general is significant for reasons that go well beyond the obvious Democratic sweep. Come on, people— she’s black (and Indian American). She’s a woman. She has made her reputation as a national thought leader on criminal justice reform, bringing ideas to the table that aren’t just progressive-leaning (i.e., sensitive to root causes and racial disparities), but also female- and family-centric. And now she’s in charge of one of the largest—and one of the most repressive and inefficient—criminal justice systems in the world, where 74 percent of those incarcerated are minorities and 93 percent are male. Let’s all stand back and think about what that means. An AG who believes in rehabilitation and “restorative justice” at least as much as in long prison terms. An AG who does not personally believe in the death penalty, or in prosecuting people just because she can. An AG who thinks that one way to prevent crime is to teach nonviolent drug offenders to become better parents and employees. If George Deukmejian and Dan Lungren were dead, they’d be rolling in their graves. Tom Bradley is dead, but my guess is that if he were alive, he’d be smiling. The Bradley effect—the notion that white people will say they support black candidates, then vote white—was discredited in 2008 and proved irrelevant in 2010. This was the year of the Latino voter, and that multicolored bloc went for Harris in droves. And conservatives were too busy demonizing Nancy Pelosi and immigrants to worry about Harris. Well, now the right wing is paying attention, and Harris has a huge red target painted on her back. Good thing for her that she’s smart on politics, not just crime. nina MarTin
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PhotoGraPh by mona brooKs
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When “Balenciaga and spain,” curated by Vogue’s witty fashion genius hamish Bowles, arrives at the de Young this spring, it will be more than just the biggest in San Francisco’s recent run of boldname fashion exhibitions (Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood): It should silence the city’s stodgy art critics who still question whether fashion belongs in art museums, despite the sprawling permanent collections at the Louvre, the Met, and London’s Victoria and Albert. Of course the city’s serious fashion mavens, who have included the likes of Nan Kempner and now count Danielle Steel and Vanessa Getty among their ranks, have always been able to recognize a masterpiece when they see one, so they can just sit back and gloat. Bowles calls Cristobal Balenciaga “the most influential dressmaker of the midcentury” and says that the Spanish designer was a success from the moment he opened his atelier on Avenue George V in the late 1930s. Just as it does today, the fashion pack then swarmed toward new talent, and Balenciaga’s admirers included Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, and Coco Chanel. Bowles’s assemblage shows how the dress of Spanish laborers, matadors, and flamenco dancers influenced the designer (just as the uniforms of French soldiers and sailors inspired Chanel). In today’s bare-it-all fashion culture, Balenciaga’s voluminous silhouettes, asymmetrical gowns, sailor’s smocks, and balloon and sack dresses bring sexy back to ankles, wrists, and necks. eLizaBeTh VarneLL
sheerLy aVni
marcH 26–juLy 4, 50 HaGIWara TEa GardEn drIvE, s.F., 415-750-3600, dEyounG.FamsF.orG
what if? San Francisco sees the opening of the country’s first dedicated vermouth bar, featuring a tremendous selection of this incredibly underrated aperitif—including the one made by Sutton here in the city—as well as a panoply of rare imports. The bar is so successful that more local winemakers start manufacturing their own versions of the elixir.
c o u rte sy o F th e D e yo u n G m u s e u m
san francisco january 2011
A couture megA icon settles A rAging locAl debAte
remember the good old days, like 2008, when you were always looking for a wireless hotspot? we predict that 2011 will inaugurate the movement to unplug. the best productivity websites, from Lifehacker to local productivity expert merlin mann’s 43Folders, now devote hashtags and full pages to strategies for disconnecting (yes, they’re aware of the irony). at least two coffee shops (in the mission, of course), Four Barrel and Borderlands Cafe, already make it a point to provide an Internet-free (and magazine-rich) experience. some desperate professionals are now paying for wireless offices. alissa valles, an accomplished poet and translator, with exactly as much disposable income as you’d expect for a poet and translator, still commutes every day from larkspur to a small rented office in soma that she calls her sanctuary. “I’ve got a book to write,” she says. “If I could get online, I wouldn’t stand a chance.” and if you can’t afford to rent your own pockets of silence, and don’t know how to jury-rig your computer the way jonathan Franzen has, you can download programs from the web that will lock you offline for anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours. one is called SelfControl. the other: Freedom, which just happens to be the name of Franzen’s latest bestseller. coincidence or coded message? you decide.
aBovE: Alamedabased Makani Power’s “energy kite,” which can collect enough power via the wind to fuel five homes, sweeps through a midnight sky in Maui on a test run. LEFT: A Balenciaga design that shows the influence of Spanish flamenco costumes.
triAl run for A Kite thAt could Power our homes
If we could fly miniature turbines up where the wind blows harder, we might tap into a massive reservoir of power—perhaps the biggest concentration of power on the planet. That was the gist of a mostly ignored report back in 1980 that will go from theoretical what-if to working prototype, thanks to two Bay Area innovators. Makani Power, located on Alameda’s desolate air base and partly funded by Google, will test a device that looks like an 18-foot wing and flies in wide circles a few hundred feet off the ground, collecting potentially enough power to “fuel” five typical U.S. homes. With the same idea in mind, Joby energy, nestled in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains, will try out a long-winged glider with eight propellers that faces into the wind, tethered to a long cord, and that could potentially fuel about 100 homes. The next step: raising enough money for a commercial application. Luckily, Silicon Valley and European utilities (so often ahead of those in the United States) are already keeping a close watch. eriK Vance
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This blue Bling Nation tag lets you use your phone like a credit card at stores that have a Bling sensor.
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When Google CEO Eric Schmidt declares that phones could replace credit cards, as he did last fall, you know a financial revolution is on the way. Google is introducing a phone that functions like a credit card, but Palo Alto’s Bling nation already has a big head start. Early adopters already know: Slap one of its PayPal-powered stickers onto your existing phone, and when you’re out shopping, just tap it against the store’s Bling sensor to check out. No signing necessary, and a text message confirms your purchase. You can lighten your wallet, too, since merchants are more likely to accept Bling for small purchases because of its lower fees (added bonus: You’ll get to watch credit card companies scramble to catch up). Bling Nation also includes some clever social-media bells and whistles. Walk into Coupa Café, for example, and Bling will check you in on Foursquare the minute you buy an espresso. And soon, when you talk up your local dive on your Facebook profile, the bartender may have your favorite draft waiting the next time you walk in. Now that’s service. TiMoThy KiM 650-529-4101, BLInGnaTIon.com
leave it to Sarah Ruhl and Les Waters to collaborate on the year’s most anticipated play (not musical; that honor goes to act’s upcoming Tales of the City). the playwright and director’s first joint venture at berkeley rep (Eurydice, in 2004) had local critics falling all over themselves, and it eventually went to off-broadway. the following one, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), drew so much attention that the New York Times sent a reviewer. he fawned, and eight months later, the play was on broadway. back in the bay area, the ribald portrait of late19th-century politics—complete with a doctor who tries to treat hysteria with a vibrator—won over jaded local theatergoers with its cutting intellect, brisk humor, and clever staging. ruhl and waters’ new work, a production of The Three Sisters, promises to be similarly intoxicating. anton chekhov’s tale of the decline of an aristocratic family might well be the finest drama written in the 20th century. too often, though, it can seem all samovars and sanctimony. ruhl, though, has written a lean, conversational translation, stripping away any trace of mannered staidness, and waters has enlisted his wife, annie smart, who brought a keen sophistication to the sets for In the Next Room. with these artists at the helm, gripping theater is merely show business as usual. scoTT hocKer apr. 8–may 22, BErKELEy rEpErTory THEaTrE, 2025 addIson sT., BErKELEy, 510-647-2949, BErKELEyrEp.orG
c o u rte sy o F b lI n G natI o n
san francisco january 2011
24 cAsh And credit cArds stArt towArd their grAVes
2009’s most toasteD theater twosome is bacK with a thrillinG encore
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san francisco january 2011
EXCEPTIONAL SALES PROFESSIONALS.
Few musical groups can claim to have toured with both alt-rock god les claypool of Primus and burning man Dj icon bassnectar, but Beats Antique is not a normal band. the oakland trio, multi-instrumentalists David satori and tommy cappel and belly dancer–producer Zoe jakes, makes world music that’s as dizzying as a whirling top, and they’re constantly winning over new crowds, whether it’s world music–loving hippies, burning man freaks, or funk aficionados. their latest disc, Blind Threshold, features such unexpected guests as blues traveler’s john Popper and world folk singer eva salina, and it’s rumored that tracks on their forthcoming eP are being coproduced by a hush-hush big-name artist. In 2010, beats antique toured the midwest and canada and played festivals like austin city limits, lollapalooza, and s.F.’s own outside lands, and they’ll spend most of 2011 prowling the u.s. (with a threeweek stint in australia), including their first local headline show in a year, sometime this spring. the threesome’s 2008 disc, Collide (which at one point was the top downloaded world dance album on amazon.com), best demonstrates their sound, as they find common ground between bouncy balkan Gypsy funk, sultry hip-hop rhythms, and thumping electro beats. but the group really excels at their live shows, which come replete with crazed drummers, horse-headed dancers, and the occasional manic horn player.
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Beats Antique shows are pretty wild; this one in Dallas last April featured horseheaded dancers.
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our once-inA-generAtion chAnce to heAr this mAgisteriAl music some people know the Vienna Philharmonic only for its controversial history: It didn’t admit a woman to a permanent position until 1997, and she was, as you might have guessed, a harpist. But when musicians—and those who love them—hear the orchestra play, which they’ll finally have a chance to do after its 24-year absence from the Bay area, they’ll be reminded why it’s near the top of anybody’s list of the world’s greatest orchestras. The vienna phil’s lush sonority, unique phrasing, and absolute technical mastery add up to an ideal instrument for interpreting the central European classics. and there will be more than one woman on the stage when the orchestra has its Berkeley debut in February, the pièce de résistance of Cal Performances director matías Tarnopolsky’s inaugural season. The superb conductor semyon Bychkov will lead three concerts, showcasing music by schubert, Wagner, Bartók, schumann, Brahms, and mahler, whose brooding symphony no. 6 will complete this historic engagement. aLLan ULrich FEB. 25–27, zELLErBacH HaLL, uc BErKELEy, BErKELEy, 510-642-9988, caLpErFs.BErKELEy.Edu
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hola to the best teQuila in town Julio Bermejo’s margarita
recipe, which calls for handsqueezed lime juice and eschews triple sec in favor of agave nectar, is now the standard for bartenders all over town; by this fall, his tequila will be the one they build the recipe around. Bermejo, the proprietor of Tommy’s, a family restaurant on 24th and Geary, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the spirit. Five years ago, he even married tequila royalty: one of the scions of the Camarena family, which distills El Tesoro, considered by many to be the greatest of all tequilas. Now he plans to add his own stamp to the family legacy with his new tequila, L & J, which promises to be one of the finest and most traditional (and therefore most flavorful) on the market.
ATO M IC CLOCK NEW ALBUM IN STORES NOW CD / LP / DIGITAL
JorDan MacKay 5929 GEary BLvd., s.F., 415-387-4747, TommysTEQuILa.com
what if? The good citizens of San Francisco’s wealthiest districts, who were some of the biggest funders of the Sit/Lie proposition, which effectively criminalizes homelessness, decide to spend the same amount in 2011 actually helping the homeless. Donations to shelters go through the roof.
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New Year, New Love
2010 Global Matchmaking Award
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continued from page 40
end,â&#x20AC;? Steve Glazer said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some decisions we made were not conventional. If you asked me in the hypothetical, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Would you let your opponent deďŹ ne you in the summer without answering?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? He trailed off as he contemplated the apparent foolishness of this notion. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We did have the patience to examine carefully if we were being hurt. We made the choice that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s okay to have our unfavorables rise, because those views were not deeply held and could be quickly reversed when we started to tell our side of the story.â&#x20AC;? When the team decided to spend heavily, they made the most of it. Many observers remember the echo commercial, as the Brown camp called it, the 30-second spot that had Arnold Schwarzenegger and Whitman spouting identical campaign rhetoric, as a turning point. Glazer said that when the commercial aired, Brown was already up 8 to 10 points in the polls. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were fresh; she was stale,â&#x20AC;? he observed of that moment when Whitman was blanketing the airwaves and the Internet with the message sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been hammering away on since her campaign began. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her problems were partly created by her own excesses.â&#x20AC;? In October, the campaignâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discipline paid off. The momentum turned decidedly in Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At a certain point, people were calling and saying they would hold fundraisers for us, and I would say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to hold any more fundraisers,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;? Gust recalled. On election day, a day when Whitman wrote her campaign a check for $2.6 million, Gust knew that the Brown campaign would end the election cycle with a surplus and she would assume the title of First Lady of California. as The inauguraTion approaches, gusTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal is,
HELPING PEOPLE SELF-MANAGE
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san francisco january 2011
MENTAL ILLNESS
Tickets available www.conardgala.org or 415.864.7833
of course, to focus. The couple is looking for a place to liveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;likely a loft, she saidâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in Sacramento; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll spend weekends in their Oakland home, which is littered with heaps of Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reading material she removes when they fall over. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a paper messâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;aholic,â&#x20AC;? she said. During the campaign, Gust insisted to me that she hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought about what she would do as ďŹ rst lady, but now she and Brown are both speaking more freely about the vital role she will play. It wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be independent of Brownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own work. During a trip to Sacramento, Gust met with Maria Shriver and decided immediately that she would not continue Shriverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual headlinegenerating Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Conference, which attracted speakers from Michelle Obama to Oprah, Jane Lynch, and Warren Buffett. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She put on something I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t replicate,â&#x20AC;? Gust said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to if I wanted to, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not my passion. I will be far more in the substance of what is going on. Jerry and I work together far more as partners.â&#x20AC;? Whatever direction the administration takes, Gust told me, there will be surprises. Spontaneity, she added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;is kind of how we operate.â&#x20AC;? n danelle morTon is a freelance writer in san francisco.
MEDICAL PROFILES Showcasing Bay Area Healthcare Professionals
The physicians in this section have chosen to advertise in San Francisco in order to provide more information about their services and specialties.
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
California Pacific Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Specialty Care California Pacific Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine (CPOSM) has been providing comprehensive orthopaedic and sports medicine care to the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Marin County communities for more than 40 years. CPOSM offers the latest in a wide range of minimally invasive and surgical techniques including hip resurfacing, hip, knee, and shoulder replacement and reconstruction, and foot and ankle reconstruction. They also provide hand and wrist surgery, including endoscopic carpal tunnel surgery, sports medicine, arthritis care, and many other specialty services. CPOSM has also been the team physician for the Golden State Warriors, the Oakland A’s, and the San Francisco Ballet for many years. CPOSM is committed to providing this same level of elite care to all of their patients—from children to seniors.
CPOSM is committed to providing elite medical and surgical care to all of their patients—from children to seniors.
LOCATIONS: Marin County location: 1240 S. Eliseo Dr., Ste. 101 Greenbrae 415-461-1600
San Francisco locations: 3838 California St., Ste. 715 San Francisco 415-668-8010 2100 Webster St., Ste. 109 San Francisco 415-923-3920 cposm.com
Brian Andrews, MD and Charles Cobbs, MD
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When faced with disabling neurological conditions such as brain tumors and spinal disorders, you need the expertise of a worldclass neurosurgical team. Dr. Brian Andrews and Dr. Charles Cobbs are leaders in the neuroscience field. As Chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at California Pacific Medical Center, Dr. Andrews specializes in the use of minimally invasive spine surgeries for the treatment of spinal stenosis—excessive and painful narrowing of the spine. Dr. Cobbs is an editor for the Journal of Neuro-Oncology and focuses on the cause and treatment of brain tumors. “Our practice strives to provide compassionate care for patients with neurosurgical disorders. We use evidencebased, state-of-the-art surgical techniques and pursue scientific research investigating the causes of malignant brain tumors.”
We strive to provide compassionate and expert care for our patients with neurosurgical disorders
LOCATIONS: 45 Castro St., Ste. 421 San Francisco 415-600-7760 cpmc.org/advanced/neurosciences
top: barbara ries; bottom: jessamyn photography
California Pacific neuroscience Institute
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
MEDICAL PROFILES
LOCATION: 801 Welch Rd. Stanford 650-736-3223 stanfordface.com THE SERVICES: Facial plastic surgery including internationally recognized expertise in rhinoplasty, facelift, and eyelid surgery. WHAT TO EXPECT: Highly personalized surgical care for results designed to enhance your own natural beauty.
Results can be dramatic and still look very natural
Sam P. Most, MD
“When patients consider facial surgery, it’s essential that they work with someone they can trust,” explains Dr. Sam P. Most, MD. With a national award in plastic surgery, international lecture invitations, and inclusion in Best Doctors in America for five years running, he offers just that. An honors graduate of Stanford and University of Michigan, Dr. Most specializes in eyelid and facial rejuvenation, and is backed by a practice that has made him a resource for publications like the New York Times. Moreover, Dr. Most’s dedication to privacy and natural-looking results has gained him a loyal following. “Results can be dramatic and still look very natural,” he explains. “And I always offer my clients an honest opinion about what can and should be done.” In 2006, Dr. Most was appointed Chief of the Division of Facial Plastic Surgery at Stanford, where he has maintained his practice since. He conducts a comprehensive practice covering aging facial surgery, rhinoplasty, Botox®, peels, and many other procedures. And as a photographer with an interest in graphic design, he appreciates natural beauty. He’s also knowledgeable about the most up-to-date procedures—those that work, and those that don’t. “It isn’t about using the hottest techniques. It’s about finding the right combination of minimally invasive, innovative practices to achieve the most natural results possible.”
JANUARY 2011 SAN FRANCISCO
JESSAMYN PHOTOGRAPHY
Stanford Facial Plastic Surgery
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Leaders in Gynecology and urogynecology Enjoy your legs again
Nicholas Hyde, MD
Heidi Wittenberg, MD and Leslie Kardos, MD
Elite Vein Specialists
Pacific Gyn and Obstetrics Medical Group
Yale-trained, board certified, East Bay vein specialist Dr. Nicholas Hyde is pleased to announce the opening of his San Francisco office. Since 2001, Dr. Hyde has been on the forefront of modern vein medicine by providing advanced non-surgical outpatient therapy for spider vein elimination and varicose vein removal. “Experience is essential in deciding who is, and more importantly who is not, a candidate for the newest treatments.” A complimentary consultation with Dr. Hyde is the first step toward improved vascular health.
Choosing an experienced physician who understands all the stages of a woman’s health is essential to your physical and mental well-being. Whether you experience problems with fibroids, endometriosis, uterine prolapse, infertility, or urinary continence, Pacific Gyn and Obstetrics Medical Group offers the most advanced therapies and minimally invasive options. When surgery is necessary, they are experts in laparoscopy, robotics, and vaginal procedures. “Our goal is to keep our patients healthy and active.”
LOCATIONS: 675 ygnacio Valley rd., Ste. B214 Walnut Creek 925-937-8346
490 Post St., Ste. 1701 San Francisco 415-640-1500 whybevein.com
LOCATIONS: 2100 Webster St., Ste. 319 San Francisco 415-923-3130 pacificgynsurgicalgroup.com
Scientifically based and medically supervised guidance
Jumpstart
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The Jumpstart weight loss program goes beyond fads and short-term successes to provide rapid, safe, sustainable results. Created by Drs. Conrad Lai and Sean Bourke in 2007, this comprehensive, medically supervised program is tailored to meet each patient’s physical and emotional needs and is provided in a comforting, caring environment. To date, Jumpstart has helped more than 5,000 patients transform their lives through a proven approach of nutrition education, medication, exercise, and motivational support. If you’d like to lose an average of 2-5 pounds per week, you’re invited to visit one of seven Jumpstart locations throughout the Bay Area including Larkspur, San Francisco (Financial District and Laurel Heights), Burlingame, Redwood City, Pleasanton, and Walnut Creek. LOCATIONS: 126 Post St., Ste. 618 San Francisco
390 Laurel St., Ste. 207 San Francisco
1-855-juMPSTarT jumpstartmd.com
jessamyn photography
san francisco january 2011
Transforming Weight Loss
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
MEDICAL PROFILES
LOCATION: 2250 Hayes St., Ste. 4A St. Mary’s Medical Center San Francisco 415-759-2014 parnassusheightspodiatrygroup.com sflasernailsolution.com sanfranciscobunioncenter.com THE SERVICES: Toenail fungus laser treatment, state of the art bunion management, diabetic foot care, foot and ankle surgery, and other podiatric services. WHAT TO EXPECT: More than 100 years of cumulative years of experience, state-ofthe-art techniques, and practical, compassionate, effective care.
Practical, compassionate, effective care
The Parnassus Heights Podiatry Group St. Mary’s Medical Center
TARA LUZ STEVENS
JANUARY 2011 SAN FRANCISCO
Specializing in diseases and injuries of the foot and ankle, Parnassus Heights Podiatry Group is home to three doctors, William Jenkin, DPM; Joel Clark, DPM; and Joshua Gerbert, DPM—each with more than 35 years of experience—who are medical educators and have written the leading surgical textbooks on bunions and forefoot conditions. Because these doctors are all professors of podiatric surgery at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University, their practice is highly trusted by the medical community. They offer a humanistic approach to the management of their patients, understanding that each patient is an individual who presents different needs and expectations. Parnassus Heights Podiatry Group’s office is equipped with the latest technological advancements in the care of the foot and ankle. One such advancement, the infrared laser, is used to treat toenail fungus with one, painless treatment. In the past, this condition was treated with either topical medications with poor results, or oral medication with potential of side effects and drug interactions. The doctors are also known for their national expertise in treating bunion deformities, having developed sophisticated methods for the evaluation of this complex problem in order to select the best treatment plan for each specific patient.
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outtakes
Scientific methods
By ELizaBETH VarnELL PhotograPhs by Drew altizer
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9:18 P.M.
11/13/10 Bill nye rides his Climate lab bike to offset years of Co² emissions generated by his science guy experiments, as guests dine at Chabot space & science Center’s global Cool gala.
C lau d i n e G o s s ett fo r d r e w alti z e r
As the holiday season revved up, experts arrived in town to talk shop and spill trade secrets. In from Milan, Matteo alessi stopped by the design company’s Sutter Street boutique, where he discussed launching—or stalling—the innovative home accessories his company produces. He said the key to remaining in the vanguard is the ability to keep ideas on ice “even for 30 years,” until technology and taste evolve to match concepts by Philippe Starck and other creatives. On Maiden Lane, alexis swanson Traina hosted Maggie rizer Mehran, suzanne Levit, Victoire reynal Brown, sloan Barnett, Gina Pell, and Vanessa Getty at a Chanel lunch that included a battery of podcasts detailing the precise mechanics of handbag construction, broadcast on LCD monitors bordered by exactly the sort of quilted leather that was being sewn on-screen. Needless to say, nimble hands and lab coats are required. Then SFMOMA architecture curator Henry Urbach opened a show fit for oenophiles and Two Buck Chuck drinkers alike. The exhibition, “How Wine Became Modern,” included an expertly categorized wall of bottles (organized under inventive headings such as Cheeky) and a display of petri dishes containing soil samples from the world’s wine-producing regions. Luckily, the always stylish Urbach ensured that protective goggles were not required to view the installations.
7:29 P.M.
2:06 P.M.
6:38 P.M.
11/10/10 ever-curious style and wine guru alexis swanson Traina introduces luncheon guests to the meticulous mechanics of handbag construction, at Chanel in union square.
10/25/10 white house correspondent turned 60 Minutes reporter scott Pelley prepares for his speech at the international rescue Committee’s annual humanitarian awards Dinner, held at the st. regis in soMa.
January 2011 san francisco
B otto m r i G ht: au B r i e P i C k fo r d r ew alti z e r
11/4/10 elle Decor ’s new editor in chief, Michael Boodro (right), joins sustainable designer regina callan at the opening night of the magazine’s Designer showhouse in st. Francis wood.
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outtakes san francisco January 2011
11/12/10 after applying his queer eye to hosting duties, carson Kressley gives guest sal sabella (left) a pat on the back at amfarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 12th annual gala benefiting aiDs research.
4:34 P.M.
11/4/10 interior designer Kelly Wearstler (left) and Marta Benson of gumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talk color palettes before wearstler signs copies of her latest tome, hue, inside the design emporium.
B otto m : Jana as e n B r e n n e r ova fo r d r ew alti z e r
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10:35 P.M.
8:01 P.M.
10/8/10 Champagne in hand, Edith Tobin, Katrina Berube, Joseph Tobin, and Michael Berube stroll down the hearst Castle terrace to kick off the Preservation Foundation benefit weekend.
11/3/10 Tony Blair and a group of bay area teachers star in a videoconference at the Fairmont during the launch of his Face to Faith program, which promotes dialogue about religion among youths.
7:05 P.M.
11/19/10 sFMoMa curator of architecture and design Henry Urbach (right) jokes with the show’s assistant curator, Joseph Becker, on opening night of “how wine became Modern.”
January 2011 san francisco
le ft: davi d C r otty fo r Patr i C k m C m u llan; to P r i G ht: G e n e X hwan G fo r o ran G e P h oto G raP hy; B otto m r i G ht: au B r i e P i C k fo r d r ew alt i z e r
6:47 P.M.
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5?8-:0 ?@E81 ?4-71 A< PRESENTED BY SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE AND THE ISLANDS OF HAWAI‘I
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!
People’s Choice: Otis Lounge, Mike Hicks Cocktail: -.E 1-/4 %5<<1> INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 ounces Sergeant Classick Gold Rum 1/2 ounce FAIR.Goji liqueur 1/2 ounce Carpano Antica Formula 1/2 ounce Aperol 3/4 ounce lemon juice 2 dashes Regan's Orange Bitters Shake all ingredients and strain into a highball glass over ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg over a burnt orange peel.
THE PARTY Te Islands of Hawai’i, San Francisco magazine, and the hottest bartenders in San Francisco joined together at Te Burritt Room to create the perfect Hawai’i moment in San Francisco with the Island Style Shake Up. THE SCENE To benefit SPARK, bartenders from Te Burritt Room, Cantina, Hog & Rocks, Otis Lounge, and Smugglers Cove competed for the best new take on classic Hawaiian cocktails using local Sergeant Classick Rum. Amidst Hawaiian eats and live music and entertainment, partygoers sipped all five outstanding cocktails and voted for the best—and one lucky guest won a trip to Hawai’i courtesy of Pleasant Holidays!
PARTY Te San Francisco Design Center celebrated the center of every home—the kitchen— at the inaugural Culinarium, a three-day event filled with inspiring kitchen design and activities. THE SCENE Centered around the fully functioning, beautiful kitchen built by the masterminds at Christopher Peacock Home, the event included keynotes and seminars by renowned designers, panel discussions, cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, and daily receptions. Proceeds from the event provide scholarships to Bay Area design students. THE
Judge’s Choice:
PHOTOS BY MATT NUZZACO
INGREDIENTS: 2 ounces Sergeant Classick Silver Rum 1 ounce fresh lemon juice 3/4 ounce passion fruit nectar 3/4 ounce Hawaiian Lehua Honey syrup 1/2 ounce Smugglers Cove house hibiscus liqueur 1/2 ounce Smugglers Cove house cinnamon syrup 6 drops Elemakule Tiki bitters Combine all ingredients in a drink mixer with crushed ice and pulse for three seconds. Pour into a footed pilsner glass and garnish with a paper lantern, pineapple fronds, an orchid, a lemon twist, swizzle stick, and mint sprig.
PHOTOS BY EMILY SPILLANE AND SUNGHI SONIA MORSELLA
Smugglers Cove, Steven Liles Cocktail: -457; "A:/4
Eats
News, reviews, cheap eats, and updates edited by Jan newberry
reviewed in this issue
bar agricole ragazza spoonbar updates
ame anchor & hope Cheap eats
schweet boks
photograph by Laura FLippEn
January 2011 san franCisCo
White oak and steel characterize the modern design at Bar Agricole, where a ďŹ xture made of 1,362 glass tubes hangs from the ceiling.
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Eats
Bar Agricole Smart cocktails in a stunning setting.
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san franCisCo January 2011
SOMA
A restaurant this beautiful could almost get by on looks alone. A Zen-like courtyard leads into a space of shapely wood banquettes and skylights framed by glass tubes that call to mind curtains shifting in the wind. Barmaster Thad Vogler works cocktail magic. His drinks are tinged with nostalgia (sours, Collinses, and other classics) but made with local spirits and artisanal syrups for a very contemporary San Francisco flavor. Chef Brandon Jew’s menu aims for a restrained aesthetic: green beans with mustard-bathed potatoes, green salad with chive dressing (too lightly applied). High notes include spaghetti with duck ragù and chanterelles, and crispskinned quail with grilled scallions and creamed spinach. But often his medleys are off-key. An apple, burdock, and celeriac slaw cries out for acid. Prosciuttowrapped rabbit is overcooked. But the desserts, like kabocha squash tart, are impeccable. Still, until the kitchen and the cooking acquire more seasoning, you’re more likely to drain the last drop of your cocktail than to mop the last morsel from your plate. 355 11th st. (bEt. harrison anD FoLsom sts.), s.F., 415-355-9400 $$$ drw
HH ½
by Josh sens photograph by Laura FLippEn
Ragazza
Spoonbar
A new pizza place joins the upper crust.
Drinks trump dinner at this stylish wine-country spot.
NOPA
HEALDSBURG
So what if this town doesn’t need another California-Neapolitan pizza place—we still want one. More than ever, it seems, judging from a recent hour-and-a-half wait for a table at one of the newest: Ragazza, which opened in September. Sharon Ardiana’s NoPa offshoot of her long-loved Gialina, in Glen Park, is already wooing Little Star loyalists from up the street. Its sleek wood decor (mixed with the same oldtime black-and-white family photos) is more hipster-chic than kiddie-centric. And that’s reflected in the menu, which, although similar to Gialina’s, is enhanced by just-like-in-Italy antipasti, such as house-stretched mozzarella with prosciutto di Parma, and a salumi plate assembled with local all-stars like Boccolone mortadella and Fra’Mani salume gentile. Things only get better with the addictive contorni (like the braised greens with bacon and goat cheese) and the brief list of pastas and roasts (try strozzapreti tossed with meaty short-rib ragù). But—seriously—save room for those ethereally thin pies: the Margherita; the Calabrian chili– spiked Moto; and the Potato, topped with bacon, gooey gorgonzola, and, may we suggest, Ardiana’s signature centerpiece topping, the egg. 311 DiVisaDEro st.
This bar and restaurant at the H2Hotel makes a winning first impression, its dining room dappled with apple-green bar stools and sea-blue chairs, its floor-toceiling windows pushed open to the sidewalk, spilling life into the stillness of what’s become a twee wine-country town. Mixologist Scott Beattie builds on that upbeat spirit. His balanced cocktails are rendered with such confidence, he offers the drinks in pitchers, so you can refill your own Sazeracs and sours. The food is good for grazing: spicy lamb meatballs, warm flatbread with Moroccan eggplant spread, and flaky goat cheese–stuffed phyllo “cigars” all qualify as elevated bar snacks. But deeper trips into the menu yield diminishing returns. Grilled octopus, studded with olives and seasoned with the minty Italian herb nepitella, is forlorn and mushy. A beef and lamb burger is overwhelmed by cucumber chutney, yogurt, and tomato confit. Strawberry ricotta doughnuts revive your interest. Slightly. You walk in optimistic but leave a few drinks later with the sober outlook of a realist whose lofty expectations have settled back on earth.
(bEt. pagE anD oaK sts.), s.F., 415-255-1133 $$ dw
HH ½
by raCheL Levin
219 hEaLDsburg aVE. (at mathEson st.), 707-433-7222 $$ rw
by Josh sens
H½
our review poLiCy: To ensure that we get a typical consumer’s experience in a restaurant, our writers dine anonymously; all expenses are paid by the magazine. Reviews are pulled from our listings two years after the review date or any time personnel changes at a restaurant render a review invalid. Our admittedly imperfect star ratings are based on food quality, variety, service, ambience, and value. Staff reviewers and contributors to our restaurant guide include John Birdsall, Susan Bryan, Scott Hocker, Rachel Levin, Jan Newberry, and Josh Sens. CheCk baCk eaCh month for a new selection of reviews. You can search our entire database of reviews at sanfranmag.com.
prices: Average price of an entrée: $ = $10 or less $$ = $11–17 $$$ = $18–24 $$$$ = $25 or more
symbols: c = Cash only d = Dinner only r = Reservation required/
recommended v = Valet parking w = Wheelchair accessible
= Staff favorite = Cheap eats
ratings: HHHH = superlative HHH = excellent HH = very good H = good
✩ = below average
updates ame SOMA
Five years after this handsome restaurant opened in the St. Regis Hotel, a meal here is as smooth and uneventful as a ride in a Lexus set on cruise control. Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone, who also still run Terra in St. Helena, have hardly tweaked the California-Asian menu, letting it coast on the momentum of its signature dishes, such as grilled whole lobster in yuzu brown butter, and sakemarinated cod, which sloughs off like a glacier into sweet shiso broth, with shrimp dumplings bobbing all around. Now and then, there are signs of inattention. The anchovies in a salad’s bagna cauda–style vinaigrette are merely alleged; the evidence would not stand up in court. For every adventurous bite of uni (on bruschetta, with lardo) there are less risqué options, like tempura poke, as sure to please conservative tastes as easy-listening hits on the radio. “I assume you’re staying with us?” a waiter says, as you nibble on a sugar-dusted apple beignet. It’s not a bad assumption. Pretty much everyone appears to be. (J.S.) 689 mission st. (at 3rD st.), 415284-4040 $$$ rwv ½
★★
anchor & hope SOMA
Frayed ship’s ropes dangle from the rafters, and old life preservers and wooden oars hang on the walls, but even after two years, Anchor & Hope still manages to be cool, not kitschy. Tucked in a sleek, soaring space on Minna Street, the location is a bit inconvenient for anyone not rolling in after work for happy hour ($1 oysters paired with beers from the bar’s lengthy, globe-trotting list). Still, it’s a lot closer than a flight to the East Coast for straight-fromMaine lobster, here stuffed into a lightly toasted brioche bun; creamy clam
chowder studded with hunks of smoked bacon; and plump, chilled shrimp with a spicy housemade cocktail sauce—far fresher than the wimpy, tasteless cocktail you remember from childhood. Just like Anchor & Hope itself: your favorite seafood shack, all grown up. (R.L.) 83 minna st. (bEt. 1st anD 2nD sts.), 415-501-9100 $$$ rw
★★
Cheap eats schweet boks OUTER SUNSET
Stoners, college students, and toddlers, listen up: Your dream has come true, thanks to fellow dreamer 24-year-old Dexter Cheng, who, after years of serious cerealmixing experimentation, has finally opened this closet-size café deep in the Sunset. There are only four stools but unlimited combinations of cereal: Cocoa Puffs with Cookie Crisp and crushed Oreos; Kix, Trix, and Rice Krispies topped with coconut; Golden Grahams and Cap’n Crunch with chocolate chips. It’s not all one big sugar rush: There’s Kashi, of course, and Grape-Nuts is a surprisingly hot seller (Cheng prefers his with warm milk). You can get steel-cut oats topped with fresh banana syrup and agave nectar too. Yeah, spending $3 for a bowl when you could buy a whole box for a buck or two more seems kind of silly, but, hey, cereal eaters like to go out for breakfast, too. Plus, here you can add mini marshmallows and chocolate syrup or order a hot cocoa made extra creamy with muddled banana. And best of all, for $6.65 you can mix your own crazy concoction box to take home. (R.L.) 2142 irVing st. (at 22nD st.), 415-992-2119 $ w
★½
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san francisco aziza RICHMOND
After his triumph on Iron Chef, Mourad Lahlou returned to his Moorishinspired Richmond district redoubt, throngs of culinary gawkers trailing in his wake. They’re drawn to his cleverly exotic cooking, which takes Moroccan cuisine for a stylized spin. Fond of smoldering spice blends, like ras el hanout, which heats a molten casserole of lima beans and feta, Lahlou also finds great pleasure in artistic presentations and haute techniques. Miniature lamb meatballs lie crisscrossed intricately over jicama salad. A sous-vide Tibetan pear takes its tender place beside an artichoke heart. For $68, the five-course tasting option showcases the basics: lentil soup, chicken pastilla, and succulent lamb shank with prunes. It’s a safe bet but less exciting than an à la carte adventure, especially with one of the restaurant’s highly alcoholic drinks. Though they’re more bracing than balanced, the cocktails help you endure backlogs in the kitchen—the result of surging interest in Aziza, and seemingly the only downside of Lahlou’s TV fame. (J.S.) 5800 gEary bLVD. (at 22nD aVE.), 415-752-2222 $$$ drwv ½ (6/09)
★★
baker & banker PACIFIC HEIGHTS
Lori Baker really is one, but Jeff Banker’s surname is deceptive. He wears the toque at the couple’s satisfying new restaurant, which occupies the building left behind by Quince. The menu isn’t meant to startle, but it delivers small surprises. Creamy cauliflower soup with a scattering of almonds enjoys the gentle heat of Vadouvan curry, and calamari marinated in chimichurri lends fiery flavor to a bright salad of chicories, grapefruit, and hearts of palm, with a handful of fried chickpeas for crunch. The kitchen hits a great number of high notes, from sweetly balanced black cod braised in sake, mirin, soy,
Eats and ginger to gingerbreadcrusted, seared foie gras that could stand as an argument against the state’s impending fattedliver ban. Toward evening’s end, Baker the baker serves desserts herself (kumquat-prune sticky toffee pudding is indicative of her lush leanings), while her husband sidles humbly from table to table, showing a concern for the experience of others that bankers aren’t widely known for nowadays. (J.S.)1701 octaVia st. (at bush st.), 415-351-2500 $$$$ drvw ½ (4/10)
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bistro aix COW HOLLOW
90
san franCisCo January 2011
After going dark for nine months of renovations, this reliable restaurant has reopened, and Jonathan Beard has returned to his winning role. The chef is not a stunt man but a skilled character actor, content to make his mark with composed interpretations of Provençal-inspired dishes, such as saffronscented bouillabaisse—its broth an aromatic setting for clams, calamari, and halibut that flakes at the gentlest prodding—and a New York steak partnered with béarnaise sauce that would make Escoffier proud. Beard plays a French part with a California accent, studding egg tagliatelle with spicy lamb meatballs, then enlivening the pasta with mint salsa verde; the sweetness of his corn-and–roasted cauliflower soup is offset by the faint tang of tomato oil. The reworked space in which Beard puts on this show is actually two spaces: A cozy, warm wood dining room gives way to a skylit atrium centered by an olive tree. Both provide a backdrop for a quiet performance you’re happy to see time and again. (J.S.) 3340 stEinEr st. (bEt. chEstnut anD LombarD sts.), s.F., 415-202-0100 $$ drw ½ (11/10)
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farina MISSION
This may be the only restaurant in the Mission getting ready to open a counterpart in Las Vegas, but park your attitude with the much-sneered-at valet and stop worrying whether Farina is hip enough for its neighborhood. Each night before service, the kitchen hauls out a mortar and pestle to make its ofthyped pesto. Leaves of fresh basil, grown especially for the restaurant, are pounded into a paste that’s so rich, you’d swear there’s cream in it, then napped over sheets of handmade pasta. That dish deserves every piece of hyperbole ever thrown its way—and the focaccia di recco, cracker crisp and spilling warm stracchino cheese when you tear it open, is simply extraordinary. Executive chef Paolo Laboa, who learned to cook from his grandmother in Genoa, also has a magical touch with seafood, including a whole roasted branzino served with porcini and potatoes. Laboa will turn his talents to other fare soon, as the restaurant prepares to open a pizzeria next door in the coming weeks—but in the meantime, Farina has earned its place in 18th Street’s gourmet ghetto. (J.N.) 3560 18th st. (at guErrEro st.), 415-5650360 $$$ rvw ½ (9/10)
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olea NOB HILL
In his tiny open kitchen, chef Gabriel Amaya performs as an antishowman, eschewing grand productions for endearing little numbers: farmers’ market– driven dishes that are slightly more ambitious than what you’d try at home. On one visit, roséstewed Manila clams gave off the smoky heat of bacon, green garlic, and Peruvian peppers. Paperthin flatbread, freshly bronzed in the fire, arrived undressed, its flattering toppings (ricotta, roast pear, sautéed bitter greens) offered on the side. Amaya clearly has
FiVe GReAT
Warm Winter Cocktails They may seem like a fusty relic of a long-ago time, but warm cocktails remain one of the best ways to chase away the chill of a rainy day. the heated affair They keep things cozy at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel’s bar drake, scalas bistro, and starlight room with that rarity, a warm cocktail made with tequila. Their blend of Partida Anejo tequila and hot spiced cider, topped with heavy cream and cinnamon, makes an exotic yet comforting winter warmer. 450 powELL st., s.F., 415-395-8595
irish coffee Caffeine and booze were a classic combination long before Four Loko came onto the scene. The buena vista Cafe brought the two together back in 1952 when it mixed its first Irish Coffee. The busy café is still pumping out out the addictive combination of coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar, and frothed cream today. 2765 hyDE st., s.F., 415-474-5044
kentucky pilgrim Bourbon lovers seeking refuge from the rain would do well to find an empty stool at the bar at elixir. Their mug of warm Wild Turkey 101 infused with cardamom, cinnamon, and dried cranberry and bolstered with maraschino liqueur and a fresh lemon twist offers what might well be the long-sought cure for the common cold. 3200 16th st., s.F., 415-552-1633 hot toddy nopa adds spice to this classic winter cocktail with black peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, and citrus zest, infused into Santa Theresa Rhum Orange. Topped off with hot water, it’s a warmer that’s as elegant as it is delicious. 560 DiVisaDEro st., s.F., 415-864-8643
hot buttered rum Martin Cate at smuggler’s Cove, the city’s best tiki bar, knows rum as well as anyone in the country. His version of this classic cocktail includes a housemade batter, plenty of rum, and a raft of secret spices. 650 gough st., s.F., 415-869-1900
–Jordan mackay
imagination (witness roast duck drizzled with orangeand–star anise honey) but simple demonstrations, like a beautifully done burger with housemade aioli, will convince you that it’s all about you, not him. The service is spot-on, and the strains of Edith Piaf in the small, spare space enhance the restaurant’s sweetness. In an age when very little seems to be undiscovered, Olea makes you feel like you’ve stumbled on a find. (J.S.) 1494 caLiFornia st. (at LarKin st.), 415-202-8521 $$ r ½ (6/09)
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perbacco FINANCIAL DISTRICT
If most downtown restaurants are evidence, San Francisco’s power brokers have gone into hibernation. But not at Perbacco. The lunch rush here is precisely that, and happy hour blurs into a prime-time parade. With its lounge, extended bar, and multiple dining rooms, the space lends itself to a spectrum of dining experiences. So, too, does Staffan Terje’s extensive Italian-inspired menu. The chef is as adept with halibut crudo as he is with ciccioli, a northern Italian version of pork rillettes. Stuffed with veal and cabbage for the signature agnolotti dal plin, or tossed with tuna ragù, capers, and chilies, the pastas are deservedly celebrated. Even main courses, like rabbit three ways with a red wine–blood sauce and porchetta with fennel-citrus salad, are as nuanced as they are brawny. Fifty items is a lot for one chef to pull off, but Terje typically does. These days, apparently, more can still be merrier. (S.H.) 230 caLiFornia st. (bEt. battEry anD Front sts.), 415-955-0663 $$$ rvw (7/09)
HHH
piccino DOGPATCH
Operating continuously from morning to night, this easy-to-love café sources from some of the best purveyors and farms in the region and features a succinct, seasonal menu centering on pizza. The pies, whose crusts are more crackly than chewy, include clas-
sics like a margherita and a cheese-free napoletana alongside specials that might combine, for example, speck, mozzarella, nepitella (an earthy Italian mint), and lemon zest. Many of the other dishes, such as pork-and-beef meatballs in tomato sauce, and squid ceviche with cherries, are as delicious as they are simple. Yet the Bay Area ethos of leaving well enough alone sometimes goes too far—or, rather, not far enough. Young pea pods on an antipasti platter came unwarrantably undressed, and the desserts can be slipshod: A slice of almond cake was leaden, and a scoop of chocolate mousse on a mound of strawberries was grainier than the sand at Ocean Beach. (S.H.) 801 22nD st. (at tEnnEssEE st.), 415-824-4224 $$ w (8/09)
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prospect SOMA
When Ravi Kapur left Boulevard, where he worked in the kitchen for eight years, he not only abandoned a 19th-century Parisian-style building for a soaring highrise filled with luxury condos, he also walked away from the butter churn in favor of more lighthearted California fare. Au revoir, red-wine reduction. The same chef who once bathed quail in foie gras has begun roasting the birds with garlic and preserved lemons. At Prospect, his long but subtle menu is built on layered flavors and small, surprising finds. Shaved turnips add crunch to yellowtail crudo; tasso aioli creates a smoky bond between buffalo carpaccio and fried oysters. The desserts are more intentionally nostalgic: petite s’mores with melted ganache and peach hand pie with bourbon reduction. Come early evening, the loungelike space morphs into the backdrop for a highbrow happy hour with a drinks menu by Brooke Arthur. The restaurant’s greatest weakness lies not in its
sustenance but in its setting. You’re sitting somewhere pretty, but it could be any urban backdrop where wealth joins forces with generic good taste. (J.S.) 300 spEar st. (at howarD st.), 415-247-7770 $$$ rw ½ (10/10)
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sons & daughters UNION SQUARE A voluptuous beet soup, adorned with crème fraîche, has the ample character you’d expect to find at a farm-to-table bistro. But the palate teaser served before it, spheres of honey spiced with nasturtium gel and delivered on a spoon bent Uri Geller–style, is the sort of fragile item that emerges from a kitchen-cum–science lab. A vast distance separates the two, and Sons & Daughters frolics in between. The chefs, Teague Moriarty and Matt McNamara, prove difficult to pigeonhole, but their surroundings are distinctive: black-and-white photos and crystal chandeliers. Out comes seared foie gras with grape granité and yogurt, then a delicate herb salad with curds and quinoa. You fear the menu may be too dainty—until the lamb loin with uni butter and parsnip purée arrives, and then you want to lick your plate. This might or might not cause a scene. It’s difficult to tell at a restaurant that fails to let you know exactly what it is but succeeds at being not quite like anywhere else. (J.S.) 708 bush st. (at powELL st.), 415-391-8311 $$$ rw ½ (11/10)
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spice kit SOMA
Fine dining and fast food collide at this takeout spot in the lobby of a downtown commercial building. Wilfred Pacio and Fred Tang, veterans of such high-minded kitchens as the French Laundry and the Ritz-Carlton, respectively, are bringing their refined talents to Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches and Korean bo ssäm
wraps. Careful sourcing and polished technique put these standards on a different level from what you’ll find at a Tenderloin deli. The fillings—five-spice chicken, beef short ribs, pork, and tofu—are either organic or naturally raised; the snappy, salty lotus chips are hand-sliced and fried on the premises; and the housemade pork pâté is well worth the 75-cent surcharge for adding it to your sandwich. But the best choice of all is the steamed pork buns: fluffy half moons filled with richly flavored belly meat, offset with vinegary slices of cucumber and a sweet smear of hoisin sauce. (J.N.) 405 howarD st. (at 1st st.), 415-882-4581 $ w ½ (9/10)
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thermidor CIVIC CENTER
At their new restaurant in Mint Plaza, Neil Jorgensen and Bruce Binn (the boys from Spork) have spun their time machine back to the Waldorf-Astoria circa 1950, collecting recipes for grand Continental dishes, then whirling them back into the modern age. Scallops Newburg has made the trip, along with its close cousin lobster Thermidor. Both sea creatures are baked in their shells with béchamel and brandy, with results decadent enough for Daddy Warbucks—though the chefs go light on the lobster butter and, with the scallops, hold off on the traditional extravagance of cream. Chicken Kiev is here, too, in all its Cold War glory, but it’s caked in panko, not battered down in eggy breadcrumbs. This makes for a bright adaptation, enlivened by a dash of sherry-mustard vinaigrette. Everything here is lovingly prepared, down to such bar snacks as goatcheese fritters with balsamic vinegar and sweet peaches, and the 20thcentury classic celery Victor. In Jorgensen and Binn’s interpretation, the stalks are stuffed with anchovies, then delicately fried. Thermidor’s steeland-concrete setting smacks of contemporary SoMa, but its desserts, like Cigarettes and Coffee (with tobacco-infused white-chocolate custard),
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pay winking homage to a bygone era. Back then, we had a lot to learn about cholesterol and nicotine— but culinarily, we knew how to live. (J.S.) 8 mint pLaza (bEt. FiFth anD sixth sts.), 415-896-6500 $$$ rw ½ (8/10)
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tony’s pizza napoletana
ChrisLeroy
NORTH BEACH
Few pizzaiolos spread themselves as thin—or stretch their dough as nimbly—as does Tony Gemignani, the children’s-book author (it’s about pizza), Guinness record holder (he spun a really large pie for a fairly long time), and flour-dusted showman at this chipper, eight-monthold North Beach restaurant. The East Bay native (he got his start at Pyzano’s in Castro Valley) fires four kinds of ovens, all the better for producing five different pizza styles, including the long, pliant white Roman and the thick, doughy Sicilian, each adjustable with contrapuntal toppings, like sausage and bell peppers, or proscuitto with fig preserves. The finest are the Neapolitan-style pies, particularly Gemignani’s margherita, a lightly blistered beauty that earned him first prize at the 2007 World Pizza Cup in Naples. The weakest are the “classic American” ones. Their faces are familiar (pepperoni, mushroom), but nostalgia has a downside: Their hard, flavorless crusts will give you flashbacks to your grammarschool cafeteria. Standardissue salads and pastas are also offered, but everything about this place says “pizzeria,” from the chummy, high-backed booths to the friendly service to the sight of Tony himself, at work behind the counter in a red bandanna, sending his dough into the air with all the aplomb of a ninetime world pizza-tossing champion. (J.S.) 1570
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Eats wayfare tavern FINANCIAL DISTRICT
Imagine a hunting lodge where Carnegie and Rockefeller might have met. Food Network star Tyler Florence’s first restaurant serves a modern tavern menu that includes new and ye olde cuisine, which the kitchen executes with mixed results. On the contemporary front, the chef marries sea urchin with sweet-corn purée. But on one occasion, he built a salad of black-eyed peas and feta around tomatoes so mealy that an Inuit in winter would have sent them back. Selecting carefully, you could make a fine meal of starters. Deviled eggs rank among the standouts: The chef updates this time-capsule staple by blending the yolks with mustard and crème fraîche, then scattering them with capers, anchovies, and lemon thyme. But though some dishes trigger waves of nostalgia, others make you realize that not every dusty recipe was meant to be revived. (J.S.) 558 sacramEnto st. (bEt. sansomE anD montgomEry sts.), 415-772-9060 $$$ rvw (9/10)
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east bay adesso
92
san franCisCo January 2011
OAKLAND
Rare is the sports bar that pours more pinot grigio than PBR and favors soppressata over fried zucchini sticks. But Adesso isn’t trying to be a meeting place for meatheads (cheap booze, greasy snacks, oversize TV). Chef Jon Smulewitz, who also co-owns Dopo, a block away, serves sophisticated spreads of pâté and piadina and challenges your lexicon of restaurant Italian with dozens of varieties of house-cured salumi, from sweet finocchiona (seasoned with fennel pollen) to sbriciolona, its deep notes accented with prosecco and thyme. Even as SportsCenter flashes on a flat-screen, more compelling highlights involve antipasti like yellowfin crudo and pork-filled
waiting for simoneaux Opening a restaurant can be a slowgoing process— held-up permits and construction delays keep a chef from doing what chefs do best. So Justin Simoneaux can count himself lucky: While waiting for his new restaurant, boxing room, to open in the old Citizen Cake space, the ex–Moss Room chef is giving his menu a test run with monthly dinners at absinthe. The next one is January 10, when Simoneaux will offer three courses of his Cajun-inflected fare for just $35 a person. Southern fried chicken with black-eyed peas and golden trout with brussels sprouts and sweet potato are featured on the menu, but the one dish you must not miss is the seafood gumbo with housemade tasso, the tangy cured pork Cajuns use for seasoning. Deeply flavored, smoky, and rich, his gumbo is quite likely the best you’ll find this far from the bayou. 398 hayEs st., s.F., 415-551-1590
(J.n.)
arancini. The space is snug and lively, and the noise exacts a small toll on your eardrums, but that’s a modest payment for what Adesso gives you. A banquet of fine bar food is complimentary at happy hour, and the foosball is always free. (J.S.) 4395 piEDmont aVE. (at pLEasant VaLLEy rD.), 510601-0305 $$ dw ½ (7/09)
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Camino OAKLAND
Almost from the day it opened two years ago, Camino has been a polarizing restaurant, viewed by opposing camps as either a triumphant showcase of seasonal simplicity or a frustrating exercise in restraint. Frequently, it comes across as both. Russell Moore’s exploration of open-fire cooking leads to its share of conversation stoppers, such as a grilled leg of lamb and smoked lamb shoulder perfumed with rosemary, then plated with shell beans and fiery rapini. But it also yields head scratchers, such as a ratatouille that lacks the original’s stewy richness and comes with a soggy, flavorless buckwheat cake. Given the nightly changing menu, some variability is par for the course, yet wild swings often arise within a single meal. Crisp corn fritters—heavenly orbs grounded by a tangle of frisée and grilled scallions—give way to a chiliheated seafood stew with a pucker-inducing excess of salt. In contrast, the cocktails are crisp and consistent, as are the desserts, including a nearly bare peach-and-raspberry tart that blushes beneath vanilla-bean ice cream, its tempered sweetness an illustration of Camino at its understated best. (J.S.) 3917 granD aVE. (at JEan st.), 510-547-5035 $$$ rw (11/10)
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Commis OAKLAND
Though the name of his restaurant means “chef’s apprentice” in French, James Syhabout has clearly surpassed that status. The chef’s imagination runs so freely that you realize he’s not riffing on tradition—he’s ranging into territory of his own. Entrées, like the slowcooked egg perched on pork jowls, and slowroasted lamb with huckleberries, mortared mint, eggplant stew and sorrel, draw on a dramatic crescendo of flavors that prompts you to mull over the inventive combinations. The same holds for dessert, when Coi veteran Carlos Salgado’s chocolate cake with avocado ganache, and creamy melon soup with sweet chamomile “snow” provide an artful coda to Syhabout’s cuisine. Commis’ menu is a three-course, $59 prix fixe, plus an optional $29 wine pairing that few diners will want to do without. (J.S.) 3859 piEDmont aVE., 510-653-3902 $$$$ rw ½ (11/09)
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dopo OAKLAND
Back in 2003, when Jon Smulewitz first opened this Italian-inspired spot, he drew fresh attention to what has since become one of Oakland’s most energetic restaurant rows. The dining room has doubled since those early days, but tables have become only slightly easier to secure. Blame it on the kitchen, which strives for simplicity and achieves it beautifully in almost every dish, including a crudo of local halibut brightened with lemon and mint. The salumi transcends the trend with supple mortadella and a smoky pimentón, reminding you why charcuterie became a craze in the first place, and the thin-crust pizzas have a well-earned local following. But it’s the pastas—delicate sheets rolled fresh each evening— that truly stand out. Each
night’s menu features just three of them, including (always) a masterful lasagna alla napoletana with layers of parmesan and pecorino and an earthy bolognese. Dopo has a short, sweet list of Italian wines, but the restaurant offers excellent classic Italian cocktails: Treat yourself to an expertly made Americano. (J.N.) 4293 piEDmont aVE. (bEt. gLEnwooD anD Echo aVEs.), 510-652-3676 $$ w ½ (8/10)
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emilia’s pizzeria BERKELEY
Keith Freilich has worked the pizza circuit from high (Pizzaiolo) to low (Pizza Hut), with a stop at Hoboken cult favorite Grimaldi’s in between. Now he’s opened this little bit of storefront on Shattuck Avenue, across the street from Berkeley Bowl. There’s nothing fancy about the space—just two tables and a counter lined with soda cans—or ambitious about the menu, which offers one pie with a short list of toppings. Emilia’s focus is on the pizza itself, and Freilich makes a very fine one. His style, he will tell you, is more Brooklyn than Bay Area, which means a seriously crisp crust with a deep, bready flavor. Puddles of mozzarella, both fresh and aged, spread across a bed of fresh tomato sauce littered with torn basil leaves. Right after he pulls the finished pizza from the oven, Freilich grabs a grater and a hunk of parmigiano reggiano and lets the cheese rain down. This glorious pie will bring out the worst chauvinism in any homesick New Yorker—and those who know only California pizza will finally understand what the fuss is about. (J.N.) 2995 shat-
Gather turns out to be pretty darn good. Overseeing the kitchen is Sean Baker, who cooked for several years at vegan outpost Millennium but now shows himself to be an allinclusive chef. His robust slow-cooked dishes, such as braised pork with wilted greens and creamy polenta, could stand in for entrées at a well-run trattoria, and his finest vegan options, such as heirloom bean ragout with root vegetable “butter,” reach such depths of flavor that you’d swear the chef slipped beef stock into the mix. How nice that there’s a restaurant providing common ground for all of God’s creatures, the guiltless vegan and the unrepentant carnivore alike. (J.S.) 2200 oxForD st. (at aLLston way), 510-809-0400 rw $$ ½ (5/10)
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picán OAKLAND
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This upbeat spot in Oakland’s Uptown celebrates its locale by playing to its grand and glamorous side. Set in a generic condo complex, Picán’s interior reveals regal leather banquettes, Victorian moldings, and vaulted ceilings. Matching the grandeur, chef Dean Dupuis serves California-infused Southern cooking with a refined spin that is unrepentant in its richness. Sometimes he lays his Southern accent on thick, as with she-crab soup, a rib-sticking bisque bolstered with sweet chunks of blue-crab meat. Other times, it’s just the slightest lilt: Pan-roasted scallops hardly qualify as a Dixie classic, though they try with tiny bits of crawfish and a scattering of hominy-and–spring pea succotash. Some complain that this restaurant, with entrée prices in the mid$20s range, is tone-deaf to our economic times, but others find that Picán has perfect pitch. (J.S.) 2295
Gather
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tucK aVE. (at ashby aVE.), 510-704-1794 $ Cdrw ½ (4/10)
BERKELEY
Though its name smacks of a summons to a hippie berry harvest or an overpriced farm dinner in a mogul’s melon patch,
broaDway (at 23rD st.), 510-834-1000 $$$$ rvw ½ (8/09)
OAKLAND
Despite an occasional youthful laxness in its service, this Temescal favorite is maturing nicely into middle age. Time and repetition have given rise to what regulars regard as signature dishes, like roughly shaped, tomato sauce–slathered meatballs, whose lightness belies their depth of flavor, and conversation-stopping buttermilk-fried chicken, with a flash of hot chili oil and a chickpea ragù. The menu still changes daily, of course, but it always includes an array of blistered pizzas and freshly foraged salads that complement the hipsterfarmhouse atmosphere. One evening, the season’s last tomatoes came paired with nutty farro and roasted eggplant, while beet-and-cabbage soup heated with horseradish heralded the cooler weather—and tasted like Bubby’s finest borscht, by way of the Bay. Chef-owner Charlie Hallowell’s impassioned presence is apparent. He likes his music twentysomething loud, but his cooking has an adult composure. The result is a restaurant with time-resistant energy and spirit that grown-ups can understand. (J.S.) 5008 tELEgraph aVE. (bEt. 51st anD 49th sts.), 510-652-4888 $$–$$$ rw (1/10)
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tamarindo OAKLAND
Spring break and frat bashes notwithstanding, tequila was intended to be sipped, not slugged—a fact that more and more restaurants seem to recognize. The latest to treat the spirit with respect is Tamarindo, which has doubled in size and devoted the extra space to a tequila bar. Magnificent margaritas, rimmed with chili salt and splashed with such refreshers as grapefruit soda and tamarind purée, share space on the bar with straight-up one-ounce pours, which stretch tequila’s spectrum from slowburning blancos to a 1942 Don Julio that’s smooth enough to pass for a Don Juan. In the kitchen, chef Gloria Dominguez sticks with small plates that delve
below the chips-andguacamole surface into the deeper strata of Mexican cuisine. Scallops, sautéed with clay-red guajillo chilies, bask atop a bed of avocado relish; a carnitas torta, its tender meat topped with chili de arból salsa, sets a five-alarm fire tempered by a soft Acme baguette. Some dishes miss (the cactus stems in a nopales salad are flavorless, watery vessels), but most hit their mark, including vibrant ceviche and rich queso fundido: chunks of chorizo in a molten crater of mild Oaxacan cheese. The biggest draw, however, is the bar: a salvage-chic space with funky wooden tables, globe-shaped chandeliers, and not a peep from Jimmy Buffett. It’s where grown-ups drink while others waste away in Margaritaville. (J.S.) 468 8th st. (bEt. washington st. anD broaDway), 510444-1944 $$ rw ½ (10/10)
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peninsula/ south bay bombay express FREMONT
Housed in what was once a Taco Bell, the new Bombay Express only masquerades as a fast-food joint. It’s actually a palace of slow cooking where the flavors stand out with unusual clarity. The entirely vegetarian menu draws from across India, with chaat-style dishes from the south and Punjabi specialties, such as kadhi chawal, fabulous chewy chickpea dumplings in curried yogurt sauce, from the north. The service can be languid, but you’ll be entertained while you wait by watching crisp papdi chaat being made to order in the open kitchen. Run by same trio who also operate the more upscale Sakoon in Mountain View, Bombay Express offers food of a similar caliber at a far more palatable price. (S.B.) 5029 mowry aVE. (at bLacow rD.), 510-713-0155 $w (4/10)
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Coconuts PALO ALTO
When he shreds ginger root for fresh ginger beer, chef Robert Simpson opts for a Robot Coupe over a traditional hand grater. But the Jamaica native, who also owns Menlo Park’s popular Back A Yard, tolerates no shortcuts when it comes to cooking meat. He gives his curried goat and braised oxtail four and a half hours of slow heat, just as cooks do in the islands. “It’s ethnic food,” says Simpson. “It takes time. End of story.” But that’s really just the beginning for this cheerful, lowkey restaurant decked out in bright Caribbean colors, which also serves fried, cakelike corn “festivals” and “bammy” made from yucca root. Traditional jerk spices add fiery zip to chicken, salmon, and tofu, and milder coconut-curried shrimp and adobo-marinated steak are also great choices. Because entrées come fully loaded with vegetables, plantains, and a mound of beans and rice, paying the $2 fee for a split plate makes sense for bargain hunters and light eaters. (S.B.) 642 ramona st. (bEt. ForEst anD hamiLton aVEs.), 650-329-9533 $$ rw (3/10)
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howie’s artisan pizza PALO ALTO
Howard Bulka asks tough questions. For instance: “How come you can’t get real American pizza anymore? How come you can’t get a $5 glass of wine in a restaurant?” The chef’s new venture is his answer-in-progress. It’s also an homage to the thin-crust, East Coast– style pizza of his childhood. Some toppings are old-school, like pepperoni, while others, such as fennel sausage and broccoli rabe, nod to contemporary tastes. Bulka’s attention to detail is unrelenting: His crisp yet chewy dough begins with a 24-hour fermentation, and the pancetta, fennel sausage, and ricotta are all made in house. The service is
unpretentious “drop-andgo,” but the wines on the list are lovingly described. (S.B.) 855 EL camino rEaL (at EmbarcaDEro rD.), 650327-4992 $$ w (2/10)
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Little yangon DALY CITY
Those who weren’t raised on salty fish paste and fermented tea leaves will still find a familial welcome at this bright, fluorescent beacon in Daly City, which stands out among the many Burmese restaurants around the Bay. Owners Mya Tun and Khin Ma, best friends and Burma natives, forgo assimilation on their budget-minded menu. But both are adept at describing such distinctive dishes as chin bong jaw, a sour, sorrel-like green sautéed with chilies, chopped shrimp, and bamboo shoots, and Mandalay myee shay, a tangle of rice noodles in a saucy threeway with roasted pork and pickled mustard greens. True to form for Burmese cuisine, the food here synthesizes other Asian traditions. You can taste the influence of India in chicken gizzard–and–liver curry, with the acid bite of tomato cutting the richness. And you’ll notice the Thai accents in a crisp shrimpcake salad tossed with cabbage, shredded cucumbers, and fried bean sprouts, then splashed with a sauce infused with tamarind’s sweet-tart tang. The bare-bones setting isn’t much to speak of: A tapestry of elephants overlooks a spartan dining room flanked by a cafeteria-style open kitchen. But if you’re after ambience, look no farther than the restaurant’s charming owners, whose cooking takes you on exotic travels, even as it wraps you in the warm embrace of home. (J.S.) 6318 mission st. (at
San Francisco VIPs splashed for cash at the 18th annual TNDC Celebrity Pool Toss. THE SCENE An eclectic stew of celebrities, chefs, local business leaders, and city officials were all ceremoniously tossed into the Phoenix Hotel’s pool to raise money to help Tenderloin children and families. An evening of "only in San Francisco"entertainment included Te Fabulous Bud E. Love Show, go-go dance troupe the Devil-Ettes, Kathleen Antonia, DJ Rafa, and the toned Gold’s Gym lifeguards who were on hand to rescue any celebrities who couldn’t swim—or just wanted to be rescued! THE PARTY
hiLLcrEst Dr.), 650-9940111 $ w ½ (3/10)
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Located right across the road from the most renowned venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, this hotel restaurant is as posh and clubby as you’d expect from a place poised to be the offsite executive dining room of high-tech kings. The only surprise is the menu’s risky reliance on unusual greens, like stinging nettles and chickweed—plants that some Luddites still consider weeds. The greens star in first-rate dishes such as roasted sablefish with erbette chard, artichokes, cauliflower, and roasted-garlic nage with black-olive oil. For vegetarians, it doesn’t get any better than chestnut pappardelle with stinging nettles, delicata squash, wild mushrooms, and black truffles. But the kitchen hasn’t realized that there’s no profit in adding delicate fruit flavors to these brassy greens: No matter how prime the components, kumquat confit plus duck breast and cavolo nero equals confusion. The service is uneven, but the fat wine list makes fascinating reading. (S.B.) 2825 sanD hiLL rD. (at sharon parK Dr.), 650-561-1540 $$$$ rwv (2/10)
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reposado PALO ALTO
Hotel Room/Ticket Deals sleep@crescentsf.com 417 Stockton Street San Francsisco, CA 94108
CONTACT: josh@bonvivants-sf.com
(bEt. EmErson anD ramona sts.), 650-833-3151 $$$ rw (6/09)
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sumika LOS ALTOS
Why is it that there’s a sushi bar on almost every corner in San Francisco, while other types of Japanese food, like kushiyaki, are so hard to find? These “tasty tidbits on skewers” are so appealing—and much easier to convince your kid to eat than, say, uni is—that it’s hard to understand why tsukune (chicken meatballs flavored with shiso) aren’t as ubiquitous as California rolls. One place you can find kushiyaki is four-yearold Sumika, in downtown Los Altos, where chef Yoshiyuki Maruyama maintains the fire with the aid of a paper fan. Occasionally, he’ll dash out to a table, bearing skewers of chicken hearts, liver, and crisp bits of skin (breasts and thighs, too), as well as succulent bites of tontoro— pork cheeks with a crust of salty fat. Okra (minus the vegetable’s trademark sliminess), scallops, sweethot shisito peppers, and Kobe beef all take a turn over the coals, with equally delicious results. The kitchen’s talent also extends to include perfect fried chicken and odd but wonderful cubes of frozen crème brûlée. (J.N.) 236 cEntraL pLaza (bEt. 2nD anD 3rD sts.), 650-917-1822 $$ rw ½ (8/09)
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north bay ad hoc YOUNTVILLE
When Thomas Keller opened this restaurant, he said it was temporary, something to bide the time until he could move forward with a different dining concept. But Ad Hoc is still here four years later, while that other project remains on the drawing board. Its success speaks to the appeal of eating in a restaurant run by the man many call the best chef in America. Like Keller’s other, more famous restaurant, Ad Hoc requires a reservation made two months in advance, but the price— $49 for the four-course prix fixe menu— is easier to swallow than the $250 tariff on the nine-course menu at the French Laundry. Though the space itself still feels provisional (it looks like it was designed after a quick trip to West Elm), Ad Hoc’s food has settled confidently into place. The menu is different every day—except for the two Mondays each month when Keller’s famous fried chicken plays the featured role—and takes a hearty, homey turn with dishes like a grilled flatiron steak garnished with “TFL garden radishes.” The staff are as well trained as their counterparts down the road, but their uniforms, which resemble a mid20th-century gas station attendant’s getup, along with the pop soundtrack pumping through the speakers, give the place the feel of a wine-country version of the Hard Rock Café. (J.N.) 6476 washington st. (bEt. mission st. anD oaK cir.), 707-944-2487 $$$$ rw ½ (3/10)
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bottega ristorante YOUNTVILLE
If you scripted a winecountry soap opera, Michael Chiarello could play McSteamy and his restaurant could serve as the set. Against the backdrop of a modernized “farmhouse,” the Food Network star caters to a crowd worthy of central casting: gentleman vintners, clinky-drink cougars, and cabernet princes
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TICKETS $85 brownpapertickets.com
san franCisCo January 2011
Named for oak-aged tequila and hung with huge abstract paintings, this sleek Mexican restaurant is clearly not about super burritos and combo plates. The food here can be tongue-tingling, like the grilled snapper marinated in mild achiote powder and citrus and surrounded by a blazing chili sauce with roasted undertones. Fish tacos layer three pungent sauces: creamy
chipotle aioli, crunchy jicama pico de gallo, and a rustic habanero salsa. Spice-rubbed lamb chops are enhanced with nutty pasilla mole sauce. Unfortunately, there are also some blunders on the menu, such as ceviche with sorbet-sweet mango sauce, and greasy potato cakes with a platter of otherwise perfect grilled pork chops in mojo marinade. But the desserts are on fire with flavor: The moist Azteca chocolate cake is laced with chili, topped with lime sabayon, and streaked with ancho-chili honey—a combination that could be too much but instead, like most of the food here, makes for intriging and delicious eating. (S.B.) 236 hamiLton aVE.
FinD our compLEtE Listings at
sanfranmag.com
armed with Daddy’s credit card. What they have in common is a taste for Chiarello’s Italian-driven cooking, which shows flashes of invention without trying too hard. There’s a sweet simplicity to a shaved–brussels sprout salad with almonds, sieved egg, and citrus vinaigrette, and a smoky depth of flavor to grilled octopus with braised potatoes, drizzled with vibrant salsa verde. For every perfect pasta (cloudlike ricotta gnocchi with bright tomato sauce), there’s one whose execution puzzles (gloopy carbonara). The service verges on comically effusive— but not at the door, where the hostess hugs everyone who owns a vineyard and treats other diners as second-class. (J.S.) 6525 washington st. (at yount st.), 707-945-1050 $$$$ rw ½ (5/09)
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morimoto NAPA
The latest outpost of the Morimoto empire sits in a spendy retail spread known as the Riverfront.
An East-meets-West aesthetic is the aim here, but the restaurant feels more like something you’d find in a Vegas hotel. Sitting on the patio, which overlooks the Napa River, you expect to see the Bellagio’s dancing fountains spout up from the water below. It won’t be a shock to Morimoto followers to see the restaurant’s Noah’s ark of a menu, stocked with nearly every creature that has ever walked the earth or swum in its waters. The list runs on for pages: hot and cold appetizers; steaks; grilled entrées; and a multicourse omakase, or chef’s tasting. A favorite moment came with the yose dofu, a housemade tofu cooked tableside. It was delicious, a velvety backdrop for soy sauce, ginger, scallions, and mushroom dashi. But what I enjoyed most was the preparation: a rare intimate gesture in a restaurant as impersonal as Morimoto, where a chef with a vision
has created a blueprint that, in the end, is destined to be carried out by someone else. (J.S.) 610 main st. (at 5th st.), 707-2521600 rw $$$$ (11/10)
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oenotri NAPA
There may come a day when the Bay Area’s proliferation of wood-fired pizzas sparks a public outcry for a test-ban treaty. But until then, we can appreciate the likes of Tyler Rodde and Curtis Di Fede, who have expanded the focus-group Italian menu into more than the same old thing. Their pies are platforms for refreshing pairings (such as Manila clams with yellow gypsy peppers), and their pastas frequently grow playful: Black olives and braised rabbit complete a sweetand-salty three-way with beet strozzapreti. Predictably, there’s salumi, all of it housemade. But the most compelling items are the entrées. On one evening, roast rabbit, wrapped in pancetta and stuffed with spring-onion frittata, stood
in creative contrast with the canned rusticity of the dining room, where cookware dangles in the open kitchen like props on a Food Network set. At first glance, you might worry that it’s J. Peterman’s take on Tuscany—but credit is due to the young chefs, whose food springs from the catalog into life. (J.S.) 1425 1st st. (bEt. FranKLin anD schooL sts.), 707-252-1022 $$$ drw (8/10)
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osteria stellina POINT REYES STATION
Christian Caiazzo calls his cooking Point Reyes Italian, another way of saying he has concocted a rustic menu peppered with proper names. From Star Route Farms beets in a salad of baby arugula and ricotta salata to grass-fed Marin Sun Farms beef, turned tender in a stew and served over polenta, Caiazzo relies on the bounty of a region known
as an Eden for conscientious eaters. While the chef respects the purity of his products (witness a starter of braised kale, rosemary, and cannellini beans), he’s not afraid to press them into unfamiliar roles—hence roast-chicken salad chock full of cherries, and blistered, briny pizza adorned with lemon thyme, oysters, and cream. Desserts by Laura Matis match the chef’s aesthetic (her coffee-cardamom pot de crème is effortlessly sweet), and the setting suits the sustenance. Though the service can have a gruff, coastal edge, the waitstaff treat you well enough—even if, unlike the meats and produce, you come from a long way away. (J.S.) 11285 hwy. 1 (at 3rD st.), 415-663-9988 $$ rw ½ (9/09)
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sushi ran SAUSALITO
On any given Friday night, every person over 40 who lives on the southern edge of Marin County seems to be seated at the counter here—or waiting for the
chance. The lucky ones score a stool in front of Mitsunori Kusakabe (a former world champion sushi chef), who transforms the fish—much of it flown in from Tokyo’s Tsukiji market—into the kind of delicately flavored dishes that make ordinary diners into sushi obsessors. For these cultists, the restaurant offers such traditional touches as fresh wasabi shredded on a sharkskin grater (it comes with a $7 surcharge) and a plea to refrain from using regular soy sauce if they order the seasonal sushi tasting. Back behind the stoves, chef Scott Whitman takes a more relaxed, if every bit as delicious, approach to cooked dishes, including king trumpet mushrooms with onion jam and a tasting platter with three kinds of tofu. (J.N.) 107 caLEDonia st. (at pinE st.), 415-332-3620 $$$ rw ½ (5/10)
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BACK STORY 96
Way back in 2006, we published our picks for the Bay Area inventors who would achieve the most brilliant advances. At the top was Homayoon Kazerooni, professor at UC Berkeley and one of the founders of Berkeley Bionics. Kazerooni’s expertise is robotics, and we predicted that he was onto something big with his plan for a lightweight exoskeleton—essentially a bionic suit that would enable superhuman performance, allowing a user to carry 200 pounds as easily as 200 feathers. The piece, conceived and written by contributing writer Jonathon Keats, also hinted at an even more fantastic application of Kazerooni's research. Prophecy is a tough racket, but like Nostradamus, San Francisco apparently has a knack for it. Kazerooni and his team eventually licensed the suit to weapons and aerospace company Lockheed Martin. And this past October, Berkeley Bionics was able to publicly announce that it had developed a version of its exoskeleton, called eLegs, that—as predicted offhand back in ’06—allows paraplegics to walk again. This astounding development earned eLegs a place in our latest attempt at prognostication, “The Year in Preview,” on page 50. When we caught up with the professor, he called himself a lucky man. “At this stage of my life, it’s all about passion,” he said. Now his passion has moved him on to giving paraplegics the ability to walk cheaply. The current model of eLegs costs around $100,000; the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory that Kazerooni heads is trying to create a home version of the suit that would sell for the price of a motorcycle. The effort has required a fundamental redesign, and early this year Kazerooni will complete two new prototypes of the reengineered model. Kazerooni can’t yet forecast how soon he will be able to mass-produce these lowcost exoskeletons for the many who need them. “Building a Porsche is a lot easier than building a Toyota,” he said. But he does know that he's looking forward to his next call from San Francisco, asking him to talk about the future. n BY NIC BURON
FROM TOP: San Francisco’s 2006 selection of Homayoon Kazerooni as an inventor to watch; the eLegs exoskeleton that eventually emerged from his team’s work.
TO P: SARA LAF LE U R-vE TTE R; R i g hT: b E R k E LEy b i O n i c S
saN fRaNCIsCO jAnuARY 2011
The eLegs prophecy
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An expanded version of the Member Guide is available online at kqed.org/theguide. Download it all or just the sections you want.
The Space Age: NASA’s Story Series begins Tuesday, January 18, 9pm
2011 Member Benefits Directory N OW AVAIL A BL E AT KQ ED.O R G/ DIS COUNT S
Monday
Tuesday
mid
All Things Considered
Wednesday
All Things Considered
1:00
Cambridge Forum Latino USA
BBC World Service
2:00
Marketplace Money It’s Your World
7:00
Saturday
This Week in NorCal †
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Sunday
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KQED News Weekdays 6:04, 7:06, 8:06am Tue–Thu 6:33am & 8:33am
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QUEST Radio Report Mondays 6:33 & 8:33am
All of KQED Public Radio’s programs are streamed live at kqed.org.
Health Dialogues Baby Boomers Hit Medicare Thursday, January 20, 8pm and Saturday, January 22, 2pm In January 2011, a demographic tsunami will hit Medicare as Baby Boomers start turning 65 and become eligible for federal health-care benefits.
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The Do List Fridays 6:33 & 8:33am
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Intelligence Squared U.S. America’s House Divided Wednesday, January 19, 8pm and Saturday, January 22, 1pm Executive producer Dana Wolfe explains Intelligence Squared U.S.’s approach for 2011: “The political conversation in America is being dominated by the extremes in both parties, and as a result, politics seems more partisan than ever. Left unexamined is a serious discussion of the issues that often divide Americans. In an effort to shed some light, we plan to devote our next season to a coherent analysis of some of these critical issues. From income inequality to the United States’ declining global influence; from energy policy to immigration reform; even the two-party system itself.”
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† Friday, December 31–Saturday, January 1, 7pm-2am, Toast of the Nation. Saturday, January 15, 2pm, A Portrait of Atlanta 1962. Saturday, January 22, 2pm, Health Dialogues.
The Commonwealth Club Calories & Carbon Wednesday, January 26, 8pm and Saturday, January 29, 1pm Ken Cook, the founder and president of the Environmental Working Group, joined Whendee Silver, professor of ecology at U.C. Berkeley and co-founder and lead scientist with the Marin Carbon Project, and Helene York, director of Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation, for a discussion about calories, carbon, and the way forward. The panelists stressed how far we’ve come in such a short time. “There was a time, not too long ago, that if you went into an organic restaurant or tried to shop for organic produce, you really wondered whether the food had been harvested or maybe had escaped,” Cook said. “We have come a long way in understanding how to have it both ways—have beautiful, appetizing food that you want to eat and that serves your human need for satiety and at the same time is better for the environment.” A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor Saturdays, 6pm and Sundays, 11am
Toast of the Nation Friday, December 31, 7pm– Saturday, January 1, 2am Travel from coast to coast and from time zone to time zone with four musical celebrations of midnight. Peace, War, and Indifference Saturday, January 1, 1pm and Thursday, January 6, 8pm This one-hour program examines the possibilities of peace in our world today by looking at excerpts from important presidential speeches by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Reagan alongside the words of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Chilean poet Gonzalo Millan, and musicians from around the globe.
2
America Abroad Splitting Sudan Wednesday, January 5, 8pm and Saturday, January 8, 1pm The country of Sudan has been at war with itself for much of its history. The most recent round of fighting between north and south lasted more than 20 years and left more than 2 million dead. A U.S.-backed peace deal in 2005 put an end to that civil war and also guaranteed south Sudan a vote for self-determination in early 2011. But as that vote nears, the potential for renewed conflict looms. And even if the south becomes independent, it will be one of Africa’s poorest countries and face a difficult road to stability. What are the underlying conflicts that will make the south’s secession difficult? And can a young, fractured, and impoverished southern state succeed?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.— A Rewind Series This series—from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation—explores the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream Wednesday, January 12, 8pm and Saturday, January 15, 1pm The speech that brought him to national attention: I Have a Dream. Also includes the first of five half-hour lectures that Dr. King gave on the CBC in late 1967. A Portrait of Atlanta 1962 Thursday, January 13, 8pm and Saturday, January 15, 2pm A portrait of the city of Atlanta from 1962.
City Arts & Lectures Sundays, 1pm, Tuesday, 8pm, and Wednesdays, 2am 1/2, 1/4, &1/5 Lady Antonia Fraser, author of novels, biographies, and detective fiction. 1/9, 1/11, & 1/12 Actress, author, and comedian Amy Sedaris. 1/16, 1/18, & 1/19 Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor, publisher, and part-owner of The Nation. 1/23, 1/25, & 1/26 Writer, essayist, and commentator Adam Gopnik and Susan Stamberg, special correspondent for NPR and Weekend Edition Saturday guest host. 1/30, 2/1, & 2/2 Film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, author, and blogger Nora Ephron.
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Cover photo: Courtesy BBC Worldwide. Opposite page: Andrew Eccles.
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See page 8 for programs airing weekdays between 6am and 7:30pm on KQED 9.
PR OGR AMM I N G SY MBOLS This program is a KQED production or presentation. This program (or episode) is airing on KQED for the first time. P This broadcast will be interrupted by fund-raising intermissions. This program will be repeated on the date noted. RR This program is a repeat. See noted date and time of original broadcast for program description. D Descriptive video information for the sight-impaired is available on televisions with stereo capability. HD This program is broadcast in high definition. Programs are subject to change after press deadlines. For the latest program information, consult daily papers, call 415.553.2135 or visit kqed.org/tvchanges. If you are recording, allow five minutes for early starts and late finishes.
Weekend Movies January 8 The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) One, Two, Three (1961)
1-6am
6:30
Sid the Science Kid | D | HD |
E.g.: | R (9/HD) 2/5 mid; (Life) 2/8 7pm, 2/9 1am; (World) 2/6 10pm; (Kids) 2/7 8am
7:00
Raggs | q |
7:30
WordWorld | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/13 11am
11:30
Saturday 1
8:00
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! | q | D | HD |
Monday 3
8:30
Curious George | D |
EARLY
9:00
Wild Kratts | HD | R (9/HD) 1/3 4:29pm
mid
Austin City Limits Cheap Trick. | HD |
9:30
Caillou | D | R (9/HD) 1/3 7:30am
1-6am
10:00
Dinosaur Train | D | HD |
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
10:30
The Electric Company | D | HD | R
11:00
Nature Cloud’s Legacy: The Wild Stallion Returns chronicles the lives of horses living wild in the mountains of Montana. | D | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30
January 29 Charade (1963)
This Week in Northern California | q | Year in Review. | HD | R (9/HD) 7am, 1/2 4pm; (World) 1/1 9:30am
2:00
Washington Week | HD | R (9/HD) 6:30am; (World) 1/1 9am
2:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #217 RNM, Ana Mandara, The Front Porch. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 12:30am & 5:30pm
3:00
Live from Lincoln Center New York Philharmonic New Year’s Eve with Lang Lang. | HD |
5:00 6:00
Great Performances The Police: Certifiable. | HD | R (Life) 1/8 7pm The McLaughlin Group | + | R (9/HD) 1/2 3:30pm
6:30
Washington Week | HD | R (World) 1/1 9am
7:00
This Week in Northern California | q | Year in Review. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 4pm; (World) 1/1 9:30am
7:30
Roadtrip Nation | q | #601. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 mid
8:00-1:00America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated KQED’s presents the “Mixing Bowl.” Watch ten 30-minute Test Kitchen episodes back-to-back.
AFTERNOON noon
1:00pm Fannie’s Last Supper | + | This documentary reveals the origins of American cooking and explores how culinary expert Fannie Farmer sowed the seeds of the modern food revolution. | HD | 2:00-8:00The Story of India In this landmark six-part series, Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting journey through today’s India, “seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future.” | D | HD |
2:30
In the Life | + | R (9/HD) 1/3 5:30am
EVENING 7:30pm ImageMakers | q | Imagine a World Without Me. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/4 1:30am, 1/23 11:30pm, 1/24 5:30am 8:00
Antiques Roadshow | + | Miami Beach, Hour 1 of 3. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/4 2am, 1/8 3pm
9:00
Victor Borge: The Funniest Man in the World | + | is a rare and full portrait of the beloved entertainer. | R (9/HD) 1/4 3am, 1/8 7pm, 1/9 1am & 10:30pm, 1/10 4:30am
10:00
Robert E. Lee: American Experience | + | examines the life of the general, whose military successes made him the hero of the Confederacy. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/4 4am
11:30
ImageMakers | q | Boys Will Be Boys. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/4 5:30am
3:00
Inside Washington | + | The McLaughlin Group
4:00
This Week in Northern California | q | Year in Review. | HD |
4:30
Lidia’s Italy Simmering Chicken in Beer (Trentino Alto Adige). | HD |
EARLY
5:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated Old-Fashioned Fruit Desserts. | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
Tuesday 4 mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
5:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #217 RNM, Ana Mandara, The Front Porch. | HD |
EVENING
6:00
Terra Antarctica: Rediscovering the Seventh Continent Researchers observe the impact of climate change on one of the most remote places on the planet. | HD |
8:00
Nova Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor. Dive into the waters of Pearl Harbor to trace new clues to the historic sinking of the USS Arizona. | D | HD | R (9/ HD) 1/5 2am
9:00
Secrets of the Dead Japanese Supersub. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/5 3am
10:00
Frontline Death by Fire. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/5 4am
7:00
Nova Secrets Beneath the Ice. Scientists use a state-of-the-art drilling probe to investigate ice shelf melting in Antarctica. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/3 1am; (World) 1/2 10pm
8:00pm Great Performances | + | From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2011. Julie Andrews, Franz WelserMost, and the Vienna Philharmonic perform Strauss family favorites. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 2am & noon
8:00pm Nature American Eagle. Emmywinning cinematographer Neil Rettig captures the drama of the bald eagle’s nest. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/3 2am, 1/9 11am
7:30pm QUEST | q | Where Are the Bees?/ Landslide Detectives. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/5 1:30am
11:00
Independent Lens | + | Men Who Swim. A group of middle-aged men find unlikely success as members of Sweden’s synchronized swimming team. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/5 5am
Great Performances | + | Celebración: Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic with Juan Diego Florez. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 3:30am
Wednesday 5
ImageMakers | q | Not the Same Old Song and Dance. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/2 5:30am
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
Sunday 2 EARLY mid
ImageMakers | q | Just a Girl. | HD | | R (9/HD) 1/3 5am
3:30
EVENING
11:30
11:00
ImageMakers | q | Amazing Animation. | HD |
EVENING
9:30
Masterpiece Classic My Boy Jack. This story of Rudyard Kipling’s son Jack stars Kim Cattrall and Daniel Radcliffe. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/3 3am
Great Performances From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2011. | HD | RR 1/1 8pm
1:30pm Chihuly Fire and Light is a glimpse into Dale Chihuly’s ambitious exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum. | HD |
AFTERNOON
January 15 Dances with Wolves (1990) January 22 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) 1/3 noon
9:00
6:00am Clifford the Big Red Dog | D |
EARLY mid
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
Roadtrip Nation | q | #601. | HD |
12:30am Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #217 RNM, Ana Mandara, The Front Porch. | HD | R (9/HD) 5:30pm
January 2011 2011 KQED KQED Public Public Television TelevisionKQED KQED Public Public Radio Radio KQED.org KQED.org
The KQED Public Television programs listed here are available over the air on Channels 9.1, 54.2 and 25.1 as well as via most cable systems on Channel 9, via Comcast Channel 709, and via satellite on DirecTV (local and HD Channel 9), and DISH network (local Channel 8226 in SD only).
Note: Program repeats on the Life (Comcast 189, Digital 54.3), and World (Comcast 190, Digital 9.3) channels are also listed here. They are separated by semicolons.
EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm Spark | q | David Best, Keith Knight, Surf Style. | R (9/HD) 1/6 1:30am, 1/7 11:30pm, 1/8 5:30am 8:00
Nature The Best of Nature—25 Years. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/6 2am
3
11:00
Independent Lens The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. A San Francisco dharma bum falls in with a flock of parrots. | R (9/HD) 1/6 3:30am
Saturday 8
Homestretch: Racehorse Rescue chronicles the pairing of inmates and rescued end-of-career racehorses. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/6 5am
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
Thursday 6 Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) 1/10 noon
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. 6:00am The McLaughlin Group | + | R (9/HD) 1/9 3:30pm 6:30
Washington Week | HD | R (World) 1/8 9am
7:00
This Week in Northern California | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 4pm
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
7:30
Roadtrip Nation | q | #602. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 mid
EVENING
8:00
Travelscope Naturally Los Angeles.
7:30pm Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #219 Da Lian, The Mountain House, Buca di Beppo. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/7 1:30am, 1/8 1pm
8:30
8:00
9:00
Colosseum: Rome’s Arena of Death Learn the true story of Verus, a slave who became a star gladiator. | R (9/HD) 1/7 2am, 1/9 7pm, 1/10 1am Lost Treasures of the Ancient World | + | Ancient Rome. | R (9/ HD) 1/7 3am
9:50
Lost Treasures of the Ancient World | + | The Pyramids: Jewels of the Nile. | D | R (9/HD) 1/7 3:50am, 1/8 6pm
11:00
Adopted: For the Life of Me | + | A man’s search for his birthmother illuminates the impact secrets can have over an entire lifetime. | D | R (9/HD) 1/7 5am
Friday 7 EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
9:00
9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00
11:30
noon
8:00
8:30
9:00
Washington Week | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/8 1:30am, 2am & 6:30am; (World) 1/8 9am Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #218 Pauline’s Pizza, Rotee, La Foret. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/8 2:30am & 9am, 1/9 12:30am Human Senses Smell/Taste. Host Nigel Marven sets out to discover the biological reasons that humans eat such a diverse range of foods. | R (9/HD) 1/8 3am
10:00
Need to Know | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/8 4am
11:00
ImageMakers | q | Chance Encounters. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/8 5am
11:30
Spark David Best, Keith Knight, Surf Style. | R (9/HD) 1/8 5:30am
Cooking Odyssey | + | Santorini, Part 1. | HD | Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #218 Pauline’s Pizza, Rotee, La Foret. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 12:30am Simply Ming Garlic Chive and Greek Yogurt. | HD | Martin Yan’s Hidden China | + | Life in Shangri-La. | HD | Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home | q | Pork. America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated | + | #1101. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/27 1pm Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen Texas Beef Barbecue. | D | HD |
Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class | q | Provençal Roasted Lamb & White Bean Salad. | HD |
12:30pm Lidia’s Italy | + | Casseroling in Sardegna. | R (Life) 1/28 4:30pm 1:00
1:30
EVENING 7:30pm This Week in Northern California | + | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/8 1:30 & 7am, 1/9 4pm
ImageMakers | q | Reality Bites. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 5:31am
Sunday 9 EARLY mid
12:30am Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #218 Pauline’s Pizza, Rotee, La Foret. | HD | 1-6am
7:00
Raggs | q | D |
7:30
WordWorld | D | HD |
8:00
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! | q | D | HD |
8:30
Curious George | D |
9:00
Wild Kratts | HD |
9:30
Caillou | D | R (9/HD) 1/10 7:30am
10:00
Dinosaur Train | D | HD |
10:30
The Electric Company | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/28 3:59pm
11:00
Great Performances at the Met | + | Don Pasquale. Anna Netrebko revives her turn in this sophisticated bel canto. | HD | R (Life) 1/10 7pm
2:30pm Inside E Street Morrie. Ted Koppel and Mitch Albom discuss the inspiration behind Albom’s book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Inside Washington | + |
3:30
The McLaughlin Group
4:00
Mexico—One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless Chorizo Made Easy. | HD |
This Week in Northern California | q | HD |
4:30
Lidia’s Italy Terre e Mare (Le Marche). | HD |
5:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/25 1pm
Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way | q | Perfect Presentations. | D | HD |
2:30
Avec Eric | + | q | Building Flavors. | HD |
3:00
Antiques Roadshow Miami Beach, Hour 1 of 3. | HD |
4:00
Rough Cut—Woodworking with Tommy Mac | + | HD |
4:30
Hometime Stone Cottage—Fixtures and Appliances. | R (Life) 1/9 3:30pm
5:00
This Old House | + | HD |
5:30
Ask This Old House | + | HD |
6:00
Lost Treasures of the Ancient World The Pyramids: Jewels of the Nile. | D | Victor Borge: The Funniest Man in the World | RR 1/3 9pm | R (9/HD) 1/9 1am & 10:30pm, 1/10 4:30am
EVENING
5:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #220 Postrio, Old Port Lobster Shack, Cleo’s Brazilian Steakhouse. | HD |
6:00
Truly CA: Our State, Our Stories | q | Freeway Philharmonic follows seven San Francisco Bay Area freelance classical musicians.
7:00
Colosseum: Rome’s Arena of Death | RR 1/6 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/10 1am
EVENING 8:00pm Nature | + | Elsa’s Legacy: The Born Free Story. Find out what has happened to the lions and the people featured in the 1966 film. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/10 2am, 1/16 11am 9:00
11:30
In the Life | + | R (9/HD) 1/10 5:30am
Monday 10 EARLY mid
Austin City Limits Monsters of Folk. | HD |
1-6am
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
EVENING 7:30pm ImageMakers | q | One Life to Live. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/11 1:30am 8:00
Antiques Roadshow | + | Miami Beach, Hour 2 of 3. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/11 2am, 1/15 3pm
9:00
Flea Market Documentary looks at the unusual people and the enticing things found where capitalism mixes with craziness. | R (9/HD) 1/11 3am, 1/16 6pm
10:00
U.S. Grant: Warrior: American Experience | + | examines the life and reputation of the brilliant military strategist and Civil War hero. | D | R (9/HD) 1/11 4am
11:30
ImageMakers | q | Love Isn’t Pretty. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/11 5:30am
Nature American Eagle. | HD | RR 1/2 8pm
AFTERNOON noon
Victor Borge: The Funniest Man in the World | RR 1/3 9pm | R (9/HD) 1/10 4:30am
Sid the Science Kid | D | HD |
3:00
2:00
7:00
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
6:00am Clifford the Big Red Dog | D | 6:30
10:30
Roadtrip Nation | q | #602. | HD |
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #219 Da Lian, The Mountain House, Buca di Beppo. | HD |
8:00pm The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) | + | Rachel (Britt Ekland) arrives in New York from her Amish community intent on becoming a dancer. Unfortunately Billy Minsky’s Burlesque is hardly the place for her. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 2am 4
11:31
AFTERNOON
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
One, Two, Three (1961) | + | James Cagney stars in this comedy about Coca-Cola’s man in West Berlin. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/9 3:42am
EARLY
EARLY mid
9:42
Masterpiece Classic | + | Downton Abbey, Part 1of 4. Follow the lives of the noble Crawley family and the staff who serve them. An allstar cast includes Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, and Elizabeth McGovern. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/10 3am
Tuesday 11 EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm QUEST | q | 140th Anniversary of the Hayward Earthquake/The Physics of Sailing. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/12 1:30am 8:00
Nova | + | Deadliest Earthquake. In 2010, epic earthquakes delivered one of the worst annual death tolls ever recorded. Follow teams of scientists as they try to gather data to aid in preventing future disasters. | D | HD | | R (9/HD) 1/12 2am
9:00
Pompeii: The Last Day creates an engaging account of the last day before the city of Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. | R (9/HD) 1/12 3am, 1/16 7pm, 1/17 1am
10:00
Frontline | + | Battle for Haiti. | HD | | R (9/HD) 1/12 4am
11:00
Independent Lens | + | Children of Haiti. Orphaned teens in Haiti reflect on their country and their lives and share their common dreams. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/12 5am
Photo: Courtesy of MASTERPIECE.
9:30
8:30
EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
9:00
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm Spark | q | Nikolas Weinstein, Ann Weber, David Kuraoka. | R (9/HD) 1/13 1:30am, 1/14 11:30pm, 1/15 5:30am 8:00
9:00
10:00
11:30
10:00
National Geographic’s Top 10 Photos of 2010 | + | P | HD | R (9/HD) 1/13 2am
11:30
David Suchet on the Orient Express: A Masterpiece Special | R (9/HD) 1/13 3am, 1/15 7pm, 1/16 1am & 10:30pm, 1/17 4:30am
Spark | q | Nikolas Weinstein, Ann Weber, David Kuraoka. | R (9/HD) 1/15 5:30am
Saturday 15
American Masters | + | Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides sheds light on the life and craft of the Oscar-winning actor. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/13 4am, 1/16 1:30pm ImageMakers | q | Stand by Me. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/13 5:30am, 1/17 7:30pm, 1/18 1:30am
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. 7:30pm Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #221 La Folie, Aldo’s Ristorante & Bar, Golden Lotus. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/14 1:30am, 1/15 1pm
10:00
11:00
Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work celebrates the most memorable characters and skits from The Jackie Gleason Show. | R (9/HD) 1/14 2am, 1/15 11:02pm, 1/16 5:02am Legendary Bing Crosby | + | blends exciting performances by Crosby with new interviews. | R (9/HD) 1/14 3am Andy Williams: Moon River and Me | + | includes great musical performances from the classic television series. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/14 4am Nou Boke | + | is a compelling documentary focusing on Haiti’s past, present, and future in light of the 2010 earthquake. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/14 5am
Friday 14 EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
mid
8:00
Washington Week | + | HD | R (9/ HD) 1/15 2am & 6:30am; (World) 1/15 9am
4:30
Hometime | + | Yoga Studio.
5:00
This Old House | + | HD |
5:30
Ask This Old House | + | HD |
6:00
The California Zephyr: Silver Thread Through the West Experience the magic of this unique train.
7:00
David Suchet on the Orient Express: A Masterpiece Special | HD | R (9/HD) 1/16 1am & 10:30pm, 1/17 4:30am
8:00pm Dances with Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner stars an Army lieutenant who befriends a wolf and later becomes a member of the local Lakota Sioux tribe. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/16 2am 11:02
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) 1/17 noon
Jackie Gleason: Genius at Work | RR 1/13 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/16 5:02am
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
EARLY
6:00am The McLaughlin Group | + | R (9/HD) 1/16 3:30pm
12:30am Artist Toolbox David Garrett. | HD |
6:30
Washington Week | HD | R (World) 1/15 9am
7:00
This Week in Northern California | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/16 4pm
7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00
9:30 10:00
Raggs | q | D | WordWorld | D | HD |
Travelscope Taiwan—City and Culture.
8:00
Cooking Odyssey | + | Santorini, Part 2. | HD |
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! | q | D | HD |
8:30
Curious George | D |
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #223 Baladie Gourmet Cafe, Sumi, Marche aux Fleurs. | HD |
9:00
Wild Kratts | HD |
9:30
Caillou | D | R (9/HD) 1/17 7:30am
10:00
Dinosaur Train | D | HD |
10:30
The Electric Company | D | HD |
11:00
Nature Elsa’s Legacy: The Born Free Story. | HD | RR 1/9 8pm
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated | + | #1102. | HD | Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen Stovetop Desserts. | D | HD |
AFTERNOON Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class | q | Spicy Crab Linguine & Winter White Salad. | HD |
12:30pm Lidia’s Italy | + | The Liquid Marriage. | R (Life) 1/31 4:30pm 1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30 3:00
6:00am Clifford the Big Red Dog | D |
7:30
11:00
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #221 La Folie, Aldo’s Ristorante & Bar, Golden Lotus. | HD | Mexico—One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless Liquid Gold. | HD | Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way | q | Simple Sweet Notes. | D | HD | Avec Eric | + | q | Chef’s Table. | HD | Antiques Roadshow Miami Beach, Hour 2 of 3. | HD |
9:00
Masterpiece Classic | + | Downton Abbey, Part 2 of 4. Mary entertains three suitors. Downstairs, the shocking former life of Carson, the butler, is unmasked. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/17 3am
10:30
David Suchet on the Orient Express: A Masterpiece Special | HD | R (9/HD) 1/17 4:30am
11:30
ImageMakers From the Mouths of Babes. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/17 5:30am
Monday 17 EARLY mid
Austin City Limits The National/ Band of Horses. | HD |
1-6am
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
7:30pm ImageMakers | q | Stand by Me. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/18 1:30am 8:00
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
7:00
Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home | q | Creamy Desserts.
noon
1-6am
Roadtrip Nation | q | #603. | HD |
Roadtrip Nation | q | #603. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/16 mid
10:30
11:30
mid
Sid the Science Kid | D | HD |
Martin Yan’s Hidden China | + | A Cultural Mosaic of Southwestern China. | HD |
8:00pm Nature White Falcon, White Wolf. The enormous falcons and Arctic wolves raise their families on Canada’s remote Ellesmere Island. | HD | R (9/ HD) 1/17 2am, 1/23 11am
EVENING
6:30
Simply Ming Fermented Black Beans and Ketchup. | HD |
EVENING
EVENING
Sunday 16
EVENING 7:30pm This Week in Northern California | + | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/15 1:30am & 7am, 1/16 4pm
Rough Cut—Woodworking with Tommy Mac | + | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
4:00
EARLY
EVENING
9:00
Need to Know | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/15 4am ImageMakers | q | You Are Being Watched. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/15 5am
EARLY
8:00
Human Senses Hearing/Balance. Nigel Marven tracks down the sounds that have the most powerful emotional effects on us and investigates balance—our true sixth sense. | R (9/HD) 1/15 3am
11:00
Thursday 13 mid
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #223 Baladie Gourmet Cafe, Sumi, Marche aux Fleurs. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/15 2:30am & 9am
January 2011 2011 KQED KQED Public Public Television TelevisionKQED KQED Public Public Radio Radio KQED.org KQED.org
Wednesday 12
Antiques Roadshow | + | Miami Beach, Hour 3 of 3. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/18 2am, 1/22 3pm
9:00
Big Band Magic! | q | takes a nostalgic look back at the dance halls and ballrooms that live only in memories. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/18 3am, 1/22 10:36pm, 1/23 4:36am & 6pm
10:00
Dinosaur Wars: American Experience | + | examines the rivalry between two top paleontologists that spiraled out of control in the late 1800s. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/18 4am
11:00
After the Wall—A World United | + | World leaders, including George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, discuss the tense months following the fall of the Berlin Wall. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/18 5am
AFTERNOON noon
Great Performances Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America features new works by top choreographers and musicians celebrating our national parks. | HD |
1:30pm American Masters Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides. | HD | RR 1/12 10pm 3:00
Inside Washington | + |
3:30
The McLaughlin Group
4:00
This Week in Northern California | q | | HD |
4:30
Lidia’s Italy Grazing in Abruzzo (Abruzzo). | HD |
5:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated Chicken Classics, Reinvented. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/26 1pm
5:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #224 Holy Land, Sodini’s Bertolucci’s Ristorante, B44 Catalan Bistro. | HD |
6:00
Flea Market Documentary | RR 1/10 9pm
7:00
Pompeii: The Last Day | RR 1/11 9pm | R (9/HD) 1/17 1am
Tuesday 18 EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | R (9/ | HD | ) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm Spark | q | Garry Knox Bennett, Richard Shaw, Laurel True. | R (9/HD) 1/19 1:30am, 1/21 11:30pm, 1/22 5:30am 8:00
9:00
10:00 11:00
Pioneers of Television | + | Science Fiction focuses on the creators and stars of Lost in Space, The Twilight Zone, and Star Trek. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/19 2am, 1/23 7pm, 1/24 1am The Space Age: NASA’s Story | + | From the Ground Up. Intelligent and inspiring, this four-part BBC series is a complete history of mankind’s journey into space. The first episode begins with NASA’s early mission years. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/19 3am Frontline | + | Are We Safer? | HD | R (9/HD) 1/19 4am Independent Lens Between the Folds. Theoretical scientists and fine artists abandon their careers and forge new lives creating origami. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/19 5am 5
9:00
EARLY mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
11:00
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm QUEST | q | Eat Less, Live Longer?/ Earthquakes: Breaking New Ground. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/20 1:30am 8:00
9:00
Marie Antoinette examines the life of one of history’s most controversial monarchs. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/21 3am Frontline Growing Up Online looks at the impact of the Internet on adolescence through the eyes of teens and their parents. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/21 5am
11:30
noon
Nova | + | Making Stuff: Stronger. Join New York Times technology reporter David Pogue (pictured) on a thrilling tour of the material world we live in, and the one that may lie ahead—with a behind-the-scenes look at scientific innovations that are ushering in a new generation of materials that are stronger, smarter, smaller and cleaner than anything we’ve ever seen. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/20 3am, 1/22 6pm
EVENING
mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:30
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
7:30pm This Week in Northern California | + | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/22 1:30an & 7am, 1/23 4pm 8:00
8:30
9:00
10:00
Washington Week | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/22 2am & 6:30am; (World) 1/22 9am Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #303 Capannina, Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen, Playground. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/22 2:30am & 9am Human Senses Touch/Vision. Learn how when it comes to our sense of touch, humans are similar to elephants. | R (9/HD) 1/22 3am, 1/23 2pm Need to Know | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/22 4am
11:00
ImageMakers | q | Anarchy in the U.K. | R (9/HD) 1/22 5am
11:30
Spark | q | Garry Knox Bennett, Richard Shaw, Laurel True. | R (9/HD) 1/22 5:30am
Saturday 22
2:00 2:30
11:00
Leonardo’s Dream Machines #101. This two-part program follows the world’s leading experts as they attempt to build some of da Vinci’s dream machines. | R (9/HD) 1/20 4am Daniel Pink: Living on the Right Side of the Brain The best-selling author explains how artistry, empathy, and big-picture thinking are keys to success. | R (9/HD) 1/20 5am
mid
6:30
Washington Week | HD | R (World) 1/22 9am
7:00
This Week in Northern California | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/23 4pm
7:30
Roadtrip Nation | q | #604. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/23 mid
mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
8:00
Travelscope Taiwan—The Natural Side.
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
8:30
EVENING
9:00
7:30pm Check, Please! Bay Area #302 New Kapadokia, Aperto, Masa’s. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/21 1:30am, 1/22 1pm 8:00
6
Madams of the Barbary Coast tells the captivating stories of the “women of questionable virtue” who helped bring culture, beauty, and compassion to Gold Rush–era San Francisco. | R (9/HD) 1/21 2am, 1/22 7pm, 1/23 1am
9:30 10:00
Cooking Odyssey | + | Mykonos, Part 1. | HD | Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #303 Capannina, Angeline’s Louisiana Kitchen, Playground. | HD | Simply Ming Chinese Rock Candy and Cranberries Script. | HD | Martin Yan’s Hidden China Ancient Lijiang—A Journey Through Time. | HD |
10:30
Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home | q | Shellfish.
11:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated | + | #1103. | HD |
Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | + | The Pulitzer Prizewinning film critic returns to television with a fresh, updated and re-imagined version of the highly rated—and often imitated—Sneak Previews. | HD | R (9/HD) 11:33pm, 1/23 5:33am & 4:30pm, 1/24 7:30pm, 1/25 1:30am Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way | q | Chef’s Dream. | D | HD |
1:00pm Nova scienceNOW Can We Make It to Mars? | HD | RR 1/19 8pm 2:00
Human Senses Touch/Vision. | RR 1/21 9pm
3:00
Inside Washington | + |
3:30
The McLaughlin Group
4:00
This Week in Northern California | q | | HD |
4:30
Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD | RR 1/22 1:30pm | R (9/HD) 1/24 7:30pm, 1/25 1:30am
5:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated Best Weekend Breakfast. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/31 1pm
5:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #304 Cyrus, Yellow Submarine, Slanted Door. | HD |
Avec Eric | + | q | Service with Flare. | HD | 6:00
Big Band Magic! | q | HD | RR 1/17 9pm
4:00
Rough Cut—Woodworking with Tommy Mac | + | HD |
7:00
Pioneers of Television Science Fiction. | HD | RR 1/18 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/24 1am
4:30
Hometime | + | Sculpture Studio Extension—Floor.
5:00
This Old House | + | HD |
5:30
Ask This Old House | + | HD |
6:00
Nova Making Stuff: Stronger. | RR 1/19 9pm
7:00
Madams of the Barbary Coast | RR 1/20 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/23 1am
8:00
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) The dying words of a thief spark a madcap cross-country rush to find some treasure. Stars Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, and Ethel Merman | HD | R (9/HD) 1/23 2am
10:36
Big Band Magic! | q | HD | RR 1/17 9pm | R (9/HD) 1/23 4:36am & 6pm
11:33
Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD | RR 1:30pm | R (9/HD) 1/23 5:33am & 4:30pm, 1/24 7:30pm, 1/25 1:30am
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. 6:00am The McLaughlin Group | + | R (9/HD) 1/23 3:30pm
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #302 New Kapadokia, Aperto, Masa’s. | HD |
Inside Operation Wildfire. A team of firefighters work tirelessly to contain a fire that threatens a California state park. | HD |
Antiques Roadshow Miami Beach, Hour 3 of 3. | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
Thursday 20 EARLY
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) 1/24 noon
noon
3:00
EARLY 10:00
Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class | q | “Saintly” Penne and Fried Oyster Caesar. | HD |
12:30pm Lidia’s Italy | + | Fishing for Tuna in Genova.
Friday 21 EARLY
AFTERNOON
AFTERNOON
1:00
Nova scienceNOW | + | Can We Make It to Mars? A trip to Mars and back could take two to three years. Can humans survive the journey? | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/20 2am, 1/23 1pm
Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen Perfect Pork. | D |
Sunday 23 Roadtrip Nation | q | #604. | HD |
12:30am Artist Toolbox Isabel Allende. | HD | 1-6am
8:00pm Nature| + | Birds of Paradise. David Attenborough takes a young team of New Guinean scientists on a grueling expedition to find these extraordinary birds. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/24 2am, 1/30 11am 9:00
Masterpiece Classic | + | Downton Abbey, Part 3 of 4. Growing into his role as heir, Matthew brings out the bitter rivalry between sisters Mary and Edith.| HD | R (9/HD) 1/24 3am
10:30
Dickens’ Secret Lover chronicles novelist Charles Dickens’s ongoing clandestine relationship with a young actress. | R (9/HD) 1/24 4:30am, 1/29 10:43pm, 1/30 4:43am
11:30
ImageMakers | q | Imagine a World Without Me. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/24 5:30am
Monday 24 EARLY
EARLY mid
EVENING
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
6:00am Clifford the Big Red Dog | D | 6:30
Sid the Science Kid | D | HD |
7:00
Raggs | q | D |
7:30
WordWorld | D | HD |
8:00
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! | q | D | HD |
8:30
Curious George | D |
9:00
Wild Kratts | HD |
9:30
Caillou | R (9/HD) 1/24 7:30am
10:00
Dinosaur Train | D | HD |
10:30
The Electric Company | D | HD |
11:00
Nature White Falcon, White Wolf. | D | HD | RR 1/16 8pm
mid
Austin City Limits Sonic Youth/The Black Keys. | HD |
1-6am
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
EVENING 7:30pm Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD | RR 1/22 1:30pm | R (9/HD) 1/25 1:30am 8:00
Antiques Roadshow | + | San Diego, Hour 1 of 3. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/25 2am, 1/29 3pm
9:00
Panama Canal: American Experience | + | unravels the remarkable story of one of the world’s most significant technological achievements. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/25 3am
10:30
Hoover Dam: American Experience tells the story of how the dam transformed the Southwest and brought electricity to millions during the Great Depression. | D | R (9/HD) 1/25 4:30am
11:30
ImageMakers | q | You Sexy Thing. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/25 5:30am
Photo: Courtesy of Powderhouse Productions.
Wednesday 19
Thursday 27
EARLY
EARLY
mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
mid
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
EVENING
EVENING
7:30pm Spark | q | Kunst-Stoff, John Chiara, Matmos, Ala Ebtekar. | R (9/HD) 1/26 1:30am, 1/28 11:30pm, 1/29 5:30am
7:30pm Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #305 Anchor Oyster Bar & Seafood Market, Lalime’s Restaurant, Indian Aroma. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/28 1:30am, 1/29 1pm
8:00
9:00
Pioneers of Television | + | Westerns includes stories from actors Fess Parker, James Garner, and Linda Evans. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/26 2am, 1/28 9pm, 1/29 3am, 1/30 2pm & 10:30pm, 1/31 4:30am The Space Age: NASA’s Story | + | To the Moon. The breathless pace and daring of the Apollo program sees NASA master previously unimagined tasks in the attempt to achieve a moon landing. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/26 3am
10:00
Frontline The Wounded Platoon. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/26 4am
11:00
Independent Lens Objectified looks at our complex relationship with manufactured objects and the creative people who design them. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/26 5am
8:00
9:00
11:00
Flight of Faith: The Jesus Story | + | captures the geography of the Holy Land from an aerial perspective, focusing on the places connected with Jesus’s life and ministry. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/28 2am, 1/30 6pm Jerusalem: Center of the World Offers a concise history of the Holy City. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/28 3am, 1/30 noon Okie Noodling examines Oklahoma’s fishing tradition from its roots as a hunting practice to the present-day sport. | R (9/HD) 1/28 5am, 1/29 6pm
Friday 28 1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD |
EARLY
1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
mid
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule. EVENING 7:30pm QUEST | q | The Fierce Humboldt Squid/SETI: Listening for ET. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/27 1:30am 8:00
9:00
10:00
11:00
Nova scienceNOW | + | Can We Live Forerver? Neil deGrasse Tyson ponders why our bodies fall apart over time and ways to stop the process. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/27 2am, 1/30 7pm, 1/31 1am Nova | + | Making Stuff: Smaller profiles the latest in high-powered nano-circuits and micro-robots. | D | | HD | R (9/HD) 1/27 3am, 1/29 7pm, 1/30 1am
EVENING 7:30pm This Week in Northern California | + | q | | HD | R (9/HD) 1/29 1:30am & 7am, 1/30 4pm 8:00
8:30
9:00
10:00
Washington Week | + | HD | R (9/ HD) 1/29 2am & 6:30am; (World) 1/29 9am Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #306 Stella Alpina Osteria, Bette’s Oceanview Diner, Chou Chou. | HD | R (9/ HD) 1/29 2:30am & 9am Pioneers of Television Westerns. | HD | RR 1/25 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/29 3am, 1/30 2pm & 10:30pm, 1/31 4:30am Need to Know | + | HD | R (9/HD) 1/29 4am
11:00
Leonardo’s Dream Machines #102. | RR 1/19 10pm | R (9/HD) 1/27 4am
ImageMakers | q | Intelligent Design. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/29 5am
11:30
Illicit: The Dark Trade examines the networks of illicit traders and criminal groups that are derailing the world economy. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/27 5am
Spark | q | Kunst-Stoff, John Chiara, Matmos, Ala Ebtekar. | R (9/HD) 1/29 5:30am
Saturday 29 Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) 1/31 noon
Curious George | D |
9:30
Caillou | R (9/HD) 1/31 7:30am
10:00
Dinosaur Train | D | HD |
Martin Yan’s Hidden China Kunming—The Gateway to Eternal Spring. | HD |
10:30
The Electric Company | D | HD |
11:00
Nature Birds of Paradise. | HD | RR 1/23 8pm
10:30
Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home | q | Roast Chickens.
AFTERNOON
11:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated | + | #1104. | HD |
9:30 10:00
11:30
6:00am The McLaughlin Group | + | R (9/HD) 1/30 3:30pm 6:30
Washington Week | HD | R (World) 1/29 9am
7:00
This Week in Northern California | q | HD | R (9/HD) 1/30 4pm
7:30
Roadtrip Nation | q | #605. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/30 mid
8:00
Travelscope Ottawa, Canada.
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #306 Stella Alpina Osteria, Bette’s Oceanview Diner, Chou Chou. | HD | Simply Ming Ginger and Brown Sugar. | HD |
Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen Historical Cakes. | D | HD |
AFTERNOON
noon
Jerusalem: Center of the World | HD | RR 1/27 9pm
2:00pm Pioneers of Television Westerns. | HD | RR 1/25 8pm | R (9/HD) 10:30pm, 1/31 4:30am 3:00
Inside Washington | + |
3:30
The McLaughlin Group
Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class | q | Asparagus Salad with Tangy Relish & Rolled Pork with Figs. | HD |
4:00
This Week in Northern California | q | HD |
4:30
12:30pm Lidia’s Italy | + | Huggable Ligurian Food.
Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD | R (9/HD) 1/31 7:30pm
5:00
America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated Classic Beef Braises. | HD |
5:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #308 Le Charm French Bistro, Vung Tau Restaurant, Nopa. | HD |
6:00
Flight of Faith: The Jesus Story | HD | RR 1/27 8pm
Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way | q | Chockfull of Surprises. | D | HD |
7:00
Nova scienceNOW Can We Live Forerver? | HD | RR 1/26 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/31 1am
Avec Eric | + | q | Farm to Table. | HD |
EVENING
noon
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
Check, Please! Bay Area | q | #305 Anchor Oyster Bar & Seafood Market, Lalime’s Restaurant, Indian Aroma. | HD | Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | + | HD | R (9/HD) 11:32pm, 1/30 5:32am & 4:30pm, 1/31 7:30pm
3:00
Antiques Roadshow San Diego, Hour 1 of 3. | HD |
4:00
Rough Cut—Woodworking with Tommy Mac | + | HD |
4:30
Hometime | + | Sculpture Studio Extension—Walls.
5:00
This Old House | + | HD |
5:30
Ask This Old House | + | HD |
6:00
Okie Noodling | RR 1/27 11pm
7:00
Nova Making Stuff: Smaller. | HD | RR 1/26 9pm | R (9/HD) 1/30 1am
8:00pm Nature | + | Born Wild: The First Days of Life follows the birth and the dangerous first day of a marmoset, a moose, an elephant, and a gorilla. | D | HD | R (9/HD) 1/31 2am 9:00
8:00pm Charade (1963) Audrey Hepburn is pursued all over Paris by several men who want the fortune her murdered husband had stolen. | R (9/HD) 1/30 2am
Masterpiece Classic | + | Downton Abbey, Part 4 of 4.The heir crisis at Downton Abbey takes an unexpected turn. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/31 3am
10:30
Pioneers of Television Westerns. | HD | RR 1/25 8pm | R (9/HD) 1/31 4:30am
11:30
ImageMakers | q | Bleed to Love Her. | HD | R (9/HD) 1/31 5:30am
EVENING
Monday 31 EARLY mid
Austin City Limits Lyle Lovett/Bob Schneider. | HD |
1-6am
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
9:55
The Magic of Audrey Film clips and interviews capture the unique allure and charisma of Audrey Hepburn. | R (9/HD) 1/30 3:55am
10:43
Dickens’ Secret Lover | RR 1/23 10:30pm | R (9/HD) 1/30 4:43am
7:30pm Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD |
11:32
Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies | HD | R (9/HD) 1/30 5:32am & 4:30pm, 1/31 7:30pm
8:00
1:00am Nightly Business Report | HD | 1:30-6amRepeats the previous night’s 7:30pm to midnight schedule.
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! | q | D | HD | Wild Kratts | HD |
EARLY mid
8:00 8:30
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
Wednesday 26
Cooking Odyssey | + | Mykonos, Part 2. | HD |
9:00
9:00
EARLY mid
Photo: Courtesy NARA.
Charlie Rose | + | R (9/HD) noon
8:30
EVENING
Packard—An American Classic Car | + | chronicles the history of the Packard automobile through interviews with Packard owners, vintage film, and archival photographs.
10:00
The Greely Expedition: American Experience | + | shows how a scientific expedition in 1881 turned into a harrow-ing tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism. | HD |
11:00
Chautauqua: An American Narrative | + | In 1874, New York’s Chautauqua Assembly became a meeting place of ideas and a platform for reform. | HD |
EARLY Roadtrip Nation | q | #605. | HD |
12:30am Artist Toolbox John Legend. | HD | 1-6am
Repeats the previous night’s 7pm to midnight schedule.
6:00am Clifford the Big Red Dog | D | 6:30
Sid the Science Kid | HD |
7:00
Raggs | q | D |
7:30
WordWorld | D | HD |
Antiques Roadshow | + | San Diego, Hour 2 of 3. | HD |
9:00
Sunday 30 mid
January 2011 2011 KQED KQED Public Public Television TelevisionKQED KQED Public Public Radio Radio KQED.org KQED.org
Tuesday 25
7
Weekday Daytime Schedule on 9 Monday–Friday 6am-7:30pm
A SERVICE OF
Northern California Public Broadcasting
Photos (l. to r.): Courtesy APT Online; courtesy of MPT (Maryland Public Television).
M O RN I N G 6:00 Mon–Fri 6:30 Mon–Fri 7:00 Mon–Fri 7:30 Mon–Fri 8:00 Mon–Fri 8:30 Mon–Fri 9:00 9:30 10:00
Mon–Fri Mon–Fri Mon–Fri
11:00 11:30
Mon–Fri Mon–Fri
Clifford the Big Red Dog Sid the Science Kid Raggs | D | Caillou Curious George | D | The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Super Why! Dinosaur Train Sesame Street (except Thu 1/13 Colonial Williamsburg Fieldtrips) WordWorld Caillou
A F T E RN O O N noon Mon–Fri 1:00 Mon–Thu Fri 1:30 Mon–Thu Fri 2:00 Mon–Fri 2:30 Mon–Fri 3:00 Mon–Fri 4:00 Mon–Fri 4:30 Mon–Fri 5:00 Mon–Fri 5:30
Mon–Fri
EA R LY EV E NING Charlie Rose 6:00 Mon–Fri PBS NewsHour America’s Test Kitchen 7:00 Mon–Fri Nightly Business Report Check, Please! Bay Area Julia Child Healing Quest Tavis Smiley BBC World News PBS NewsHour The Electric Company Wild Kratts – new The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! BBC World News
More Quality Programming Comcast 10, Digital 9.2 Brilliantly British comedies, mysteries, and dramas as well as local news and information programs from KTEH San Jose.
Reggie Perrin In this new update of the classic 1970s Britcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Martin Clunes (Doc Martin, Islands of Britain) stars as the middle-aged business man who has become disaffected with the tedium and dishonesty of everyday life. The daily commute, with its battle for a seat surrounded by others ear-plugged into all manner of electronics, and especially his days at Groomtech, where he has worked for ten years in the position of Head of Disposable Razors, are beginning to get to him. At the office he must deal with the absurd jargon and PowerPoint presentations that comprise his day, and at home Reggie is becoming increasingly out of sync with family life —in fact, he’s starting to have fantasies. Airs Mondays at 8:45pm on KTEH, immediately following Doc Martin.
8
Visit kteh.org/dtv for a complete KTEH broadcast schedule.
Comcast 189, Digital 54.3 The very best of KQED prime-time programs as well as arts and entertainment, food, gardening, how-to, and travel.
Comcast 190, Digital 9.3 Thought-provoking television—public affairs, local and world events, nature, history,and science.
Monday–Friday
Monday–Friday
MO R NI NG 7:00 Power Yoga 7:30 Sit and Be Fit 8:00 Classical Stretch 8:30 Burt Wolf’s Travels & Traditions 9:00 Rick Steves’ Europe 9:30 Smart Travels with Rudy Maxa 10:00 Passport to Adventure 10:30 Travelscope 11:00 California’s Gold 11:30 Baking with Julia
M O RN IN G
A F TE RN O ON /E V E N IN G noon Tommy Tang’s Thai 12:30 Primal Grill – new 1:00 Los Niños en Su Casa 1:30 A Place of Our Own 2:00 Arts and Crafts (includes knitting, painting, and sewing programs) 3:00 Simply Ming 3:30 Delicious TV’s Totally Vegetarian 4:00 Nick Stellino’s Family Table 4:30 Lidia Bastianich 5:00 Julia Child 5:30 Jacques Pépin 6:00 Joanne Weir America’s Test Kitchen 6:30 7-11 (Mon) Performing Arts/ Special Presentations (Tue–Fri) Repeats of KQED 9 Prime-Time Programming Saturday E V EN I N G 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:30 11:00
Music Specials Austin City Limits Masterpiece ImageMakers Specials
7:00
Best of World (Science, Nature, History, Public Affairs)
A FT E RN O O N /E V E N IN G 1:00 BBC World News (Live) 1:30 Tavis Smiley 2:00 NHK Newsline 2:30 Journal 3:00 BBC World News (Live) 3:30 Nightly Business Report (Live) 4:00 PBS NewsHour (Live) 5:00 BBC News 5:30 PBS NewsHour 6:30 Tavis Smiley 7:00 PBS NewsHour P RIM E - TI ME 8:00 Charlie Rose (Live) 9:00 (Mon–Fri) BBC World News (Live) 9:30 (Mon–Fri) Tavis Smiley 10:00 PBS NewsHour 11:00 NHK Newsline 11:30 Nightly Business Report
The complete World channel schedule is available online. kqed.org/tv
Comcast 192, Digital 54.4 Quality children’s programming that kids will love and parents and caregivers will appreciate.
EV E RY MO RN ING 5:00 The Electric Company 5:30 Wild Kratts – new 6:00 Zula Patrol 6:30 Maya and Miguel 7:00 Curiosity Quest 7:30 The Electric Company 8:00 Angelina Ballerina 8:30 Anne of Green Gables—Animated Series 9:00 Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman 9:30 Clifford’s Puppy Days 10:00 Raggs 10:30 Between the Lions 11:00 Martha Speaks 11:30 Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman EV E RY AF TE R NOON noon WordGirl 12:30 Arthur 1:00 Clifford’s Puppy Days 1:30 Clifford the Big Red Dog 2:00 Martha Speaks 2:30 Between the Lions 3:00 Wild Kratts – new 3:30 Arthur 4:00 Anne of Green Gables—Animated Series 4:30 Angelina Ballerina 5:00 WordGirl 5:30 Cyberchase EV E RY EV E NING 6:00 Curiosity Quest 6:30 The Electric Company 7:00 Wild Kratts – new 7:30 Martha Speaks 8:00 Arthur 8:30 Maya and Miguel 9:00 WordGirl 9:30 Cyberchase 10:00 Curiosity Quest 10:30 Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman 11:00 The Electric Company 11:30 Wild Kratts – new
Sunday E V EN I N G 7-11 Prime-Time Specials
The complete Life channel schedule is available online. kqed.org/tv
The complete and overnight Kids channel schedules are available online. kqed.org/tv
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