Any Questions about the Menu? @anyquestionsaboutthemenu-blog - Tumblr Blog

El Molino Central in Sonoma, a MUST stop on any wine country trip...They make their own tortillas by hand pretty much to order because they sell out of them so quickly. Pick up a dozen for $3.50 - they make a great thank you for having me stay with you all week gift! Not to mention a perfect snack for the drive across Sonoma Co. to Napa Co. they wrap them so tightly they stay warm for hours!

Sunday night was spent at Range...Excellent food as always. What does it take to cook for, manage, serve, bartend, run food, host or provide product at one of the very few Michelin Starred (well, a couple of years ago anyways...) restaurants in The CIty? Wouldn't Tumblr readers like to know! And so would other restaurateurs...excellent opportunity to teach and learn from one of the best.

And their Butterscotch Pudding is unforgettable...

Last Day in SF

Many more photos to come, just back in the city from adventures up North with no WiFi...Fremont Diner, El Molino Central, tasting dinner for the Bull Run Tavern with Justine, David, Samuel and Earl...off to the post office to mail all of my delicious product back home...more to follow soon.

Brunch at Foreign Cinema. Its always a good idea to sit at the bar if you want to get to know a restaurant and how it treats its employees. Bartenders are allowed a certain amount of freedom, more than servers usually, and are always more apt to tell you what it's really like to work in a place...our bartenders were no different yesterday, and it seems Foreign Cinema is an awesome place to work. I couldn't finish my bacon and offered it to the staff (untouched of course). They joyfully declined stating that they are overfed bacon during brunch and couldn't possibly have any more. 99% of the places I have worked over the past 15 years would never allow staff to have bacon, too expensive they would say. I worked at a place once that fed us hot dogs and scrambled eggs every day for lunch (no joke). At any of those places, we would have said no thanks, then taken the plate of leftover bacon and fought over it out of site in the kitchen...

#Foreign Cinema SF #BACON #Brunch #Industry Folks

In addition to having industry folks blog about their experiences, guests should be blogging about their experience as well. Instead of doing so on Yelp or in an analog guestbook on site, why not a digital Tumblr guestbook for guests of both the hotel and restaurant connected directly to the Hotel or Restaurant website? One of the major problems that I have as an industry person with sites like Yelp is that they take control out of the business owners hands to a large degree (unless you are willing to pay large amounts of money to buy it back). Next steps in digital should put control back in to the owners hands and Tumblr has this potential...

This project has a fascinating story behind it from start to finish. The history of the town, the locals, the newcomers and how they intend to transform the face of the community...restaurant industry folks have almost always have a creative tendency and there is always at least one writer in the bunch. This group is no different. After secretly asking them about their blogging preferences and how they plan to document this process, because it NEEDS to be documented, each individual person is open to simply installing an app on their phone and uploading photos, video and quotes to either a communal or individual page(s) for sure...

The idea is to turn this existing restaurant into a destination with clean product made into clean comfort food. Think house made beef jerky, creamed spinach made with local dairy a, spinach from the yard...The surrounding area is called "Bull Valley" which means they are surrounded by cattle ranchers => fresh local free range grass fed beef.

This is Samuel, Earl's Partner. Together they run The Hotel Burlington. The bar pictured here is next door to the hotel...a secret plan is forming this week while I am here for Samuel, Earl and another friend, David, to take over the restaurant and bar pictured and turn it in to a lounge and farm to table restaurant. Friday was the menu tasting at David's house with their consulting chefs Justine and Chucky from Slanted Door...SHHHHHHH!!!!

#Hotel Burlington #Port Costa CA #Bull Valley Inn #Port Costa Road House

This is Earl. He raises bees in the hills above Port Costa and produces the most incredible honey I have ever had the privilege of tasting. The hills around his hives are rich with wild fennel hence the honey produced in the late fall harvest tastes like licorice. He also has secret patches of wild blackberries that he harvests and makes in to jam, which he serves with his homemade cornbread in in the Burlington Hotel Cafe (pictured here).

Port Costa, CA...A handful of friends have slowly made their way out to this tiny town about 20min North of Oakland. Currently there are two restaurants, two bars and a hotel that currently serve a local population of 190 and handfuls of weekend travelers...We spent the night with friends Samuel and Earl.

Lunch yesterday...after a trip to Daniel's metal shop (he makes fixtures and all things metal for restaurants all over SF)...absolutely starving we went to Cafe Rouge in Berkeley. This is what happens when you wait too long to eat (you forget to take a picture of your meal for your blog). But a very good example of what a hot metal shop will do to a person's appetite. Then we bought beef jerky to snack on in the car on the way to Port Costa...

#Beef Jerkey #Daniel Hopper Design #Cafe Rouge #Port Costa

Breakfast today at Coffee Bar how could anyone say no to an Apple Maple BACON scone? it delivered on all promises of health wealth and happiness too! Coffee is great as usual...The neighborhood is hosting a BLOCK PARTY next weekend!! Great concept - $25 a person to include a craft beer and 4 portions of BBQ from different vendors...sponsored by a web company that shall remain nameless #couldhavebeensponsoredbysomeoneMUCHcooler

#Block Party #Coffee #Baristas #pastries #BACON

After my secret solo trip to Bi-Rite, I met up with Darcey for an afternoon snack at Zuni ...we shared the caesar salad and a white pizza with fresh corn and shishito peppers...a Sazerac Cocktail also pictured...The gentlemen in white are making our snacks, open kitchens are the BEST! So are wood fired ovens.

Bi-Rite of course! Love love love - like everyone else, I know, but when you don't live here in SF it's SUCH a treat.

Salted Caramel and Mint Chocolate Chip...

#best icecream ever #Bi-Rite Creamery

First meal, breakfast at Plow- Amazing. I had eggs, bacon, toast, and potatoes…perfect re-entry fare. This is the salmon plate and behind it the savory bread pudding Daniel and David had…

#Plow Potrero Hill

Welcome to San Francisco!!

#CHiPs #SFO

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