Hawaiian Grocery in San Bruno

 Diamond Head General Store has shave ice and plate lunch too!

More Palm Springs notes

 Feeling list-y, may edit later :-) 

Everything mentioned is on this map

Hotel: Ace Hotel and Swim Club, with the Kings Highway and Amigo Room

Shopping

Got tips from this post

Hedge and Spaces are just two of the vintage furniture storefronts in the Perez Art and Design Center, mentioned in the A Thing or Two blog post. Also there: at HOM, Frankies' Italian Bakery and Palm Springs Candy Company (they make the popcorn Ace stocks in the rooms) 

Bon Vivant "Bon Vivant specializes in vintage accessories for the home and vintage 70s-80s costume jewelry for men and women"

Dazzles - moved from PS to Borrego - PACKED tiny store 

Elizabeth and Prince - nicer boho clothes 

a La Mod - gorgeous (expensive ) furniture and decor

ModernWay - more lovely and expensive stuff

Bridges over Time - "specializing in 20-21th century design", call ahead for in store shopping, inventory online

Windmill City - was 2021 desert X partner, cute gifties

Mojave Flea Trading Post - big space with multiple vendors

Antique Galleries haven't been, 2 story multi vendor space

Haus of Rex - haven't been, at north end of town

Ventura of Palm Springs - haven't been

Estate Sale Co - multi building consignment shop

Rancho Mirage Discovery Shop - haven't been

Museums / Galleries

Palm Springs Art Museum - this is the big museum, behind the main drag, but the Frey House II is part of the museum, and you can tour it. Sometime in 2021 the Aluminaire House will be installed and open. 

The Architecture and Design Museum location of the PSAM is in an old bank downtown, and is more about, well, architecture and design. Great, small, focused exhibits

Moorten Botanical Gardens for the cactus

Palm Springs Visitor's Center - Iconic building

Ariel Tramway - bring a jacket!

Angel View Palm Springs - this one has furniture

Revivals - four locations Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, and out in Indio

Collectors Corner - Eisenhower Health's curated store

NU4U - closed temporarily, if it's the one I'm thinking of, was kind of dingy

H2o Closet - beauty & fragrance, worth the drive 

Thick as Thieves - tiny shop with boho things

The Shops at 1345 - single room shops in an old MCM office building, 

Restaurants

Cheeky's - breakfast & lunch only

Bootlegger Tiki - haven't been yet, but want to go :-)

Rooster and Pig - crazy lines, no reservations

Counter Reformation - very good champagne by the glass, must be at least 2 people & reserve 

Mr Lyons - haven't been yet, steakhouse, but also supposed to have an amazing burger. Cocktails

Workshop Kitchen and Bar - try-hard menu but sometimes that's what you want

Townie Bagels  open early! parking is all the way around the back

Bar Cecil  - haven't been yet, steakhouse / continental vibes

Gabino's Creperie - haven't been yet

Kreem - gelato + non-dairy options + affogato!

Palm Greens Cafe - when you need your veggies. Breakfast & lunch only

Peninsula Pastries - haven't been yet

Del Rey - NOPE, had a not-very-good meal July 2021, might try in a year

Vintage clothing

Melody Vintage - haven't been yet

Gypsyland - haven't been yet

E Minichelli on Ortigia, Siracusa

Where to eat 

Bordeaux

Big list of all her favorite things 

YOLO substack entry, via email for paid subscribers so check there if link doesn't work

NYC cookbooks + arancine

 

Taste article on Archestratus  in Greenpoint:  
new and vintage cookbooks with a Sicilian wine bar and cafe in the back. Also! events , cookie boxes, etc

NYC Feburary 2020 day 1

Landed at EWR at 7:00 pm, picked up my checked bag and still made the 7:37 train to Penn. The taxi across town to Freehand took almost as long as the train and cost about as much. These tiny rooms are a fantastic bang for the buck, even if they still haven't fixed the shower making a lake on the bathroom floor. $100 / night + the usual add-ons

And that's before I unpacked and replaced the luggage rack with the chair and little table you see at the bottom right, and cleared off the bedside table to hold folded clothes on the bottom and computer gear on the top.
There are so many smart details: a long rack with hooks and a narrow shelf above, lots of lighting choices for a small room, depending on what you need (foyer, overhead, just-right-brightness bedside, bathroom sink, and shower), a *steamer* for your clothes instead of an iron and ironing board which would be impossible to use in this small space.

Decided to go with the traditional first meal in NY and walked over to El Quinto Pino via 23rd. It was quiet, but maybe the cold was keeping everyone in. Had the usual, and sent pictures to the family because I am like that.

Burbujas, nuestra bravas, uni panini

And I was still a little hungry so had calamari ala plancha, and a negroni with a campari made in Brooklyn. Skipped dessert, but was really wishing for a cup of tea by the time I got back to the hotel around 10:30 but no go. The doorman did say they could set me up with a kettle, so I might look into that. 

Amaro alert : cocktail recipes DC, NYC & Pennsylvania restaurants

At Officina, chef Nick Stefanelli’s tri-level Italian restaurant and market in Washington, D.C., bar director John Filkins helms Salotto, an intimate 12-seat amaro library stocked with dozens of contemporary and vintage releases. Sangue di Gambi "marries aromatic Demerara rum with Varnelli Amaro Sibilla, a rich, alpine-inspired amaro, and Cappelletti Vino Aperitivo, a bright bitter, for a rich and complex Negroni riff."

Got the tip from this Punch article which also lists Luca in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where they make  Inverno Luce , Fresh Kills in Brooklyn making The Mezcaletti, Leo, in  Williamsburg, Brooklyn, makes a gin cocktail  The Local Hanky Panky

A recipe for a Little Italy rounds out the goodies plus a link to an article about which bottles of amaro to consider smuggling back 

Restaurant Reviews - moving from "what" to "why"

LA Review of Books article on the evolution of the form & content of restaurant reviews, by Theodore Gioia

New restaurant alert!

Sushi in Redwood City. We're going...

How to Find Vietnamese Bahn Cuon

GREAT article  about Bahn Cuon - fresh rice sheets - lots of SoCal recommendations + a Seattle place, Virginia, one in San Jose I've added to my map...She goes into what names signify and what to look for. Also put her cookbook with a recipe for bahn cuon on my Amazon list and her blog on feedly

Marzipan - Fruit and Not Fruit

Oh man, next trip to NYC I need to figure out how to get here. Katie Parla had a great shot in her instagram stories, but nothing online, at least anymore...
In Germany we went Konigsberger Marzipan which was a revelation.
Updates to come...

Sacramento source: CityScout Magazine

CityScout has good listings, got there from a story about Faria Bakery, went to Allora on their recommendation and had the cavatelli above in a pheasant ragu and lovely delicate sharp and sweet barely tomato-y sauce. Next visit I want to check out the natural wine bar pop-up

Coffee exploration on the Peninsula

list of places with unusual coffee drinks from thesixfifty

Local-ish places

Voyager Craft Coffee// 3985 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara; 669.241.8835
Tokyo latte: infused with cherry blossom, brown sugar, and vanilla
Valencia: orange blossom water and coconut
Santiago: cocoa, cinnamon, and brown sugar with a ginger, cayenne pepper kick

1 Oz Coffee Castro Street Suite 130, Mountain View//650.254.8555
Turmeric latte

Bitter + Sweet// 20560 Town Center Lane, Cupertino; 408.255.2600
Black sesame latte combines tahini (sesame seed paste), condensed milk, and espresso.

ZombieRunner// 429 California Avenue, Palo Alto; 650.325.2048
Turkish cappuccino mixes steamed chai into your espresso




Plus list has Saratoga, Pacifica and South SF spots

Guide to LA's Little Tokyo

Afar article.
Of special note:

Satisfy your sweet tooth at Mikawaya, the 109-year-old dessert shop where mochi ice cream—balls of Japanese rice cake filled with assorted ice cream flavors—was invented.

Most years, springtime heralds the return of the LA Art Book Fair, the West Coast sister of the NY Art Book Fair and a one-stop-shop for art book–centric reads from artists, antiquarian booksellers, small presses, and institutions.

WaPo City guides, actually good!

List of US and global cities

NYC Restaurants Fall 2019 Hot Openings

From NYMag

Especially interesting:

(september openings)

Canal Street Oysters
380 Canal St.

A stupendous limestone bar is the focal point of brothers Anthony and Tom Martignetti’s latest restaurant project. On the bar go oysters — Bluepoints, Wellfleets, Malpeques, Beausoleils, raw on the half-shell — plus whelks, clams, and sea urchin. John Dory Oyster Bar vet Charlene Santiago’s cooked dishes expand on the theme. There’s razor clams on the plancha, fried fish sticks, cod bánh mì, and squid-ink paella for two. 

Il Fiorista

17 W. 26th St.

Flowers look great. Flowers smell wonderful. Flowers make us happy. And although we sometimes forget, flowers of the edible variety when cooked or preserved taste pretty incredible. That would seem to be one of the things the Italian-born husband-and-wife owners of this restaurant, boutique, education center, and all-around floral superspace would like to draw our attention to. How will they do it? Think bread and nasturtium butter, fluke crudo cured with chrysanthemum, and grass-fed strip steak with flowering marjoram and sweet-potato leaves, all washed down with orange-flower Negronis.

F&F Pizzeria
459 Court St., Carroll Gardens

Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli (the Franks) are French-trained chefs who cook Italian. They are not, however, pizzaioli. But they have a guy. Actually, two guys: Chad Robertson (of San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery) is one, and Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix is the other. (Actually, Bianco is not only a pizzaiolo, but maybe the world’s greatest pizzaiolo, and also a partner with Robertson and his wife, Elizabeth Prueitt, in the Los Angeles culinary mega-complex the Manufactory.) Both have signed on to advise and support and generally share with the Franks all their naturally-leavened secrets. Which, if you know anything about bread and pizza, you know is like having John Coltrane and Charlie Parker agree to help you play the saxophone.

Daily Provisions  (actually I want to try all the daily provisions...)
375 Amsterdam Ave.

The Upper West Side isn’t lacking for spinoffs of popular downtown restaurants. But what right-thinking Upper West Sider wouldn’t want a Danny Meyer bakery-café in their backyard? The DP crew is bringing its Sprezzatura breads, BECs, broccoli melts, and diet-busting crullers to the old White Gold Butchers space. To mark the occasion, the pastry kitchen is debuting a new cruller flavor: caramel apple. It’s glazed with cider-spiked caramel and topped with crushed peanuts, and sounds like something the neighborhood’s gourmet trick-or-treaters could get behind.

The Riddler
51 Bank St.

Jen Pelka made a name for her San Francisco Champagne bar by having fun with something people tend to take extremely seriously, and she brings that same playful spirit to her new West Village outpost — along with 100 different labels by the bottle, a dozen sparkling wines by the glass, signature snacks like tater-tot waffles and free popcorn, and “The Joan,” a glass of house wine filled to the brim.

(november opening)

Le Veau D’Or
129 E. 60th St.

Who better than Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, those masters of the bistro and the brasserie, to let loose on this storied Upper East Side establishment?

Chicago Chefs Guide

Eater article with best late-night, drinks, brunch, splurge and can't miss places

Belcampo in San Mateo

The website doesn't list it yet, but rumor has it that they'll be opening in the Hillsdale Mall. In the meantime I should go by the SF location, or Oakland, or hit them when in LA

Alpine Inn Portola Valley

They promise "quality burgers and cold beer" but also had very respectable pizza and greek salad. We sat at a booth inside and totally missed out on the HUGE back area with picnic tables under giant trees

Manresa Bread in Campbell

Lots of tasty food besides the bakery goods. Visited in July, need to go back...