Part Deux - Ethan in the City

Some might spend vacations relaxing at the beach, at Disneyland or even on a wild adventure in the wilderness, but Ethan spends his vacations drinking beer at 10AM.

5. Dinner at Commonwealth. 
Holy moly, what a night. We got dressed up (read: this means that Ethan put on a blue suit and orange tie HAH) and went out for a nice romantic dinner. Commonwealth is a new american style restaurant with fun and creative plates that are meant to make your taste buds and eyes jump for joy. We started with a bottle of '09 Getariako Txakolina from Urki Txakoli, a beautiful dry white that complimented the light fare we were about to have. Oh WAIT we ordered charred octopus, pork jowl and asparagus...at least we didn't order gnocci for the second night in a row (we really almost did). The dessert was by far one of the best I've ever had - Lemon sponge cake, Thyme ice cream, candied honey and creme fraiche. The cake was moist but still soaked up the melting ice cream, the honey was crispy (!?) and I just about died.

Afterwards we went to every dive bar in the mission trying to find a good dance party, but we only found photobooths. These were the only family friendly photos out of the bunch:

6. The most insane dance party I've ever been to. Cat Club. 

50's Motown dance party with all the best Drag Queens in San Francisco? How did we stumble upon this heaven? Ethan and I had been out all day running around and ended up at Cat Club in SOMA where I proceeded to dance off all of the beer that I had consumed throughout the weekend. 

*A man in yellow boy shorts was voguing to 1950 classics* If this aint heaven...

7. Pizza and *more cards* at Arizmendi Bakery in the Mission. 

I was having a really bad day and needed to chill out, so Ethan and I went to get some pizza at Arizmendi. Every morning they find whatever is fresh at the farmers market and make one style of pizza on a house-made sourdough crust. Delectable. As always, kicking his ass at cards made me feel much better.

8. Beers and Fried Pork Ears at Magnolia Gastropub. 

Magnolia was the one place that we absolutely had to go to, so after spending some time at Zeitgeist we bussed over to Magnolia. They have beer on tap that they've brewed themselves and, most especially, they have been on cask. In San Diego I could go around the corner and find a beer on cask, but here in San Francisco it's been a lot harder to find. Cask conditioned beer is served warmer and without the help of a CO2 tank to pump the beer - giving you a beer that has a stronger flavor that seems a little smoother. I'm obsessed, mostly because I feel that the carbonation in beer takes away from a lot of the more complex or subtle flavors by overpowering the taste buds. Anyways, Magnolia was AMAZING! Wonderful beer (I suggest the Pride of Branthill on cask) and the most amazing beer accompaniment - fried pork ears. Outstandingly crunchy crispy with a little crack when you hit the thin slice of cartilage in the middle, I've never had anything like it. Unfortunately, I've been back since and they were more oily and the cartilage was a little uncomfortable to eat. Sad face.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience having gung-ho Ethan up here to visit - next time: sleep more. 

The Wild Week of Ethan...Post 1

I've finally recovered from the ridiculous week I had with Ethan (it was 2 weeks ago), and I thought I should share some of the high points:

1. Dinner at Serpentine in Dogpatch. Even though we weren't seated until *an hour and a half* after our reservation and we dined with an uncomfortably argumentative couple, the dinner was one of the best I've had in a long time. Livers, meat & cheese board, gnocchi (with bacon lardons!!), battered calamari and several A+ cocktails. Ethan and I were happy campers indeed. It's also GORGEOUS inside, with a clean concrete style and skylights.

2. Brunch at Foreign Cinema.

We were hungover as shit and feeling like zombies. A pick me up at Ritual coffee in the Mission led us to Foreign Cinema in a search for a spicy bloody mary and Oh Lord, did Foreign Cinema deliver just that - along with some beef carpaccio and sardines that kicked my butt into high heaven. I don't think Ethan will ever be the same after that carpaccio...it came with fried capers and homemade potato chips teehee.

3. Oakland beer adventure at The Trappist. Ethan noticed that his friend had checked in at the Trappist, a belgian beer bar in Oakland, and we decided on a whim to BART there and surprise him. Beligians tend to be my favorite style (mostly the strongs) so I was beyond happy. My favorite was Moonlight's Reality Czeck (oddly NOT a belgian beer), a Czech Pilsener. Nice and light for a daytime drinkie.

4. Card game at Zeitgeist.

The weather was a little off while Ethan was here, but we decided to take in what little sun there was on the back patio of Zeitgeist. While kicking his ass at cards I sipped on yet another bloody mary (theme of the trip) and generally enjoyed spending time with Ethie. The game started quite tame, but slowly escalated to us hurling insults at each other. Such a good time!

More to come....