Brace: East Coast favorite Dunkin’ Donuts has announced plans to expand to Northern California, with up to 80 stores due in the area in the next five to six years, though it’s unknown whether or not any of those stores would be in San Francisco proper. Per the Boston Globe: “[T]he company said Monday that it is expanding its franchise recruitment efforts to Northern California. As a result, the entire state is now available for franchise development.” [Boston.com, SFist]
Anna Roth reviews San Francisco’s pair of Xi’an newcomers: House of Xi’an Dumpling and Xi An Gourmet. [SF Weekly]
Luke Tsai files the first formal review of Charlie Hallowell’s latest, Penrose: “As the restaurant heads into its second month, it seems that Hallowell has fixed, or at least begun to fix, the handful of quibbles I had.” [East Bay Express]
From the national scene:
The Pete Wells review this week — of Michel Richard’s new place — is a doozy: “Think of everything that’s great about fried chicken. Now take it all away. In its place, right between dried-out strands of gray meat and a shell of fried bread crumbs, imagine a gummy white paste about a quarter-inch deep. This unidentifiable paste coats your mouth until you can’t perceive textures or flavors. It is like edible Novocain.” [New York Times]
Roy Choi’s new LA restaurant, Pot, has a video trailer. [Eater]
How to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. [Laughing Squid]
Steve Cuozzo files on the whole bring-your-baby-to-a-fancy-restaurant topic. [NY Post]
This is a no-no under new law. Photo: The Chronicle/Katy Raddatz
Last week, Scoop brought news of a new amendment to California food safety law that bans bare-handed food contact in restaurants. It’s a regulation that has received the scorn — not to mention eye-rolling — of chefs and diners alike, even though the state has agreed for a soft enforcement period in the first half of the year.
This week, the Los Angeles Times smartly points to another area affected by the new law: bars.
Since “food employees shall not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands,” bartenders must wear gloves or use tweezers or other utensils when touching ice, garnishes or similar ingredients that go directly in the drink. The Times reports:
“Technically speaking, these rules do apply to bars,” says Angelica Pappas, a spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Assn. “It’s been a common question we’ve heard … so there may be more information to come on this in guidance documents from the health inspectors.”
Well, that will certainly take some of the romanticism out of twists or a toothpick-spiked martini olive. Also, California cocktail photography will never be the same.
Bartender people: Your thoughts?
· Previously: California bans bare-handed food contact in restaurants [Inside Scoop]
Local Accession Number: 06_11_005189 Title: Parker House, Boston, Mass. Statement of responsibility: John P. Soule, 199 Washington Street, Boston Creator/Contributor: Soule, John P. (photographer) Genre: Stereographs; Photographic prints Date issued: 1850-1920 (approximate) Physical description: 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph ; 9 x 18 cm. General notes: Title from image caption.; Part of series: Boston and vicinity.; No. 553. Date notes: Date supplied by cataloger. Subjects: Hotels; Parker House (Boston, Mass.) Collection: Stereographs Collection Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department Shelf locator: Boston Rights: Rights status not evaluated
Just a cursory glance at a few storm photos by Mike Hollingshead and it’s clear this guy has probably seen it all, and probably put his life at risk to do so. The intrepid storm chaser has been enduring foul weather since the late 90s, clocking some 20,000 miles a year in his car as he stalks thunderstorms and other extreme weather occurrences waiting to capture the perfect shot. Hollingshead shares his story with Jakob Schiller over at Raw File, and you can see hundreds of his photos, many available for purchase as prints, over on his website. All images courtesy the artist. (via Raw File)
Now you can listen to wax cylinder recordings of Aleister Crowley (The Great Beast!) that were first transferred to 78s and were just reissued on an LP from Suitable records. Enjoy such great moments as The Coll Of The Second Aethyr (in Enochian, aka angel language!) and "Hymn To The American People." Aleister Crowley: Original Wax Recordings More info here.
Note: this issue has been edited for a Rated 12+ audience. Kimota! With one magic word, a long-forgotten legend lives again! Freelance reporter Michael Moran always knew he was meant for something more — now, a strange series of events leads him to reclaim his destiny!
The agency has put software in thousands of computers that allows for surveillance and can also create a path for launching cyberattacks, according to documents, experts and officials.
The Trappist in Oakland: one of the many spots that are part of a renaissance in craft beer appreciation . Photo: Colin Burke McClure
Craft beer aficionados in the East Bay have had much to celebrate over the past few years with a veritable explosion of new spots specializing in small production, handcrafted beers from across the country and around the world — many of which serve delicious bites too.
And evidence suggests the craft beer phenomenon is still on the upswing, with more beer destinations slated to open this year, including Westbrae Biergarten in Berkeley, and, in Oakland, Fruitvale Fermentation Factory from Ale Industries, The Good Hop Bottle Shop on Telegraph, and a new Drakes Brewery destination in the Hive development at the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence that beer is where it’s at is to be found in Alameda, however, where Du Vin Fine Wines, an established player in the local wine scene for the past 12 years, has just morphed into Craft Beer & Wine.(...)
“Girls are trained to say, ‘I wrote this, but it’s probably really stupid.’ Well, no, you wouldn’t write a novel if you thought it was really stupid. Men are much more comfortable going, ‘I wrote this book because I have a unique perspective that the world needs to hear.’ Girls are taught from the age of seven that if you get a compliment, you don’t go, ‘Thank you’, you go, ‘No, you’re insane.’”
- Lena Dunham, in an interview with The Guardian (x)
I can never be sure which Jeopardy categories are going to go well for me, but it seems as though there’s always at least one I know won’t go well: World Capitals. Legal Terms. The Old Testament. And in a way, that’s a central part of trivia games--they cast a wide net, so everyone is bound to have some blind spots. Virtuoso, on the other hand, concerns itself with a very specific subset of trivia, and, thus, a specific subset of players. This is the board game for anyone who pumps their fist when Trebek reads off a "Classical Music" category at the beginning of a round.
The board game was developed as a graduate project by Caleb Heisey, a graphic design student at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. It’s essentially a Trivial Pursuit-style affair. Players answer classical music trivia questions to proceed around an orchestra pit-shaped game board. But there are a few unique touches.
There’s the "audition," a rapid-fire lightning around, which the designer says is based on the real-life experience of moving up "chairs" in an orchestra. And then there are the dice, which are based on musical time signatures and beats per minute instead of the typical dots. Heisey’s not kidding when he says the game’s intended for those with "a firm understanding of basic music theory."
But even those who don’t know their Bach from their Brahms will have to admit that the game is a beautiful one. The graphic design student’s chops are evident in the game cards and in-box rules listing, and Heisey says he enlisted the help of some experts to make sure all the details were just right. "I have been in constant contact with a violin maker as well as a Japanese woodworker living in Philadelphia about [the game’s] materials," he explains. He borrowed from the visual language of pianos and violins throughout for a unified feel.
Heisey’s aware that Virtuoso isn’t likely to be the next Cranium, but he says he’s had a huge response from music buffs since he posted the project on his site. If anything, he sees Virtuoso making sense as a collector’s item, or even an educational tool, with classrooms stocking the game to get youngsters engaged in music theory. And hey, if the allure of timeless musical masterpieces isn’t enough, a board game is at least worth a shot.
via firehose ('Chris Onstad beat, who is "starting an all-natural, craft soda company!"')
It's another sad day here at the Mercury as we bid farewell to our beloved food critic, Chris Onstad. Happily, he's not dead, and is simply leaving to pursue a new and exciting venture: starting an all-natural, craft soda company! (Oh my god, Chris is gonna NAIL that, and I'm gonna drink the crap out of it. Thanks for the pre-adult onset diabetes, Chris!) Good luck, Monsieur Onstad, you've been an inspiration to us all, and you have our sincere thanks for all your thorough, thought-provoking work!
Now I need a moment to allow my tears to dry, so here's the help wanted ad for our NEW FOOD CRITIC position. Even if you have a Totino Pizza Roll palate, take a look and please pass it on to anyone you think might be a good fit! THANK YOU!
WANTED: FOOD AND DRINK CRITIC
The Portland Mercury is looking for a new food/restaurant/drink critic to add to our stable of great writers. COULD THAT BE YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW? Let's find out:
The successful candidate will have strong/snappy writing skills, a passion for food and drink, demonstrable knowledge of what makes a great dish and eatery, and a brain crammed full of information regarding the Portland restaurant scene. Reporting skills are a definite plus, as is prior food/drink criticism experience.
Duties include writing one restaurant review per week for the print edition, and publishing at least three blog posts per week on Blogtown, as well as being heavily involved with our bi-annual food/drink issues. This is a FREELANCE position, which allows the candidate plenty of time to have other employment, and this person can choose their own hours—as long as deadlines are met.
Pay is $125 per week, and meals eaten for review purposes are paid for (within reason of course) by the Mercury.
Interested parties should email editor Wm. Steven Humphrey HERE (put "FOOD AND DRINK CRITIC POSITION" in the subject line) and include the following:
• A cover letter describing why you're so awesome.
• A resume that includes pertinent experience.
• Up to six published food/drink writing clips (blog posts are acceptable, as are PDFs and URLs). No published clips? NO PROBLEM. Send in a 600-word review of a place you've eaten at recently.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014.
The meeting feels that the phrases “limited ingredient cooking” and “principal ingredients” are vague and open to misinterpretation. Some chefs who are accustomed to complex recipes might consider ten ingredients to be a limited number. Or, the chef might judge that “principal ingredients” should include the spices because of their importance to the dish.
Also, limiting the number of principal ingredients to 3, 4, or 5 seems particularly arbitrary.
Publishers often market the books as “quick and easy cooking,” but many recipes with limited ingredients are decidedly not easy.
As the big dog of desktop publishing in the '80s and '90s, QuarkXPress was synonymous with professional publishing. In fact, it was publishing. But its hurried and steady decline is one of the greatest business failures in modern tech.
Quark's demise is truly the stuff of legend. In fact, the story reads like the fall of any empire: failed battles, growing discontent among the overtaxed masses, hungry and energized foes, hubris, greed, and... uh, CMYK PDFs. What did QuarkXPress do—or fail to do—that saw its complete dominance of desktop publishing wither in less than a decade? In short, it didn’t listen.
The rise
I went to a high school for the arts—yes, it was just like Fame, so stop asking—and only got seriously into computers, Photoshop, and design in the early nineties. Back then, when asked “what program do you learn for jobs in page layout and design," there was only one answer: QuarkXPress. Sure, you might have heard the name Pagemaker by Aldus—later purchased by Adobe—but even with my little awareness of the publishing world outside our school walls, it was obvious that no one used it. When I eventually got summer jobs in DTP service bureaus and magazines, the dominance of QuarkXPress 3 was total. The widely reported statistics were that XPress enjoyed 95 percent dominance of the publishing market at that time. But when I left Vice in ’99, the privately held Quark Inc.’s best days were behind them. That was the year that Adobe’s InDesign 1.0 hit the market.
Tokyo Metro: Trains of the Passnet Companies Collectible Farecard
Not a transit map, but too darn cute to not share with you.
From the same series of collectible Passnet cards as this nifty Tokyo Metro map, this card shows an adorably stylised train for each of the (22!) rail companies that participated in the Passnet program.
Ruby red grapefruits tend to get all the glory, but lately I've been relishing the white-fleshed yellow variety thanks to an abundant little grove of grapefruit trees near my mother-in-law's house in Southern California. The best yellow grapefruits have just the right balance of acid and sugar — not too sweet, not too puckery, and with a pleasant trace of bitterness. This makes for excellent marmalade and a nice change of pace from the standard orange kinds.
Sir Ian McKellen recently took some time out from charming escapades with best bro Patrick Stewart for a very serious cause. He's collaborated with his friend, Nobel-winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto, on an open letter to Vladimir Putin, calling for the repeal of Russia's law against "homosexual propaganda."
It looks like a new brewery could be coming to the Boston area, and its name gives a hint as to where the person behind it is currently looking.
The Boston Business Journal is reporting that South Boston resident Adam Romanow is looking for a space to open Castle Island Brewing Co., which is named after the popular recreation area at the tip of Southie. The article says that Romanow is concentrating his search near the Andrew Square area of South Boston, where there are some industrial properties that could potentially be used for his brewery, though he also may be considering spaces in Chelsea, Everett, Malden, and Quincy, as he wants to get Castle Island Brewing Co. up and running by the latter part of the summer.
Southie is no stranger to the brewing industry, with Harpoon having a brewery, offices, and a beer hall here, Boston Beer Co. having its headquarters in the neighborhood, and Trillium having its brewery here as well.
The website for Castle Island Brewing Co. can be found at http://castleislandbeer.com/
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