GRAM CAFE & PANCAKES: ONLY IN SAN FRANCISCO IN THE UNITED STATES

Not only is Gram Cafe & Pancakes an "Only in San Francisco" phenomenon, but it is the only location of this popular Japanese café in all of the United States!

Gram opened in the Stonestown Galleria shopping center in San Francisco a few months ago, to wildly popular reviews.

It's concept intrigued me so much that, today, I drove over an hour to the far west part of San Francisco to sample their "signature" Premium Pancakes.  While the café serves other pancake dishes, it is the Premium Pancakes that are causing all the commotion.

They are souffléd pancakes, served as a stack of three with whipped cream, butter, and a tiny pitcher of warm maple syrup.

Serving times for the Premium Pancakes are each day at 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m.  Only 30 orders are prepared at each serving and the staff gives out tickets for each serving time.  Each order is prepared to order at the rate of 10 servings each half hour.

The Premium Pancakes are very delicate and customers are not offered a take-home box for them.  These pancakes are fragile and will lose their "pouf" after awhile.

Customers are not required to order the Premium Pancakes.  There are several other menu items from which to choose and you can just drop by anytime to enjoy those.  

I met Harriet at Gram at 10 a.m. this morning and we settled into the line of numbered seats.

At 10:30, a staff member handed us our numbers.

While we were waiting, another staff member offered us cups of coffee and water.  Then, she further psyched us up by coming around with a stuffed-toy version of the Premium Pancakes.  She offered, and we accepted her offer, to take pictures of us with these toy pancakes.

Promptly at 11 a.m., we were seated in the dining room. 

Several customers at tables near us decided to share just one order among their party and to order other pancake creations as well.

Harriet and I each wanted our own order.  

And, we had a great time and loved the Premium Pancakes.  

At $16 an order, the Premium Pancakes are a bit of a splurge, but well worth the experience.  Several staff members came to our table to talk about the pancakes and make sure that we were enjoying our meals.  It was a leisurely experience; we were not at all rushed.

I say that the Premium Pancake is well worth the advance planning and worth the excursion.

And, the Stonestown Galleria is a very nice shopping mall, so, for us, this was an excellent way to spend a day together...eating and shopping!!! 

Bon Appetit!

Afternoon Tea

This week Harriet and I celebrated her birthday with Afternoon Tea at the Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco. 

While Crown and Crumpet is in Japantown, an unlikely location for an British Tea Salon, it is a bright, cheery, "proper" tea salon and serves one of the best Afternoon Teas that I've had in San Francisco.  Crown and Crumpet was originally in Ghiradelli Square from 2008; it relocated to this current spot in The New People Building in 2013.

We had the Afternoon Tea, a complete tea service that included, for each of us, our own large pot of our selection of tea from the extensive loose tea menu; warm blueberry scones and crumpets with jam, lemon curd, and clotted cream; egg salad, ham salad, and cucumber finger sandwiches; two warm savory items: sausage rolls and herbed biscuits; green salad; and five different sweets: chocolate-covered strawberries, palmers, cookies, mini cupcakes, and matcha macarons.

When we had finished our wonderful Tea, our server surprised Harriet with a special large cupcake with a birthday candle in it.  While we sang "Happy Birthday", she added to the festivities by blowing bubbles in Harriet's direction!

What a joyous get together!

In addition to their complete Afternoon Tea service, Crown and Crumpet offers several à la carte items which include Chicken Pot Pie, Avocado Toast, Beans on Toast, Soup, Salads, and Hot Pressed Sandwiches. They always will serve just a pot of tea or cup of coffee, with or without pastries or tea sandwiches.

A nice alternative to the complete Tea that we enjoyed, a smaller version, the Nursery Tea is offered to children 12 or under and adults 65 and older: a small pot of tea, mini finger sandwiches, a scone with jam, and three sweets.

WINTER FANCY FOOD SHOW, SAN FRANCISCO

The Winter Fancy Food Show came to San Francisco January 22 - 24. I attend this show every year to discover new food trends, meet representatives from food companies, and to see favorite vendors.

Fancy Food is a show for the food trade. Specialty food companies come to introduce new products and to widen their customer base of food stores, caterers, food distributors and restaurants. I go representing the press and always come away with a feeling for what foods are going to be popular in the next year and beyond, which ones endure from year to year, and which ones are no longer must have items.

This year, my friend Janet joined me for our day of food tasting and discovery.

I always start in the Cheese section, which goes on for row after row in the Moscone Center.  At last year's show I discovered many flavored cheese, particularly flavored cheddars. This year, we saw many softer flavored cheeses. There were many wonderful lavender and truffle-flavored cheeses.

 

The colorful, flavored French Macarons continue to be a favorite sweet. Both Janet and I indulged.

Hummus, in a wide variety of flavors, continues to be a popular dip/spread. Baba Hummus from San Luis Obispo was a newcomer to the show, introducing its handmade organic hummus. Right now, their hummus is in several California grocery stores and sold at many Central California Farmer's Markets.  Hopefully, since the show, it will be showing up in other parts of the country.

We tasted lots of Nut Butters made with a variety of nuts and in a variety of flavors. 

The most interesting nut butter that I sampled was the Peanut Butter & Co.'s Mighty Nut Powdered Peanut Butter.  The peanut butter can be reconstituted as a spread by mixing 1 tablespoon of water into 2 tablespoons of powered peanut butter.  It worked perfectly and tasted great.  I've also tried it simply sprinkled on my cereal or yogurt for an added protein and taste boost.  Many Bay Area grocery stores already carry this product and I highly recommend it both for at home and perhaps for your next camping trip.  

 

Smoked Salmon remains a popular fancy food and we indulged ourselves at the show.

As always, there are a lot of tea companies at the show.  A trend towards flavored teas continues.  And, curiously, many longtime tea companies, such as Harney & Sons, have added bottled juice, tea,  and energy drinks to their repertoire. 

Pique, a San Francisco company, introduced its individual packet of tea crystals, packaged much like Starbuck's Via. Their teas are already in many Bay Area markets and even at Sports Basement. Just add hot or cold water to a packet of crystals, and you have a high quality tea to drink.

To my delight, Snoqualmie Ice Cream, from the state of Washington, was at the show to introduce its new Organic ice creams.  I discovered their French Lavender ice cream almost 5 years ago in some local supermarkets. But, these markets no longer carry it and I've been longing for it.  Now, they have two versions of their Lavender flavor. Hopefully, Snoqualmie has found some new Bay Area markets for its superior ice creams. Believe me, their lavender is THE BEST!!!  I know it was popular at the show because they had run out of samples of it by the time Janet and I found their booth.

 

Last year I discovered Traina's tasty sun-dried tomato ketchup.  This year, they've spiced up their offerings to keep up with the enduring Sriracha trend with a new Sriracha version.  

The array of confections at Fancy Food can be overwhelming.  We saw several Marshmallow vendors.  Could gourmet marshmallows be the "it" sweet for the coming year?

At this year's Winter Fancy Food Show, vendors were allowed to hand out packaged samples of their foods, rather than simply serving samples at their booths.  I was delighted to be able to take samples with me to taste and evaluate later.  Of course, most vendors also served generous tastes of their products at their booths as well. The above are some of the samples that I picked up.  

And, one last note, my in-house taster of all things sweet, was happy to do his analysis of Jelly Belly's Kid Mix Jelly Beans. 

Frank Stella Retrospective at the DeYoung Museum

Damascus Gate, 1970

There is just another month to see the Frank Stella: A Retrospective exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. It closes on February 26, 2017.

The exhibit covers this iconic American artist's career over the past nearly-60 years.  It follows his work from his flat bright-colored canvases in the late 1950s, to his cut-out canvases, through his use of different structural materials in his 3-dimensional works, up to present day and his use of computer technology to aid in his creations.  

Talladega (1980) is my favorite piece in this exhibit.  

St. Michael's Counterguard, 1984

Indian Bird maquette

The exhibit includes both Stella's very large pieces and intimate smaller ones such as Indian Bird maquettes, as seen above.

The main exhibit is on the lower floor of the deYoung.  It continues to the first floor to a room of his prints.

Allow at last an hour for the exhibit; two hours, perhaps, with the audioguide.

Farewell to Lefty O'Doul's, for Awhile, at Least

While I was in San Francisco this week during one of our recent ferocious rain storms, I popped into Lefty O'Doul's to take cover and for one last lunch.

Although all of the 400 pieces of baseball memorabilia that usually cover the walls and fill every nook and cranny of Lefty's have disappeared, it still had its usual comfortable feel.

The hofbrau cafeteria line was busy with other hungry customers in here for one last Turkey dinner or Corned Beef or Pastrami Sandwich.

I had my "usual," a Corned Beef Sandwich on Rye.

I must admit, it's been a few years since I last ate at Lefty's and, now, I'm regretting it.  My sliced-to-order hot corned beef sandwich has to be the best corned beef sandwich in San Francisco.  The corned beef was hot, moist, and lean...everything I want in a Corned Beef Sandwich.

Why have I been going to Wise Sons and Max's most often for my Corned Beef "fix" when I should have been going to Lefty's?

The future of Lefty O'Doul's is not certain. It is scheduled to close on February 3, 2017.

The restaurant dates back to 1958 when baseball player Francis "Lefty" O'Doul opened it in San Francisco as a place where family and friends could come to eat and meet sports stars.  Lefty was born in San Francisco and played in the Pacific Coast League as well as for several Major League teams.  In 1929, he had the highest batting average (.398) of any National League outfielders in the 20th century. 

The owners of the restaurant's building are in dispute with current owner Nick Bovis who's been running Lefty's since 1998. Bovis says that he has the rights to the Lefty O'Doul's name and all its 400 pieces of memorabilia and will reopen this fall in a nearby location.  The building owners say otherwise and that they are planning to remodel this site and reopen it as their version of Lefty O'Doul's.

The only "decorative" item remaining, is a Marilyn Monroe statue in one corner of the back dining room.

I guess all we Lefty's fans can do is to stay tuned. BUT, if you can get over there in the next two weeks for a sandwich or platter of hand-carved roast beef, ham, corned beef, pastrami, or turkey, you will not be disappointed.  Lefty O'Doul's is open every day of the week from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m.

Winter Fancy Food Show: What's New? What are the trends for 2016?

I spent yesterday at the Winter Fancy Foods show in San Francisco. Every year, I attend at least one day of this 3-day exposition.

I attend mainly to see what trends there are for the coming year. To determine what's trending, I spend the entire day tasting cheeses, sweets, crackers, sauces, teas, and more.

From what I observed, kale is on its way out and beets are the new super-vegetable. I tasted packaged cooked beets in all shapes and cuts, beet crackers, beet chips, and beet juice.

I even picked up recipes for beet smoothies and beet cocktails.

The main cheese trend that I saw was flavored cheeses, particularly flavored cheddars. My favorite was Rogue Creamery's La-Di-Da Lavender cheddar.  Jarlsberg is even making a line of crackers with its cheese.  They are quite tasty.

Packaged Tuna that is low in mercury showed up at the booths of several vendors. As one who would eat a tuna salad sandwich every day of the week, given the choice, I sampled several tuna salads at the show.  I am very impressed with Safe Catch in Marin County who tests every one of its fishes to assure that its Skipjack and Albacore tuna is even more mercury free than the levels required by the FDA.

The newest of the ancient grains, Freekeh is competing with Quinoa as the go-to supergrain. Could this be because many people don't know how to pronounce Quinoa?

One Quinoa vendor has named its product with the grain's phonetic pronunciation. While Freekeh has its intrigue and undisputed nutritional benefits, I still prefer quinoa or farro as my supergrains of choice.

Hemp turned up in drinks and as a grain to add to salads, soups and other dishes.

Coconut Sugar and Oil turned up in numerous foods as a more healthful alternative to cane sugar.  Several popcorn and snack vendors are using coconut oil in their products.

As for tea, each year brings more and more new flavors as well as the old standards like Earl Grey and English Breakfast.  The Japanese powdered tea, Matcha is one of my favorites (If you've ever eaten Green Tea Ice Cream, its color and flavor is that of Matcha).  This year, several vendors were offering Matchas in single-serving packets.

Teas that claim to "cleanse" or "reduce weight" have been around for awhile.  This year at Fancy Foods, it seems that the big companies are now offering supplemented teas.

And, to go with tea, cheese, dips, or just to eat by themselves the variety of crackers, biscuits, and cookies continues to be infinite.

I particularly enjoyed tasting Effie's Homemade Oatcakes and Ryecakes and would have either of them with a cup of tea or a cocktail.

Ice cream and gelato remains ever-popular.  For Fancy Foods, Choctál had tastings of 4 single-origin Vanilla ice creams and 4 single-origin Chocolate ice creams.  For each of the two tastings, they had a special plate and tasting notes.  My favorite Vanilla was the Indonesian Vanilla and my favorite Chocolate the mocha-y Dominican Chocolate.

I didn't see as many barbecue sauce vendors at the show as I have in past years, but did see more spice vendors.  Perhaps spice rubs will be replacing the sweet sauces as a flavoring for meats, poultry, and fish as well as adding salt-free seasonings to vegetables and grain dishes.

Organic and gluten-free products are still numerous.

Even Jelly Belly has introduced jelly beans and other confections made with organic fruits.

Attending the Winter Fancy Food Show is always an interesting and fun day.  The Winter show is usually in San Francisco and the summer version is in New York City.