Krik's Picks

After our wonderful, carefree, and relaxing long weekend in San Francisco (see following posts) in early March, we rented a car and drove down the coast to Carmel . I was attending a conference there, and we wanted to have lunch on our own before joining the group. My wife and I have stayed in Carmel before … actually many years ago. So when we pulled into town, we had a general idea of where we were, but no specific idea about where we would eat. We did have a couple of specific goals, however. First, we wanted to eat outside. When we left Minnesota , we had just experienced the biggest snow storm of the season. And the weather we had in San Francisco was marvelously, luxuriantly, fabulously warm and beautiful. It was even more so in Carmel . So we definitely wanted to eat outside. Second, we wanted to see the ocean. So we found a parking place on the street and started to walk down toward the beach, all the while checking out menus and appearances of the cafés w...

We interrupt this discussion of California restaurants to bring you this late-breaking post on Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown . I’ve mentioned Al’s in several of my past posts. My son has worked there. In my next post, I make major comparisons between Snow’s Oyster Depot in San Francisco with Al’s. This morning, I met my brother at Al’s. And I realized, I’ve never actually written a post on Al’s. Al’s is a long, narrow space, literally built in an alley between two buildings. There are 14 stools at a counter for diners. Waiters (that its, hungry people who are waiting for a stool) squeeze in behind the diners until the space is full, and then the line will snake out the door. Cooks/servers/wiseacres work behind the counter, taking your order, preparing your breakfast, serving your food, providing on-going sardonic comments, observations, and occasionally abuse. I walked into Al’s at about 7:15 this morning and received cheerful greetings from people behind the counter who recogniz...

We left Minnesota early on a Friday morning in March following the heaviest snow storm of the season. I had worked from home on Thursday in order to avoid driving in the mess. I cleared the driveway four times, getting up at 6 a.m. on Friday to clear it one last time before the taxi arrived. The nice think about taking an early flight to California is that you gain time flying west. So we arrived in the City late morning. We had plenty of time to get settled in our hotel and head off for lunch. As I explain in one of my later posts, for this trip to San Francisco , my wife and I had picked out a few restaurants that we definitely wanted to check out. (In contrast to our usual practice of just wandering about and eating at whatever place strikes us as interesting.) So we had a couple of places in mind for lunch when we arrived. Swan’s Oyster Depot was the one we picked. I’m not really sure what we read that signaled to us that this was a place we shouldn’t miss. It wa...

My wife and I have been going to Fisherman’s Wharf for nearly 33 years. We spent our honeymoon in San Francisco and enjoyed a romantic dinner at one of the Wharf restaurants with a view of the fishing boats docked a few feet away. When we lived in San Francisco for a year, the Wharf is where we went for special occasions. On our many return trips to the City, we always make our way down to the Wharf for some shopping, for the view, for the funky mix of people, and always, for the food. When you read reviews of Wharf restaurants on-line, you’ll find quite a range of opinions. Some people, like us, love it, as much for the memories of past visits and maybe in spite of some of the present realities. Others will rant about a bad experience or dismiss it with a curt comment like “you can find better food elsewhere.” I actually don’t disagree with that observation. Many of the swank, classy, celebrity chef restaurants in San Francisco will astound you with their creative food...

Usually when we go on vacation, we find our restaurants just by wandering around. If we’re out shopping or sightseeing or just roaming and we see a place that looks interesting, we’ll see if the menu is posted. If that looks promising, we’ll make a note and stop back later for a meal. But on our last two trips to California , we modified our strategy a bit. For our trip to L.A. , we made an advance reservation at A|O|C . And for our trip to San Francisco , we actually made two reservations before we left home. On the day we arrived, we had a late reservation at Piperade . But after a long day of travel and hiking San Francisco ’s hills and a little bit of jet lag, we canceled it and went to Café Claude . We could get in a little earlier, we’ve eaten there a couple times before, and they have a jazz combo that performs most evenings. The other reservation we made from home was on Saturday night at Isa . It’s located in the Marina District , a part of the City where we’ve never...

When I started Krik’s Picks, I said it would be mostly about food – restaurants, recipes, general food info. Lately, all I’ve written about is restaurants, and I’ve got a bunch of ideas about other posts that I’d like to write. This post is in conjunction with reviews of several restaurants that my wife and I went to in San Francisco . During our trip in early March, we stayed at the Serrano Hotel . We had such a fantastic experience, that I felt compelled to include it in my blog. The Serrano is part of a small chain of ‘boutique hotels’ called the Kimpton Hotels . I’ve stayed at a couple of them in Washington , DC . When we started planning our trip to San Francisco , I checked the rates at the Kimpton Hotels there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that several fit into our budget. We were tempted by the Sir Francis Drake . We’d previously been to the Starlight Room at the top of the hotel for dancing and cocktails. We’d also eaten at Scala’s Bistro on another visit a couple ...

My travel to Washington , DC , is picking up again. I went there three times in March, and on two of the trips, I ate in fish restaurants. They both happened to be Italian restaurants. The first was D’Acqua . The restaurant is relatively new. It’s located in the space where a restaurant called Signatures was previously. Signatures was renowned because it was founded by Jack Abramoff , the disgraced lobbyist. I did eat at Signatures once. It wasn’t my choice. One of our associations had a group dinner there. This was before the Abramoff scandal had really taken off. After Abramoff, DeLay , and that whole sordid crew went down, the restaurant failed. Seems that nobody wanted to be seen eating there, even after Abramoff was out of the picture. Funny town, DC. Walking into D’Acqua was a surprising contrast to Signatures. Instead of cool and modern, it’s all warmed up with wood and soft lighting. I was greeted by a hostess who obviously was more comfortable speaking Ital...