Broccoli & Chocolate

restaurants * food events * news

Review: Cafe Jacqueline

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Looking for a romantic dinner for two in the City? Cafe Jacqueline fits the bill: dim lighting; cozy, high-ceilinged dining area; chic vintage minimalist decor. This North Beach restaurant isn’t your standard Little Italy establishment for sure, but it’s also unique in the City as a whole. Which isn’t something you find too often.

Chocolate souffle. Read on.

What Cafe Jacqueline does is souffles. What is a souffle? It’s something that people of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation revered and feared. Like Donald Trump’s hair nowadays. People probably used to look to Julia Child for guidance on this difficult and notably finicky dish; I’d just go to Jackie*.

Since Wiki says it best, I’ll just quote that a souffle is a “lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert”. Yeah, that. As a savory dinner dish, it’s like a ramekin-ed, puffy quiche. As a dessert, it’s like an airy, warm cake…. 

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Review: Sheba

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I’ll make this quick since I didn’t take any pictures. But, since all vegetarian sampler platters look the same at Ethiopian restaurants, I’ll just show you a pretty picture of another one I’ve eaten before:

Vegetarian Sampler

Sheba is an Ethiopian restaurant, bar, and piano lounge on Fillmore, just around the corner from the Fillmore concert hall. I love Ethiopian food. There’s not a whole lot of it in the city, so I’ve been slowly but surely seeking it out. I’ve only tried one other place in the Avenues somewhere, and I didn’t love it. This one was better.

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Review: Tommaso’s

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Two “m”s, one “s”. Tommaso’s. Opened in 1935 (under the name Lupo’s), this Italian eatery has stayed the course for over 75 years donning the same cave-like location and winning awards for their pizza. They’ve got an interesting story and are one of the great restaurant successes of SF.

Margherita pizza from Tommaso’s

When you ask for restaurant recommendation in SF, particularly in North Beach (technically FiDi, but still), you’ll often hear the name Tommaso’s. At least I have. And since I walk by the place every day (no joke) on my way to work, it’s a wonder it’s taken so long for me to go. But alas, now I can say I have experience the great Tommaso’s.

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Review: China (the Country)

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I went to China. Hi, I’m back.

I ate food there. And I didn’t get any food poisoning as I am wont to do on vacation. Yeay! Even though I can’t exactly provide the same restaurant reviewing service about places in Beijing, I can still show some juicy pics and tell tales of some of the neato stuff I ate while I was there. And because I can, I will.

Picture of food so you’ll keep reading.

I will start by saying that we mainly ate at “Western” style restaurants in Beijing. This is not to say that the food at these restaurants isn’t Chinese or that it’s not authentic — it just means that the facility operates in a Western style. Typically, these restaurants are large, and you’re seated at a table by a hostess. The menu is typically very expansive and full of pictures. Your order is taken by a waiter/waitress. Sometimes this person speaks some English, often not so much. The pictures are helpful for this. Your food is brought to you and is typically meant to be shared among the people at your table. You use chop sticks. The facilities are clean and the food is of high quality like you might expect in, say, San Francisco.

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Vacation!

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While I imagined furiously preparing multiple posts to go up while I’m away in China, I was not actually able to make this happen (surprise). Therefore, B&C will be taking a short hiatus while I’m eating food in China. I did not get my Hep A shot; please do think a happy thought to the food gods for me. 🙂

And, feel free to stalk me while I (hopefully) post via email from China: http://angiesommer.blogspot.com/

Happy eating!

Review: Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery

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Ok, I realize that writing about Specialty’s in San Francisco is kinda like writing about a Seven Eleven in a lesser city. That’s an exaggeration. But still, Specialty’s is sort of the San Francisco version of your average bakery and deli. There are a handful of them scattered around downtown, a few elsewhere in the bay area, and a few out of state. But I write about them because I find them to be utterly amazing.

What do you eat for lunch if you live in a regular city? Like Subway or something? Pish posh. I work in San Francisco and I order a Specialty’s sandwich at least once a week. Here is my favorite:

Specialty’s Mediterranean sandwich.

It’s called the Mediterranean. (Try spelling that without spell check. I dare you.) The Mediterranean: Fresh mozzarella with kalamata olives, spinach, tomato, basil, red pepper pesto, basil pesto and balsamic vinaigrette on toasted thyme focaccia. Two types of pesto! Olives! And fine, I’m all snooty about it and I swap out the focaccia for ciabatta. Which is so easy to do with their online ordering system whereby I choose what I want (and sub in/out any ingredients!) and then go pick it up at the store 15 minutes later. It’s amazing…. 

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Review: Wayfare Tavern

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Wayfare Tavern = Awesome.

I guess that’s really all I need to say. I’m adding this to my wish list (for places to return with a camera); this place was birthday worthy!!!

Main points:

  • a roving bread monger with freshly baked, croissant-like bread aplenty (and salted butter… oh lord, I could have just eaten this)
  • a small “American-food” menu with all kinda cool stuff that my dad would call “art food” but that was totally rad
  • a bar-like atmosphere, totally packed with well-dressed peeps at 10pm on a Thursday
  • GOOD ASS FOOD — I shared the deviled eggs and the ahi tuna carpaccio with a friend  — delish!
  • I wanted to order all of the sides. yum.
  • a tiny plate of cookies with your check! do they know me?

In short, I LOVED this place. I want to go back. With a camera, like a tourist. Whatever. Totally delicious, a little pricey, totally worth it. W00t!

Review: Beachside

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Word to the Sunset district! I never go out here. Ever. I don’t know if I’ve ever even been before going to Beachside. The Sunset was meh, but Beachside is a good draw out of the beating heart of the city.

This was a Brunch Club venture of a few weeks ago, and it was pretty amazing. Although, you know how if you see a movie with a person who loves that movie it kinda rubs off on you and you like it more than you might have otherwise? If you followed that drawn-out analogy, I think Beachside was kinda like that. None of us had ever been, but we were all oooh-ing and ahhh-ing the whole time, so I think there was a bit of a blindly praising feedback loop going on. I digress.

So, let’s start with the finale. Here is everything we ordered in overhead glory:

Overhead meal for four. Cheesy grits. Waffles. Eggs. Tater tots. Pie. Happiness.

It was all pretty amazing, even considering aforementioned feedback loop. Since I have a lot of pictures to showcase, I will try to summarize the experience textually:… 

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Review: Cafe Divine

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Update: Cafe Divine is now closed. 🙁

Welcome to North Beach. We have lots of food to eat here.

If you’re looking for breakfast or brunch (or lunch or dinner), we have Cafe Divine. It’s pretty amazing. Also, their website has lots of over-saturated photos of people grinning hugely. A must-see.

Three egg scramble: Italian sausage, bell peppers, scallions, mozzarella. And the delicious biscuit. (and potatoes)

Let’s talk breakfast/brunch. I love brunch. It’s just such a happy meal*. Cafe Divine is pretty accurately named, as far as I’m concerned. Can I start with homemade chive and cheddar biscuits? I seriously wake up on the weekend and have to bargain myself out of getting one of these every day. Slap some jam on that puppy and your day is pretty seriously guaranteed to be amazing. And you’ll totally be ready for a nap afterward.

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Recipe: Left Over Mac ‘n Cheese

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…and I don’t mean the good home-made kind. Hear me out.

So I had boxed macaroni and cheese last night. Stop judging me. I realize this is a food blog, but it’s my food blog so keep quiet. Also, it’s actually a restaurant review blog; it’s ten kinds of pathetic up here in my own kitchen. As you probably know. Moving on.

Trader Joe’s brand boxed mac ‘n cheese with: peas, beans, avocado, parmesan cheese.

I put peas in my mac and cheese. See? Health food. Today I have left over macaroni and cheese and peas. And no microwave*. What’s a gal to do? Make a numbered list, of course:… 

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