Posts

james (and me)

in
cheesy baked chard rigatoni
chia pudding breakfast bowl
curried noddles with crispy tofu and winter vegetables
no-bake matcha mint grasshopper pies in jars

all photos courtesy Alanna Taylor-Tobin/bojongourmet.com

The James Beard Award nominees for 2016 were announced yesterday and once again San Francisco and the Bay Area have made a proud showing. Below are links to our local nominees, but before I get to that, here is my own personal nominee in the cookbook/baking and the photography category for next year: Alanna Taylor-Tobin of Bojon Gourmet has created her first cookbook due out in September. It’s called Alternative Baker: Reinventing Dessert with Gluten-Free Grains and Flours. I’ve been following Alanna’s blog for ages and not only are her recipes amazing (and don’t get all hung up on the gluten-free…her gluten-free is not a lesser than substitute for gluten-full, these are recipes that stand up on their own) her photography is out of this world. Her pictures make my mouth water every time. Between now and September, check out Bojon Gourmet and you’ll see I’m right. Come September you can have her right in your very own kitchen.

Now back to James Beard….nominees were announced yesterday right here in San Francisco at the Presidio Officer’s Club. Winners will be announced on May 2 in Chicago. Here are our many local nominees. My next stop is Quince (gotta save a few nickels….this is not for the faint of wallet). Not only is Michael Tusk nominated for Outstanding Chef, but Quince is also nominated for Outstanding Service and you know how I feel about that (here and here)!

Best New Restaurant

Liholiho Yacht Club
871 Sutter Street, San Francisco

Outstanding Baker

Belinda Leong and Michel Suas
B. Patisserie
2821 California Street, San Francisco

William Werner
Craftsman and Wolves
746 Valencia Street and 1643 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco

Outstanding Bar Program

Bar Agricole
355 11th Street, San Francisco

Outstanding Chef

Michael Tusk
Quince
470 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco

Outstanding Restaurateur

Michael Mina
Mina Restaurants (Michael Mina, Bourbon Steak, RN74, and others)
San Francisco

Cindy Pawlcyn
Mustards Grill, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Cindy’s Waterfront at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Napa, CA

Outstanding Service

Quince
470 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco

Best Chef: West

Matthew Accarrino
SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street, San Francisco

Dominique Crenn
Atelier Crenn
3127 Fillmore Street, San Francisco

Corey Lee
Benu
22 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco

So now make like the Oscars and go eat at all of these fine places before the judges announce their decision. See if you agree! And if you need a date let me know….I may need to borrow a few more nickels.

Keep in touch,
Leslie

my favorite restaurant design competition winner is….

in ,

…not from the US. As a matter of fact, there was only one US winner this year in the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards 2015. Parq Restaurant, San Diego, won in the ‘colour’ (it’s a competition out of the UK) category. More on our one winner later.

Trends

In the meantime, let’s look at who else short listed. And if you play the bi-coastal best restaurant game, notice that there are 3 entries short-listed from New York and 3 entries short listed from California. And there are 4 entries that are located inside hotels….nice to see this trend continuing. And yes, I know I included a potty shot below. The whole of Mourad is beautiful, but the bathrooms have me swooning. Something else I noticed across the board….a lot of gold. Does this mean we are coming to the end of the reclaimed-from-an-old-barn look? Can we (hopefully) continue to use sustainable materials without having them look like we pulled them out of the basement?  Oh lordy, one can only hope.

lordy people we can be sustainable and still see an end to the reclaimed-from-an-old-barn look Click To Tweet

Short List

Alibi Cocktail Lounge in the Aria Resort and Casino, Las Vegas. by Studio Munge
Current at the W Hotel in Chicago. by Meyer Davis Studio
Dirty Habit at the Hotel Palomar in San Francisco. By Dawson Design Associates
Mourad in San Francisco. By Lundberg Design
POV in at the W Hotel in Washington DC. by nemaworkshop
Sek’end Sun in Queens, New York. By Emporium Design
Sisters in Brooklyn, New York. By hOmE Studio
Times Square Diner in New York City. By Bluarch

all photos courtesy Restaurant and Bar Design Awards and the design teams involved: Studio Munge, Meyer Davis Studio, Dawson Design Associates, Lundberg Design, nemaworkshop, Emporium Design, hOmE Studio and Bluarch.

The winner is…

And our one and only US winner is Parq Restaurant and Nightclub in the GasLamp District of San Diego. Congratulations to Davis Ink on their win! It is definitely a colour-ful space!

all photos courtesy Restaurant and Bar Design Awards and Davis Ink.

Enjoy the pretty pictures. I certainly do!

Keep in touch,
Leslie

an abundance of tufting

in ,

My favorite design contest, Restaurant and Bar Design Awards is gearing up with entries due before April 19. Out of only 37 entries to date here are the 5 from the US. I’m seeing a lot of tufting and nailheads this year. And an abundance of wood finishes. Check these out and get your entry in if you’ve got one this year…let’s show the world how brilliant we US designers are!

Hootan & Associates Design Studio (Southern CA) created Bosscat Kitchen and Libations featuring whiskey and southern style cooking in Newport Beach, CA.

photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com

Heitler Houstoun Architects (NYC) created Gypsy Kitchen featuring Spanish cuisine with a dose of Moroccan influence in Atlanta, GA.

photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com

AvroKO (NYC) created Momotaro featuring a collision of Japanese cuisine and mid century American style in Chicago, IL.

photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com

CCS Architecture (SF and NYC) created TAP (415), an upscale burger bar with a wall of, you guessed it, taps for beer wine and cocktails in San Francisco’s Westfield Mall.

photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com

And finally, another entry from Heitler Houstoun Architects (NYC). The Southern Gentleman is a gastropub that features a modern take on southern hospitality in Atlanta, GA.

photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com

Keep in touch,
Leslie

10 days till shortlist…

in ,

The Restaurant & Bar Design Awards opened their call for entries on January 13, closed entries on April 25th, and the short list will be announced July1. There are 827 entries to pare down. The winners will be announced on my birthday in September! What a fun gift…

It’s been a while since I featured one of these beautiful projects….about time, don’t you think? I’m sticking with US entries for the moment. And while I love the super-decoration of Mister Important Designs, and the heavy masculinity of Zack/de Vito’s work (they’ve both got projects entered), today I’m looking to the US Northwest at one of many restaurants by Matt Dillon, chef and proprietor of Bar Sajor in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.  Built on a white palette, the space centers around Dillon’s only cooking apparatus, a wood fired oven. Ceilings are high and the many windows create a bright interior filled with whimsy (are those gold trimmed seashells on the wall above the oven?) and just enough swirls and soft edges to keep the place from feeling overly cold. Matt Dillon and his Bar Sajor have won acclaim already (GQ’s 25 best new restaurants, James Beard’s best chef). Let’s see what the judges in the UK think. This is definitely on the list for my next visit to Seattle!

All photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com/Bar Sajor

Keep in touch,
Leslie

ps….and bravo for not using any of those pesky Edison lamps!

The book is available….and they told us not until July!

 

small is the new big

in , ,

small is big

Small living has been getting bigger and bigger the last few years. Between slim wallets and the growing interest…and let’s be honest, dire need…to build more sustainably, the mcmansions of the last century seem to be falling out of favor. Can we all say hallelujah? (Any excuse for a little Leonard). When designers and architects are faced with constraints, it allows opportunity for some pretty impressive creativity. Four of this year’s AIA award winners for small projects are featured in FineHomebuilding and include the Fall House, designed by Fougeron Architects, along my very favorite stretch of California coastline. The three bedroom vacation home sits on the land quietly, following the natural curves of the site, and is wrapped in glass to honor the beauty outside. And to add my own bit of love to the story, it is near enough to Esalen to run on over for a quick tub in their natural spring fed hot tubs (that is if you tire of that awesome built-in glass tub).

And for the rest of us, small is growing as well. There are ‘tiny house’ blogs and websites, and it seems that every couple of months there’s another news story about a family downsizing and simplifying. Karen Baumann and her two large dogs live in 460 square feet in Marin County, one of the country’s most expensive areas. She says that living small allows her to spend less time cleaning and organizing and affords her more time and money for the things she loves like entertaining and traveling. Micro-apartments are also becoming quite the rage, especially in the most expensive cities around the globe. Curbed has a column dedicated to micro-dwellings which seem to get smaller and smaller. The smallest they’ve listed so far in San Francisco is a mere 200 square feet (that rents for a whopping $1275 per month). And in Paris these micro-apartments get even smaller. Architect Julie Nabucet’s 129 square foot apartment includes an elevated kitchen above a bed/couch in a drawer, linens that tuck away and a tiny bathroom.

This is a bit too small for anyone with, say, clothes, but somewhere between the 129 square foot apartment and the 2600 square foot average home size, is the right house for most of us who are trying to simplify and live within the means of our limited ecosystem.

I’m off to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for their quarterly night out….have a great night and keep in touch,
Leslie
icon

mof…the best of the best

in , ,

kingsofpastry

One of the joys of the business that I’m in is the opportunity that I have to work with amazing artisans and artists who ply their trades with their hands. As we push our children harder and harder to intellectual pursuits, are we pushing them away from other work that might be more meaningful to them? Who will bake our break and build our homes, sew our clothes and decorate our walls? These manual pursuits, at least in the US, seem more and more neglected, even discouraged, and yet they are the foundation of all society. While the intellect may serve to elevate society, if it doesn’t have a foundation then where will we be?

In France, these vocational trades are still honored and revered. Nearly a century ago the French created a competition, the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France  (how’s your French?….the Best ‘Maker’ in France), to preserve and uplift over 100 artisan trades from embroidery and jewelry making to baking, butchering and tending bar. The competition is held every four years, and we are smack in the middle of the current competition. Entries were accepted through September of 2013. Competition is underway now to determine the semi-finalists in each category who will compete in 2015 for the title of MOF. Each semi-finalist is judged solely on their own merits and not against the other semi-finalists, and so there is no limit to the number of MOF titles that can be bestowed. Once designated an MOF, the appellation follows the winner throughout his or her career and life and expects the victors to continue to learn and grow within their field in a constant search for perfection.

In 2009  ‘Kings of Pastry‘ was released, a movie that carried us through the pastry world of the 2007 Meilleurs Ouvriers de France. In order to succeed in this competition and earn the acclaim within their field that follows, the competitors spend up to two years practicing and honing their skills. Marriages dissolve, friendships are lost and spirits are broken in the process. But to win the title of MOF is to receive the absolute highest commendation, promoting both the individual and the field in which they practice. This is the foundation on which intellect may soar…and this is one area where the world should be looking to France for direction.

Rant over….now go watch the movie! It’s wonderful. And here are a few more movies on food that I recommend…
Leslie

some of the fabulous ones

in ,

In its sixth year, the breadth of project types keeps growing in the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards out of the UK. Not only are projects categorized by geographic region (UK and international), but also by type of project: bar, restaurant, also type of bar or restaurant, style of service, location of bar or restaurant, and so on. Entry closed the end of April and the short list will be announced July 1. In the meantime there are some pretty amazing projects to peruse and inspire. Here are a few outside the US that I think I should visit….we can call it research. Check out the website for all of the entries. All photos courtesy restaurantandbardesignawards.com and the designer/architect listed.

Dachgarten, Jouin Manku

Munich, Germany. Located in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof.

 

The Liquor Station, KAI Design

Wembley, Middlesex, UK

I want to wash my hands in this restroom

Erlkonig, ATP Sphere

Innsbruck, Austria

Sansibar by Breuninger, Dittel Architekten

Dusseldorf, Germany in the Breuninger department store

Dalliance House, INK Architects

Athens, Greece

Fish & Fusion, Yod Design

Poltava, Ukraine

Hope this inspires you to create (and travel and eat…)! Happy Monday,
Leslie

napkin sketches

in
Best Firm Submissions, Vess Dimitrov, Architect, Callison; Seattle Napkin Sketch Title: Mirror of Time
Runners-Up Non-Registered, John Devlin, Architect, Cooper Carry; Alexandria, VA Napkin Sketch Title: Vancouver Public Library
Winner Non-Registered Architect, Harold Vinasco, Designer; Beame Architectural Partnership Napkin Sketch Title: Miami My Colonial Roots
Winner, Gregory Klosowski, Senior Project Architect; Pappageorge Haymes Partners: Chicago Napkin Sketch Title: Chicago Amaranthine
Runners-Up, Registered Barry Schade, Architect Hydzik Schade Associates Ltd.; Chicago Napkin City

It’s award season, I know. So all the Fabulous’ are entering their super fabulous projects in super fabulous contests and winning great acclaim and more clients. For the rest of us (and the Fabulous’ as well), there is my absolute favorite reachable contest of the year: the napkin sketch contest put on by Architectural Record. Go get a pack of 5×5 white napkins, set one in front of you with a pen and a second adjacent with your cocktail of choice, and sketch baby! All napkins must be submitted by June 30, so now’s the time. Here are a few sketches for inspiration from the 2013 contest. And even you don’t win, you could always make your sketch into a nice little notebook and start practicing for next year.

Happy drawing….
Leslie

 

award winning cooks and their books

in
the updated interior of the best restaurant in the world photo courtesy Noma

the best restaurant in the world
photo courtesy Noma

I think I’ve mentioned I’m a ridiculous cookbook hoarder. Growing up I loved watching cooking shows on PBS, although I had little interest in actually cooking. As a matter of fact when my mom tried to engage me in the kitchen I balked and left the house in favor of mud puddles and swingsets, and later friends and books. But every Saturday morning would find me transfixed by the Galloping Gourmet and Julie Child. I still enjoy the ‘how to’ cooking shows over the reality based drama-in-the-kitchen shows. There’s something about the story of food that pulls me in. And when it comes to cookbooks, I rarely use them to cook, but covet every beautiful book I see and read them like novels with gorgeous pictures.

Now that it’s award season, I’ll share a few of my favorites from some fabulous award winners and nominees. I’m sure there are quite a few additional books that merit inclusion, but I don’t own them (yet). Maybe next year…..

The Best Restaurant in the World

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy is a group of over 900 mega foodies who eat out. A lot. And based on their own impressions they each vote, in order, for the 7 best restaurants they’ve eaten in during the prior 18 months. Then the votes get tallied and we get their yearly list every April. You can find the whole list here.

Noma is back on top. Chef Rene Redzepi (one of my personal favorites even though I’ve never eaten his food…..sigh…..) tells amazing food stories both about the food he cooks and his approach  to food and dining. Although I’ve never eaten his food, I have devoured his words, both written and spoken, as have many who live closer to the food world than I do. His message of eating locally with respect for the places we harvest ripples to the farthest reaches of the planet and has contributed to better eating for everyone. So yea, I’m happy he’s back on top. Check out his books….they are as much about story as they are about recipes. And by the way, Rene Redzepi: A Work in Progress is also a nominee in the Professional Cookbook category and the Photography category.

   

James Beard Awards 2014

The Beard Awards cover all aspects of the food industry from chefs to designers and are specific to North America. Per JamesBeard.org:

Established in 1990, the James Beard Foundation Awards recognize culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields and continue to emphasize the Foundation’s mission: to celebrate, preserve, and nurture America’s culinary heritage and diversity. Each award category has an individual Awards committee made up of industry professionals who volunteer their time to oversee the policies, procedures, and selection of judges for their respective Awards program.

Award winners for 2014 will be announced on Monday, May 5. Here are a couple of the nominees and their fabulous books.

A16: Best Wine Program

This is a gorgeous restaurant and a gorgeous cookbook that you can actually cook from. And in my case perhaps learn a thing or fifty-eight about wine. Steve will tell you how perfectly hopeless I am when it comes to knowing/describing/understanding wine…but I am good at drinking it!

Daniel Patterson: Best Chef in the West

I’m not going to go on and on and embarrass myself (again), just read about Daniel Patterson and Coi here. The book is gorgeous and Chef has a beautiful writing voice that bring ingredients, place and food to life.

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I do. They are as at home on my bedside table as they are the kitchen counter. Cook something wonderful for dinner, or maybe order in and read a really great story about food.
Leslie

eating fish in a barrel

in , , ,

a rant aside

If you’ve been reading me for long, you know that so-called ‘edison bulbs’ drive me crazy. Yes, they are pretty and trendy and give that old-timey back to the farm feel to things. But they also use a ridiculous amount of energy (versus their light output) and create a significant amount of heat which then needs to be removed (unless you are building your restaurant in the very far north I suppose). So all in all, there is absolutely nothing sustainable or earth friendly or green about them. IMHO, there is no reason to use them….be creative people!

So, as I perused the entries in one of my favorite contests, the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards, in search of something interesting that has been entered from my neck of the woods, you probably heard the cursing. Nearly every US entry not only used the dang things, but they also feature them as a highlight in their photographs! At Barrel House Tavern in Sausalito the designers at least had the decency to use them very sparingly, and did not use them as a detail shot (at least not for the contest). Maybe some people are finally getting past this very over used and tired design trend. Rant over.

Barrel House Tavern

Barrel House Tavern was 2 years in the making in a building over a century old on the Sausalito waterfront. According to the website this was the original ferry landing for the SF to Sausalito Ferry pre-Golden Gate Bridge (1936) and has since been home to Water Street Grille and Houlihan’s. CCS Architecture and the owner, Chris Henry, crafted a warm wood and leather seafood restaurant with soaring ceilings and gorgeous bay views in the neighborhood where Mr. Henry grew up fishing and crabbing. There are touches of earlier CCS projects throughout, but it all comes together to create a singular feel without forcing the heavy ‘concept’ touches of its Houlihan’s past.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And by the way, if you have a project to enter, you only have until April 20!

Happy Thursday,
Leslie

 

 

my friends are so talented

in

Since we are on the topic of awards, the Northern California Chapter of IIDA just announced the winners of their tenth annual Honor Awards. A couple of my friends were big winners and their projects are amazing.

Studio O+A

Primo Orpilla and I went to college together in Silicon Valley when it was still young. We graduated from San Jose State University in 1988. Primo went on to open O+A with his wife, Verda Alexander. Together they’ve changed the look and feel of the Silicon Valley of our youth….the offices of that day tended to a lot of very sad beige. O+A won two prizes last week at the IIDA award ceremony.  They won the ‘Work Medium Honor Award’ for their project for Open Table in San Francisco.  And just to prove that the world is tiny, the structural engineer on this project was my buddy Bobby Vaziri of Vaziri Structural Engineering.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

O+A also won the ‘Work Small Merit Award’ for Giant Pixel in San Francisco’s Mint Plaza.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

EDG Interior Architecture + Design

My friends Cindy Kupka and Catharine Tarver collaborated with the rest of their team on Elena and Pony Line at the Four Seasons in Buenos Aires to win the ‘Anywhere But Here Honor Award’.  When I worked at EDG a few years ago I had the luck and pleasure to work with both Cindy and Catharine….both talented designers and so much fun to work with!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

awards time!

in , ,

One of the things that I love about San Francisco is that people will forego paying the heating bill if necessary in order to eat great food. There is so much amazing food going on in Bay Area restaurants that sometimes something has to give. I can always burn old chairs for heat, but never in this lifetime will I be cooking like Kim Alter or the Rich team. This time of year is always a little frustrating because there are so many great places that I still haven’t eaten and they’re all in the news at once…awards time. So I’m just starting a list of who’s in contention for which award in the Bay Area and I’ll start pecking them off one by one.  Please don’t let on to Steve that this plan is in the works.  He might shut me down.

Food & Wine, the People’s Best New Chef (Bay Area contenders)

Matthew Accarrino, SPQR

photo courtesy spqr.com

photo courtesy spqr.com

Kim Alter, Plum

photo courtesy sfgate.com

photo courtesy sfgate.com

 

Brett Cooper, Outerlands*

*but the restaurant is closed for renovation and Chef Cooper won’t return, so guess this might save one chair

Evan and Sarah Rich, Rich Table

Ari Weiswasser, Glen Ellen Star

photo courtesy glenellenstar.com

photo courtesy glenellenstar.com

 

James Beard Foundation Award Nominees (Bay Area contenders)

Best restaurant design or renovation:  Jensen Architects, Shed

photo courtesy healdsburgshed.com

photo courtesy healdsburgshed.com

Best Chef: West

 Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, State Bird Provisions

photo courtesy statebirdsf.com

photo courtesy statebirdsf.com

 Corey Lee, Benu

 Daniel Patterson, Coi

Best New Restaurant: Coqueta

photo courtesy coquetasf.com

photo courtesy coquetasf.com

 

Outstanding Wine Program:  A16

Outstanding Bar Program:  Bar Agricole

Outstanding Service:  Quince, The Restaurant at Meadowood

photo courtesy therestaurantatmeadowood.com

photo courtesy therestaurantatmeadowood.com

Outstanding Pastry Chef: Belinda Leong, b. patisserie

Outstanding Restaurateur:  Cindy Pawlcyn (Mustards Grill, Cindy’s Back Street Kitchen)

Rising Star Chef of the Year:  Jessica Largey, Manresa

Outstanding Restaurant:  The Slanted Door

photo courtesy slanteddoor.com

photo courtesy slanteddoor.com

 

Outstanding Chef:  David Kinch, Manresa

photo courtesy manresarestaurant.com

photo courtesy manresarestaurant.com

It’s a long list!  Congratulations to all of our local semi-finalists. I’m looking forward to trying at least a few before Steve catches on.

Keep in touch,
Leslie