All stories about "Spruce"

BERKELEY—Last night was the grand opening for Corso Trattoria, the latest feather in Shattuck Avenue's cap. The second restaurant by Wendy Brucker and Roscoe Skipper of Rivoli, the casual, 50-seat Corso specializes in Florentine cuisine. As always, East Bay reports are encouraged. 1786 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, (510) 704-8004 [EaterWire]

PADMA'S UNIVERSE—The Top Chef finale is tonight, and to commemorate the occasion, the LAT pens a fluff piece on Padma, revealing among other things, that The Lakshmi has several projects in the works, including a new show: "Here's how it's loosely described: A group of fun, eclectic people come over to her house for a dinner party; we watch her prep, get ready and cook; guests arrive and eat; maybe someone plays music." [LAT via Eater LA]

James Newman, 12/27/07

With The Bauer resting up for the Top 100, let's start off this week's review review with a "snazzy and jazzy" Ms. Meredith Brody, who is at Yoshi's, enjoying one subpar (and non-drunk) affair and one perfect one at the jazz giant:

Our first meal is something of a mixed bag ... Even though our server knew we were headed to the club, we've run out of time, and have to skip dessert. We haven't drunk much (one bottle of wine, one carafe of sake), and I'm still slightly hungry. But a choice table has been reserved right on the dancefloor of the two-level club for us, and we settle in for part two of a lovely evening.

A month later, I'm returning to Yoshi's just for the food – and tonight our meal is almost flawless. It's a lot easier to order and share for three of us, with the help of our extremely knowledgeable server.

This is The Gatekeepers, where Eater roams the city to meet the fine men and women standing between you and some of your favorite impossible-to-get tables.

Jennifer Yin, 2/28/08

Upon arrival, Spruce was slated to be the biggest debut in some time, so much so that Michael Bauer called it the "most anticipated San Francisco restaurant opening so far this century." While the Cinderella story of SPQR may have stolen some of its thunder and Kuletoville may have upstaged it in the flashy upscale department, Spruce is still one of the toughest—if not the toughest—reservation to score in town. In fact, it's probably one of the only San Francisco restaurants that you'll have to book at least month ahead if you want any hope of something other than a 5pm or 10pm seating. Walking into the dining room is all but an impossibility, though the bar is a viable option. So, how to score at Spruce?

Megan "Megs" Hanoian, Assistant General Manager at Spruce: Our dining room seats 70 guests and we have additional seating in our 3 private dining rooms. Walk in seating is available at our 14 seat bar counter and at 6 tables in our lounge. Total seating 160. My favorite tables are 211 in our lounge, 32 in the main dining room, and our library room for private events. Each of these tables has the best views and different experiences in dining style throughout the restaurant.

The empty bar at Zuni Cafe [Photo: Flickr/DaseinDesign]

· Video: Judy Rodgers in the Zuni Cafe Kitchen [Epicurious]
· Food Network's Robert Irvine Is a Massive Liar [Gawker]
· Uncomfortably Stalking Chris Cosentino at the Market [Malibu Betty]
· The AG Gets His Own Online Cooking Show [AG]
· Diving Into Polk Gulch's Cordon Bleu [BAB]
· Spruce: Not the Next Gary Danko [Yuppie Lifestyle]
· Batali and Portman Team Up for Cookbook [Mouthing Off]
· Is Immunity-Enhancement Dining on the Horizon? [NYT]
· Secret Dining in Secret Cafes in San Francisco [G'skip]

The "long list" of James Beard Awards 2008 nominees has just been announced, via distribution to Beard judges. Voting is officially underway, and five finalists from each of the 19 categories will be chosen from this so-called long list.

And now, to the big awards first, where the Bay has been relatively quiet in recent years. This time around, Mr. Michael Mina is the only local to get a nod for Outstanding Chef, but a quartet of Bay Area biggies are up for Outstanding Restaurant: Boulevard, Greens, Slanted Door and Terra. No locals made the cut in the Outstanding Restaurateur category.

On the national newcomer front: in the Best New Restaurant category, SPQR, Spruce and Ubuntu all get recognition, while the Rising Star Chef of the Year list has four locals: Nate Appleman (A16), Ian Begg (Cafe Majestic), Richard Corbo (Ducca) and James Syhabout (Manresa).

The rest of the local nominees follow:

For the second consecutive year, 7x7 has released the winners of its annual Eat and Drink Awards, as voted by the readers. Though for the most part, the list of winners is headed by just about all of the usual suspects, some surprises/eyebrow-raisers persist. For example, Nick's Crispy Tacos snagged the Best Meal Under $15 crown, while Burger Meister took home Best Burger honors. Also, Spruce squeaked by SPQR to claim Best Newcomer. Seven other "big" categories include:

· Best Overall/Best Service: Gary Danko
· Best Classic: Boulevard
· Best Wine List: Bacar
· Best First Date: A16
· Best Desserts: Citizen Cake
· Best Late Night Dining: Nopa
· Best Outdoor Dining: Foreign Cinema

The rest of the awards, including the ethnic categories and a super special "bonus categories" section (complete with wacky awards like Best Bathroom), can be had at the official site.
· Eat and Drink Awards 2008 [7x7]

Spruce made many appearances on Brody's manifesto. Christine Kesler, 9/29/07

Before we fully dive into the Week in Reviews, let's first visit Meredith Brody's Year in Reviews, and that's exactly what the SF Weekly manifesto is: a look back at the year's best restaurants and dishes ... Every single one of them:

Here's a romp down memory lane. Or maybe we should call it forget-me-not lane, because as soon as I write about a splendid serving of food, I have to consciously stop obsessing about it, in order to have an open mind (and palate) for the next delicious thing that I hope will be set before me.

The Counter at Glen Park's Gialina [Photo: Flickr/kewlio]

· Gialina and Spruce Lead the Way For the Year's Best [SF Station]
· Historic Marin Oyster Farm Hurting Environment, Baby Seals [Chron]
· 2007 in Food Trends: the Good, the Bad, the Molecular [Serious Eats]
· New Burger Joint Location in Burlingame Already Causing a Stir [SJMN]
· "Why I Am Not a Foodie" By Paul Reidinger [SFBG]

From: [an eater]
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2007
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: Dinner at Spruce like dinner in New York
______

Our reservation (made two months ago) was for seven PM and we arrived very promptly. The hostess did not greet, did not welcome, did not smile. She told us that things were running a bit "slowly" and that they'd have to seat us in about 10 minutes. We were finally brought to our table at 7:26. My friend said: "Oh, this is like that New York thing where you show up on time for your reservation and they still make you wait an hour..."

After watching the hostess manage the floor, my Mom labeled her with the name "Miss Efficiency". Miss Efficiency seems to know how to get things done, but has zero personality while doing it. Mom said: "she needs....charm school." The service was overall a bit slip-shod for the prices. Our sommelier began to serve our second bottle of wine without removing the first empty bottle or any of the used glasses. Isn't a sommelier supposed to notice this type of thing? The moment you need to tell you sommelier to remove a glass things aren't going so well.

2008 just might be the year of the brasserie, with Gary Danko and Michael Mina both slated to open casual offshoots of their flagships, but let's not forget about the next city project from the Bacchus Management (Spruce, Pizza Antica et al.): Vache Brasserie on the corner of Union and Buchanan, right next door to Cow Hollow heavy-hitters Betelnut and Palmetto. Initial projections had it open sometime in the fall, but as you can see in the above plywood pic, it's still very much a work in progress (compare with October) and the date has since been pushed back to springtime at best. On a related note, Bacchus boss Tim Stannard sends word that the brasserie's name may change, which means that we've got ourselves a name game project underway in the Marina. Your submissions and Marina jokes in the comments field, if you would.
· Fall Tracking Report: Vache [~ESF~]

Welcome back to the Week in Reviews. Michael Bauer has Halloween off—he's getting his cowboy costume ready for tonight—but we've still got plenty of reviewdom to go around. Reidinger reveals the city's newest destination to be Tinderbox, while Brody reinforces the Eater Deathwatch Committee's thoughts on the horror that is Avenue G. And those are just the first two reviews. Buckle up.

Newman Archives, 10/17/07

1) Paul Reidinger makes the excursion to Tinderbox in Bernal Heights, where he can't resist comparing the new kid on the block to the established restaurant on Cortland Avenue, Liberty Cafe:

[Tinderbox Chef Blair] Warsham's food is also wildly un-Liberty-like. While both kitchens bow to the gods of the local and sustainable, Tinderbox's ethos is one of bold innovation. Warsham stops short of festooning his dishes with foams and gelees but isn't at all shy about unlikely combinations — most of which (to perfect our theme of unlikeliness) work.

2) Up next, we have Meredith Brody at Avenue G, our very own Deathwatchee, and boy, is it ugly. Parents, you may want to shield your children from this one:

We hadn't consulted [the waitress] on the fish dishes, but we thought both the ones we tried were pretty much a disaster. The salmon came plopped unattractively in a white bowl, set on a white plate with a pile of fried shrimp alongside. The shrimp were hard, salty, and overcooked. The salmon, in a horror of a sweet glaze, was mushy and salty, sitting in something identified as lobster sage broth, with, apparently, green madras olives, sun-dried tomato puree, artichokes, and Spanish rice — but the combination tasted mostly metallic. The sea bass feijoada was similarly unpleasant: mushy-textured fish heaped on a messy, salty accumulation of what the menu called drunken black beans, linguica, acorn squash, and cumin-scented caramelized onions. I love linguica. I love cumin. In several bites, I could taste neither.

No restaurant has caused more of a stir this fall than Spruce, and while some of the opening hoopla has passed, a normal dinner reservation remains nearly impossible to nab, which wouldn't be big news in other cities, but San Francisco isn't used to scheduling reservations a month ahead for a restaurant not named The French Laundry or Chez Panisse.

Kesler Archives, 9/29/07

GrumpyBayDiner: have you eaten at spruce yet?
eaterSFhq: yes ma'am
GrumpyBayDiner: why is it so hard to get a reservation?
GrumpyBayDiner: jesus there are no reservations for 30 days
GrumpyBayDiner: here's what it says:
GrumpyBayDiner: "OpenTable has searched 30 days out for a reservation meeting your criteria, and unfortunately there are no tables available. To search for reservations at a new restaurant, click the "Home" link above."
eaterSFhq: i know
GrumpyBayDiner: and you cant look past that
GrumpyBayDiner: so then how do you get a res?

We don't do reviews per se here at Eater, but there are scores of local bloggers that do. Have a blog that should be on our radar? Do let us know.

1) Leading off, we turn to Pizza Friday, by Michael Bauer. The Bauerster ventures all the way up to Napa this week for the thin-crust goodness at Pizza Azzurro, where he learns all types of new things:

I thought the valley must have produced some strange pizza habits when I saw a couple fold their lettuce-topped pizza -- one with romaine, the other with arugula -- in half and eat it like a big puffy taco. Then I saw the menu describe the Manciata as "a handful of just baked dough with a salad on top. Fold and eat like a sandwich."

2) The Fro-Fro Blog—what else?—takes its turn at the city's newest fro-fro restaurant, Spruce. In a bit of a surprise, Spruce doesn't live up to its epic hype:

The November issue of Gayot, released yesterday, is its annual restaurant issue, in the process of which they took a nice little stab at food bloggers ("we were professionally writing about restaurants worldwide before most of those people learned their ABCs"). Anyway, in what's becoming quite the awards month, several San Francisco restaurants were included in the medley of special lists. As with most national rankings, not much makes sense. Here are the Bay Area representatives:

1) Top 40 Restaurants in the US: Cyrus, The Dining Room at the Ritz, Danko, Michael Mina, Silks.

2) Top 10 New Restaurants in the US: Spruce. Also of note: in the "Others" section, The Restaurant at Meadowood gets a nod.

3) Top 10 Steakhouses in the US: LarkCreekSteak

4) Top 5 Pastry Chefs: No Bay Area reps

5) Rising Chefs: No Bay Area reps

Regarding the top 40 list: Say whaaa? Including Silks ahead of Manresa, Chez Panisse, Aqua and about a dozen others is pretty odd, if not inexcusable. And we're assuming hoping The French Laundry isn't on the list because Per Se is, but shouldn't it be the other way around?

· Restaurant Issue 2007 [Gayot]

Complain away, San Francisco. The comments field is your oyster.

The autumn months always bring a deluge of restaurant debuts, but predicting the actual opening dates for said restaurants is a bit like hitting a moving target. Hence, Fall Tracking Report, your source for the latest intel on when you should start trying to score that resy.

Vache, 2000 Union Street, Cow Hollow

Initial Debut Projection: November 2007
Current Debut Projection: Late 2007/Spring 2008
Odds, On Time Arrival: For 2007, 10 to 1
Eater Projected Opening Date: 02/01/08

The old Prego space on the corner of Buchanan and Union will soon house Vache, a reincarnation of one of Cow Hollow's classic venues. Chef Gordon Drysdale will be at the helm of what will be a classic, bustling French brasserie. The building's reconstruction was completed this summer, but there's still plenty of work to be done in the space. The Bacchus Group (Spruce, Pizza Antica et al.) was optimistically aiming for a November debut, but it's starting to look like 2008 might be a more realistic goal. Since we stopped by about a month ago, not much looks different on the surface (compare with a photo taken a month ago.). The space still looks a ways off, which makes us wonder if the expiration date on the work permit—January 2008—will come into play at all, but if Spruce is any indication, when it finally arrives, Vache should be impressive. Is a West Coast version of Balthazar asking too much?
· Plywood Report: Vache, Mint Plaza and MORE! [~ESF~]

· How in the World Does One Get a Resy at Spruce? [Yelp Convo]
· An Unenthusiastic Report From the Revamped Jardiniere [CH]
· Food Service Workers Are the Most Depressed Workers in America [eGullet]
· Bar Crudo Service: "Neglectful and Slapdash" [CH]
· Wherefore Art Thou, Good Inner Richmond Burger? [CH]
· Parent of the Year Seeks Kid-Friendly Sports Bar [Yelp Convo]
· Did the Times ruin The Next Iron Chef? [CH]

· Spruce Dinner Reservation Up For Grabs [Yelp Convo]
· Photographic Evidence of Chris Cosentino's Boccalone Products [Mouthfuls]
· LarkCreekSteak as a Best New Restaurant: Really? [Mouthfuls]
· Report the First from De Afghanan Kabob House [CH]
· Brunch at the Presidio's Pres a Vi Fails to Impress [CH]
· The Best and Worst Days to Get Fresh Sushi [Yelp Convo]
· "Help Me Order Sushi Without Looking Like a Moron" [CH]

· Bourdain on Rachael Ray's Endorsements: "That's Evil." [CH]
· What's the Deal With Fruit Wines? [eGullet]
· Early Reports on Frozen Yogurt (and Cereal) Newcomer Jubili [CH]
· Please Don't Tell Anyone About Our Beloved Cheese Steak Shop [CH]
· Everyone Hearts Spruce: "That Room is So Sexy" [CH]