Category Archives: Dining

Where to eat in San Francisco

Laguna Seca – Vintage 2013

With my boy among the Big Money.


In the paddock at Laguna Seca
with my son Winston.

Next weekend is the annual festival of automotive excess on the Monterey Peninsula. The Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach golf course sees a parade of over-restored vintage cars vying for Best in Show honors. Inland a few miles, Laguna Seca Racetrack holds races where the rich can wreck their multi-million dollar Ferraris and have a good laugh about the experience over a glass of vintage champagne afterwards. It’s all good fun.

I have attended both events on the big weekend and, frankly, neither is any fun. Both are so over-crowded that there is little possibility of enjoyment or for calm discussion with the pressured owners of some of the most magnificent vehicles ever created. Strictly for the ‘See and Be Seen’ set.

The smart money – and very little of it at that – goes to Laguna Seca the weekend before and enjoys an uncrowded paddock and relaxed owners and their mechanics, only too eager to discuss their babies. Everything used to be free, but this year entrance was $20, though parking remains free. And my 11 year old son got free entry. Not at all bad. It’s a charming throwback to the days of the true racing amateur, OK, the days of the truly wealthy racing amateur, and pretense is nowhere in sight. It’s a genuine pleasure to mix with the Ferraris, Coopers, Bentleys, Porsches, Lotuses and any number of distinguished marques with great racing provenance, along with their friendly owners.

This year saw more Porsches than you could shake a stick at, including the frightening 12-cylinder Porsche 917 which dominated Le Mans after first killing a lot of drivers. A couple of Ferrari GTOs would leave you no change from $5mm for the brace and I could not help drooling over a 4.5 litre blower Bentley, massive supercharger and all mounted up front for all to see and hear.

I took my 11 year old son this year as it’s high time the boy got some exhaust fumes in his system before we are all reduced to driving gutless electric cars charged with electricity from massively polluting coal. Such is the environmental lobby, suckered in by Big Coal. Enjoy your Tesla while the miner in West Virginia dies early from lung cancer, after a life of subsistence on coal dust sandwiches.

Anyway, visiting the practice weekend Laguna Seca paddock is truly starting at the top for the lad.


Click the image to download the slideshow.

The slideshow is some 72MB and takes 45 seconds to download on my 16Mb/s broadband. The slideshow will fade from image to image once you hit the play icon, and contains 18 images.

All that traipsing around the huge paddock is guaranteed to work up a good thirst and hunger and I urge you not to eat at any of the positively poisonous concession stands at Laguna Seca. Instead, on exiting the main gate turn right and drive a couple of miles down the road to Tarpy’s Roadhouse which has been here since 1917. Make sure to sit on the patio and its beautiful dappled sunshine will take you as close to Monet’s France as anything can on this side of the pond. Well set back from the main road, all you will hear is the sound of the birds – no piped Musak – and you can revel in the excellent food and service. So the burger and fries are $14. Two main courses and two beverages, plus the obligatory ice cream for my son set us back $45 with a 20% tip. And you are going to take it with you when you croak?


Tarpy’s Roadhouse is on the left, west of the race track.

All snaps on the Nikon D3x and the 35-70mm f/2.8 AFD Nikkor zoom. It’s specious to describe any full frame DSLR outfit as compact, but this excellent zoom on a D3x is as close as you get to an all purpose kit with just one body and lens, the latter further aided by a handy macro range, activated at the push of a button. Not only is the lens beautifully crafted and reasonably compact, it also lacks the plastic and bulk which define Nikkor’s current crop of ‘pro’ zooms, not to mention being a used bargain. Balance on the D3x is just about perfect.

Greens

A fine vegetarian experience.

Greens Restaurant has been doing business at Fort Mason since the Fort was opened to the public in 1976. There’s no table service on Mondays, but you can simply take your food to any one of the tables overlooking the boat marina and have at it.



Click the picture for the website.

As you can see, the setting lacks nothing. The Golden Gate Bridge is in the background.

I had a cup of chili, a tomato and mozzarella on Panini sandwich and an iced tea for $14.

The Dutch-school lighting in this interior is to-die-for gorgeous:



Vermeer light.

Nikon D3x, 20mm f/3.5 Ai-S Nikkor.

Buck’s

Center of the deal world.

It’s probably fair to state that more Silicon Valley venture capital deals have been mooted and closed here than any other place on earth. Buck’s is an eatery in the heart of Woodside, beloved of the entrepreneurs, dreamers, financiers and deal makers of northern California.

I swung by with my son the other day and took a few snaps on the iPhone (Android is very much not accepted here).

Soggy fries.

While he powered down a giant quesadilla – allegedly the kids’ size, which makes you wonder what adults get – I couldn’t resist trying one of his fries, which turned out to be soggy and flavorless. I ordered the bowl of chili and promptly had to return it for proper preparation. Cold chili is not especially tasty. However, as Winston was wearing his Skyrim T shirt, we got excellent seating and service.

Meanwhile, deal making continued apace to our left, under the watchful eye of the movie maker on the wall:

“It pops up when you open the app ….”

To our far left a mother was merrily playing cards with her child and, judging from his technique, he was wiping the floor with her:

Cardsharp. Civil War era swords in the wall.

Near the exit, deals were being hashed out at one table and locals were at the other. At least I think they were locals for the beauty of a place like Buck’s is that there’s no telling whether you are seated next to a billionaire or the hired hand tending horses at one of the many estates nearby:

Deals and meals. Note the cowboy hat lampshades.

Maybe Buck’s was just having a bad day and our food was undeservedly lousy, but here’s the lunch menu:

If you go, leave your Wincrap computer behind unless you want to be laughed at and seated in the corner where the bulb is out. It’s a fun place with trophies including winning unpowered four wheelers from the annual Silicon Valley race, an astronaut doing a space walk, a giant anaconda skin, models of wooden racing boats, and so on. There’s something to delight all ages. Just don’t go there for the food.

A few from Santa Cruz

Lunch on the wharf.

Take Highway One and watch out for cops until you leave San Mateo County.

On a whim I decided to drive down to Santa Cruz for lunch. It’s a pleasant hour or so on the coast highway and the choice of seafood to be had is great. Why, you can even find the occasional dish which is not deep fried.

At rest.

Too many fries.

Reflections.

Red, white, blue.

End of the Wharf.

Seal.

Even the pelicans are obese here.

All snapped on the Panny G3 with the kit lens.

And this was lunch at Gilbert’s Fire Fish Grill:

The Liberty Café

A fine dining spot in Bernal Heights.

On Cortland Street in Bernal Heights. Click the picture for details. 24mm.

The staff was uncertain as to the age of the building, but my guess is that it probably dates from the 1930s. The Café has been here since 1979. The interior is severity redefined, no glitz, and there are maybe a dozen small tables. None of that detracts from the food which is excellent.

While I had to give the waiter a bit of a prod to get on with it, that would not stop me returning. The cooking is excellent.

Lunch. iPhone 4S. Blur no charge.

The Atlantic shrimp, suffused with iodine (Pacific shrimp have none) were served over a bed of fettucine in a garlicky oil sauce, and the portion size was just right. The Peroni beer was actually on tap, a rarity, and the whole thing ran $27 with tip. The place also has a long-time bakery whose selections you can see by clicking the first image.

A severe interior. 24mm.