Whoopin' it up in the Financial District

Last Friday we decided to live on the edge. Our friends had a babysitter for their one-year-old son, and were meeting us for drinks after work in San Francisco. I think we were all desperate for some adult fun, so we decided to go bar hopping in the Mission Financial District! WHAT?

We had fun too, let me tell you. We met at One Market for drinks after work, only to be confronted with a bar full of half-drunk boring lawyers/businesspeople/stiffs wearing suits - on a FRIDAY? This is San Francisco people. It seemed like a perfectly fine restaurant, but too fancy and too loud for us. Instead we strolled across the street car tracks to Market Bar in the Ferry Building. Within five minutes we were seated with a bottle of cheap (and tasty!) Austrian wine and an overpriced cheese plate. After a long week of work, I need a table at a decent restaurant, friends, and a bottle of wine (noticing the wine pattern around these parts? Man I'm a lush).

The wine caught up with our almost-empty stomachs, so we let Market Bar and got more wine, duh. Little known secret - Taylor's Refresher only charges $1 corkage. $1 gets you 4 real wine glasses, a silver tray, and the cork sucked out of your wine bottle. Add this to a relatively cheap burger, fries, and onion rings, and you're in heaven. And that's before the heart attack.

The Ferry Building isn't exactly bustling at 8pm on a Friday, but the wine bar was definitely open and Slanted Door was busy. Mental note to try the wine bar out sometime...

After we were kicked out of Taylor's (because they were closing) we really felt the pressure. Late nights in the Financial District should not be attempted by amateurs. The street was pretty dark, and the sidewalks were pretty much deserted, but the shining beacon atop the Hiatt called out to us. You have to have a sense of humor before going to Equinox, San Francisco's only spinning restaurant. It's on the 20-something floor of a hotel surrounded by 30-something floor buildings. You do the math.

Another round of cocktails and we were ready for a pretty crappy dessert. Who cares? We were drunk by then anyway. I think we enjoyed the Cockburn Port the best. Cockburn Port, the city spinning around us, a whole evening with our friends...you just need to be a little creative to find the fun in the Financial District.

Going to Napa for something other than wine?!

After a crazy busy holiday season, we're finally excursioning around the Bay Area again! Sitting on the couch was nice for a while, but it finally came time to spread our wings and hop in the car. This past Saturday we trekked to COPIA - The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. How California can you GET?

Admission in the month of January is totally free - and I can see why. There was almost nobody there. It was like walking into the conference room floor of a hotel: nice art on the walls, a beautiful view, and a few really interesting exhibits...but that was about it. You could pay for a wine tasting or try freshly-squeezed OJ from a very well-advertised juicer. The cafe was closed for renovations. The exhibit hall was actually very interesting - lots of cool historical information about food, food products, and American cuisine, but I can't say that it really warranted the hour drive.

In retrospect, COPIA would have been a lot more fun if we would have planned to attend one of the many classes they offer - cooking, wine tasting, gardening. We showed up expecting to be entertained, only to realize that we probably should have planned out our entertainment before coming.

The building and gardens were beautiful, and the color-organized kitchen utensils in the gift shop was quite amusing. Next time we go to COPIA, I think we'll TRY to go when it is crowded and busy...then it might not seem quite so slow. Visiting a winery may have been a lot more exciting on a sparse winter weekend.

Wine Country for Beer Drinkers

Catherine and Matt Visit
Originally uploaded by residenttourist.

I'll admit it. I've become a wine country super-tourist. We've been in the Bay Area for two years and have visited wine country at least a dozen times. It's my favorite thing to do. Period. Sure, there are beautiful beaches, wonderful hiking trails and great biking spots in the Bay Area. But give me a tasting room, a flight of wine and the warm Sonoma air and I'm happy. It also helps that Mr. Resident Tourist always does the driving.

We weren't always wine country connoisseurs (not to be confused with wine connoisseurs- we definitely aren't that). The first time in Napa was terrifying. After all, we're sit-in-front-of-the-tv beer drinkers, not swirl- sip-spit-and-discuss wine drinkers. So, for our fellow beer drinkers, here are some of our tips and tricks to wine country:

1. DO NOT BE AFRAID. This took awhile for us to learn, but is by far the most important lesson. Be bold. The wineries love new people and many of them are used to all-tourists, all-the-time. So, admit your status as a wine-tasting virgin. They will be gentle, I promise.

2. SPLIT A TASTING.... especially if you're with the driver. Wineries tend to charge a pretty hefty tasting fee in Napa. My philosophy is this: if you split your tasting with another person, you can go to that many more wineries before you get completely sloshed and fall asleep in the car!

3. CHAT IT UP. Talk with the person pouring your wine. Ask questions - even the silly ones. Ask for suggestions for other wineries. Sometimes they will even give you coupons for free wine tastings at other wineries. To me, that's better than GOLD. Chatting it up can also get you an extra pour of wine "just to finish the bottle."

4. TAKE THE BACK ROADS. If you have your heart set on Napa, spend as much time as possible on Silverado Trail. It runs parallel to Highway 29 to the East. Take any side road to get to it. The wineries are smaller, not as busy and overall less commercial.

5. BE PREPARED TO PAY. Many wineries charge for tastings. In Napa, I love Franciscan winery (on Highway 29) because they apply your tasting fee to the purchase of a bottle of wine. And they have great wine. Too bad more wineries haven't adopted that method...

6. GO TO SONOMA. Don't get me wrong. I loved Napa... until I visited Sonoma. There really isn't any comparison. Sonoma is filled with small, family-run wineries. Many don't charge for tastings and oftentimes the winemaker is the one pouring the tasting. Then it's REALLY time to ask questions. The roads are less crowded, the scenery is just as beautiful and the wine tastes better. We're officially hooked.*

Our Favorite Places in Napa include: Franciscan, Whitehall Lane (try the chocolate sauce or the dessert wine), Cliff Lede (worth it for the sparkling wines, not for the regular wines) and Mumm Napa Valley (a great place to sit outside).

Bottoms Up!

* More fun in Sonoma... coming soon!