The Post Where We Make Dave Jealous
Happy 3-day weekend!
This weekend was extra-special because our dear friend Erin was in town from Colorado. Erin is a rock-star professor (an academic's academic, except hot and not socially awkward) at CU-Boulder and lives in this awesome Denver loft.
Her awesome Denver loft is in the process of a not-so-awesome construction process, so she left behind these two (hubby Dave and dogchild Fergie):
...and joined Marsha, me, Kris and Saya for a Weekend of Fabulosity. (Sorry, Dave! We missed you terribly.)
I met Erin through Gayle. And I met Marsha through Erin. So you see how all these wonderful people in my life are connected? (Did I also mention that Kris and Dave are in love?) We love, love, love Erin and Dave. We love them so much that we invited them to join us on our honeymoon in Amsterdam. It was a crazy crazy time. And it could only have been experienced with Erin and Dave. (Erin and I were just talking about how we think we had good vacation synergy. I think it's because both of us couples are willing to get spendy to have fun, and are both willing to throw caution and propriety to the wind if the debauchery strikes. Yay!)
On Saturday morning, we had a little pre-party with Marsha before picking up Erin in San Francisco. We'd heard about the new Mayfield Bakery and Cafe, opening in Palo Alto's Town and Country strip mall - which used to be horrible, but is now getting a Trader Joe's, just had a cafe opened by the former Google head chef, and now this...I'm so mad because now I can no longer say that the Peninsula sucks. Arggh. It's getting good just in time for me to move away. Anyway, I was super excited about the Mayfield Bakery because it's run by the same folks who run The Village Pub, our favorite go-to spot for awesome lunching. At the very least, it was guaranteed to have awesome bread (the bread at the Village Pub is to die for).
All I can say is: Oh. My. God. Amazing. Best brunch food ever. You don't have to go to the City anymore. They also serve lunch and dinner, which I can't wait to try! We had a pizza with prosciutto, brie, arugula, and egg, and the most delicious, crispy pizza crust:
We also had ricotta pancakes with blood oranges (sooo moist) and brioche French toast with caramelized apples and bacon. This was amazing. The bacon was really well marbled (they get it from a special free-range piggie farm) and it was truly fabulous.
(Pancake pictured on left; brioche on right)
The interior was really nicely done, too. Spacious, country-modern chic. Here are the food critics at work:
After that, we headed up to San Francisco to pick up Erin, who'd spent the morning wandering her favorite spots. Erin jumped into the car, and teared up with nostalgia over the memories of great times in San Francisco. I thought: This is me, next year.
We'd planned to spend the day in Napa. (I am now developing a tradition of celebrating romantic holidays with Erin - first the honeymoon, now Valentine's Day.) We drove up to Domaine Chandon where Erin treated me to a delicious glass of rose. I got surprisingly tipsy off of one glass. Saya was with us and I kept wavering between feeling awesome for being the type of mom who brings her baby to a winery, and feeling guilty for being the type of mom who brings her baby to a winery. They didn't have a changing table in the bathroom there, and I took this as a subtle message that "infants and dirty diapers are not encouraged at Domaine."
Then, we were off to Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller's casual restaurant in Yountville (thanks for scoring reservations, Marsha)! This is becoming a tradition for us - we all went together last year during Erin's visit. It is amazing. Witness the anticipation:
Ad Hoc serves their food family-style with a prix-fixe, $50 menu. Our first course consisted of an iceberg salad with dates, beets, and buttermilk dressing:
Our second course was a surf-and-turf dish: steak and generous pieces of perfectly cooked lobster, accompanied by artichoke, kohlrabi, carrots, and the most delicious potato mash I've ever had:
Next, we had a cheese course with honey and spiced pecans. And we finished with this crazy chocolate-raspberry dessert, and spiced truffles (finished with Thai bird chilies) made by the former pastry chef at the French Laundry.
They even gave us delicious cookies to take away in a bag. Actually, it was more like a chocolate candy filled with cookie and topped with a white chocolate heart. Delicious. I think we were all a little delirious after the meal:
The next morning, Marsha and I were supposed to run a 5k with Eileen, who just finished the Couch-to-5k running program. I'd previously told her that I would run, rain or shine. But at around 4 a.m., it was no longer raining. It was dumping. And the wind was howling. I was so relieved when I got a flurry of texts at 6 a.m. saying that the 5k was off.
Instead, we picked up Erin again and went to dim sum at City View in Chinatown and then went furniture shopping at IKEA, Retro at Home, EQ3, and West Elm. Kris was a great sport. After dropping off Erin to meet friends at an Oakland beer festival, we went back to Mayfield Bakery with Marsha and ate the most delicious croissants. They were everything a croissant should be: flaky, buttery, crispy, and chewy. Oh. My. God. I can't say enough about them. And...I'm not naming names, but someone ate almost an entire epi loaf after. Okay, it was me.
Finally, today: I rewarded myself for doing five loads of laundry and finishing a district data application with a girl's night out with Marsha, Erin, mojitos and port at La Bodeguita del Medio.
Can I just say: Fabulous?!! Erin needs to come to town more often.
This weekend was extra-special because our dear friend Erin was in town from Colorado. Erin is a rock-star professor (an academic's academic, except hot and not socially awkward) at CU-Boulder and lives in this awesome Denver loft.
Her awesome Denver loft is in the process of a not-so-awesome construction process, so she left behind these two (hubby Dave and dogchild Fergie):
...and joined Marsha, me, Kris and Saya for a Weekend of Fabulosity. (Sorry, Dave! We missed you terribly.)
I met Erin through Gayle. And I met Marsha through Erin. So you see how all these wonderful people in my life are connected? (Did I also mention that Kris and Dave are in love?) We love, love, love Erin and Dave. We love them so much that we invited them to join us on our honeymoon in Amsterdam. It was a crazy crazy time. And it could only have been experienced with Erin and Dave. (Erin and I were just talking about how we think we had good vacation synergy. I think it's because both of us couples are willing to get spendy to have fun, and are both willing to throw caution and propriety to the wind if the debauchery strikes. Yay!)
On Saturday morning, we had a little pre-party with Marsha before picking up Erin in San Francisco. We'd heard about the new Mayfield Bakery and Cafe, opening in Palo Alto's Town and Country strip mall - which used to be horrible, but is now getting a Trader Joe's, just had a cafe opened by the former Google head chef, and now this...I'm so mad because now I can no longer say that the Peninsula sucks. Arggh. It's getting good just in time for me to move away. Anyway, I was super excited about the Mayfield Bakery because it's run by the same folks who run The Village Pub, our favorite go-to spot for awesome lunching. At the very least, it was guaranteed to have awesome bread (the bread at the Village Pub is to die for).
All I can say is: Oh. My. God. Amazing. Best brunch food ever. You don't have to go to the City anymore. They also serve lunch and dinner, which I can't wait to try! We had a pizza with prosciutto, brie, arugula, and egg, and the most delicious, crispy pizza crust:
We also had ricotta pancakes with blood oranges (sooo moist) and brioche French toast with caramelized apples and bacon. This was amazing. The bacon was really well marbled (they get it from a special free-range piggie farm) and it was truly fabulous.
(Pancake pictured on left; brioche on right)
The interior was really nicely done, too. Spacious, country-modern chic. Here are the food critics at work:
After that, we headed up to San Francisco to pick up Erin, who'd spent the morning wandering her favorite spots. Erin jumped into the car, and teared up with nostalgia over the memories of great times in San Francisco. I thought: This is me, next year.
We'd planned to spend the day in Napa. (I am now developing a tradition of celebrating romantic holidays with Erin - first the honeymoon, now Valentine's Day.) We drove up to Domaine Chandon where Erin treated me to a delicious glass of rose. I got surprisingly tipsy off of one glass. Saya was with us and I kept wavering between feeling awesome for being the type of mom who brings her baby to a winery, and feeling guilty for being the type of mom who brings her baby to a winery. They didn't have a changing table in the bathroom there, and I took this as a subtle message that "infants and dirty diapers are not encouraged at Domaine."
Then, we were off to Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller's casual restaurant in Yountville (thanks for scoring reservations, Marsha)! This is becoming a tradition for us - we all went together last year during Erin's visit. It is amazing. Witness the anticipation:
Ad Hoc serves their food family-style with a prix-fixe, $50 menu. Our first course consisted of an iceberg salad with dates, beets, and buttermilk dressing:
Our second course was a surf-and-turf dish: steak and generous pieces of perfectly cooked lobster, accompanied by artichoke, kohlrabi, carrots, and the most delicious potato mash I've ever had:
Next, we had a cheese course with honey and spiced pecans. And we finished with this crazy chocolate-raspberry dessert, and spiced truffles (finished with Thai bird chilies) made by the former pastry chef at the French Laundry.
They even gave us delicious cookies to take away in a bag. Actually, it was more like a chocolate candy filled with cookie and topped with a white chocolate heart. Delicious. I think we were all a little delirious after the meal:
The next morning, Marsha and I were supposed to run a 5k with Eileen, who just finished the Couch-to-5k running program. I'd previously told her that I would run, rain or shine. But at around 4 a.m., it was no longer raining. It was dumping. And the wind was howling. I was so relieved when I got a flurry of texts at 6 a.m. saying that the 5k was off.
Instead, we picked up Erin again and went to dim sum at City View in Chinatown and then went furniture shopping at IKEA, Retro at Home, EQ3, and West Elm. Kris was a great sport. After dropping off Erin to meet friends at an Oakland beer festival, we went back to Mayfield Bakery with Marsha and ate the most delicious croissants. They were everything a croissant should be: flaky, buttery, crispy, and chewy. Oh. My. God. I can't say enough about them. And...I'm not naming names, but someone ate almost an entire epi loaf after. Okay, it was me.
Finally, today: I rewarded myself for doing five loads of laundry and finishing a district data application with a girl's night out with Marsha, Erin, mojitos and port at La Bodeguita del Medio.
Can I just say: Fabulous?!! Erin needs to come to town more often.
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