Olive

I'm breaking up this blog a bit since G is slacking on his end of things and I've been busy. This blog is all about Honni and Abra's big night out. Well, it wasn't a big night out, but Abra had a friend who gave her free tickets to see CATS at the Orpheum. She drove up to my house and I did some research and decided on some drinks and snacks at Olive. It's been a rough few weeks so I'm going to get right to the point. After a short jaunt through the 'Loin we found Olive and walked right in. There was a huge disco ball in the middle of the bar which Abra kept saying, "theres a disco ball in here" which we laughed at while we scored a nice square booth to sit in the front of the bar. Our waiter who seemed like he had better things to do quickly took our drink menus and rapidly ran away. $4 cosmos the menu advertised. And just like all things in life, you only get what you give. The drinks were not even drinkable by college standard in my opinion. We ordered some light fare, olive tapenade, baked brie and fruit, and sauteed spinach. The tapenade was ok, and so was the sauteed spinach, but we were still so disappointed in our drinks the food already had a negative impact in our dining experience.

On to why we were at Olive at the first place, we had tickets to CATS. I have to write about CATS although this is about food and drink because we HATED it. I am still in shock that CATS is the huge hit it was in New York. There was no plot, they had Christmas lights as the set decor and they sang that song Memory at least 4 times that I counted before I lost track. Abra fell asleep. I understand that "jellicle cats have moonlit-eyes" and "jellicle cats like to jump and play". Hearing that during every other song was a bit repetitious to say the least. There was a space ship. The cats had a tap number. It just didn't make sense to me and maybe I was trying to hard to make sense of a show with singing cats. I was re-thinking my love for those furry creatures. Maybe I want a dog afterall? To summarize, it was great to hang out with Abra, but our food and drink were poor which pretty much fit the mood of "the longest running show on broadway" too. Save your money for Wicked. Eat before you go to Olive and grab a beer if you must drink there.

2 out of 5 stars because it had a disco ball

Olive 743 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94109

The Hidden Vine

G had some meetings in the Nob Hill area at the Farimont Hotel for the past few days so we decided to use that time as a good excuse to check out places in that neighborhood. Everyone in San Francisco knows, unless you live in Nob Hill, you don't usually hang out there since the hills are very........well, nobby. We took off from our short term stay at the Fairmont and decided to hit the hills, literally.

If you have been to Le Colonial, you can easily find The Hidden Vine. It's located across the alley-way and there is another entrance through the Fitzgerald Hotel. Once you find the door, you walk down a staircase into another world of wine and cheese paradise. There are plush red velvet chairs and couches, nook and cranny tables placed in strategic locations, and tea candles scattered throughout the room which made the lighting oh so complementary. It's the perfect place to bring your friends or your more-than-just-friends. I was impressed with the relaxed, European atmosphere.

We found a nice seating area next to the fireplace on some cushiony chairs and started to study the wine list. Soon after, our perky waitress came over to chit-chat and help us pick our selection. They had a wine tasting special from wines from Austria which looked interesting but not enough to indulge in that night. Nothing against Austria, but it's not a country I think of as producing a lot of high-end wines. We settled on an Italian Bombinno(sp?) cabernet sav. and to eat some Cowgirl creamery, Humbolt fog cheese and bread. Once the wine was poured, we had a quick toast and continued our blissful evening at this camouflaged wine bar. The wine was superb and so was our bread and cheese which was accompined with dried blueberries and something similar to a mango chutney. Delicious.

If you can brave the hills, I would highly recommend grabbing some good company and enjoy your favorite drink of the grape variety at The Hidden Vine. I hear there is free bread and cheese on Thursdays. Get there early! 5 out of 5 stars.

The Hidden Vine 620 Post Street or 1/2 Cosmo Place at Taylor, San Francisco, CA

Alive

This past Sunday I went over my brother David and his girlfriend Amanda's new apartment located in the Marina. After checking out their pad and saying hello to thier dog Pilot, G, Amanda, David and I strolled over to Lombard street and walked towards the wide-selection of restaurants in the area. We stumbled upon Alive first and foremost and decided to give it a try. I had noticed this restaurant recently when driving by since it says, Vegetarian cuisine. You know how some people have 'Gay-dar'? I have 'Vegetarian-restaurant-ar'. Yes, I know that's not a word but this is my blog, so deal with it. I have the ability to smell out a vegetarian restaurant in foreign cities all around the world. Trust me, if you are vegetarian, it's best to stick with me when visiting Japan or Central America. My gift comes in handy. So me and my 3 other temporary-vegetarians sat down at the window table for dinner.

The restaurant has a nice, feng-shui atmosphere. A pretty mural on the wall and some funky artsy-looking lights. It is very, "San Francisco", yet the space is small. We all studied the menu which as advertised, was entirely raw-vegetarian (vegan?) fare. We decided to split a bunch of appetizers, and main dishes. I'm never going to remember all the names, but they were comprised of sushi with salmon substitute(pretty good), pizza's with sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, macademia-cheese on some sort of wheat-thin like crackers(ok, not that great), a salad that Amanda liked, I couldn't tell you what was in it! G and I split the Empress medicinal soup. Sounded really cool, but was disapointing. It was mostly made up of seaweed, with potatoes and carrots. There was another side of fresh spinach with pine nuts which was so-so. Actually we really ordered shiitake mushrooms with goajiberries(sp?) that but I wasn't going to make a big deal about it. The main dishes were (vegan?)lasagna in which they used macadamia cheese instead of "real" cheese and the other was sesame noodles with various side-dishes included which added to the pretty ascetic of the dishes. Everything was interesting and good for you. I just can't say that they were *that* great. Especially for the price, if I'm going to spend $14-15 on a main entry, I want something that is going to memorable for a least a few hours. All that I could remember later that night was that I was feeling hungry again.

My suggestion is to try out Alive for dessert only. You can have a nice vegan dessert which is probably better for your figure anyway and some exotic milk or tea to go with it. I think you would get more bang for your buck. It would also be the perfect restaurant if you have a food-allergy or are vegan. The foods were all free of most allergy-spewing ingredients such as gluten, lactose, sugar, etc. However, because of that fact, I thought some of the dishes were quite bland. On a positive note the drinks were very interesting, and of course, fresh. G ordered almond milk, Amanda ordered coconut juice and I had the carrot-ginger juice. David got his usual, orange juice--surprise surprise.

OK. I just read the reviews on citysearch regarding this restaurant. And this is exactly why I decided to write this blog. I don't think they are very accurate. This is NOT the best vegetarian or vegan fare by any means in San Francisco. Everyone seemed to rave about this place, but I am suspicious of some of the reviews. They seem very posed. Which makes me think the owner wrote the review. G is a big fan of healthy, vegetarian food, but after looking at the amount of food we got at Alive, I thought is this really going to feed a man who weighs over 200 lbs.? It just didn't seem like it was equal to the price. Next time, I'm going to Pluto's for a salad!

3 out of 5 stars as I have a weak heart for vegetarian restaurants

Alive! Restaurant 1972 Lombard St. San Francisco, CA 94123