Restaurants

Perfect picnic

Did you know there’s a right and wrong way to order fried chicken from Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen?

My husband was happy to educate me on this obscure fact over the weekend. We decided to take our dog on a day trip to Lake Michigan, and being spontaneous people who don’t want our pet trying to break into the cooler during a three-hour drive, we waited until we got to Portage to grab lunch for a picnic. We were looking for a Subway, but when we finally found one, it shared space in the gas station with Popeye’s.

Excuse me, but fried chicken and picnics on the beach are a quintessential combo I can’t resist.

So as we strolled into the TravelCenter lobby, my husband said to order him “the usual” and beelined for the bathroom. The problem is, we don’t have a Popeye’s near us, so I’m not familiar with their menu in the least. (OK, yes, they have fried chicken.) I started off asking for a 3-piece dinner for my husband and a 2-piece basket for myself. And then I stood there, congratulating myself on navigating another new situation, until she asked which sides we wanted.

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While vacationing in Long Beach last month, I dined out at several places worth writing about. One such place was Parker’s Lighthouse. We went to celebrate a special occasion so there were 20 of us. A nightmare for servers because you know, they have to split the tip.

I ordered an $11.00 glass of wine, which my mom thought was kind of expensive, but was really the average price for a glass. Little did I know, I should have saved my money for the entrees.

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Tomokazu in United Domestic Terminal @ SFO

Want something healthier to eat at the airport or on the plane than a bland muffin? If you are tired of grabbing a boring sandwich while you race to catch your flight, you have a healthy choice at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

Recently I discovered a delicious alternative to the greasy burger that is just waiting to upset your stomach half way through your flight. At least that is what happens to me too often.  Tomokazu is a Japanese Restaurant in the United Domestic Terminal, well past security but conveniently located next to a hub of gates.  You won’t miss your connection if you decide to grab a pre-made bento or special order your meal.

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Gold Dust Lounge @ Union Square

Do you love old westerns? Are you comfortable in somewhat seedy surroundings? If you answered “yes” to both, then you are in luck because situated on noisy Powell Street in Union Square, is the Gold Dust Lounge.

This old dive has been plying its customers with White Russians since the era of San Francisco ’s Barbary Coast days. If Laffing Sal or “Laughing Sal” was real, she would have been right at home in this place. Someone who probably did stop in was Sally Stanford, the famous local madam.

Built in the 1930’s, today the Gold Dust Lounge still has live music but now $3 champagne. You’ll love their happy hour or maybe just stop in for a drink some night after seeing a show at the American Conservatory Theater.

They take cash only, but considering how cheap the drinks are, I think this is a great place to experience true San Francisco color. Though I am partial to the Buena Vista for mine, I hear that their Irish Coffee is pretty good. If you are coming from out of town, all the Union Square hotels are close by and the Villa Florence is next door.

Bring the hand sanitizer and a full stomach, but if you have a taste for a creepy good time with your strong cocktail, the Gold Dust Lounge is the place for you.  Maybe the money you save on drinks will help pay for your hotel.

247 Powell Street
(between Geary and O’farrell Sts)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 397-1695

Chicken Parm, Pizza and a glass of red - the perfect combo at Giorgio's!

Giorgio’s Pizzeria in one sentence: East coast-style pizzeria where everyone is “from the neighborhood” and the jukebox plays classic rock.

Who you’ll see there: The high school drill team after practice, hipsters on dates, parents with crying toddlers, older couples … seriously the whole neighborhood.

Make sure to try: Perfect classic cheese pizza, the chicken parm with a side of spaghetti, the antipasto salad.

It’s okay to skip: Any flavor of calzone – for a place that does thin crust pizza so well, the calzone is a disappointing dough bomb.

Best dessert: Another slice of pizza

Service: Nice local girls in matching t-shirts who you can trust to tell you the truth about portion sizes, refill your Coke without asking, and will leave you in peace to eat your meal.

Average meal price: $22.10 for a large Giorgio’s Special (salami, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms) pizza, $14.25 for a chicken parm that can feed you for two-three meals.

Best time of day/meal to visit: It’s always busy, sometimes your best bet is to call and order take out.

Giorgio’s Pizzeria Logistics:

• No reservations
• No delivery
• Credit cards accepted
• Street parking

Location:
151 Clement St.
3rd Ave. and Clement Street
Phone: 415-668-1266
Richmond District

Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 11:00 am 10:00 pm
Friday – Saturday: 11:00 am 11:00 pm
Sunday – 11:00 am 9:00 pm

Goggled eyed fish?

When traveling internationally, translating a menu can be somewhat daunting.  And add a Greek or Cyrillic alphabet and you may be willing to just chuck eating locally and find yourself a hotel or a friendly McDonald’s to provide your grub.  Luckily, most restaurants in tourist-friendly destinations offer an “English” menu.  I put this term in quotes because often it’s kind of in English – scattered with words from other languages and creative misspellings that will often leaving you scratching your head in wonderment.  I remember fondly a little cafe in France that offered “beef buttockal” and still curse a little for not ordering it just to figure out what it was.  Flank steak?  Something more sinister?  I’ll never know.

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Barb Freda has a serious passion for food.  A former-chef-turned-food-writer, you can definitely put her in the ueber-foodie category.  She just doesn’t write about food – as the Food Editor for Florida Table magazine, VisitFlorida.com’s former Dining Expert and a freelancer, she also edits and develops recipes and styles her own food photography.  Simply put, she adores food – and you can tell in each word she writes.

And what local restaurant does she recommend to those in the Miami, Florida area?  Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink.

“It’s this great place located in the Design District of Miami,” she says.  “It’s such a fun neighborhood, filled with these design showrooms and high-end shops.  And Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink fits right in – it’s a place that serves really good food with incredibly fresh ingredients.”

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Thanks, East Coast, for giving me one more reason, in the form of food, to miss you.

It’s not enough that you have Dunkin’ Donuts and New Haven pizza.  No, now you have to go ahead and add Rita’s, with its ice, custard, and happiness on order.

That’s right, they sell happiness.

Rita’s is a chain of custard shops with locations up and down the east coast and Alabama and Texas.  New locations have popped up around the town in Connecticut where my family lives and we were visiting, and after a long walk on the beach a friend treated me, oh so innocently, to a visit there.  Little did he know he was cultivating an addiction.  One spoonful of the creamy, smooth, buttery soft-serve custard and I was hooked.

Rita’s big sell is the combination of soft-serve frozen custard and a selection of slushy Italian ices, with flavors ranging from lemon to Swedish Fish.  You can get either type of frozen goodness by itself, or you can put them together in something they call a Gelati, which confused me because of course I was looking for the gelato.  No, this creation is more like the shave ice they sell in Hawaii, in which the confection is served as such:  a layer of your chosen flavor of custard, topped with a giant layer of you chosen flavor of Italian ice, with a dollop of the custard on top, all presented, as they say in Wall-E, “IN A CUP!”

After my original hit, I snuck back to Rita’s one day when I went out “to do some errands.”  Then the night before I left I bribed my mother into joining me, my treat.  It says a lot that on a clammy Friday night after a rainstorm, the place was packed.

I was in Long Beach over the weekend with my kids and my mom. The weather was beautiful and we had a marvelous time, thanks for asking.

The first night of our visit we decided to go to Rock Bottom Brewery, because you know, they have good food, plus they have the make your own pizza that my kids love.

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Male fantasy

I’m not shy about admitting it: I don’t get why Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries attracted enough business to expand in the DC area, let alone wander clear over to Hoosier country.

But they’ve been flipping burgers and making fries here on Indianapolis’ south side for more than a year now, so my opinion isn’t the majority one. My husband was dying to go there the other night, and I agreed because I suddenly had visions of those wonderful, salted-in-the-shell peanuts dancing in my head.

And that’s when I stumbled onto Five Guys‘ secret: I was one of only three females in the place.

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