Brixton Brunch

December 11, 2011

On Sunday, I went for brunch with Wendy, Key and Sandy at Brixton on Union Street.

We shared a gaggle of dishes, in no particular order...

The brown sugar bacon:

Brixton sticky buns:

Warm French Onion dip (my favorite!):

Fried Chicken salad:

"Demoned" Eggs (with dungeness crab, bacon, aioli, shallots, celery, parsley and chives):

Fiery mac n' cheese:

Brunch was quite good, and they had so many other things on their menu that would be worth coming back to try. Even though it means you're hanging out in the Marina...ha!

Holiday Celebration!

December 11, 2011

On Saturday, I dropped off Will at the airport really early in the morning, and then had a fender bender on the way home (courtesy of some crazy construction on Cesar Chavez and a driver that made an illegal left turn). Thankfully, I was fine, but I was in shock and poor Lavonda the Honda had enough body damage that it wasn't safe to drive her too far. Totally threw my day off. Rental car agencies and insurance agencies are always a pain, and I had a hard time getting my day back in order.

Thankfully, I had a holiday party at the Marina house (casa Ashley, Paul, Gia and new roomie Shaun!) to go to. And in cocktail wear!

From the Marina house, I headed out with Wendy, Fid, Kirk, Christian, Eduardo and Amy to a party at Red's Java House on the Embarcadero.

Nothing says good times like doing the running man in your heels...right? It was a super fun night to help me cheer up after a not-so-fun day. Thanks, everyone!

Holiday Dinner @ Chambers Eat + Drink

December 10, 2011

On Friday night, Will and I met up with some folks from his group at work for a holiday dinner at Chambers Eat + Drink, in the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin. It's a funky space and they won me over with the late 80's/early 90's dance music they were playing (aww, yeah, flygirl memories!).

We shared some appetizers, one of which was the smoking hamachi with yuzu ponzu:

Our fave starter was the sizzling Kobe tri-tip, but I neglected to snap a pic. For dinner, the boys and I all ordered the very decadent Chambers burger with crispy braised pork belly:

After dinner, we headed over to Lush Lounge on Polk Street for some drinks. I almost can't remember the last time I had a chance to hang out with James:

Fun time with a good gang!

2012 North Face Endurance Challenge

December 5, 2011

On Sunday morning, I picked up Wendy, Sue Hee and Dale, and we headed into the Marin Headlands for the 2012 North Face Endurance Challenge trail race. I was excited to only be doing the 10K distance this year (I ran the half marathon the last two years), specifically as I was only going to deal with  one massive hill instead of three. Small wins.

We met up with Kelli at the start and huddled under a heat lamp until the race start:

The weather was perfect, sunny and cool (unlike the last two years which were cold and drizzly). Overall, a pretty good race. Here are some post-race pics:

Congrats to Wendy and Dale, who ran their first trail races (and probably not their last!). Hooray, finished the last race of the season!!

The Weakerthans 4x4

December 4, 2011

There's a band called The Weakerthans that hails from Winnipeg, and is a favorite of Will's and mine. Recently, we were very excited to hear that they would be playing four shows in San Francisco at The Independent, featuring each of their full length albums on each night of the show:

• Fallow (11/30), with opener Ford Pier
• Left and Leaving (12/1), with opener Ford Pier
• Reconstruction Site (12/2), with opener Said the Whale
• Reunion Tour (12/3), with opener Jenn Grant

On each night after playing the featured album from start to finish, they would also play a smattering of hits from the other albums. Heaven.

On Wednesday (11/30), Will and I met up with Robert for dinner at Tsunami before checking out the show. We caught a little bit of Ford Pier, the opening act from Vancouver, and they were fine, but I didn't really get into them. The Weakerthans were fantastic as they rolled through "Fallow" and some of their hits.

I took zero photos on Thursday (12/1), Will and I timed it perfectly to show up just as The Weakerthans were taking the stage to perform "Left and Leaving. A-mazing.

On Friday night (12/2), Will and I had a fantastic date night. We started with dinner at nopalito, drinks at Madrone, and then caught some of the opening act, Said the Whale from Vancouver, who I really enjoyed:

The Weakerthans perform "Reconstruction Site", which is probably my favorite album of the four:

On Saturday (12/2), Will and I met up with Robert and Sue Hee for dinner at Bar Crudo. One of my favorite meals to3eat in the city is at Bar Crudo, consisting of: Artic Char crudo, lobster & beet salad with burrata cheese, and the seafood chowder. De-lish!

The opener on Saturday night was Jenn Grant, a fun and folksy singer from Nova Scotia. She was lovely:

And, on the last night, the Weakerthans performed "Reunion Tour". In another interesting note, I finally found a setting on my camera that takes decent photos at concerts:

Well, Will and I survived four nights in a row of concert-going, enjoyed the fine food and drink at several fantastic establishments in NOPA, and more importantly, spend some quality time with our favorite Canadian band. I wish there had been a 5th night.