Lococo's Pizzeria

July 25, 2007

On Tuesday night, Will and I went over to Berkeley to have dinner with my aunt and uncle (Joanne and Peter). They have been wanting to take us to one of their favorite Italian restaurants for quite some time, and we finally found a time that worked.

We met them at Lecoco's Pizzeria on Shattuck in Berkeley, in the infamous Gourmet Ghetto. We had the sweet window table in the corner.

The menu at Lococo's is Sicilian Italian fare, with all the pasta hand-made on the premises.

I ordered the Pappardelle Bolognese, which had one of the best bolognese meat sauces with a nicely-balanced red-wine infused flavor that was wonderful. Come here and try this.

Will ordered one of Lococo's trademark wood-fired pizzas with spicy sausage and onion and peppers. Will said it was the perfect amount of spice and of course, he loved it.

We shared the home-made Tiramisu for dessert, amazingly light and tasty.

We had a really nice meal at Lococo's with my aunt and uncle, and I would definitely go back there for that bolognese sauce. Go try it!

Back In Your Head

July 24, 2007

Last night, Will and I went to Brava Theatre in Outer Mission to catch Tegan and Sara in concert.

Tegan and Sara are twins from our old hood (Calgary) and are releasing their newest album called "The Con" today. I've seen them a couple other times in concert (at the Independent and Great American Music Hall), and they're great live, with really cute sisterly stage banter.

This show was part of an early pre-tour tour, prior to their album being released. Sorry, no pics, forgot my camera...

We had sweet tix, 5th row, center right. There was no opening act, the show started around 8 pm and went on for two hours. Tegan and Sara played all 14 songs from their new album in the first hour of the show. Both Tegan and Sara are very talented musicians (bouncing between multiple guitars and the keyboards) and tell really funny stories. They were a little nervous, which was cute, and responded to the crowd's energy. There are several songs from their new album which sound really good, including their first release "Back In Your Head", which is really catchy.

In the second hour, they played some of their old hits, including: "Speak Slow", "Walking With A Ghost", "You Wouldn't Like Me", "Where Does the Good Go", etc. etc.

Check out the album and support another great Canadian band.

Dirks-Farley Comes to Town

July 22, 2007

It's always good times when Canadian friends come to town to visit. This past weekend, it was Kalah (Dirks-Farley) and her boyfriend Ryan (err..I don't know his last name). You may have spotted a random picture of Kalah in the last blogspot, as she also attended the goodbye party for Dave and Meg, but I digress.

Kalah and Ryan are in the midst of their multi-week road trip from Calgary (via the west coast), sight-seeing, surfing, attending weddings along the way.

SATURDAY

On Saturday, Wendy took the visitors surfing and sight-seeing via bicycle while I was a pillar of productivity (I even went to Costco).

On Saturday night, Will and I hosted a potluck dinner for a bunch of folks to visit with Kalah and Ryan. We got to use the expansion leaves for our dining table for the first time. We also realized that even though we can fit 12 people at the table, we only have chairs for 11 people (thank goodness we only had 11 people for dinner! Kudos to Robert and Shaun for not showing up!).

The potluck dinner included the following items that were consumed by the 11 folks in attendance:

• shrimp cocktail
• chicken with sauteed mushrooms and monterey jack cheese
• dill-potato-chip-encrusted baked salmon
• mixed greens with avocado, corn, walnuts and cherry tomatoes
• pasta with fresh basil and tomotoes
• fresh tomato halves baked with parmesan, herbs and olive oil
• Eric's chicken fried rice
• fresh strawberries, mangoes and baklava
• German chocolate cake
• 8.5 bottles of red and white wine

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning, Will and I picked up Kalah and Ryan and headed over to Outer Richmond to meet up with some folks to eat some more. This time, we were going for dim sum at Yet Wah.

Wendy's parents had also rolled into town on Sunday morning, so they joined us for dim sum.

After dim sum, I took Kalah and Ryan to the SFMOMA, where I secured them with free tix (thanks Genentech!) and sent them on their way while I went and shopped in Union Square.

On Sunday night, Will convinced me to go spectate at his C-league hockey game and cheer on his team, the Panteras. I was joined in the stands by Jojo (Chevy plays too) and Wendy's parents.

(Oh, isn't he dreamy in his hockey gear?)

Well, turns out that Will had a stellar night of hockey, as he scored 5 goals and their team finally killed their losing streak with a 7-4 win over the Lumberjacks. If 3 goals is a hat track, what is 5 goals? A penta-trick? Penta-fecta?

I hope this doesn't mean that they're going to expect me to go spectate every game (they sometimes have games at 10:45 pm!) Go Panteras!

Professor Owen Goes East

July 21, 2007

On Friday night, Will and I headed over to Upper Haight to say goodbye to our former teammate, Dave, and his wife Meg. Dave and Meg are moving to Portland, Maine for Dave to pursue his new career as a college prof.

Thankfully, Dave didn't get too choked up and there wasn't any fighting over their plants (really cool plants). Good luck on the east side Dave and Meg! (sniff, sniff...)

After the goodbyes, Will, Chuck and I headed to the mission to meet up with a gaggle of folks who were gravitating to the many watering holes in that neighborhood. We were intending to go to Little Baobab, but there were some serious fire code concerns in that place, so we headed to Latin America Club, with a short layover in Beauty Bar.

Ahh...good times.

HH at Bruno's!

July 20, 2007

I hopped on a Happy Hour bandwagon with some folks from work last Thursday, as we headed to Bruno's in the mission for some goody cocktails (Happy Hour6-9pm Tues - Fri $3 Draft and $4 Well Cocktails) and small eats. A couple of Will's work folks joined us as well...

I fell in love with the Lychee and Pineapple martini, which was unfortunately, not a happy hour special.

The Kobe Beef Sliders (3 Mini Kobe Beef Cheese BurgersSwiss Cheese, Grilled Onions & Tomato). Terribly delicious.
Spicy Honey-glazed Chicken Wings. Also terribly delicious and big wings! The wings had a subtle kick of spice to complement the sweetness of the honey.

I love happy hours.