Tracie BroomSF Station WriterFood Editor at SF Station from Fall 1999 to Summer 2009, Tracie Broom is a freelance writer, editor, website copywriter and event planner. Catch up with her foodie lifestyle and travel blog, The Yum Diary: http://www.yumdiary.com |
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 | Explore Cortez for Small Plates and Big Chic [b]This restaurent is now CLOSED.[/b]
Geary Street shaped up in 2003. Just down the street from the glitzy CLIFT Hotel, enter the Hotel Adagio, yet another boutique hotel from the Joie de Vivre Hospitality Group. Within the Adagio is a camel-colored hall of drapes studded with comfortable tables and relatively well-heeled, multi-generational diners (capacity 120) sipping spot-on mango caipirinhas. Cortez is the latest restaurant venture from Pascal Rigo, owner of Bay Bread, Chez Nous, and La Table. The short verdict: Cortez is pretty great. We had a fabu time and thought the food was memorable. Go glam it up! Here's why. More » |  |  | North Beach Italian meets Mission Hip While Specchio isn't going to make the cover of Food & Wine, the food is very good, the staff is friendly, wines are inexpensive, the atmosphere is hip enough to feel like you're really "going out". More » | |  | Beauty: Skin Deep, As Usual When a new spa opens in San Francisco, especially one touting itself as a high-end luxury escape, the perfectly plucked brows of spa mavens perk up across the city. But as a seasoned spa-goer can attest, there can be a pretty big difference between the PR hype and the naked reality. More » | |  | Eat, Drink and be Merry San Francisco is a barrel full of fish -- fabulous, restaurant-shaped fish -- and there's no letting up on the spawning. Come shoot the latest with us! It's holiday time. More » | |  | Same Grand Veranda, Slightly Better Food These days, serving upscale Vietnamese cuisine is by no means a pioneer move. But when Le Colonial opened its San Francisco branch in 1998, the concept was still fairly new. $10 cocktails with fresh ingredients were considered art nouveau, and dot-com bank accounts didn't flinch at the downtown prices. A (somewhat cheesy) nightclub element has since been added to the program, but what's remained steady is the appeal of Le Colonial's breezy veranda, its elegant interior, and its approachable, easily shared menu. More » | |  | Destiny Shopping in Mill Valley For ladies who love their labels (and their bargains), Diamonds in the Rough has become a must-visit stop on the Bay Area upscale consignment circuit. Much in the vein of My Roommate's Closet, Goodbyes and Retail Therapy in San Francisco, this friendly little Mill Valley consignment boutique sells nearly new designer clothes at 50% to 60% off of retail prices. More » | |  | Pushing the Reset Button on Knotty Muscles "Are those birthmarks?" a girlfriend asks, noticing the cascade of perfectly circular bruises across my shoulders as we suit up for a swim in the rooftop lap pool at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. The next day at Gray Whale Cove, a different friend exclaims, "Oh my god, what happened to your back?" and while at the Jay N' Bee Club later that night, another slyly inquires, "Um, what have YOU been up to, young lady?" More » | |  | Browsing Shops, Hiking Bluffs, and Cozying up by the Fire The Bay Area is full of good days. One of the mellowest and most rewarding is to be found 1.5 hours north, in the small towns that ring Tomales Bay, the shallow, cigar-shaped body of water that peacefully straddles the San Andreas Fault just east of Point Reyes National Seashore. More » | |  | Only for the Light of Heart I’ve been curious about supperclub since the San Francisco branch of this Dutch enterprise opened in 2005. Prix-fixe dining in bed, with performance art, in an all-white SOMA loft? Gimmicky, yes, but it still sounded like fun. However, the 4-star price tag, the hyper-clubby SOMA-meets-Miami techno scene, and an artistic mish-mash of Cirque du Soleil and Burning Man kept me and most of my friends at bay. More » | |  | SF Station's Best of Another tremendous year for San Francisco restaurants, 2007 saw a huge upsurge in artisanal pizza and boutique Italian (Nua, Chiaroscuro, Gialina, Ducca, Perbacco, Bar Bambino, E' Tutto Qua) as well as hot restaurant spinoffs (S.P.Q.R., Serpentine) and sustainable cuisine (Fish and Farm, Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant, Conduit, Weird Fish). Upscale Asian seems to be hitting a new stride (Namu, Unicorn, Metro Kathmandu, Sudachi, Umami, Sebo), and fancy burgers are more available than ever (NOPA, Spruce, Two, Horizon, and the disappointingly sterile Custom Burger/Lounge). More » | |
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