VinDivine - Living it Up John & Janine Style

GET THIS WINE!

OK, I am nobody's bitch. I don't sell out for no body, no how. But, I came across a hella-good discount deal on the killer 2000 Robert Mondavi Cask Reserve Cabernet. A Robert Parker 92-pt. rated wine (yeah, I know who cares about that old coots' rotten palate, but still...)

Anyhoo, due to the great esteem I enjoy and the ginormous respect granted me in the wine industry (alright, I just stumbled upon this by sheer dumb luck), there is a secret (shhh) employee discount code that lets you purchase this kick-ass $125 y-u-m-m-y vino for a measly 30 bones. Don't ask. Nobody's gonna get in trouble, so don't fret, my kind, alcoholic friends, just go getcherself some. Now. Oh yeah. Where? The details, the details. The devil's in there somewhere. All online, people. Go to the Mondavi site, or another site called Hartwick & Grove. Use the super-duper secret code VALE86 at checkout and bada-bing, you're in for a rootin' tootin' good 'ol time with Robert.

OK, you know me. I can't keep a secret to save myself. I got this juicy bit of info from a contact up at a certain winery in Napa. Right off the Highway 2-9. Oakville area. But that's it. My lips are sealed and you'll never know the true identity of this Robin Hood of wine deals. Unless you catch me bellying up to the bar in my 'hood. Wait, that's him there!

Oh yeah, and don't start whining about the "well, by the time I pay shipping and tax, and then wait a few days..." "vs visiting those a-holes at K&L where I get treated like shit but still, I walk out with the wine in my grimy, sweaty hands, and even with gas prices like they are I think I can get twisted on cheaper wine...." rant. SHUT YOUR PIE-HOLE AND BUY THIS WINE. Sorry. I yelled at you. But ya had it coming. It's 'cuz I love you. Don't make me do it again.

Hey, I don't make a dime off this, I have no vested interest 'cept brining you, our beloved readers, great recos. And if I can save ya, oh, well, about $90 A BOTTLE (damn,  there I go again yelling) I'm gonna talk about it. Woo hoo!

Now go! Hartwick & Grove and use code VALE86. Thank me later.

Call the SPCA!

No, my little disciples, we didn't discover Fido parts in our chicken caccitore (thank god). And no, this is not the name of a hot new bistro on Jessie & Mint. It's short for the  Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I believe.

And no, this post is not about food, wine, restaurants or kick-ass travel destination,  That is, unless your version of  'hot dog' actually includes canine. But hey, don't sweat it...this isn't some heavy-handed weird shit we're tryin' to pull, either. This is VinDivine! Always wanting to put a smile on your pretty little faces. No guilt!

"Then just what is this about, for the love of Christ?!" you ask. Fair enough.  This is a little ditty about a great, kinda wacky, friend of ours who we wine & dine with, and a crackhead crazy Pug. Or is it a kinda wacky pug and our crackhead crazy friend? Who names a dog, Kat, in the first place? Hmmm.  I think we have our verdict.

Anyhoo, that friend of ours - who shall DEFINITELY remain nameless -  got a 10-week old puppy pug the other week (note - the photo above is just a likeness of the pug, in order to protect its true identity.). The verbatim excerpt below is a diary of sorts of a mad woman after 3 days of robo-pug motherhood. It is f'ing hilarious! Read on VdV'ers!

Wanna hear it? Here it goes:

***************Hysterical!   It’s been quite a week with Kat!  She broke out of her crate last nite (I got an new all wire smaller one for her)….I have no idea how she did it.  She can now also climb up the gate in front of the stairs since I rigged up the back entrance – she found another way up….and there she was to my amazement at my bedside upstairs in a matter of minutes.  Earlier in the eve I left her in the car for all of 10 minutes and she managed to shit, step in it and drag it around the entire backseat.  As soon as I opened the door she bolted out into the busy Safeway parking lot like a lunatic.   She’s really outrageous.  But the best was how she jumped out of the car window on Tuesday – I left her in there with the window obviously way too open and she managed to climb out…. the fall didn’t deter her from running into the street where luckily someone stopped her…..all this in a matter of minutes.  I think the Animal Control team is searching for me already.  Needless to say I am exhausted not much sleep happening.

Lessons learned:
- She really hates the car riding in it and staying in it with or without me
- She is definitely NOT potty trained yet regardless of what the breeder thinks
- She has supernatural powers
- She needs a padlock on her crate
- Hopefully she has 9 lives b/c 2 are already used up
- Give gate back to JP and replace with a 5 ft wall********

Never fear, we have checked in on the twosome several times and they do seem to be on the road to happiness. And we are confident...well, hopeful, that Kat will survive puppy-dom and live to a ripe old age.

Promise: Our next post will discuss some combination of food and or wine:)

Delfina - The Mission

I don't know why I've waited so long to go to this place. John's been but alas, I have not. So when our friend Aarti said, hey let's do Delfina for "D" (she's wading through restaurants in our great city by the alphabet) I said Heyohhh, I'm in. Secretly I was "dying" to try out the pizza, boy was I surprised that you can only get it next door at the Pizzeria Delfina.

I'm sure there's some crackhead crazy zoning rule in SF that says you can't bring Pizza into the restaurant and you can't bring alcohol into the Pizzeria, cuz alcohol and pizza don't go together. Tell that to the drunkards at Golden Boy at 3am.

Anhoo, about 4 of us went, thank goodness we took cabs a) cuz we were gonna get our swerve on and drinkin' and drivin' don't go well together and b) cuz parking ssuuuuucccckkkkssss. Tiny place, buzzing like a mofo, reminds me of when the Slanted Door usta be cool.

The food: The Fresh-stretched mozzarella with padron peppers and a tomato toast looked good but no one got it. Next time. I went kinda boring but since I was in the mood for Pizza I stuck with Italian: Spaghetti with plum tomatoes, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and peperoncini. They did it up right. Aarti had the Meyer Ranch flatiron steak and French fries and wooohoooo, those yelpers are right, the fries rock! I'm a sucker for Pansotti anywhere, so the Pansotti with walnut sauce was rocking too.

The wine list? Fantabulous but Italian only here folks. And for some reason...everyone always gives me the wine list. Huh? Wtf do I know about Italian Reds? They do have some great wines that are reasonably priced: Rosso di Montalcino came in right around $50.

Would I go again? Yes, but only after I get the pizza. :^)

Delfina
3621 18th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.552.4055

Quality Meats - NYC

We go to NYC a lot, maybe once a quarter and sorry to say VinDiviners, that you're not going to get new hotel recos from yours truly. Why? Cuz we stay at one cool, happenin' place, that's right, The Chambers Hotel. And it's because of the treatment we get from everyone there, especially José, the Concierge who WALKED us to this new restaurant in the rain to make sure we got right in and got a table. José is the man. Not to mention Joseph, who walked us and "vip'd" us at the Beacon. Love you two.

Now onto Quality Meats. When José first recommended it, we were like, "Is he taking us to some big ole' Chicago syle, cigar smoky, fat guys sittin' around a table undoing the top button of their pants typa place?" With a name like Quality Meats that's why we thought. Boy were we wrong. It's very industrial, jam packed with pretty people. Cool lighting, small place, very cozy. The Smith & Wollensky Group owns this and if you've ever been to one of those meateries, you know it's gonna be the bomb.

But whoa, they only had a 12oz filet mignon (filet, shocker huh?) and we weren't hungry enough for two of those. But we did have a chuckle at the 64 oz. Ribeye for two. Wow. They also serve 3 Filet medallions all cooked in their different ways. Sharing? You KNOW we love the share plates. So we ordered up one of those and it was a lip smacka. We also ordered up the Sashimi of Hamachi which I wouldn't order again cuz...and to top off of protein bonanza we had the Sauteed Spinach, very good.

Funny? What's up with NYC and all of the conversations that happen about climbing the corporate ladder? Guy next to us was on a date (she didn't take her overcoat and scarf off the entire night, wassup widat?) He looked like George Peppard way before The A-Team, maybe in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Anyhoo, he's chattin' up his chillin' lady (literally), talking about how he's the star of his sales team. In fact, he was psyched his manager said he's not "on the team" he's "outside the team". Was that a compliment? This guy sure thought so...LOL. Tool. And of course ALL THE DUDES are suits. Don't blame QM for that.

Drinks? Wine by the glass this time. John the Roshambo Zin, love that wine. Janine: a Ferari Carano Blend. The wine list is pretty ridiculous. Finished it up with some porto, yummy, yummy.

Quality Meats
57 West 58th Street (6th)
New York, NY 10019
T: 212.371.7777
F: 212.317.9362

The Modern - NYC

We've had some CRAZY travelling between NY and Boston of late. Good for us and good for the VDVers cuz we've got some new sh-- to talk about. NO, not about Boston! Well...you guys do have...uh...I mean, I really love your...whew. lol. Anyway, kids, we are naturally talkin' about NYC. Wanna hear about it - here we go:

The Modern is rockin'. Mod, you could say. Damn I loved the Mod Squad. Especially Peggy Lipton (she's the blonde)...Anyhoo, why did we not know about The Modern sooner? For chrissakes, we stay a mere two blocks away at the Chambers each time we're in NY! Ahh, that's why - 'cuz it's next to a MUSEUM. Yipes! Culture!! I mean, we're too busy rooting out the best of the best wining & dining for you guys to get all cultural and stuff. But, since it is right in the MOMA, they use all of the designers' products to pimp the place out. It's a nice, large, bright space with an enormous bar (see below) and café area separated by frosted white glass panels from the main, fancier dining room. Very clean, white, bright. I said it was Mod! Another shining star for Danny Meyer of Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern fame. Wow, he hit it with this one.

The centerpiece? A ginormously long bar made out of slabs of unfinished white marble. For those of you who know the J&J, we are huge aficionados of the Mod look and we notice stupid little things like this. White marble unfinished for a BAR no less? The drink spillage alone would ruin it! Of course our bartender knew that there was a blahblahblah-thane coating on it to prevent this. Whew! We got our breathe back and ordered drinks. And spilled a little on the bar just to test it out. (For those of you who don't know us we are also fans of a long bar, see our equation on the District post.)

The food was another story. Small plates...nah...microscopic plates really. Kiddie-menu size. Those freeze-dried 'if hell freezes over' packet size. Tiny. OK, I think you get the picture. BUT, whatcha get, you're gonna like. Danny wouldn't let us down! Does it matter what we had? Not really but I'll tell ya anyway cuz the menu is constantly changin'. First off, the menu is 'American Nouveau' so a nice range of meats, fishes, and the like. Our faves - Black Angus Beef Tenderloin - RARE of course, if they serve salmon or scallops of any kind when you go, mmmm, mmmmm. Make sure when you go you try a bit of meat, fish and poultry cuz it's all gonna be great but just make sure that for every two people you get at least 5 plates.

Oh, and bonus for the J&J. Bandol Rosé on the menu. And as opposed to the food, served in full-size portions! Wooohooo! Drink a bottle...no...two!

The Modern Restaurant
11 West 53rd Street
New York (212) 333.1220

 

Update June 2007: Coco500 - South Beach

We have to do an update to Coco500, I mean it is rockin'! Becoming one of our new faves. Worth huge mentioning, Scott Baird the bartender who has made the front cover of San Francisco Magazine with his famous, fabulous drinks. He's a true 'mixologist'. Love him, love him. Go for lunch and see Peggy for a superb bloody. How superb you might ask? Josh, who is kinda "light" on dolin' out the kudos, said he thinks it's THE BEST bloody he's ever had.

Speaking of lunch, the Steak Salad is OTH. I mean get it rare folks (is there any other way?). There's usually not a leaf on the plate but don't be offended, I looked up the true definition of "salad" and found this: 

A cold dish of chopped vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs, or other food, usually prepared with a dressing.

Who needs greens? I've also had the chicken salad (Fulton Valley) which is crazy good, and actually comes with greens, but get it only if you're sick of the cow.

One more thing, and I'm not kidding, homemade peanut butter cups. 'Nuf said.