Chowbaby.com Mini Reviews

Here are two restaurant mini-reviews that I did recently for http://www.chowbaby.com/. They are my personal additions to Chowbaby's list of the Top 10 Most Romantic Restaurants of San Francisco. I would highly recommend http://www.chowbaby.com/ to anyone who is looking for a good place to eat anywhere in the United States.

JEANTY AT JACK’S
615 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 693-0941
Hours: (Mon-Fri) 11:30 am-10:30 pm; (Sat-Sun) 5:00 pm-10:30 pm
Phillipe Jeanty, one of America’s finest chefs, has created a restaurant with an intimate atmosphere featuring classic French bistro cuisine that is expertly prepared and magnificently presented. Located in a three-story building that was constructed in 1864, Jeanty at Jack’s has 14-foot high ceilings, lace curtains and a brass-railed spiraling staircase. Signature dishes include an appetizer called Petit Sale, consisting of cured pork belly with a foie gras ragout; Jeanty’s famous Coqauvin, with chicken, mushrooms, bacon and red wine; Kobe beef ribs and an exquisitely tender Cote de Porc pork chop. Service is executed to perfection with a wait staff that is experienced and attentive. Jeanty at Jack’s provides an ideal setting for first dates, anniversaries and other affairs of the heart.

Estimated cost per person for dinner: $50 - $60

Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open, Thanksgiving-Open, Christmas Eve-Open, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Open

THE SLANTED DOOR
1 Ferry Building, #3
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 861-8032
Hours: (Mon-Sun) 11:00 am-2:30 pm Lunch; (Sun-Thurs) 5:30 pm- 10:00 pm Dinner; (Fri-Sat) 5:30 pm-10:30 pm Dinner
Located in the northeast corner of the famous restored Ferry Building, The Slanted Door has a stellar reputation for serving incredibly inventive food in an awe-inspiring setting. It’s a modern Vietnamese restaurant that features local produce and ecologically farmed meat, game and poultry raised at farms throughout the Bay Area. The food is the star of this gig, but the Riesling-driven wine list, the full bar with its unique selection of specialty drinks and fresh squeezed juices, and the hard-to-find Chinese teas, makes this gem a destination for food lovers from all over the world. The specialties of the house include Spring Rolls with peanut sauce; a Green Papaya Salad with rau ram; Shaking Beef stir-fired with garlic and organic onions and a wood-oven roasted whole fish with spicy ginger fish sauce. Every food experience should be just like this – unforgettable and wondrous.

Estimated cost per person for dinner: $55 - $65 (Prix Fixe Menu: $38 per person for lunch and $45 per person for dinner)

Holiday Schedule: New Years Day-Closed, Valentines Day-Open, Easter-Open, Thanksgiving-Closed, Christmas Eve-Closed, Christmas Day-Closed, New Years Eve-Closed

Kid's Insurance For Just a Buck

A lot of people who have kids are getting them children insurance as soon as they’re born. It’s a great investment and a perfect way to get them the security they need. The rate is based on your child's current age and is guaranteed for the rest of their life. And because it is a whole life insurance policy, it builds cash value. By starting your child's policy today their coverage is guaranteed regardless of future changes in age, health or occupation. There is no medical exam, just a few Yes/No health questions, no waiting period and no agent. It is simple — one dollar pays for the introductory period for up to $20,000 coverage.

Old Rock Stars Never Die

A few years ago I met a homeless gentleman on the streets of San Jose, California named Leonard Carlton. Leonard was the singer and drummer for a band called Bad Inflection, a group that had one minor hit in 1965 called “Desert Howl.”

When I met the man, he was a complete wreak, the result of having done too much of every drug imaginable. Besides being a performer and a musician, Carlton produced a lot of records for various bands in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. I talked to him recently. Well, he talked and I listened. Here is an excerpt from that interview:

“Yes, it’s true – I’ve been through it all. You name it and I’ve been there. Tons of drugs, four failed marriages, enough booze to fill Lake Tahoe, several car crashes that almost killed me, more and more drugs. But, I’m a tough lad, and I’ll be just fine. When my music career came crashing to its unfortunate conclusion, I was strung out on heroin, vodka and naked twister.”

“Yes, I fell hard and it was a harsh awakening, believe me. One thing I’m happy about is that I’ve been able to help struggling young musicians over the years—blokes I came to know on the way up and then again on the way down.”

“Like KC and the Sunshine Band. I tried to tell those guys – hey, KC, the music is solid, but the lyrics, man—they just don’t cut it. I mean, “That’s the Way I Like It,” that song had like a grand total of 10 words in it. It was “That’s the Way I Like It, Uh-uh, Uh-uh.” I said, KC, you need more meaningful lyrics, man. Put some fricking words in that tune. Search a little. Delve a bit. Why is that the way you like it? What are the overall repercussions of liking it that way? The tune leaves a lot of questions unanswered, you know? It’s frustrating more than anything, really. Of course, the song went number one, with just those few words. I thought “Put the Lime in the Cocoanut” was going to be a big hit, so what do I know?”

“Here’s an interesting fact for you. The group, my group -- Bad Inflection was misnamed, a lot of blokes aren’t aware of that little tidbit of nostalgic trivia. The group’s name, the name we selected as a band, was supposed to be Bad Infection, but our publicist at the time was doing a lot of Secenol, that was the drug of choice back then, and he accidentally gave us the moniker of Bad Inflection, which was a bloody stupid name and suggested that we didn’t have it together, like we had problems speaking or something. Which was true, of course, I mean, we never annunciated; nobody ever understood any of the words to our songs. Hell, we didn’t even know them ourselves the majority of the time. It was a completely absurd situation. For years, we were stuck with that silly name.”

“I mean, the Who, if you’re trying to be grammatically correct, should really be the Whom, shouldn’t it? Bands change their names. It happens. Yes was once Maybe. Then they changed to Probably, then they were Most Likely, but that made them sound like a bloody bunch of poufs, so they went back to being Yes.”

“If folks are talking about me today in the context of “Where Are They Now?” all I’ve got to say is -- I’d rather be famous for one minute than spend my whole life being known to only my neighbor and the dry cleaners.”

“Where am I now? I’m right here. On the streets of San Jose, California. And lovin’ every minute of it, thank you very much. Thriving and surviving. Like someone said, it’s better to burn out than fade away. And boy, brother, did I ever burn out. But I never, ever faded away. That’s on record, man. Look it up.”

Poker Pro Phil Hellmuth: Winner or Whiner?

Poker pro Phil Hellmuth has once again proven that he's truly the undisputed king of the poker table after winning the World Series of Poker’s Event #15 and his 11th WSOP golden bracelet.

Hellmuth is now the sole owner of the most WSOP bracelets won by a single player, moving ahead of poker legends Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson, who have both won ten bracelets each.

Playing nearly perfect poker from start to finish, Hellmuth was never out of contention and finished off an experienced final table with a focused, error-free quest for the win and the record. In addition to the elusive gold hardware Phil received $637,254 in cash. Andy Philacheck finished second, winning $369,594.

Congratulations to Phil Hellmuth for a great WSOP record-setting win. He also holds the record for most WSOP cashes at 60.

Phil Hellmuth was born in 1964 in Madison, Wisconsin, and has won 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, more than any other player, including a main event win in 1989.

Hellmuth has been at over 20 final tables at the World Series of Poker and has won over 4 million dollars there. At age 24, He was the youngest player to ever win the championship no-limit event at the WSOP.

When not at the tables, Hellmuth lives in Palo Alto, California with his wife, who is a psychologist, and his two sons. In 2006, he was chosen to replace Phil Gordon as the new co-host of Celebrity Poker Showdown.

At the 2002 World Series, after getting knocked out by Robert Varkonyi, Hellmuth swore Varkonyi could shave his head if he won. Varkonyi did indeed win, and Hellmuth did indeed his opponent to shave his head.

"I said the other day that I'd pay a million dollars to win another bracelet, but (I) had to win it. I didn't know if I'd get there because I came close three times this trip. I'm just so, so happy."

If you’re not familiar with Phil Hellmuth, he’s known throughout the professional poker world as a brat, a whiner, a gloater, a blowhard and a poor sport. Many people call him the John McEnroe of poker. That’s an insult to McEnroe, in my opinion.

Hellmuth is a sore loser and a worse winner. Every time he loses a hand, he calls his opponent lucky and questions their poker skills. He is arrogant and acts like he invented the game. The man has made a fortune producing how-to poker DVD’s and through his web site. He’s the guy poker fans love to hate.

And now, he’s the best in the history of the game. There is no one else out there who has achieved what Phil Hellmuth has in professional poker. But, he’s also one of the most despised men in the sport.

What can I say, results talk and everything else can walk. The man is the best and there’s no denying it. I just wish Chan or Brunson had set the record, because they display a lot more class and are probably better spokesmen for the game.

It just proves that Leo Durocher was correct when he said that “nice guys finish last.” Or in this case, they end up in second place.

It's Time to Flip the House that LeBron Built

Tony Parker scored 30 points, Manu Ginobili had 25 and Tim Duncan added 23 as the Spurs showed the Cleveland Cavs how championship basketball is played for 3½ quarters, overpowering the young Cavaliers 103-92 in Game 2 on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

San Antonio clearly illustrated just how superior they are in almost every way conceivable -- building a 29-point lead and then cruising in the fourth quarter -- when the Cavaliers stormed back within eight points before the Spurs finally put them away late in the game.

"That's why sometimes I don't like to have a 20-point lead," Parker said. "I'm not going to complain. I'll take it." The Spurs, playing team offense and stepping up on defense, were up by 28 in the first half and were embarrassing the Cavaliers, who are in their first finals but didn't show up until it was too late.

"I think they just took their foot off the gas pedal," Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said.

The Spurs' Big 3 of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili combined for 43 points -- 10 more than the Cavs -- in the first half. From that point on, it was academic. Those in the know are now predicting a sweep.

One sign in San Antonio said, “Bring out LeBroom!”

The bottom line is that the Cavaliers are not yet a championship caliber team. They have LeBron James, arguable the best player in the NBA, but the rest of their squad consists of players who are washed-up, slightly injured, completely inexperienced or just plain mediocre.
Drew Gooden is a promising player and will continue to improve for the Cavs. Larry Hughes (who didn’t make one field goal last night) has a foot injury, but even when he’s healthy he’s no solution. After that, it’s a cast of pretenders and wannabes who are either several years away or past their prime. Some of these guys never even had a prime, at least not in the NBA.

Until the powers-that-be get a supporting cast for LeBron, this team will never get closer to an NBA championship than they are right now. The good news is that King James is the best building block any team can have. He’s the foundation, but right now the rest of the House That LeBron built is falling apart.

Will Tony Get Whacked Tonight?

With the final episode of The Sopranos airing tonight, viewers all over the world are speculating how the carnage, confusion and betrayal will come to an end. Arguably the most popular cable series ever, The Sopranos never completely jumped the shark, although it dig bog down for short periods of time during the third and fourth seasons, in my opinion. But, if this evening’s episode is a good one, and packs any kind of wallop, all will be forgiven. If it isn’t, bodies could start showing up – most likely those belonging to HBO executives.

Creator David Chase has continually frustrated many fans by not feeding them the formulaic television that they’ve grown accustomed to. Plot lines are left hanging, characters come and go inexplicably and things aren’t always clearly explained. But, that’s the way life is. We’ve grown to expect neatly packaged story lines where issues get resolved. Where good guys triumph and bad guys get their due. But, that’s not reality and David Chase refuses to give in to network pressure. HBO has given him final cut from the beginning and he’s done it his way from day one.

Some people who have watched the series from the start -- back when Tony was skinny -- might be frustrated by all of the questions that have been left unanswered. For instance, is Andriana really dead? We never actually saw the body. What happened to the Russian in the woods? And isn’t there money hidden somewhere in the original Soprano home; the one Tony grew up in?

The burning question right now is how the series will finally end. Who will get whacked? Is there another rat in our midst? Has anyone been cooperating with the FBI that we don’t know about? Will there be any surprises or plot twists? Or will Chase do exactly what he’s done in the past, and give us some silly dream sequence episode that tells us nothing? Will Chase go completely off his rocker and make the finale a musical? (That would be awesome!)

I looked online earlier and I have never seen so many people speculating about how the final show will end. There must be 500 so-called “spoilers” out there. There are some hints from earlier trailers that Phil Leotardo gets whacked, but that might just be an attempt to misdirect viewers. One guy claims that he was on the set when they filmed the last episode and goes into great detail about what happens. He says that the Soprano house gets blown up and that Meadow is the victim of a car bomb. One couple came up with an interesting scenario where Tony turns on the family and becomes an FBI informant. Supposedly, by the end of the episode, he’s living a legitimate life under the name of Kevin Finnerty, the same moniker he dreamt about when he was in a coma after getting shot by his uncle earlier this season. Still other speculate that Paulie Walnuts is either a rat or a double agent.

My personal opinion is that Tony Soprano gets whacked. James Gandolfini doesn’t want to come back and do this show again. He’s been quoted as saying that he wants to make movies and spend some time relaxing. To give the series some closure and make sure that no one attempts to do a Sopranos reunion show in a few years, Tony will have to go.

It will work out well for several reasons. A lot of folks didn’t like the way Tony killed Christopher and he hasn’t been making a lot of friends for the past two seasons with his impulsive and selfish behavior. Not whacking Phil Leotardo earlier was a sign of weakness. Every tragic hero has a flaw and Tony Soprano has several, so it’s going to be adios Antonio tonight. At least that’s my theory. And until someone sends me a fish wrapped in newspaper, I’m going to write what I think!

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Will Someone Please Help Me?

My delightful fiancee Angelina loves to re-arrange everything. Every single piece of furniture has migrated in and out of each room in this spacious three-story house. Couches, tables, every single chair, cabinet, desk and bed -- nothing is safe. Now I know how the people who worked for Sarah Winchester felt. I'm living in a modern day version of the Winchester Mystery House. Help!!

No More Sexy Time for State's Cats & Dogs?

On Wednesday night, the state Assembly passed a bill requiring Californians, with a few exceptions, to have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered – or pay a $500 fine. As the bill moves on to the state Senate, people with pets have plenty to say about the pros and cons of spaying their pets.
The bill, proposed by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys (Los Angeles County), would allow some breeders and owners of guide dogs and purebreds to get an exemption by paying a fee.
The bill poses serious problems for public safety and disaster preparedness, said Mark Herrick, a search-and-rescue dog handler with the California Rescue Dog Association and the Alameda County Sheriff's Search and Rescue K9 Unit. He noted that 95 percent of search dogs come from home and hobby breeders who won't be able to get an exemption.
“I think it is a bad move,” said Irma Barth, a 66-year-old bag lady in San Francisco’s Mission District who has two Chihuahuas. “My dogs should be able to get freaky with other mutts and enjoy the same kind of sexual freedom that I experience. My little one Mackie likes to hump cats. Why should that pleasure be taken from him? It’s not fair.”
Many people think that the bill will make it almost impossible to find good-quality, genetically sound working dogs. "If we don't have good dogs who can work eight to 10 hours a day to go through the rubble, how many lives will be lost?” Herrick said. “Only the puppy mills will be breeding dogs -- and they breed really inferior dogs."
He also added that canines that have been neutered lose interest in life and end up lying around the house; overeating and reading Dog Fancy magazine or watching reruns of The Dog Whisperer on cable. "If they're neutered, they just don't have the same zip and drive," he said. (I would say that’s probably true for everybody – human or beast.)
What will happen if this bill passes? Will we have more control over our pets and limit the numbers that end up at the Human Society? Or will we end up with a bunch of sexually frustrated, angry animals? Stay tuned.

Working Hard: It Sucks, Doesn't It?

I haven't had a chance to post these last couple of days because I've been on the road working. My parents always told me that there is no substitute for hard work, but there is -- it's called leisure! Every time I get tired or stressed out, I tell myself that it's not that bad. I could be a coal miner, a crab fisherman or even worse -- a Muni driver in San Francisco. That helps me keep my sanity and gets me through the day!