---

Place to start a wine country day
Classic: It sounds ass-backward to fork over $365 for the right to get up the next morning to eat a $30 meal for two. But one night at Glen Ellen’s Gaige House reveals the utter inspiration of this scheme. Chef Charles Holmes’s three-course, perfectly proportioned parade of dishes (like a starter with a single banana wonton, dash of coconut custard, and mini blueberry muffin) is an artistic treat and leaves you feeling both content and frisky, ready to apply equal vigor to a book or a long bike ride. It doesn’t hurt that the Gaige House itself is nonpareil. But honestly, we wouldn’t care if this were the Santa Rosa Ramada as long as Holmes—a wine country native who played a part in Gary Danko’s success at Chateau Souverain and has since raised five kids as a humble inn chef—was working the stove.
13540 Arnold Dr., Glen Ellen, 707-935-0237, www.thompsonhotels.com

Future classic: For the most elegant Sunday breakfast, without hotel stuffiness, head to Redd in Yountville. While we don’t normally think to eat our breakfasts in courses, it turns out that floating idyllically from homemade doughnut holes to savory sautéed skate and then back to buttermilk pancakes during Redd’s newish brunch couldn’t be a better way to ease into the day. The cocktail menu lets you do the same sweet-savory dance: you could open with a white peach Bellini or what is quite possibly the best Bloody Mary ever (it gets its nuanced kick from the ginger-infused vodka) and then cap it off with a Poinsettia: Cointreau, cranberry juice, and champagne. Linger over coffee before wending your way up the Silverado Trail.
6480 Washington St., Yountville, 707-944-2222,
www.reddnapavalley.com

---

Beer store
Classic: Get to the always-packed Berkeley Bowl Marketplace during off-hours, when there won’t be a checkout queue blocking your access to the beer aisle. You want room to browse the many esoteric brands available by the bottle, like St. Peter’s Cream Stout, and sixers of oddities like Xingu, a Brazilian black ale. The adjacent wine section always has interesting picks, but true suds lovers line up by the cooler, taking as long to make their picks as the enophiles sorting through sauternes.
2020 Oregon St., Berkeley, 510-843-6929

Future classic: Thanks to the city’s new type of liquor license that allows liquor stores to act as bars, City Beer has elevated beer buying above wine tasting. It’s not pretentious (it sells Hamm’s), but it encourages buying beer by the bottle: you get 10 percent off when you mix and match your six-pack. It specializes in

Belgian-style beer, sour beers, and aperitif options like Allagash Curieux, a dark beer aged in Jim Beam barrels. There are six rotating beers on tap and 400 bottles for sale. And the prices are competitive with Safeway’s.
1168 Folsom St., S.F., 415-503-1033

---

Take-out sandwiches
Classic: Forget the spare, functional aesthetic. The classic sandwich is an ornate masterpiece marked by divine achievements in layering flavors and textures. Since 1926, Genova Delicatessen and Ravioli Factory has produced many such works of art, folding sheets of prosciutto, sopressata, salami, and mortadella over rich cheeses and crispy breads for the perfect, age-old culinary delight. Though all 11 creative specials are tempting, the number four—prosciutto, basil, tomato, and mozzarella—is flavorful, fresh, and deliciously old-world Italian.
5095 Telegraph Ave., bldg. A, Oakland, 510-652-7401; 1550 Trancas St., Napa, 707-253-8686; 2064 treat blvd., ste. c, walnut creek, 925-938-2888

Future classic: The salumi sandwich at Acme Bread in the Ferry Building achieves the perfect proportions of great architecture: just the right amount of Paul Bertolli’s Fra Mani salumi lies within a length of the bakery’s rustic sweet baguette that’s been smeared with unsalted European butter and a few sliced cornichons. It’s everything you need in a sandwich and none of the things you don’t.

Acme Bread Company, Ferry Building Marketplace, S.F., 415-288-2978

---

Box of chocolate
Classic: Jean-Marc Gorce’s world-famous XOX truffles really are homemade. For the past 10 years, every day but Sunday, he has fired up his Bunsen burner–like stove at 5 a.m., created surface area in the shoebox-sized store by covering the sinks with metal cookie sheets, and dropped down his wax-free truffles: 20 dark, 3 vegan, 2 white, and 1 green, in flavors such as citron, Earl Grey, and red wine. They authentically resemble the fungus they were named after, and their walnut size is small enough that one is harmless but big enough that it’ll carry you through an afternoon slump—minus the guilt. And, at a dollar each, they’re really a steal: one pound gets you 30 pieces, for $30.
754 Columbus Ave., S.F., 415-421-4814

Future classic: After years of selling through dozens of Bay Area shops and its own website, this spring Charles Chocolates finally opened its long-awaited first store in Emeryville, where its full line of chocolate made from organic cream and butter from Straus Family Creamery is displayed in all its glory. An adjoining chocolate café serving Charles’s molten hot chocolate, ice cream, homemade pastries, and Blue Bottle coffee is set to open any day. The best thing about buying a box of chocolates from Charles is that the box itself is edible—that novelty
alone will cause quite the stir when you bring it to a party.
6529 Hollis St., Emeryville, 510-652-4412,
www.charleschocolates.com

---

Iced tea
Classic: Memphis Minnie’s version may not be as teeth-chatteringly sweet as what you’d find in Tennessee, but it proves why sweet tea is the beverage of choice across the South: nothing cuts better through the smoky richness of barbecue. As you tear your way through a plate of brisket, don’t be surprised if you find yourself surreptitiously working your way to the dispenser for seconds. We’re not sure whether refills are actually sanctioned, but we won’t tell if you won’t.
576 Haight

St., S.F., 415-864-7675

Future classic: Technically, Samovar Tea Lounge’s iced schizandra is an infusion made from a berrylike fruit, rather than thae leaves of Camellia sinensis. Picky, picky. Samovar brews the berries for two full hours, extracting every nuance of the fruit’s concentrated flavor, which results in an enticing combination of sweet, tart, and bitter. The perfectly chilled end product is sweetened with a bit of brown sugar. It’s now the hip lounge’s most popular summer beverage, maybe because the plant, native to northern China, is purported to have a range of medicinal qualities, providing antioxidants, relieving insomnia, and—yup—increasing sexual prowess in men.
498 Sanchez St., S.F., 415-626-4700; 730 Howard St., S.F., 415-227-9400

 

---

Cupcakes
Classic: It’s famous for flaky morning buns, but over the years the East Bay’s La Farine has also perfected the It dessert with three enduring flavors: devil’s food with chocolate icing, vanilla on vanilla, and the wildly popular black bottom, filled with cream cheese and chocolate chips.

 

6323 College Ave., Oakland, 510-654-0338; 1820 Solano Ave., Berkeley, 510-528-2208; www.lafarine.com

Future classic: At Kara’s Cupcakes, confections are accessorized with chic fondant flowers or polka dots and showcased in teak displays resembling jewelry cases. Most ingredients are organic and—even trendier—produced within 100 miles of San Francisco, which means fewer fossil fuels were squandered, so you can feel smug as you lick the last bit of icing off your fingers.
3249 Scott St., S.F., 415-563-2253; 900 North Point, Ghirardelli Square, S.F., 415-351-2253;www.karascupcakes.com

 

---

Candy store
Classic: “Sample what you want” is the greeting that rings out loud and clear as you walk in the door of Munchies. It’s easy to eat your dessert for free here, but it usually works the other way around: the saltwater taffy’s bargain-basement price ($3.49 per pound) and the rarity of a genuine free offer in today’s world will have you digging into the barrels and happily paying for pounds of atomic fireballs, strawberry bonbons, Necco wafers, scottie dogs, and Boston baked beans.

 

613 Bridgeway, Sausalito, 415-331-3863

Future classic: The people behind one of the most beloved cake shops in town just brought their pink-loving, European highbrow, general-store aesthetic to candyland. At Miette Confiserie, in Hayes Valley, apothecary jars filled with malt balls, licorice pipes, marzipan cherries, pea and carrot mints, and chocolate sardines splash the store with color. Kids from the neighborhood pop in with their $5, lending legitimacy to this precious setting. But there really isn’t anything sweeter than a cellophane bag tied with blue-and-white twine and filled with “Kate’s fleur de sel caramels,” made by hand in the kitchen in back and wrapped by Oakland high schoolers with developmental disabilities.
449 Octavia Blvd., S.F., 415-626-6221

 

---

Gin
Classic: Fritz Maytag,

pioneer of the local microbrewery movement with Anchor Steam Beer, also helped kick-start the microdistilling movement with one of the country’s first boutique gins. Released in the 1990s, Junipero is a classically styled, high-proof, big, bold juniper bomb, most often described with words like “powerful” and “hammer” and best served in old-world cocktails like the martini and the aviation.

 

www.anchorbrewing.com/about_us/junipero.htm

Future classic: Just two years old, 209 Gin, owned by Leslie Rudd (of Rudd Winery and Dean & DeLuca) and produced at Pier 50, is made in the modern, lighter style now growing in popularity throughout the world. Juniper flavors are present, but it’s the citrus aroma and floral spiciness that allow it to mix so well with today’s bright cocktails, like the cucumber gimlet.
www.209gin.com

 

---

Potatoes
Classic: Tony Hua makes some mean mashed potatoes. At his Dogpatch soul food restaurant, Hard Knox Café, Hua has also been turning out some of the city’s best fried chicken, oxtails, and collard greens. But oh, those mashers. Loaded with butter and smothered with housemade gravy, Hua’s spuds are so delicious that eating them is as primally satisfying as jumping in a lake on a hot summer day. And, as with the freshwater dip, you’ll probably want to take a nap after finishing them off.

 

2526 third St., S.F., 415-648-3770

Future classic: Putting a new Bay Area spin on a Canadian classic, Salt House’s poutine features not just one but two kinds of gravy. Made-to-order fries, perfectly salted, are strewn in the base of a shallow dish and buried under a tangy fontina béchamel. Then, table-side, dollop after dollop of short-rib gravy is spooned—not poured—from a pitcher over the scorching-hot fries. This is no delicate appetizer. Of all the dishes on Salt House’s purportedly gastropub-influenced menu, though, the poutine is the most emblematic of the kind of dish you want at a watering hole: smart, gut-filling food for winding down with a glass of vino or a pint of beer. In Canada, poutine is a source of both pride and embar­rassment. The cooks at Salt House, on the other hand, should be nothing but proud.
545 Mission St., S.F., 415-543-8900