Tretakoff Musings

Disclosure: I consulted for OpenTable for some time. Every now and then, restaurant reservations juggernaut OpenTable sees an article about how their stranglehold on online reservations is under attack. The latest is this article in SFGate , and follows the usual narrative: OpenTable is too expensive, plucky startups are trying to show there's a better, more restaurant-friendly way to do business, and maybe one of them will be a success. There were a raft of "pay for play" reservations services that would allow the diner to prepurchase vouchers that would get them a seat; most of them have gone away (although Reserve , in this piece, has clearly pivoted from that). There was SeatMe , a really innovative product, which was gobbled up by Yelp years ago. There were even efforts by credit card companies to provide a concierge to do this. And this is the latest. But most of these articles miss the point altogether. Put yourself in the shoes of a restaurant owner: you ...

Count me as one of the fans of the exploding gourmet food truck revolution: the quality of these lunch or light dinner bites, combined with the short term availability, make them a compelling draw for me. Here in SF, we have amazing choices, like the Bacon Bacon truck, the Rib Whip , and An The Go , among dozens of others. One of my favorite parts of the summer was the Friday night Food Truck Crush at the Larkspur Ferry building: 5 or so of the region's finest, lined up to tantalize me with their offerings as I disembarked from the City. Delicious. Recently, the food truck phenomenon is getting a little uglier. Traditional restaurants, paying rent for fixed space in a desirable location, are seeing their customers siphoned off by trucks parked just outside. Free economy, right? Sure, but these trucks are sometimes coming to the same spot daily, staying for hours, and taking up parking and commerce spots, in some cases obscuring the storefronts of their competition. Restau...

I'm a big proponent of Foursquare and other location based services. Recently, many have started adding deals to their services by incorporating other companies and services. A good example? JetBlue awarding JetBlue points for checking in on Facebook to their "official" JetBlue locations at the airport. But Foursquare keeps trying, and recently they upped the ante by partnering with Groupon to feature their deals. However, they still have some work to do. For example, Foursquare will often prompt you to add "to do's" for places: essentially, bookmarks. Ok, fair enough. A while ago, I added a To-Do for a sushi place folks told me might be good. Now, at this point, Foursquare has the info: I want to go there. And, the other day, I fired up Foursquare and saw this: All good, right? I click through, and I see: Now, what, you are asking, is the problem? Well, look at the time at the top: it's 9:46 PM. Now, look at the bottom: "Must present between ...

As part of America's tradition of New Year's resolutions, I joined thousands of Americans in trying to drop a few pounds this year. In addition to the 70+ miles on the bike on my commute each week, I am trying to eat a little better. One place a coworker, Alison , turned me on to was Mixt Greens , a salad place extraordinaire. I enjoyed a heck of a repast, and after, I wondered just how nutritious my meal was, so, just on a whim, I headed over to their site. Buried under a small tab marked Nutrition Info, I saw this amazing calculator , allowing me to see the exact details of what I just consumed. Not just the prepacked pieces; the very meal I had custom made for me. It's powered by a company called FoodCALC , and they have partnered with several restaurant chains to do this. Why I think it's brilliant is that Casual Dining places usually struggle for a good reason to drive people online, or vice-versa. The occasional loyalty card does it, as do coupons, but this g...

A surprise complimentary dessert at Las Vegas' David Burke : gourmet cotton candy!

A warning: Vegans, vegetarians, and folks who don't care for red meat, if the title of this post and the photo don't give it away, skip this one. The rest of you? Welcome to the world of food hacking. I'm not talking advanced chemistry here, but simple, easy ways to make your food taste better. And today, we're talking about one of the few foods I can actually cook: steak. See that steak? You think you're looking at a $5 steak, covered in salt, right? Wrong. You are actually looking at the metamorphosis of a $5 steak into one that you'd weep with carnivorous joy at consuming in Morton's or Smith & Wollensky. T hanks to this amazing blog post, we are that much closer to beef heaven. Fellow meat lovers, I share your joy at the treasure we are aboutto behold.The world...and the grill..will never be the same.

We welcomed 2007 with a cruise on the Bay, courtesy of Hornblower Cruises. A luxurious windowside seat, with a decadent 4 course dinner of Tiger Shrimp & Scallops, followed by duck, with a main of Filet Mignon, and a Cappuccino Napolean for dessert. Charles and Karen arranged the trip, and we had a wonderful time, punctuated by a great fireworks display and a Zino Mouton Cadet #3 on the cool deck air, as we passed under both the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. Lloyd and John turned us on to Hornblower, years ago, with the fabulous lunch cruises, and the dinner aboard the California Hornblower was absolutely memorable. A reserved table, open bar with premium selection, seated on the topmost Captain's Lounge, with a jazz duo playing 20 feet away, was just the way to start the new year off right!

Having lived in the Bay Area for more than a decade now, I always appreciate it, but sometimes forget just how amazing every place can be. For instance, Christmas Eve Day was an overcast, cold (Northern California cold; all you Midwesterners, pipe down) kind of a day, perfect for a late breakfast to warm the bones. We headed out to try someplace new, the Lighthouse Café in Sausalito: I ride by it on my bike, daily, and it was always busy. Seems like a good sign. **WARNING: Mini Dining Review ahead...skip down if you don't care (also will be posted on Yelp )** The café is right on Bridgeway, the main approach to Sausalito, but before downtown. From the outside, it's kind of cool and kitschy, with a scaled down, two story lighthouse built in to the structure. Inside, small, with a long counter by the open grill, and several booths. Two people service the whole place, plus the cooks. While the look of the place is classic working-class coffee shop, the food and prices are very def...

Toast Cafe in Mill Valley. My new favorite local comfort food!

The Marina has a new contender for the art of Asian fusion, and it's name is Umami. The former Yoshida-Ya, famous for it's various meat skewers and vast seating is no more. Instead, the building has been gutted, redone, and become an edgy, dark fusion of ultra lounge and restaurant. First, it's impossible to discuss this pace without commenting on décor. It's phenomenal : every detail has been paid attention to. Yes, it's very much on the dark side, but the rice paper wall paper, the rich cherry wood floors and tables and the subtle sandal wood accents are great. The place is more bar than restaurant, at least on the ground floor, and they favor high tables with some of the best stools ever made: woven leather seats, plentifully padded, and mounted on wrought iron stems with fantastic footpegs. Lots of small candles made the dark room alight with small intimate pools. One other note, and a strange one for a dining review: the bathrooms. They have to be seen to be be...

This week, courtesy of Open Table , I had the chance to try Noonan's Bar & Grill in Larkspur. On the surface, sounds like a typical suburban eatery, but in Marin, things can be a bit different. First, the owner owns several popular brewpubs in the county, including Moylan's and the Marin Brewing Company; neither made a great impression on me, but they are popular among the younger crowd. Second, there's not really much of a singles scene in Marin, but Noonan's seems to have become one of the spots. Despite this, we headed over with trepidation on a Monday night. The menu is surprisingly upscale for a bar & grill; average entree is $24. And the menu is quite unique. For instance, we started with a Trio of Mini Duck Burgers. Yes, you read that right: imagine three "sliders," but with the best duck meat fashioned into a patty, topped with delicious chutney and an impeccable golden egg bread bun. Yum! And the drink list? WOW. three pages of Vodka choices,...

There is simply no better example of the quintessential San Francisco dining experience than Slanted Door. Named one of the Top 100 restaurants in the US, I was lucky enough to be introduced to this gem years ago, and I have been an addict ever since. They have moved several times, but their current location in the Ferry Building looks to be the last move. While I have eaten there on many wonderful occasions, I was lucky to head back there this last week, taking a client who was in from out of town. It occurred to me I never shared the amazing experience of a Slanted Door dinner with you! Slanted Door is Vietnamese, but has evolved into something uniquely San Francisco. First, a word of warning: don’t try to have dinner here without reservations. It just can’t be done unless you come very early, or eat very late. Second, if you ignored my first words of advice, don’t be afraid of the bar: it's a full menu, and sometimes the service is even better, as well as more intimate dining....

In the heart of the Gaslamp quarter, the Dakota Grill was one of several theme restaurants in the Cohn Restaurant Group's repertoire. Elegantly appointed, with the right mix of casual and class, the place was big, but not cavernous. Tinkling pianos came from the upstairs lounge, and we were seated on a Thursday night immediately. First, the wine list. Nothing terribly remarkable, especially for a semi-chain in SoCal, but they did have a great option: flights! If you are not familiar with wine flights, buckle in. For a little more than the price of a single glass, a flight usually gives you a taste of three different wines, paired to let you really taste the difference. Usually, they are the same varietals, varied by year or vineyard, but Dakota offered a little different: irreverent pairings, titled "Red Red Wine" or "Sideways" and the like. I went for the Red Red Wine: Charles Krug Cabernet, a Zin from Paso Robles, and a blend from Alexander Valley. Ok, the f...

What is it about Marin? One of the highest concentrations of $ in the world, and yet the dining options are hardly commensurate. Sure, you have a few exceptions: Lark Creek Inn, Kitchen, Fork, but few others. That may just starting to change. In the last year, several new restaurants have opened, and Novato seems to be the center of some of the best. Rickey's was one of the first. Then came Kitchen, with a flourish. Now, we discover Boca. Now, I'm no talented foodie blogger, like the Restaurant Whore , but I think I need to share some of these places with the fellow Bay Areans, as well as Marinites. Boca is an Argentinean steak restaurant: think lots of great meat, with a plethora of sauces. The location is odd: it's in a part of Novato lacking any appeal and charm, and it seems completely out of place. It's definitely upscale, next to a nondescript office suite, and surrounded by gas stations, dry cleaners, and other daily necessities. Don't let that puzzle you t...