A Destination Diner

The Putah Creek Cafe in Winters is the kind of place you hope to find on a long road trip. It's cheery, comfy and, even though it's relatively new, it feels as though it's been part of small-town life for decades. Oh, and the food is good.
This isn't the kind of diner that relies on a pre-packaged food distributor for its menu items. Most things are made on site, including pies and desserts such as apricot bars, which garnered a rave in the late Gourmet magazine some years back (Despite encroaching development, Winters remains a farm town, surrounded by orchards and the fruit is used in the restaurant).
I tried the locals' favorite (according to the waitress), the Buckhorn Farmer's Market Char-Roast Sirloin Sandwich with the side of cole slaw and French dip. It was delicious.
Then, I wandered the quaint old town and had an excellent espresso at a homey coffeehouse, Steady Eddy's, across the railroad tracks on the shady town park, which stretches to Putah Creek. A rebuilt, historic trestle bridge -- now for bicyclists pedestrians only -- crosses the creek and lies alongside another historic bridge, this one a concrete arch span for cars, built in 1907.
The Putah Creek Cafe is a sister restaurant to the better-known Buckhorn steak houses (there's one across the street at this intersection of Winters' Main Street) and in Marin County. All are known for their Angus beef.
I can now vouch for the excellent beef. Next time I'm going to get to Putah Creek Cafe a little earlier and try the breakfasts, which I hear are scrumptious. And, I'll leave room for a piece of pie.

Wet, Windy Jenner

I spent a rainy and windy Sunday and night at the Jenner Inn last week on the Sonoma Coast but it was a wonderful experience because of the hospitality of Richard Murphy, the inn owner. Murphy assembled the property over the course of years by buying ramshackle logging cabins on the Russian River estuary and transforming them into a romantic collection of bed-and-breakfast-style rooms.
Being with a group of friends from the local chapter of the Society of American Travel Writers made the gray, wet skies enjoyable. For the first time, I understood why the adjective "forbidding" is used for this kind of weather. The storm was so harsh that driving was a challenge. Our plans for hiking and kayaking quickly changed. We couldn't kayak the estuary and see the wildlife, disappointing because harbor seal pups are born in March and April, also big birding season.
Still, we braved the storm during a short break and headed out toward Shell Beach, starting at Goat Rock and walking muddy paths lined with wildflowers. Randy Johnson of Getaway Adventures was our guide. The waves swirled and crashed on the rocks and sea stacks. The scenery, even in the misty gloom, was spectacular.
Murphy, who has owned Jenner Inn since the 1970s, recently hired a new chef for the restaurant, focusing on local, organic food. He is realistic about the potential for tourism for Jenner, population 170. He knows it's not a place you stay for a while, unless you love the outdoors. Lots of his guests are out-of-state vacationers driving the California coast on Highway 1, staying a night only.
For northern Californians looking for a weekend getaway, it's a romantic spot that's well situated for exploring the beaches of the Sonoma County coast and simply relaxing by a fire or on a deck overlooking the water.
The inn's historic bar, with its big fireplace and large windows overlooking the highway and estuary beyond, was part of an early 20th century building that was once the general store and post office. There's also a cozy library room stocked with books, comfy sofas and wood-burning stove.
The 21 rooms are spread over a wide area, including up the road a bit (a short walk) in remodeled cabins perched above the water. I stayed in Mystic Landing (see above) with a deck, fireplace, antique furniture and good views that stretched beyond the estuary to the Pacific. I'm already planning a return in better weather for that delayed kayak trip with WaterTreks, a local outfitter run by Suki Waters, a native of the Sonoma Coast (who is part Pomo Indian).

Nothing Fancy, Just the Best of The Old-Time Delis

I loved reading Carl Nolte's San Francisco Chronicle column a few weeks back about the old Italian delis of San Francisco but it made me sad. It's true: there aren't many left, particularly in North Beach, where Molinari is the last of the old-timers. The atmosphere there in the narrow little store on Columbus near Vallejo remains the same as it has for more than a century: worn wooden floors, crates and boxes of canned tomatoes and tuna piled high, glass cases full of cold meats (still one of the best selections in the city), shelves packed with well-priced imported goodies from Italy, the long, housemade salamis hanging from above and the cheery camaraderie of the counter guys. It's all as comforting and familiar as a bowl of mom's minestrone.
When I lived in North Beach in the 1980s, there were several decades-old delis in operation: my family's favorite was Florence, which made good ravioli and had some of the best prices. Iacopi up on Grant was the place for sausages, however. A friend told me yesterday her Italian grandmother took the 5-Fulton MUNI a few times a week from Cole Valley, changed to the 30-Stockton to make her way to Florence or Molinari to pick up groceries. Her family still shops at either Molinari or Lucca in the Mission, but now those trips are reserved for special occasions -- Christmas holidays and Easter week -- when the deli counters are three-deep with a steady stream of customers picking up panettone (for Christmas) and colombe (for Easter) . It's not surprising that few of the old delis survive: 20-30 years ago it was difficult to find Italian specialties outside Italian communities. Today, all kinds of gourmet supermarkets carry Italian imports.
I poked around North Beach on a sunny, warm morning last week doing research on my next travel app and found Molinari as busy as ever. Their salami and sausages still are the best in the Bay Area. What fun shopping there. You just don't get that kind of earthy, old-deli smell -- think of the thousands of salamis that have been hung here over the last century, the dried mushrooms and the marinated vegetables -- at places like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

Springtime Sunday Drives

Spring is nearly here, the clocks will be set ahead this weekend and, with all the rain we've had in northern California, it's finally time to get out into the poppy-flocked green hills and soak up some sun.
Remember old-fashioned Sunday drives? It's time to bring them back. And, it doesn't have to be a Sunday for a Sunday drive. Any day of the week will do. It's a matter of pace (slow) and time (you've got to have full day's worth).
I played hooky, taking advantage of a sunny, balmy break between storms last month and, with a friend, headed north from San Francisco. We didn't have any firm plans except for a vague idea of heading to western Sonoma county. That's how we discovered Coleman Valley Road, which turns out to be a spectacular drive.
From US 101 at Cotati take the Highway 116 (Gravenstein Highway) exit towards Sebastopol. Continue west through the countryside making your way to Sebastopol (if you want to stop for some of the best croissants this side of Paris, try Patisserie Angelica in the town center near the Whole Foods) and head north on 116 to the hamlet of Graton. Make a left from Highway 116 onto Graton Road. Here you can stop for brunch or lunch at the rustic Willow Wood Market Cafe, which has a homey selection of "piping hot" polenta dishes (one with spinach and roasted tomatoes is a favorite) or grilled sandwiches (pork tenderloin is lovely). It's a pleasant, convivial cafe-style restaurant with a patio in the back for warm days.
Continue on Graton Road and follow the signs to Occidental. This old logging town known for years for its old-fashioned Italian-American restaurants is a good place to stop (if you haven't yet) to grab a bite: Howard Station Cafe serves up big breakfasts and burgers and the historic Union Hotel offers a couple of very different choices: multi-course Italian feasts or quick lunches (in the cafe).
In the middle of the small town look for the sign on the right side of the highway for Coleman Valley Road. That's where you embark on a curvy, eight-mile journey through lovely and varied scenery: a pastoral valley, redwood forests, weather-beaten barns and a 19th century wooden schoolhouse and, finally, the top of a wind-swept ridge with wonderful views of the Sonoma Coast. You'll see hawks and seagulls, perhaps a stray cow or two. At the end, the road drops you onto Highway 1 a couple miles north of Bodega Bay. You're at Salmon Creek Beach, a gorgeous stretch of white-sand lined with dunes and dotted with driftwood, perfect for strolling, picnicking and an afternoon nap.
From there, it's south on Highway 1 through Bodega Bay, turning onto Valley Ford Road past a procession of dairies, farms and meadows that eventually leads to Petaluma and US 101 which you take south back to San Francisco. I'd say allow about six hours for the trip, allowing for an hour or so for lunch and an hour or so at the beach, all, remember, at a Sunday-drive pace.
Do you have a favorite Sunday drive in the Bay Area? I'd love to hear about it.

Hotel Deals Continue in San Francisco

San Francisco continues to offer some good deals for weekend or midweek getaways. Although it looks like the city's hotel occupancy and rates are inching up -- a sign of an economy that is improving slightly -- hoteliers are keeping rates relatively low. The average rate in San Francisco was $127.76 in 2009 and 2010 doesn't look much different.
The city's travel industry met last week at the annual Visitor Industry Outlook Conference and heard some good news: people are ready to travel again and the trend toward staying home on vacation -- the "staycation" dreaded by the travel industry -- may be ebbing.
David Bratton, a managing partner at Destination Analysts, which conducts consumer research, said recent surveys show that 32.6% of Americans will spend more on travel this year than last year. "People are definitely starting to feel better about the economy," he said.
San Francisco drew 15.4 million visitors in 2009, a 6% drop from 2008. Still, the city's hotel industry is in relatively good shape, reporting an average 71.4% hotel occupancy in 2009 (5% down from 2008). Even with the drop, that occupancy is higher than most other American cities. And tourism continues to be a major economic driver for the city: On an average day, 125,000 out-of-town visitors are walking the streets of San Francisco.
San Francisco's hotels have deals right now. Check Kimpton, Joie de Vivre and all the major chains. The Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf has a $119 rate for Thursday nights through April 30. And, check out the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau site.
On another note, my travel app to Chinatown was written up by the Examiner here.

Five Top Chinatown Dim Sum Spots

Who can resist dim sum: juicy little dumplings, plates of spicy spare ribs, slices of tender eggplant stuffed with shrimp and sweet egg custard tarts? Many Chinatown restaurants double as dim sum parlors at lunch and have a great, casual atmosphere: there's lots of conversation at large round tables as food carts circulate, servers stopping to uncover each dim sum delicacy as if presenting a gift.
If it's your first time here's what happens: When the cart rolls around to your table and the dishes are uncovered point to what you'd like: typically, you start a tab and the servers mark off how many dishes you've ordered, at what price level. It's part of the fun: you don't order from a menu and choose what you like by what looks good.
San Francisco's Chinatown is going to be bustling in the next week during the New Year's celebrations. It's a terrific time to visit.

Here are some picks for ever-favorite dim sum spots (unfortunately, they don't have web sites):

*City View, 662 Commercial, between Kearny and Montgomery. This is one of the most elegant of the Chinatown restaurants and serving some of the finest dim sum around. It's the place to take less adventurous first-time dim sum diners, or those who know dim sum (there's a lot of variety here) and want fancier surroundings than many of the traditional Chinatown dim sum parlors. Try the glazed walnut prawns, scallop dumplings, pork siu mai and potstickers.

*Pearl City, 641 Jackson, between Kearny and Grant. For many San Franciscans, this is the go-to spot for dim sum. It's inexpensive, rustic and the excellent dim sum comes in large portions.

*Dol Ho, 808 Pacific, between Stockton and Powell. Don't be scared away by the drab exterior and no-frills interior. Dol Ho is authentic, with fresh dim sum that the locals recognize as the real thing. Don't miss the spare ribs.

*Gold Mountain, 644 Broadway, near Stockton. This is one of those cavernous dim sum restaurants that draw in local Chinese families by the dozens. Because of volume of dim sum served, the dim sum is fresh and there's a large variety. Try the pork buns and chive dumplings.

*Lichee Garden, 1416 Powell, between Broadway and Vallejo. This traditional Cantonese restaurant is better known for its wonderful lunch and dinner fare but also offers top dim sum at lunchtime. Good service is a notch above the rest of the dim sum establishments.

Amy Sherman of Cooking with Amy informed me Lichee no longer serves dim sum. Drats, it was so good.

Here's another favorite then: Kay Cheung at 615 Jackson near Kearny. This is one of those hole-in-the-wall Chinatown eateries that are easy to miss. Like Pearl City, which is close by, this has authentic dim sum, nothing fancy but inexpensive and good.

Do you have a favorite Chinatown restaurant for dim sum or other Chinese food? Comment, please!

And, check out my Chinatown travel app for more, including interactive maps, descriptions and photos that you can download onto your iPhone or iPod Touch.

In Chinatown: It's Happy New Year

If you're headed to San Francisco's Chinatown for the big New Year's Parade Saturday Feb. 27 get there early and make a day of it. Have a dim sum lunch and stroll off the tourist-packed streets and onto the alleys that the locals use to get around. Forty-three such alleys criss-cross Chinatown. They date back to the late 1800s when all kinds of nefarious activities took place along these narrow passageways. Look along the bottom edges of the buildings on Pagoda and Ross alleys and you'll see narrow openings boarded over or covered by steels bars. Underground opium dens, gambling parlors or brothels may have operated there. It's said some were linked to a network of tunnels where people fled to avoid police raids.
On Pagoda, my favorite of the alleys, Hang Ah Tea Room, one of the oldest of San Francisco's dim sum restaurants, continues to do a brisk business even though the decor is stuck in the 1970s. There's something charming and exotic about walking along Pagoda where you can hear the frenetic clicking of mah jong tiles behind closed doors and stepping inside this narrow little restaurant.
Hollywood also finds the alleys picturesque: scenes from the Will Smith movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" were shot along Pagoda and Ross alleys. On Ross, next to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, where you can watch women making the cookies by hand, there's a hole-in-the-wall barber shop. Barber Jun Yu, who briefly appeared in the movie, often takes a break outside, serenading passersby on the erhu, a two-string Chinese violin.
You can often get an insider's peak at the alleys on City Guides' free tours that start from Portsmouth Square several days a week and cover many of the alleys on foot. Some of the guides are born-and-raised in Chinatown. For more places to visit and restaurants to try, check out my Chinatown travel app for iPhones/iPod Touches, which has interactive maps and more detailed information (all for .99 cents!).

Tahoe's Great Snow at Great Prices

Lake Tahoe's ski areas are having their best year in at least four years. More snow has fallen and more skiers are hitting the slopes, much to the relief of those in the travel industry here. In the Colorado Rockies, Lake Tahoe's main competition for skier travel, snow arrived late and the amount disappointing. Tahoe, meanwhile, luxuriates under blankets of fresh snow that seem to arrive each week on schedule, with a few days of brilliant sunshine in between. On a trip to South Lake Tahoe last week for the Society of American Travel Writers conference, resort operators said that they are thrilled. The slopes were filled with skiers from all over the world. "There's no other lake like this and no other ski destination like this in the world," said Andrew Strain, Heavenly's vice president. But the economic recession has taken its toll. Resorts last fall responded by heavily discounting season passes to stimulate business and it worked. If you bought last year, you could get unlimited skiing passes for some of the major areas for under $400, including at Heavenly (top right). I met a woman from Placerville who purchased a season pass for the Sierra-at-Tahoe resort for $369 for the entire season (the only restriction: it can't be used on Saturdays) together with ski rental for the season for only an additional $109. At Harrah's, the casino seemed quieter than usual, but late afternoon there was a steady stomp of skiers late heading back to their rooms to change for drinks and dinner. The hotel has terrific midweek ski-and-stay packages for getaways. I had some good meals, with two standouts: Ciera, an upscale steakhouse at the Montbleu Resort and Evans, an elegant little neighborhood restaurant serving California cuisine with some Asian influences. For those who don't ski, there's wonderful snowshoe and cross-country skiing opportunities at quiet, lovely Camp Richardson (see photos) where the Beacon Grill is open for hot chocolate, drinks and a good selection of beer served in front of big picture windows overlooking that oh-so-lovely-blue lake.