Category Archives: Classic American

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe and 5A5 Steak Lounge

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We did quite a bit of eating today starting with breakfast this morning at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe which is within walking distance from our apartment. Our friends recommended this place for a great breakfast but might have a long wait.

We got there around 8am and had to wait about 15-20 minutes, they open at 7:30am. We ordered from their specials which are written on the dry erase boards.

This is the butterscotch french toast. I had one delicious slice. I think eating more would have been bad for my blood sugar.

This is one of their egg scrambles, a type of sausage with mushrooms and basil. It’s served with potatoes and a slice of jalapeno corn bread. Also very good. I really liked the corn bread.

For home, we took home some pastries. This is the sweet potato pecan muffin, very dense and sweetened by the sweet potato rather than sugar.

The whiskey blueberry coffee cake. The coffee cake was a bit dry and the topping a bit too sweet. It didn’t really work together well in your mouth.

Lunch we had at home but then went to dinner at 5A5 Steak Lounge for Dine About Town. It was probably too much to hope that they would have the Waygu beef on their menu… so here was their menu where we chose one of each.

Iceberg lettuce salad with thick bacon. The bacon was very delicious.

Caesar salad with fresh anchovies. The salty anchovies went well with the fresh taste of Romaine lettuce.

We ordered a separate starter of short ribs with lotus chips. The lotus chips were pretty cool, just like potato chips but probably healthier. The short ribs had persimmons on them which was an interesting touch.

The New York strip steak. The green stuff on top was a bit spicy and creamy, delicious but I have no idea what it was. The steak was tender too and a perfect medium rare but not bloody.

The salmon served with a cabbage leaf stuffed with fennel.

Sticky toffee bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. I wish I could’ve had more!

Banana Cream Tart. The cream wasn’t too sweet and had a subtle but delicious banana flavor. The brulee’d bananas were a nice touch too.

Overall, a very good dining experience and a lovely day of eating.

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe
522 Jones Street

5A5 Steak Lounge
244 Jackson Street

Gorilla Barbeque in Pacifica, CA

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http://www.gorillabbq.com/Gorilla_Barbeque.html

I guess we’re in the BBQ mode since we’ve been eating it for the last few days. Ron remembered seeing this place called Gorilla Barbeque in Pacifica that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network.

So we made the drive out to Pacifica around 1pm and came across a line of about 15 people from the old railroad car that Gorilla Barbeque is housed in. Currently they are only doing take-out and catering but they do have two picnic tables above their parking lot and the beach is only a few blocks down the road. We decided to wait since we had driven all the way down there and some people slowly started get out of line and leave. At one point, they ran out of ribs but we still continued to wait.

Their menu is on their website but the types of meats they have include pork ribs, beef brisket, chicken, hot links, and for 2010 (according to their website): beef ribs on Thursday nights.

We ordered a 3 meat combo, a 1 meat combo, and a Philly cheese steak sandwich. We did it this way because the 3 meat combo includes an extra sauce (2 containers instead of 1). Included with the combos are 2 sides of your choice, rice & beans, cornbread, and 1 container of BBQ sauce. After we picked up our order, we drove down the road and parked near the beach and had our lunch on a bench on the beach which watching the surfers catch some waves.

This is the 3 meat combo of hot links, chicken, and brisket. Everything had a delicious smokey flavor and everything was surprisingly still very moist. The chicken skin was nice and crispy. The brisket was tender, not tough at all. The hot links delicious. The sauce made it even better.

Some of our sides: corn bread muffin, cole slaw, rice & beans. In the canisters, one had mac and cheese and the other two are BBQ sauces. The corn bread was the best thing, it even had fresh corn but the others were only so-so.

Our 1 meat combo was pulled pork with corn on the cob and potato salad.

We also ordered a Philly Cheese Steak which is also served with 1 BBQ sauce and 1 side (grilled eggplant in this case). This was very yummy, actually probably my favorite thing of our lunch.

We have plenty of leftovers and I think we’ll have to go back to try their ribs. Some of the customers were pretty disappointed when they ran out of ribs so they must be really good.

Oh, and to note, they use Tater Ware, biodegradable food containers and utensils, made from potatoes. I like them better than plastic utensils, they are much sturdier.

Gorilla Barbeque
2145 Coast Highway
Pacifica, CA 94044

Bo’s Barbeque and Captain Vineyards Wine Tasting

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’ve been a bit more tired easily and not motivated but am trying to make up for lost time…

Tonight we were invited to Captain Vineyards in Moraga for a wine tasting. We participated in harvesting their grapes last October so now it was time to have our first taste of the wine.

Since we were heading out to the East Bay, we decided to stop by Bo’s Barbeque for dinner. We had eaten there one other time and remembered that their BBQ was pretty good and they have a delicious selection of beer.

We ordered the 3 item combo which includes ribs, brisket, and links. Everything had a good smokey flavor except that the brisket was a bit dry. I think they gave us the end pieces so they were a bit tough like jerky but still tasty.

The meal includes 2 plates of salad with some fruity vinaigrette, sweet potato, bread, potato salad, and BBQ sauce.

After our dinner, we headed to The Captains for their wine tasting. I had a few sips and the wines seem well on their way to become delicious. Right now they seem still very fruity and haven’t taken much of the flavor from the oak barrels yet but they were still lovely. The barrels themselves were beautiful, see how red they are in the middle.

We also got a preview of their new wine label.

The Captains are a great couple. They’ve taught us a lot about making wine and allowed us to have these unique experiences which we otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to experience. It’s amazing how much they’ve accomplished in a short period of time and I hope we can continue to support them in whatever way we can.


Captain Vineyards
1969 Joseph Drive
Moraga, CA 94556

Bo’s Barbeque
3422 Mt. Diablo Blvd
Lafayette, CA 94549
(925) 283-7133

Venus & Yogurtland in Berkeley, Protein Style at In-N-Out

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We had a very nice day out today in the bay area. Our friends Tiff & Alex are visiting from Southern California so we met up with them in Berkeley for brunch.

At first we attempted to go to La Note but at 11:20am, the wait for 4 people was 45 to 60 minutes. Venus Restaurant, just down the street, had a shorter wait and seemed to go through customers faster, so we only had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes.

Ron ordered their very beautiful looking pomegranate mimosa, served with a juicy blackberry.

I ordered the chicken sausage scramble which is chicken sausage, mozzarella, roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions, fresh basil, mixed with three eggs and served with home fries and toast ($10). The chicken sausage was a little bit sweet and nicely pan fried. The home fries were excellent and I loved how they toasted the bread (this is whole wheat) because it was a bit chewy.

Ron ordered the 2x2x2, this with 2 eggs sunny side up, bacon, and flapjacks ($10.50). Flapjacks fluffy and delicious. Alex also ordered the similar dish with sausage instead and got the extra blueberries mixed with the flapjacks. His looked yummy too (sorry, no picture).

Tiff ordered the Venus Benedict, 2 poached eggs and sliced tomato, open-face on an english muffin, with ham, spinach or avocado topped with lemony hollandaise and served with home fries ($10.50). This looked really delicious too.

After we finished brunch, we headed for a walk through the Berkeley campus and reminisce about our school. Many of the buildings are the same and look like they’ve been cleaned up or are being restored. Ron and I took this picture by the campanile:

It was a very peaceful walk through campus considering that school is out for winter break. Lots of stores were closed either for the long Christmas weekend or for the winter break. We made a big loop from Shattuck, through campus, down Telegraph, then back down Durant to Shattuck.

Before leaving Berkeley, Ron and I went to Yogurtland, the first one I’ve been to in the Bay Area. Currently they are having limited edition Tokidoki cups and spoons, so cute! Plus there is a sweepstakes to win a shopping spree and free yogurt.

We tried three flavors of yogurt: taro (thumbs up), egg nog (thumbs up), and pecan praline (thumbs down) and three toppings: brownies (thumbs down), mochi (thumbs up), and slivered almonds (thumbs up). At 30 cents an ounce, this bowl cost $2.10. Also, Yogurtland has all their nutritional information on their website.

We spent the afternoon shopping then had dinner at In-N-Out. We tried a few things from their “secret menu”. Their corporate website lists a few of their secret items but I found this more comprehensive secret menu list online.

I ordered a double double “protein style”. Basically, any burger “protein style” eliminates the bun and instead everything is wrapped in lettuce. Quite good actually, it felt less greasy because of the refreshing lettuce.

Ron ordered the double double “animal style” with “extra toast”. I think “animal style” is well known but “extra toast” is the bun a bit more toasty. We also ordered fries “well done” which made them extra crispy.

Yum… good way to end the weekend.

Venus Restaurant
2327 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510)540-5950

Yogurtland
2236 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510) 548-8001

In-N-Out
11 Rollins Rd
Millbrae, CA

Burger Bar San Francisco

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http://www.burgerbarsf.com/

I had brunch with V at Burger Bar. It’s located on the 6th floor of Macy’s at Union Square. We met there around 11am and were seated right away (they open at 10:30am). By the time we left, there was at least 5 parties waiting for tables.

We ordered from the Chef’s Burgers side of the menu.

Vicki ordered the Hubert Keller burger which is buffalo, carmelized onions, baby spinach, blue cheese served on a ciabatta bun ($22). I didn’t try it but V said the onions were a bit too sweet. The burger comes with skinny fries which were nice and crispy.

I ordered the low-carb burger which is black angus beef, portabello mushrooms, grilled peppers, coleslaw, pesto sauce, and a mixed baby green salad ($15.95). No fries. The pesto was delicious and so were to mushrooms and peppers. The meat was a bit dry and a bit oily. Next time maybe I will make my own burger or try the $60 Kobe beef and foie gras burger! (We decided to save it for a special occasion…).

After lunch, we did some shopping before heading back to Macy’s lower level demo kitchen for a free cookie swap event. I’ve been trying to find events downtown to attend and so this is the first one I’ve had time to go to. The chef today was Thia Boggs, an Oakland native, who demonstrated her pecan pralines. The guests also shared a recipe of our own so the chef made it interactive by inviting people up to talk about their recipes and answer questions. We got a free sample and a few recipes to take home. Check out Macy’s Events for future events. This Thursday Sept 16th will be a demo by Tyler Florence of his new cookware, 6pm, RSVP at http://www.macys.com/events!


Burger Bar San Francisco
251 Geary St
(6th floor Macy’s Union Square)