Hyatt Means Holiday [Business]

By Emma Krasov, photography by Emma and Yuri KrasovHoliday season offers several out-of-office days in a row, and those who travel start to think, where to. More responsible ones already know, and are now Brazilian-waxing in preparation for airport scans and pat-downs. For those who stay, Hyatt Regency San Francisco at Embarcadero Center offers a chance to become a tourist in your own city. The 17-story atrium lobby is decorated with 300 000 cascading lights, a 45-foot illuminated tree, and giant wooden Nutcrackers.Real snow falls from the ceiling every day through December 31 on the clock at 1, 6, and 9 pm.While kiddies of all ages are enjoying the Embarcadero Holiday Skating Rink through January 2, 2011, their parents can safely partake in Holiday Happy Hour at Eclipse Lounge that serves holiday cocktails, like Sparkling Poinsettia and Rudolph’s Red Nose.Holiday Shopping Package is offered through December 30, and includes Hotel Savings Pass with more than a hundred shopping and dining discounts and specials. Breakfast with Santa provided at Eclipse Café on December 4, 6, 11, 12, 18, and 19 from 8 till noon, and Christmas dinners are scheduled for December 24 and 25 from 4 to 10. New Year’s Eve Package on Dec. 31 – Jan. 1 promises unobstructed view of fireworks on top of custom-designed celebration. New Year’s Breakfast Buffet is from 8 to 2 on New Year’s Day. All information and reservations at 800-233-1234, or www.sanfranciscoregency.hyatt.comHyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf comes up with a holiday Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Dinner Show in a private facility with professional actors mingling with the unsuspecting dinner guests. Voted “Best Dinner Show” in Los Angeles and Denver in 2007, 2008 and 2009, the largest Murder Mystery Dinner Show in the United States is now scheduled at Hyatt on Friday, December 10; Saturday, December 18; and Friday, December 31. Doors and a cash bar open at 6:15 p.m, prior to the 7:00-9:00 p.m. dinner show. Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf is offering a special 10% discount off of the hotel’s Hyatt Daily Rate (based on availability). Use code “DINNER” when booking at www.fishermanswharf.hyatt.com

On Palette and on the Palate: Arts and Wines at Stags’ Leap

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri KrasovInvited to Jefferson Hayman’s photography exhibition at Stags’ Leap Winery, I didn’t think twice about attending. The opening, aptly named The Artistry of Wine, promised to bring together Napa Valley wines, gourmet cuisine, and contemporary art in a historic 1890s Manor House, admirably maintained and lavishly decorated.
What I underestimated was a road to the promised land. While hopelessly-city, I adore weekend visits to the sunny Wine Country, but the elegant wine and art party was scheduled to start after dark. Napa’s nighttime rural routes with invisible signs turned out to be pitch dark, winding, and never ending.
After my husband and I missed our freeway exit, and then an entrance onto a side road, and performed a series of screeching U-turns, we spotted a shady figure, or rather a normal-looking young man enshrouded in deep shadows, and with a flashlight.
He directed us toward another winding road deeper into the forest. There was another young man out there, also with a flashlight. After some more driving in the dark and fearing some unknown creatures of the night that might hit our car or be hit by it, we finally reached the oasis of warmth, hospitality and conviviality, which is Stags’ Leap.I knew that the pioneering estate put California on the world wine map with its 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon during the first blind judging in Paris back in 1976, but I didn’t know that art patronage was a time-honored tradition at the winery. As if in some sort of revelation, the earthy delights and inspired art joined together in harmony in one enchanted evening.The festivities started with a taste of 2009 Napa Valley Viognier, paired with creative bites, like crab salad with walnuts on endive leaves, and goat cheese topped with red pepper caps, or wrapped in grilled eggplant slices.On the second floor of the gorgeous stone building, filled with antique furnishings and vintage photographs, the guests were offered 2009 Napa Valley Chardonnay, and a view of Patrick McFarlin’s portraiture, with the artist present to talk about his Napa Valley: Portrait of a Community project.2007 Napa Valley Petit Syrah was served in the dining room, perfectly matched with succulent lamb chops and salsa verde.Then the star estate cab – 2007 “The Leap” was offered on porch, as a great prelude to welcome speeches, poetry reading and historical introduction by Theresa Whitehill, and a Q&A with winemaker Christophe Paubert and photographer Jefferson Hayman.The photography exhibition was presented in the new grandiose cave of the estate, lined with barrels, and enhanced by 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon barrel sampling. M. Paubert, the winemaker, commented on the new wine while standing in front of his own photographic image that was a part of Hayman’s body of work.A self-taught photographer, in his Stags’ Leap show, Hayman concentrates on vine- and wine-related details, winemakers’ portraits, and vineyard landscapes presented in a series of black and white photographs with soft lighting and receding shadows. Each silver gelatin photograph is produced in 25 prints and framed in antique or artist-made frame.More information at: www.stagsleap.com

Fall Chocolate Salon Charms San Francisco

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri KrasovThe new holiday-oriented Fall Luxury Chocolate Salon launched by TasteTV in San Francisco this November, turned, not-surprisingly, into a celebration of increasingly creative dark confections. More than 30 big-, great-, and grand-name chocolatiers presented their newest and boldest flavors at Fort Mason, attracting enormous crowds of chocolate lovers and chocoholics in various stages of addiction.Yuzu, ginger, masala chai, passion fruit and pepper, chestnut honey, lavender, burnt pumpkin, green tea, and kaffir lime were just a few of the available flavors of amazing morsels formerly known as chocolate truffles. The Oscars-style voting allowed the judges (this reporter included) to nominate their personal favorites in various categories, based on their individual tastes. Among the gold medal winners there are Amano Artisan Chocolate in Best Dark and Best Milk chocolate, Top Artisan Chocolatier, Most Luxurious Chocolate Experience, Best in Salon, and Most Gifted Chocolatier categories; Vice Chocolates in Best Milk, Best Truffle, Most Delicious Ingredient Combinations, Most Artistic Designs, Best Gift Set, Best Flavored and Best Presentation categories; Socola Chocolatier in Most Delicious Ingredient Combinations; and Chocolatique in Best Traditional category.Carlos Mann Nicaraguan Artisan Chocolates took silver and TCHO picked up bronze in Best Dark Chocolate.Socola Chocolatier, Salt Side Down Chocolates, Au Coeur Des Chocolats, Gateau et Ganache, and Saratoga Chocolates also got several silver and bronze medals each, as well as other wonderful chocolate makers, too numerous to mention them all.Additional information and more chocolate addiction opportunities can be found at:
www.FallChocolateSalon.com and www.tastetv.com

Love and Other Drugs – Holiday Season’s Feel-Good Fairy Tale

By Emma Krasov

Jake Gyllenhaal as a pleasure-chasing lover boy – say no more. The movie could be a [generic] version of Sidney Pollack’s long-forgotten Bobby Deerfield or Arthur Hiller’s iconic Love Story – it’s doomed to succeed with the audiences of holiday-high Cinderellas. Love and Other Drugs, based on Jamie Reidy’s non-fiction, “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,” and directed by Edward Zwick, follows Jamie (Gyllenhaal), a good-looking pharmaceutical sales ace as he gradually falls in love with an incurable (and also good-looking and living in an artsy loft) Parkinson’s patient Maggie (Anne Hathaway). Despite the predictability of the scheme – boy meets girl boy looses girl boy gets girl back, and the undying cliché of public display of deep emotions in moments of revelation and redemption, the script is nicely written and keeps the tempo, while the excellent cast of supporting characters really supports the entire structure from falling into a sentimental mush. Great acting, some humor, more than average Hollywood nudity, and a probable tear or two closer to the happy end all bode well for the run. In Bay Area theatres now. More info at: www.loveandotherdrugsthemovie.com

An Affair to Remember: Sonoma Wine Road

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri KrasovOur affair started on a sunny afternoon at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Fulton, Sonoma. Awashed in golden light, California Wine Country vines were bursting with color from bright yellow to scarlet red, to deep purple. The air was fragrant with fallen leaves and sweet late roses still in full bloom.A Wine and Food Affair was presented on the first weekend of November by Wine Road Northern Sonoma County, with dozens of premier wineries participating from Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River valleys. Creative food pairings complemented featured wines, with all the original recipes collected in a beautifully published cookbook, “Tasting along the Wine Road.” While it would be impossible to visit all the great wineries and try all the food pairings from Sebastopol to Geyserville, my husband Yuri and I set off on a two-day road trip trying to get a skinny on Sonoma’s bounty.Inspiration Vineyards paired their 2008 Estate Chardonnay from Russian River Valley with chilled corn and sundried tomato chowder topped with fresh tarragon. Jon Phillips, owner/winemaker, and his helpers Lori Marie Adams and Ben Posluszny were pouring gold medal winners 2007 Pinot Noir from Los Carneros region and 2007 Zinfandel from Alexander Valley in an inviting new tasting room in Santa Rosa.
At the neighboring Carol Shelton Wines, the winery’s founder and namesake was involved hands-on with pushing down skins of fermenting petit syrah while her visitors were trying multiple-award-winning zins paired with Karachi beef stew.Twomey Cellars on Westside Road heading to downtown Healdsburg, boasting sweeping views from its glass-walled tasting room, offered comforting pumpkin gnocchi with brown butter, walnuts, and sage to complement a complex fruit-rich 2008 Russian River Pinot Noir. Posh Kendall-Jackson in the heart of Healdsburg presented several of its esteemed wines and a delicious ham hock and pumpkin quesadilla, freshly browned on a portable grill. Of all the food and wine pairings we tried on our colorful journey, there were too many too good to list them all. We found a match made in heaven in Hauck Cellars in Santa Rosa, where 2006 Meritage (merlot, cab sauv, petit verdot, and malbec) was paired with boeuf forestier, redolent of full-bodied cab.
Then at Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg a perfect culinary revelation came in the form of butternut squash and apple soup with cream and sage, happily married to 2009 estate sauv blanc. The upcoming events on the Sonoma Wine Roads are: 19th Annual Winter Wineland on Jan. 15 and 16, 2011, and 33rd Annual Barrel Tasting on March 4-6 and 11-13 2011. More information at: www.wineroad.com

Good Things Come in Small Packages at Ozumo Restaurant in San Francisco

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri KrasovIf there are such things as edible gems, they can be found at Ozumo in San Francisco.
With every new plate arriving at out table I felt that those fanciful morsels were not just food, but some representation of Japanese genius.Take Dohyo – tuna tartar spiced with sriracha, and balanced out by avocado, fresh cucumbers, and minty shiso – all neatly stacked in a miniature tart topped with black tobiko, and standing in a pool of chili ponzu sauce and wasabi oil. Along with gyoza chips, used to scoop the mixture, the combination of tastes and textures is just heavenly.Sake Kobyjime is a house-cured salmon, served over pickled red onion, cucumber slices, and chili oil. To retain its bright color and subtle flavor, salmon is covered with salt, wrapped in konbu (kelp) and cured for an hour. Then it’s unwrapped, the salt is scraped off, and the fish is wrapped again, now for a day. The resulting tender flesh is nicely contrasted by shaved daikon radish and micro greens.A salad like no other, Yaki Tako consists of grilled baby octopus prepared on robata grill over hollow charcoals that come all the way from Japan. Grilled radicchio, sliced endives, and shungiku (chrysanthemum leaf) pesto bring out the best of the lightly salted meaty pieces with a smoky taste.And then came Ozumo sushi roll with grilled unagi and diced cucumber on the inside, and snow crab meat on the outside. The entire lavish roll is wrapped in red tuna and green avocado, and drizzled with golden-orange spicy sauce.Tontoro might easily be one of the most enticing dishes on the highly diversified Ozumo menu. Thick, wonderfully fatty slices of melt-in-your-mouth barbequed kurobuta pork are served on a bed of fried Brussels sprouts, and additionally moistened with fragrant mustard vinaigrette.One of the most complicated dishes is Gindara – black cod marinated in sweet saikyo miso and sake for 48 hours, and then grilled on skewers. The problem comes with the amazing flakiness of the fish that might fall off the skewer if grilled just a minute longer than necessary.Finally, Ozumo dessert is an elaborate construction of chocolate cake, green tea ice cream, plane rice mochi – chewy like gummy bears, and a pile of chocolate shavings on top with a fresh mint leaf for added freshness.Great food comes as no surprise when the sushi bar, one of the largest in the country, is staffed with a tireless team of great sushi chefs – highly efficient and full of energy even at the end of a very busy day. The place is packed to capacity on most weeknights thanks to the enormous popularity of its smartly decorated and dimly lit cocktail bar, where half of San Francisco suits like to congregate during happy hour.
Out of five daily sake flights (three tastes each) offered to accompany the food, we tried one with the refined, hard to make high-end sakes, originally used only in competitions. Yamahai Daiginjo with herb and honey notes, light and fragrant Junmai Ginjo, and smoothly sweet Okuden Kantsukuri, which translates as Mirror of Truth provided perfect pairing with sophisticated little plates.a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCysYLb1O1tTkGpedjDA27twqgn0fDU6JtEMC5o8gl9h2_boKBI3zox41atXUVzCjoRxffy682eTrOpXk3KpI4dZfewlf5wZSHsPIb-fnFkocfnEdmYue60lajHMPxiRsTCRWAlb4vyOP6/s1600/10.+emma+and+chef.jpg">Corporate Chef Mike Yakura was at the helm on the night we dined, and Director of Hospitality Mel Collins personally attended every table in the dining room making sure the guests were well taken care of. With a lucky waterfront location, tall floor-to-ceiling windows that open on warm nights, and the best view of the Bay Bridge (and fireworks on holidays), Ozumo is surely a place to be – on a special date or just because. Ozumo Restaurant is located at 161 Steuart Street, San Francisco. Call for reservations (415) 882.1333 or visit http://www.ozumo.com/.

Winning in Reno - Beyond Gambling

By Emma KrasovI’m not a quiet type. Romantic getaways rather bore me. Usually, after a day/night of gazing into my beloved’s eyes I crave something loud, and a crowd. But I’m not a gambler, either. On my recent [solo] trip to Reno, Nevada, I discovered a perfect balance between being in a lively exciting place and having a restful and even educational getaway. Let’s start with restful. Upon check-in at the Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa I had to check out the intriguing-sounding brine inhalation lounge at the Spa Atlantis. A wall of brine in a soothingly darkish room was awashed with mysterious light, gradually changing color, and emitted a faint oceanic smell. The Spa is sparking-new, beautiful to behold, and offers all kinds of relaxation services from herbal steam and sauna to great massages. Next morning it was time to get some education on a historic side of “The Biggest Little City in the World,” so I joined a walking tour in downtown Reno. Architecturally, Reno looks rather stately and imposing, while maintaining a clean and friendly feel.The Washoe County Courthouse, built in Classical Revival style, was designed by the most important Nevada architect, Frederic DeLongchamps in 1911. It stands today – Justice incarnated, fully in operation, and adding to the grandeur of Riverwalk – a new district in the city center. A plethora of art, craft, music, theatre and culinary outdoor events happen here. The Truckee River Whitewater Park is a gorgeous renovated preserve, with snowy mountains in the backdrop, beautiful mansions on surrounding hills, and forested riverbanks clad in natural stone. Running from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, Truckee River here is not just a body of water to admire from a beautiful Virginia Street bridge. The legend has it that divorced women coming after the proceeding from the courthouse, used to throw their wedding rings from this bridge.Today, adventurous city dwellers make better use of the troubled waters with inflatable rafts, kayaks, and canoes to navigate the rapids, rated Class 2 and 3. To get fully to the wild side of old Nevada, I took a ride on a restored steam engine to the historic Virginia City and Carson City – nicely preserved for tourist consumption, but vital enough to fill out every single watering hole and every souvenir shop in the area.While on the railroad, complete with a staff of Gold Rush era-costumed guides, I glanced out the train car window, and saw a family of wild horses, peacefully grazing one moment, and galloping away the next.
By the end of my short visit to Reno, I rushed to The Nevada Museum of Art not to miss an exhibition of a remarkable Columbian artist “The Baroque World of Fernando Botero,” showing about 100 paintings and sculptures from his own collection. Modernly and functionally designed, the Museum, besides its 2,000 artwork-strong permanent collection displays international artists of great significance.
Another great attraction of Reno is its booming culinary scene that does not stop at the casinos.Atlantis Resort boasts fine dining at its new Bistro Napa, featuring fresh bivalves from Penn Cove Mussel Farm among other delights; new Atlantis Steakhouse, and a number of other great restaurants on premises, for every taste and whim. At Circus Circus Reno you can indulge in delicious sliders with slow smoked gourmet beef brisket. Silver Legacy is good for delicate crab cakes, and I won’t soon forget the Eldorado signature mushroom ravioli. To learn more about the delights of Reno, Nevada, “Far From Expected,” www.visitrenotahoe.com. All photos by Emma Krasov.

Americano Restaurant: Best Pizza in Town, She Said

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri KrasovThe hostess said it. As she navigated us through a compactly packed bar at the stylish Americano Restaurant in San Francisco, I caught a glimpse of a perfectly Napolitan pie carried to someone’s table. I asked which pizza was her favorite, and she said, “Mushroom, of course.” That’s how I knew I was in the right place. Given any choice of chef’s creations in our increasingly gourmet pizza-oriented culinary culture, I’d choose “mushroom” time and again.
My photographer/husband and I ventured into Americano at the corner of Mission and the Embarcadero on our way home from a tiring work assignment. The restaurant occupies a spacious “corner office” with a heated patio in Hotel Vitale, which, as all Joie de Vivre properties, follows the three rules of real estate, “location, location, location.” Our original intent was to glance at the to-go menu, and maybe pick up something nice and fresh for a quiet dinner at home. The dining room’s inviting interior with wrought iron, wood, leather, and soft golden lights promised a relaxing retreat, so we just decided to sit down and dine in.
Soon we were feeling right at home, surrounded by smiling diners obviously enjoying their food, and watched by an oversized photograph of Colum McCartan (Vitale and Americano designer) placed on the ceiling among other portraits of prominent San-Franciscans. And then the food came along.We started with Pizza Funghi (of course!) topped with king trumpet, maitake, chanterelle, and alba mushrooms, smothered with fontina cheese, and drizzled with black truffle oil.
Just to get a better understanding of Americano seasonal pies with the majority of their ingredients coming from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Marketplace across the street, we ordered Pizza Fresca.A perfect Italian tricolore, it was bright-red with crushed tomatoes; creamy-white with De Stefano burrata, and refreshingly green with stripes of basil leaves. A combination of healthy tomato acidity and delectable cheesy mildness interspersed with fragrant greens tasted like…pure Roman decadence!
It seemed “the best pizza in town” lived up to its name.So, I stepped closer to the open kitchen and asked Executive Chef Kory Stewart some questions. Turned out, his magic pizzas were handcrafted in house, and baked for 4-5 minutes in a 750-degree oven. In his creative preparations, Chef Kory follows the spirit of Italian cuisine, using spices like Sicilian fennel, Italian sweet peppers, olive oils, and fresh cheeses. He puts three ever-popular pizzas (the third one Pizza Toscana with salami, mozzarella and crushed tomatoes) and one special daily on the menu, along with various antipasti, primi, secondi, and contorni. I asked the Chef about his favorite dishes, being fully aware that it’s like asking a mother about her favorite children. Nonetheless, I got my answers and we returned to the table ready for more delicious surprises.Squash blossom risotto had diced green and yellow summer squash in it, that retained perfect crispiness thanks to the process of roasting before dicing. Orange squash blossom petals were incorporated into a creamy mixture of mozzarella burrata and lemon verbena butter (making me wish I could just lick my plate).Heritage pork chop was not only beautiful to behold – I can’t remember another piece of meat looking that appetizing – but also smartly complemented by the chewy nuttiness of black burley; bright-green spinach, cooked not a second longer than necessary; golden grapes smoked over apple wood chips, and faintly-sweet balsamic reduction.Full-bodied Barbera d’Alba and Sangiovese made perfect companions to our meal before the dolci arrived – chocolate cake with mint ice cream in caramel swirls, and a seasonal tomato-watermelon sorbet. By the end of our dinner we felt that one visit to Americano Restaurant & Bar was nearly not enough. Good that its location in the city is the one that simply cannot be missed. Address: 8 Mission Street, San Francisco. Phone: 415 278 3777. Website: www.americanorestaurant.com.