About
SAN FRANCISCO
Here's some pics from our chase for the perfect food, and our journey of a thousand satisfactions:
We met in San Francisco in the twilight of it's glory. The abundance of great restaurants from all over the world gave us plenty of places to explore.
Yuko was managing a coffee shop, and I was working in technology. My salary was such that we could go eat anywhere we wanted. Houston's on the Embarcadero was our regular Friday night steak. We had pizza in North Beach, Pho on Broadway, Thai on Clement, Korean BBQ on Geary, a host of awesome spots in Japan Town, and crazy Mai Tai drinks hidden off of the 280 boat ride. A person can spend a year exploring food and beverage without going to the same place twice. At one point we had a list of 6 martini spots we'd rotate through, and each was top notch. Our burger spot list was just as deep. Everyone knows Houston's, Ruth Chris, and Morton's, but the House of Prime Rib beats them all if you're having prime rib. I haven't even mentioned sushi yet...
After the dot com crash I returned to construction. Then after 9/11 I took a year off to write, which lead to working at the coffee shop with Yuko. One day I got a parking ticket (2 hour limit missed by 10 minutes), and that ticket cost my entire day's wages and tips! As employees on minimum, and depending on tips, I quickly learned that while it was fun it was not sustainable. It wasn't even a medium term answer.
Our initial mini-dream was to open a cafe together called Yuko's Blend. It was to be a morning cafe through lunch, with a teaser of the evening menu. The evening menu features "a" meal. It could be spaghetti night, curry night, taco night, sushi night, or kid's night. The point was we would have "a" dinner. Those dinners were our commercial for catering. We'd both work it, and I'd build it.
JAPAN
Yuko is from Tokyo. We would go back regularly to visit family. If you have never been to Japan... it is a beautiful country. Each trip we would travel to some new area in Japan everyone wanted to visit. I lived in Japan when I was younger, so one time we went way up north where I was for five years (Lake Towada, Hirosaki, Aomori). Another time we went south to Kyoto, or to Hakone.
Our "base" was in Tokyo, in the Shinjuku area. Talk about never ending fun, twenty four hours a day. Totally safe... We had one shop we wouldn't even go to until after midnight, and we'd spend hours just wandering through looking at the crazy things they had (Donkey). Tokyo is the coolest city on the planet in my opinion (I realize I haven't been to every city on the planet). The cleanliness, courtesy, design, efficiency, respect, whatever important quality you seek, I challenge anyone to not find the peak in Tokyo.
I'll also say that Tokyo attracts the most tested talent in culinary. The competition for coffee shops is crazy, let alone the restaurants and specialty shops. The best Thai I've ever had was in a Tokyo high-rise. The best steak I've ever had was in an underground Tokyo steakhouse. Same with Chinese, Korean, and of course the best Japanese food I've had was there. However, the best rice either of us have ever had was in a particular restaurant in Morioka, and the best pizza we've ever had was a simple one in Aomori. That was kind of a fluke though, because I find Japanese pizza lacking by their own standards. I also find that the American hamburger can't be beat. Some things are what they are.
NAPA VALLEY
We escaped the city and settled in Napa Valley, CA. It was pretty rural until after the Bottle Shock event in 1976, and since has grown into a world destination for wine and culinary. Yuko has been in the kitchen of The Farm since 2007, and I've been operating Call My Guy since 2010. Our dream grew to wanting a Napa style bed and breakfast in Japan (Aizu Wakamatsu), but the reality is we're probably past that as well.
Now our focus is to keep playing strong, and get our son through high school, while at the same time planning an preparing our escape from California. Where ever we land we will continue our quest for great food, and maybe even serving some up ourselves!