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A newspaper columnist in Vancouver, WA, once referred to that city's $25 million Firstenburg Community Center as a "Taj-Ma-health club." It's no wonder. Firstenburg has more than 7,000 pounds of free weights, 40 pieces of cardio equipment, 15 bikes, several weight machines, a leisure swimming pool, basketball courts, a climbing wall and six flat-screen TVs.
Firstenburg, which is celebrating its second anniversary this month, is one of several city rec centers across the country that are attracting members with lavish amenities, and that has some former and current for-profit club owners crying foul. Not only do city rec centers have the backing of city government and taxpayers, but many of them bear none of the mortgage or rent costs that for-profit owners have. Most also charge lower membership fees than for-profit clubs, and they often market their facilities using existing mailing opportunities, such as notices in city water bills.
These advantages smack of unfair competition, say some for-profit club owners and industry observers. However, some city rec center managers say they are not competing with for-profit clubs. They say that the city facilities are primarily there to serve the community. But Rick Caro, president of New York-based consulting company Management Vision, disagrees, saying that city rec centers compete with for-profit clubs just as YMCAs, Jewish Community Centers, corporate in-house facilities and residential facilities do.
Whether or not city rec center managers see their facilities as competition to tax-paying clubs, city rec centers have helped put some for-profits out of business, their owners says. At least three club owners who operated close to Firstenburg in Vancouver are selling or have closed their clubs since the facility opened in February 2006. Ron Feik, owner of the 40-year-old Landover Athletic Club, closed his club to members last March, although it remains open to private club athletic teams. In Firstenburg's first month of operation, Feik says his club's membership fell from 3,000 to 500.
"When you lose 55 percent of your revenue the month they open, that kind of says something," Feik says. "How can you compete with a $25 million facility? You can't."
Hollie Olson owned Exclusively for Women, a 5,300-square-foot club near Firstenburg. Many issues led her to sell the club, including rising rent, but she says, "Firstenburg was the nail in the coffin." Exclusively for Women closed in 2006.
"A powerful figure with a lot of marketing is going to hurt the smaller independent clubs," Olson says.
Club owners that are battling city rec centers in other cities are threatening to close as well. Last month, Chuck Simon, the owner of the River Oaks Racquet and Fitness Center in Rocky River, OH, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Rocky River's rec center and other neighboring community rec centers that have cheaper dues were cutting into his business. To keep the club open and to pay his club's taxes, which totaled $95,000 in 2007, he said he would require members to pay an extra $300 as a special assessment or dues increase, which would bring in an estimated $250,000.
Government Influence
Some for-profit club owners claim that city governments that run the rec centers make decisions that adversely affect for-profit clubs. Feik and other for-profit club owners in Vancouver say the city placed advertisements for Firstenburg in water bills. Feik also says that when he needed to re-build a new sign at his club, the city made him place it parallel to the street rather than perpendicular, which made it harder for passers-by to locate his club.
Dave Miletich, the Vancouver-Clark County (WA) parks and recreation assistant director, says the representatives from the city that worked with Feik about the sign may or may not have known about his club's proximity to Firstenburg.
"They certainly didn't do anything intentionally to harm his business," Miletich says.
During the development phases of Firstenburg, Miletich says he heard few objections from for-profit health club owners. In meetings between the city and for-profit owners, the focus was on working together and finding ways not to compete with each other, Miletich says.
"For the most part, those have been positive discussions," Miletich says.
Matt Lamarque, owner of two Garden Health and Fitness clubs in Monterey, CA, also says that the local government interfered with his business after he remodeled one of his clubs that is about 5 miles from the Monterey Sports Center, a fitness facility run by the city. When Lamarque bought the club in September 2005, it was not in good shape. After he remodeled it, the city took notice and ordered a fire inspection on his club, forcing him to spend $5,000 on improvements, he says.
Lamarque recently remodeled his women's locker rooms, which cost him $140,000. After the remodel, Lamarque says the Monterey Sports Center asked for $550,000 from the city to remodel its locker rooms.
"The coincidences do add up," Lamarque says. "When the place was a dump, nobody cared. We're a viable threat, the way I look at it."
Competing against the Monterey Sports Center is an uphill climb, Lamarque says.
"You have a city-run [and] sponsored facility that does not have to pay rent, does not have to pay for remodeling, and they don't have to service their own debt," Lamarque says. "They don't have to make a profit. They've never been in the black. You can't compete with that. You can't put them out of business. It's cart blanche. They can do whatever they want, and they govern you at the same time. I've heard people say it's close to Communism."
The manager of the Monterey Sports Center declined to comment for this story.
Vic Sprouse, a state senator from West Virginia and an owner of four Curves clubs in Charleston, WV, says he understands the difficulties of owning a club located near a city rec center. A Curves not owned by Sprouse as well as another for-profit club, both near a city rec center in South Charleston, recently closed.
"As a private business owner, how in the world do you compete with someone who's willing to lose $1.3 million a year?" Sprouse says. "The part that kills me is when my own tax dollars are being used against me. That's a little bit of a slap in the face."
Market Analysis
The tax dollars that for-profit club owners pay sometimes go to building city rec centers near them. Cities that plan to construct a new city rec center often do not do a proper market analysis, Caro says, to see if and where a city facility is needed. If a new city rec center is constructed and if the supply of health club facilities in that community is greater than the demand, then the new city rec center hurts the entire marketplace, Caro says.
"That's where all citizens should protest and demand some kind of accountability, which sometimes just is not prevalent in these situations," Caro says.
However, Clarence Mamuyac, a principal at ELS Architecture and Urban Design in Berkeley, CA, says that most cities do in fact do a thorough market analysis when planning the construction of a rec center. The cost of most city rec centers ranges between $20 million and $40 million, Mamuyac says.
The cost is worth it because citizens want city rec centers, contends Mark Westermeier, the director of Carmel-Clay (IN) Parks and Recreation, which opened a city rec center in June called the Monon Center. Citizens in Carmel, IN, needed 125 signatures from the 70,000 citizens to stop the rec center, but the petition fell short, he says. The Monon Center, which is the centerpiece for Carmel's $55 million Central Park, had between 5,000 and 6,000 pre-sale memberships and now boasts 21,000 memberships.
The primary competition for the Monon Center, which features a water park and a natatorium, is a neighboring YMCA that attracts members from the Carmel community.
Both city rec center managers and for-profit owners should be aware of where their competitors are, says Iowa City, IA, recreation superintendent Michael Moran.
"Duplication of services is something that we as government officials really have to pay attention to now because it's a waste of money," Moran says. "If the parks and recreation agency was there first, and a fitness agency comes in and tries to outscope them, then shame on them if they haven't done their homework. On the other hand, it would be ludicrous for me as a parks and recreation director to offer something in direct competition with somebody else just because I don't like them or I want a lower price.
"I believe that the public should get the biggest bang for their buck, and I think public parks and recreation agencies could do that cheaper," Moran adds. "That only stands to reason because the private enterprises want to make money."
Like Moran, Westermeier supports the notion that government should examine what services it needs to provide its community. The support for a new fitness center in Carmel was overwhelming, Westermeier says.
"When our survey information from the residents who live here says, 'We're willing to pay more in taxes to get this,' then that sends a clear message that perhaps private industry hasn't met their needs," Westermeier says.
Target Goals, Target Audiences
The Centennial Recreation Center in Morgan Hill, CA, opened in October 2006. The price tag of the facility was $27.6 million, and that money came from redevelopment dollars, says recreation manager Chris Ghione. The financial goal for the center was to have a full cost recovery by the third year of operation. Centennial is closing in on that goal in only its second year, Ghione says.
The goal of the Firstenburg center also is 100 percent cost recovery, and Miletich says Firstenburg was close to 100 percent in 2007. Mamuyac of ELS Architecture says it is unusual for a city to recover 100 percent of its operating costs.
"Anything above 70 percent is good," Mamuyac says. "If it's in the 80s, that's really good, and if it's in the 90s, that's fantastic."
Centennial has 2,400 membership packages, or between 8,000 and 9,000 members, with a majority of them belonging to families. The fact that Centennial offers free centers for teenagers and senior citizens sets it apart from for-profit clubs, Ghione says.
"It's a different market," he says. "The family market is real big for us. And the experience is a little different than a fitness club. We want to offer a community facility."
That's why Ghione does not view Centennial as a direct competitor to for-profit clubs.
"We really haven't heard too much criticism from the private sector at all," he says. "It doesn't mean they're not upset. I'd have to look at their numbers. We may have found a different market."
Like Centennial, Firstenburg's target demographics include families and seniors, Miletich says.
"The city's objective is to get more people in Vancouver and Clark County involved in fitness," Miletich says. "A lot of health clubs don't have as large a percentage of family users."
Examining Costs
Vancouver generates revenue at Firstenburg through swim lessons, classes, sports leagues, wedding receptions and other events. Any surplus, Miletich says, covers the center's free programs and goes into a facility repair fund. A third outlet for the surplus would be for a major capital repair fund, but Firstenburg is not at the stage to use that, Miletich says.
The Monterey Sports Center spent $3.9 million and took in $3.4 million, and had a payroll of $2.9 million, according to its 2006-2007 budget. The Sports Center has no rent or mortgage payments.
Lamarque says his operational costs for his two for-profit clubs are about $1.6 million per year. Lamarque says rent is $31,000 per month at one of his clubs, plus he has to pay $17,000 per month for his Small Business Association loan. Improvement costs affect Lamarque's budget more than it does for the Sports Center, he says.
Ghione says the Morgan Hill Centennial Recreation Center is operated by the city and pays no rent for the building. Centennial's annual budget is $2.4 million, he says.
The Centennial budget is similar to that of most for-profit clubs, Ghione says, in that its budget includes expenditures for operations, maintenance and payroll. The main difference for his center compared to for-profit facilities is that it takes direction from the city council as to how to use the center's budget. One disadvantage Centennial has, Ghione says, is that its free programs and scholarships for disadvantaged children come from operational costs.
Centennial has a partnership with a local YMCA association, and its business model is similar to a Y's, Ghione says. Centennial takes payments a year in advance or drafts money out of members' bank accounts every month, and that's a big reason why Centennial can get close to cost recovery annually, he says.
"A lot of municipalities don't follow that model, which is not necessarily a bad thing," Ghione says.
David vs. Goliath?
Not all clubs in Vancouver were greatly affected by Firstenburg, which won a Facilities of Merit award at last year's Athletic Business Conference and Expo in Orlando. Trey Friauf's club, Oxford Athletic Club, was not affected by Firstenburg's opening because of its distance from Firstenburg, Friauf says. Even though Oxford is only 3 ½ miles from Firstenburg, it takes up to 25 minutes to get from one location to the other due to traffic, Friauf says.
"We've learned how to cope and compete with them," Friauf says. "It's kind of a weird deal. I support fitness for everybody. I'm not sure why the city wanted to run a fitness club. We've been around for 48 years. It's bad any time any local business is closed down. It takes away jobs. It takes away tax dollars."
As for Olson, who ran the Exclusively for Women club in Vancouver, she had a case of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Olson now teaches cardio classes at Firstenburg twice a week.
"I do feel like a traitor, but progress is progress," Olson says. "You can't win against the city. It's too big of a giant to fight."
City-run Facility Healthy in Chattanooga
Unlike city rec centers, which serve the community, some city-run facilities are open only to city employees.
Take the city employee fitness facility in Chattanooga, TN, for example. The center, which opened last May, is available only to the 2,500 city employees, their dependents and city retirees, bringing the number of eligible users to 8,000. Employees need to gain clearance from a medical provider to use the facility. So far, about 300 people have done just that, says Karen McMahon, Chattanooga project manager.
The fitness facility was a result of the city's wellness program, which includes two on-site medical clinics that provide primary health care to its employees and their dependents. The clinics include health-risk assessments that gauge smoking and body mass index risks, and offer cash award incentives ranging from $100 to $300.
"We had people say, 'You're going to provide me incentives for getting healthier, but I don't have a place to work out,'" McMahon says. "[The fitness center] was the next logical step."
Chattanooga's police department, which has 800 employees, has its own fitness facility, so many of the users at the city-run facility are office staff and maintenance staff, McMahon says.
Unlike some city-run facilities that have the latest bells and whistles, Chattanooga's facility is fairly basic, McMahon says. The facility has 18 pieces of cardio equipment as well as strength equipment. There's also a multipurpose room and three plasma TVs.
"It's not a really elaborate fitness center," she says. "The people who are already fit and go to local health clubs, they have a lot more services. We're trying to create an environment for someone who has never exercised before. One of the arguments from a for-profit club might be, 'If the city government opens a fitness center, that's going to be cutting into my business.' I don't think it has hurt them at all."
Initially, some Chattanoogans expressed concern that the city was spending too much of the taxpayers' money on a fitness facility. However, McMahon says that the city did not have to cut services to taxpayers to build the facility.


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Gorjuss - Santoro - Rubber Stamp (Large) - The Little Friend
Gorjuss - Large Rubber Stamp - Santoro - The Little Friend - GOR907252
This 1 of 6 Large Gorjuss Stamps from Design Objectives September & October 2016 release. Each stamp has a wonderfully illustrated design, which can incorporate into many of your upcoming projects. Each template tells a different story and emotion, which you can factor into your projects.
This stamp clings easily, offers great definition and is user friendly.
Simply apply the ink of your choice, place in the position you desire and press firmly and evenly over the stamp. Use alongside various other items such as embossing powders for added detail,
This pack contains 1 stamp.
Here at Crafty Devils we are proud to have a fantastic range of crafting products from the Gorjuss collection, created by international award winners Santoro. Founded in 1983 Santoro was a small studio based in London, their unique designs and high quality products quickly caught the attention of 20th Century Fox, who gave them a starting point in beginning to bloom and create different collections that have gained global popularity.
We offer FREE delivery to all UK postcodes on all orders over £30. All customers in Northern Ireland, Highlands and Islands and Channel Islands please Select delivery zone UK Mainland (DO NOT CHANGE IT TO NON MAINLAND) else you will be charged P and P
The level of service that we offer is very important to us, we will aim to dispatch your order within 24 hours of you placing it. Our standard delivery is a 2 - 5 day service although this is not guaranteed. Usually orders arrives within 3 days of ordering We also offer a Guaranteed Next Working Day Delivery at a cost of £5.99 order must be placed 11.00am and will arrive the next working day. If you have placed the order on Friday and selected Next Day Delivery, your order will arrive on Monday.
For orders under £30 delivery is charged at £2.99.
We are happy to send your Parcel to the Parcel Motel Depot in Belfast thus getting free P and P, Parcel Motel will then take your Parcel to the Parcel Motel of your choice for a cost of €3.50 . You will need to have a Parcel Motel Account set up and include your Name and Parcel Motel ID in the address when ordering.
Please visit www.parcelmotel.com for more information.Our standard delivery charge to the Republic of Ireland is £9.99
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We offer a 14 day no quibble guarantee; in the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with the goods please call us on 01271 326777.
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Postage costs for sending back goods that are not faulty will not be refunded. However, we will happily refund the cost of return postage for faulty items but only if they are returned using second or standard class Royal Mail.
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Aug 22, 2011
Narcolepsy onset most common in spring, after flu season
Narcolepsy appears to follow seasonal patterns of influenza and other upper airway infections, with an onset most commonly in April and a threefold increase after the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, according to a study of Chinese patients published today in Annals of Neurology. Researchers from Beijing University, Stanford University, and Case Western Reserve University analyzed self-reported onset dates from 620 patients with narcolepsy, 86% of whom were children, in Beijing from 1998 through 2010. They wrote in the study, "The occurrence of narcolepsy onset was seasonal, significantly influenced by month and calendar year. Onset was least frequent in November and most frequent in April, with a 6.7-fold increase from trough to peak." The threefold increase after the 2009 pandemic, they write, is unlikely caused by increased vaccination, as only 8 of 142 (5.6%) postpandemic patients said they received the H1N1 vaccine. "Together with recent findings, these results strongly suggest that winter airway infections such as influenza A (including H1N1) and/or Streptococcus pyogenes are triggers for narcolepsy," the authors wrote. A Stanford press release today stated, "The paper doesn't show cause and effect, but it does show a strong correlation between narcolepsy onset and this seasonal pattern."
Aug 22 Ann Neurol abstract
Aug 22 Stanford press release
Study: 1918 pandemic flu deaths followed earlier pneumonia pattern
Prepandemic deaths due to pneumonia were a much better predictor of mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic than were prepandemic deaths due to influenza, according to a new study by Mexican and US researchers. The researchers examined annual death rates from pneumonia and influenza from 66 large US cities from 1910 through 1916, as well as the pandemic years of 1918 through 1920. They found a strong association between prepandemic pneumonia and pandemic death rates (P < 0.001), but only a weak correlation between prepandemic flu deaths and pandemic flu deaths. They also found that smaller cities suffered a disproportionately higher per capita flu mortality rate than did larger ones in 1918, while city size did not affect pneumonia prepandemic and pandemic mortality rates.
Aug 19 PLoS One study
Indonesia produces its first H5N1 vaccine strain
Scientists at Indonesia's Airlangaa University have created an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine seed strain that could be used to immunize humans, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday. Dr Chairul Anwar Nidom, who heads the lab that created the vaccine strain, said the project, which began 6 months ago, cost $234,000 and involved collaborators from Japan. Nidom told the news outlet Tempointeraktif.com that the seed strain is the first to be produced by Indonesian experts and involves an Indonesian H5N1 virus. "There is no more reason why research has to be conducted abroad, because research could be conducted locally," he said. In 2006, a controversy erupted over the global sharing of influenza viruses when Indonesia started withholding samples to protest the high cost of commercial vaccines made from the viruses. In April a WHO working group finalized negotiations on a final agreement, which clarified the rights and roles of countries. The pact was approved by the World Health Assembly in May.
Aug 21 Jakarta Post story
Minority groups in Northern Territory hit harder by H1N1
Indigenous populations in Australia's Northern Territory contracted 2009 H1N1 flu at almost double the rate of nonindigenous people in that region, according to a serology study. Researchers found that 7.6% of 445 blood samples collected before the pandemic showed protective immunity (hemagglutinin inhibition antibody titer > 40). Of 1,689 samples collected in September 2009 (after the summer 2009 pandemic peak in that region), 19.5% showed protective immunity, for a population-standardized attack rate of 14.9%. Nonindigenous residents had a 12.4% attack rate, compared with 22.9% for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. In addition, those 14 years old and younger had an attack rate of 36.0%. The authors conclude, "Given that in all groups, the majority of the population is likely to remain susceptible to the virus following the pandemic, vaccination campaigns and public health responses are essential and should focus on high-risk groups, which requires respectful engagement with communities."
Aug 19 Emerg Infect Dis study
Virginia warns of measles exposure on train
Virginia health official yesterday warned passengers who rode an inbound Amtrak train on Aug 17 that they may have been exposed to measles. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) said in a press release that the alert applied to passengers on Amtrak's Northeast Regional train #171 that originated in Boston at 8:15 a.m. that day and made stops in Maryland (fours stops), the District of Columbia (Union Station), and Virginia (six stops), where it ended in Lynchburg at 8:36 p.m. Maribeth Brewster, spokeswoman for the VDH, told the Washington Post that the patient is a foreign visitor to northern Virginia who boarded the train in Philadelphia, before its Maryland stops. The VDH said the warning does not apply to people who departed the train before it arrived in Philadelphia. It said based on the exposure timeline, people who were potentially exposed could start having symptoms as late as Sep 7.
Aug 21 VDH statement
In other measles developments, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) said it and partners in Dakota County are investigating two measles infections in young children. One is in a 12-month-old child who got sick in early August shortly after returning from Kenya, where the disease is endemic, the MDH said in an Aug 19 statement. The child is hospitalized in critical condition. The second child, age 15 months, got sick after visiting the family of the first child and is also hospitalized. Neither had been vaccinated against the disease. Dr Aaron DeVries, medical director for infectious disease epidemiology, prevention, and control at the MDH, said in the statement that vaccination is especially important for those traveling to areas where measles is more common. Though typically the first measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) dose is given at 12 to 15 months of age, for children who will be traveling internationally it can be given at 6 to 12 months.
Aug 19 MDH statement


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Senior U.N. officials say higher food prices, poor rains and lack of access echo 2011 famine
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Hunger is set to worsen in Somalia due to rising food prices, patchy rains and a lack of access to people in need, undermining efforts to rebuild the conflict-scarred country, senior U.N. officials said late on Wednesday.
The last two rainy seasons, which people rely upon to grow food and provide for their cattle and goats, have been poor. Many Somalis are still reeling from famine in 2011, which killed 260,000 people and was caused by drought, conflict and a ban on food aid in territory held by the Islamist militant group, al Shabaab.
"All the signs we saw before 2011's severe famine are here – reduced humanitarian access, insecurity, increasing food prices, delayed rains and rapidly worsening malnutrition among children," said John Ging, operations director for the U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"It is vital that we act now to avert another disaster," he said in a statement after visiting Somalia last week.
African Union and government forces mounted a new offensive earlier this year against al Shabaab, driving the militants out of several towns in the Horn of Africa country. But the group still controls swathes of countryside and has made it difficult for supplies to reach towns regained by AU-backed government troops.
Some 857,000 people, most of them displaced, need urgent assistance before the harvest in August, the United Nations said. Its $933 million humanitarian appeal for Somalia in 2014 is only 25 percent funded.
"We have a small but critical window to do what's needed to prevent a repeat of 2011," Ted Chaiban, the U.N. children's fund's (Unicef) emergency director, added.
"Somalia is at a crossroads. Today, 50,000 children are severely malnourished, including many at risk of death within weeks if they do not get the treatment they need."
Unicef said it will have to suspend essential health services for over three million people, more than 620,000 of them children, due to lack of funding. At the end of April, Unicef had received only eight percent of the funding required for 2014.
"Failure to act decisively to address humanitarian needs will not only lead to another humanitarian crisis but will also undermine the peace and state-building gains of the last two years, jeopardising this rare window for Somalia to graduate from failed state status," Ging said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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M.S. Physician Assistant Info Session
Thursday, November 19, 2015
6 - 7:30 p.m.
|Instructions for Guests
|View maps and directions to Bethel University's Anderson Center (2 Pine Tree Drive, Arden Hills, MN 55112).
|Please register to let us know you'll be joining us.
Event Description
Have you ever considered becoming a physician assistant or wondered what it would take to pursue the PA profession? If so, please join us for an info session about our Physician Assistant Program. At this session, you will have an opportunity to tour the facility, hear a program overview, and get your questions answered by faculty.
Contact the Office of Graduate Admissions at 651.635.8000 or 800.255.8706, ext. 8000, or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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The Magnificent Seven / Revisiting four-star restaurants reveals they're better than ever
When conversation turns to the 13-course tasting menu at Campton Place or a five-hour dining marathon at the French Laundry, someone inevitably says, "Oh, I can't eat that way. I really don't like to spend hours at the table."
We live in a gobble-and-go society, and despite all our so-called time- saving devices, we never seem to have enough hours in the day. When I re- evaluated the Bay Area four-star restaurants five years ago, it seemed as if places such as Fleur de Lys and Masa's were desperately trying to reinvent themselves. Meals were scaled down to be eaten quickly. Dark suits or colorful shirts and ties replaced the once-customary tuxedos on waiters, and polo shirts and chinos became accepted attire for patrons. Chefs loosened up the menus so much that at times the food appeared little different from what you'd get at a really good brasserie.
Now the dining world has started to spin in the other direction. Recent back-to-back visits to 13 of the Bay Area's highest-rated restaurants showed that this elite genre not only survives, but thrives. I expected to see an aging crowd filling the comfortable seats in these posh dining rooms, but instead the patrons were diverse in every way.
Men in neckties are still the exception, but diners seem to be dressing up more than they were five years ago. Masa's has reinstated the policy of jackets for men, and the French Laundry started requiring jackets last year. Chefs are still responsive to what diners want, including more choices and shorter tasting menus so the impatient among us can get in and out in two hours. Yet the more leisurely pace of dining also seems to be enjoying a resurgence. What's really exciting is that chefs are cooking better than ever.
Quality abounds
At each restaurant -- the French Laundry in Yountville; Manresa in Los Gatos; Chez Panisse in Berkeley; and Masa's, Fleur de Lys, La Folie, Michael Mina, Gary Danko, the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Aqua, Acquerello, Campton Place and Fifth Floor, all in San Francisco -- I ordered the chef's tasting menu and suggested wine pairings, figuring this is where the restaurants show their best work.
The strategy paid off. Before today, The Chronicle had awarded the top rating to just four restaurants; now, three more will be added to this star- studded galaxy.
Even if you never step foot inside the French Laundry or Chez Panisse, there are myriad reasons why anyone who loves food -- even if it's no more glamorous than burgers and pizza -- should care.
The gold standard
Four-star restaurants are the culinary equivalent of haute couture. Just as what appears on the runway today may very well be in the department stores next season, what's being cooked in the top kitchens will affect the menus of the restaurants where we eat most often.
The four-star chefs, seeking out unusual ingredients and developing infusions, foams and gelees, are creating ideas that may end up at an ambitious local brasserie in a few months and at TGI Friday's in a few years. What some might perceive as a frivolous indulgence is a glimpse of the future. (See "Four-Star Trends," Page 22.) These chefs are several steps ahead, interpreting and distilling culinary ideas and undercurrents, and reflecting them on the plate.
West Coast chefs have always been intensely ingredient-driven; their colleagues on the East Coast have relied more on technique. While other parts of the country joined the artisan food revolution that Alice Waters started nearly 35 years ago at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, the Bay Area remains at the forefront. It cuts across every strata of restaurant, and it's particularly evident in this top tier.
Considering the expense involved in sourcing the ingredients and the artistry involved in putting them together, four-star dining is a pretty good deal. For example, a meal of about 16 courses and a dozen wines at Campton Place costs around $200. An 85-minute wrap, facial and massage treatment at the high-end spa Bliss is $215, tip not included. My recent four-star meals were not only just as restorative, but the memory of my delight in cutting into a foie gras torchon and releasing an amber stream of aged maple syrup will last for years.
Nuanced differences
The elements that separate the seven restaurants that received four stars and the six that didn't are subtle. In many cases, four-star chefs take a few more chances, knowing that if they nail that quadruple lutz, they will get the perfect score.
The seven detailed today hit their mark. The others came close.
Michael Mina in the Westin St. Francis hotel is a brilliant restaurant and seemed like a shoo-in when I reviewed it last year, but on my recent visit, the combinations seemed a little flat and the tasting menu was less impressive than the regular menu.
At Masa's, the cooking is practically flawless, but there weren't enough "wow" moments.
Both Gary Danko and Acquerello are excellent values -- if Consumer Reports were doing the rating, they'd be considered Best Buys -- and the food at both places is pristine; however, the results are a bit too predictable.
At Aqua, the excessive noise and crammed quarters distract from the overall experience. The food lacked that final polish, and the wine pairings were weak.
Fifth Floor repeated too many of the same ingredients in the tasting menu, making it a little boring, and the wine pairings were so ill-planned that they detracted from the artistry on the plate.
What follows is a look at the seven restaurants that made the cut. Still, all of the restaurants I visited can and do represent the best of what Bay Area fine dining has to offer.
Four-star trends
Dining among the stars is both a heady and enlightening experience. Chefs of this caliber are creative and are constantly seeking new ways to approach food. Each is unique, but in my back-to-back visits to 13 of the Bay Area's top-rated places, I discovered some broad trends. We're likely to see these at more and more restaurants as other chefs experiment with what the elite group has mastered.
-- Diverse cooking styles. The biggest change is the wide range of cooking styles among the four-star contenders. Most top chefs have moved way beyond the strict European approach, gently melding elements from Asia, Mexico and South America. Ron Siegel, who earned four stars at the now-shuttered Charles Nob Hill, made a splash when he implemented a Japanese kaiseki menu after moving to Masa's. He's now turned the uber-French Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton on its ear with several sashimi dishes.
The Japanese spirit is pervasive at many other places -- a striped Jack appetizer drizzled with olive oil and fresh herbs at Manresa in Los Gatos; slices of yellowfin tuna and hamachi with edamame, shaved hearts of palm, daikon radish sprouts and wasabi vinaigrette on the six-course tasting menu at Masa's; a carpaccio of bluefin tuna draped over foie gras at Campton Place; and a hamachi parfait with crispy rice cake and sea urchin vinaigrette at Michael Mina.
-- Beyond California wine. Forward-looking sommeliers are reaching far outside California for inspiration. Riesling is the darling today, but a few are discovering the versatility of sake. At Campton Place, John Ragan matches a Junmai Daiginjo with a trio of Daniel Humm's tartares; at the French Laundry, Paul Roberts pairs sake with a puree of avocado with Russian sevruga caviar.
-- Bold seasonings. Asian and African flavors are showing up more frequently in the most refined menus. Gary Danko uses Thai red curry in pan- steamed shellfish; Madras curry vinaigrette on a lobster salad with avocado, papaya and mango; and a Moroccan spice rub on squab with chermoula and orange- cumin carrots. At Fleur de Lys, Hubert Keller successfully pairs sea bass with Spanish chorizo, and Aqua's Laurent Manrique offers a Moroccan spiced tuna tartare.
-- Surprise packages. The top chefs are using familiar ingredients in unfamiliar ways, whether it's a sweet and savory melon soup at Masa's and Aqua, or black olive madeleines at Manresa. Humm pairs chilled cantaloupe soup with lobster ice cream to kick off the Campton Place tasting menu, and he finishes with a quark souffle with apricots, black pepper and thin strips of candied prosciutto slicing the top of a scoop of whole milk ice cream. At the French Laundry, white chocolate granite highlights a sweet nicoise olive nougatine. Both Manresa and Masa's serve corn ice cream or sorbet, and basil also shows up in frozen confections at Fleur de Lys and Masa's.
-- Unusual combinations. This same daring approach is being used in combining meat and seafood. A fatty square of pork belly sits on roasted lobster at the Ritz-Carlton; abalone is the unlikely plate mate to pig trotters at Manresa; sweetbreads cozy up to sea urchin roe at Fleur de Lys; and lobster, pig's feet and sweetbreads are blended together in one rich, luxurious patty at La Folie.
-- Concentrating flavors. Americans seem to crave bold, unexpected flavors and chefs are finding different ways to concentrate them; some still do it with foams, but that's quickly being replaced with gelees, those sparkling Jell-O-like garnishes that capture the essence of an ingredient -- tomato, Sauternes and chamomile or summer truffle at the Ritz-Carlton; apple perking up a Dungeness crab Napoleon at La Folie; and red pepper and cucumber at Masa's.
-- Overlooked ingredients. Chefs are using old-fashioned or little-known ingredients to expand diners' palates. You'll find peppery sancho leaves at the Ritz-Carlton, lemon myrtle at the Fifth Floor, Spanish black rice at Aqua, and crab apples and Wagyu beef at the French Laundry.
-- Salt is the darling of seasonings. A few years ago, a kitchen that stocked kosher and sea salt was considered well equipped, but now chefs search out salt from exotic regions. At the French Laundry, nine kinds of salt accompany the foie gras presentation, and at the Ritz-Carlton, a waiter grates an onyx-like chunk of Bolivian salt over the milk-fed veal tenderloin with sweetbread medallions. Daniel Humm considers salting so important that he's the only one allowed to execute the final seasoning in the Campton Place kitchen.
Chef's menu: $98 for 13 courses plus up to four extra treats from the chef. Other menus: $65 for three courses and $78 for four, with choices in each category.
Wine pairings: $68 for 12 wines
Time at table: 3 1/4 hours
Daniel Humm, who has been at the helm of this 20-year-old hotel restaurant for about two years, is the brightest star to land in Northern California since Thomas Keller opened the French Laundry in Yountville.
Hotel manager Paul Zuest found Humm cooking in Switzerland; the fact that he didn't speak English well and had never been out of Switzerland didn't seem to interfere with his cooking ability. Inspired by local ingredients, he has transformed his classic style and now cooks in a lighter California vein.
Humm got his permanent green card in July, and we can only hope that he decides to make the Bay Area his home. His combinations are bright, clean and focused. It's the type of food that makes me giddy with delight; the next day I'm still smiling.
The food: The culinary surprises start with complimentary appetizers -- a long tray filled with eight delicate tastes that look like the savory version of petit fours. The assortment may include two delicately fried sardines, a tiny crab sandwich, a bundle of fried sweetbreads and a jewel-like square of sashimi. That's followed by an intense gazpacho pureed into a smooth broth and topped with frothy tomato foam next to a cucumber sorbet. No two dishes are repeated, so while one person is spooning into the gazpacho, another is enjoying chilled cantaloupe soup with a Gewurztraminer foam and a lobster ice cream that sounds weird but has a caramel-like richness.
When you cut into the foie gras torchon, aged maple syrup gushes out. Crunchy nuggets of salt scattered over the top act like tiny bolts of lightning, illuminating whatever's around it. Other surprises abound with just about every course: Inside the ravioli-like round of bluefin tuna lies a thin slice of crusty baguette topped with artisan foie gras, setting up another startling contrast of textures.
Humm prepares a fillet of John Dory sous vide style to preserve its delicate flavor, covers the top with a hundred "scales" of baby zucchini, and serves it with a saffron fumet with a confit of tomatoes and a perfect fried squash blossom leaf.
For dessert, the quark souffle forms a puffy cloud over apricot compote, arranged next to quark ice cream dusted with black pepper and two thin shavings of candied prosciutto. It's as startling -- and palate-pleasing -- as the crystals of Maldon sea salt Humm sprinkles over the chocolate and caramel dessert. Salting is so crucial that he insists on finishing every plate himself.
Each dish is meticulously constructed so that it unfolds like a three-act play.
The pairings: Sommelier John Ragan is as brilliant in his beverage pairings as Humm is in creating the food. The matches are magical and titillating. The Hoyo Kura no Hana Junmai Daiginjo sake, created from a new strain of rice by a 350-year-old producer, pairs admirably with a trio of tartares -- kona kompachi (a close relative of Japanese yellowtail), bluefin and hirame (halibut). The bone-dry Emilio Lustau Manzanilla sherry blooms with a nutty richness when paired with a creamy timbale of fresh goat cheese from Adante Dairy.
I'm a red wine person, and the menu included only one -- the 1999 Domaine de Pegau Cuvee Reserve Chateauneuf-du-Pape with the herb-roasted squab. Yet the collaboration between the food and wine was so fine that I didn't care.
If you order off the regular list, there are more than 1,000 selections from which to choose.
The service: The staff works together like cogs in a wheel. Waiters know the menu and can describe the dishes in detail. Sommelier Ragan has a child- like enthusiasm for his wines that lights up the subdued room and strips away any modicum of pretension.
The look: Ornate windows along one wall of the 70-seat restaurant are covered in gossamer fabric that reveals shadowy glimpses of the activity on Campton Alley. The walls and furniture are washed in neutral tones with the widely spaced, generously sized tables surrounded by comfortable leather chairs and a series of banquettes along the wall opposite the windows. The focal point of the room is a dark-wood buffet centered under hand-blown glass tubes that look like red-lipped orchids. The ambience is elegant and understated.
Vitals: 340 Stockton St. (near Sutter), San Francisco; (415) 955-5555. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Full bar. Credit cards accepted. Reservations accepted as long in advance as you choose.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: FOUR STARS
Atmosphere: THREE AND A HALF STARS
Menu: $50 for three-course dinner on Mondays; $65 for four courses Tuesday-Thursday; $75 Friday and Saturday.
Wine pairings: Wines are opened and poured by the glass to complement the single menu that changes nightly. Prices change daily.
Time at table: 1 1/2 hours for a three-course menu
Each time I survey the four-star restaurants, I feel that I need to justify why Chez Panisse should be among them. The restaurant does only one menu a night, with no choice. David Tanis is the chef from mid-May to mid- November, and Jean-Pierre Moulle handles the rest of the year. You'll find no culinary fireworks on the plate, and its 50-seat interior, while a perfect complement to the food, is more casual than other places in the four-star galaxy. Yet each meal is memorable. The ingredients are superior to those you'll find anywhere in the country, and the staff treats them with such care that each bite is a revelation. To me, that's the perfect definition of a four- star restaurant.
The food: When a small plate of radishes, with perfect edible leaves, and a slice of house-made coppa arrives before the meal, it's evident why Chez Panisse remains on top. It's so simple -- there is no room for mistakes. While thousands of restaurants have followed Alice Waters' obsession with freshness, her kitchen continues to raise the bar.
Every meal I've eaten at Chez Panisse has epiphanies. This time, the first was the green bean salad accompanying a wedge of tomato-goat cheese tart that kicked off a three-course Monday night menu cooked by Philip Dedlow. I've never had the sensation of a bean snapping like a rubber band and then gently yielding to tender cooked flesh that's both sweet and herbal. The beans are bathed in vinaigrette laced with fine ribbons of licorice-scented basil; the dressing works like a makeup artist to bring out the natural beauty of the ingredients.
The next epiphany came with the leg of baby goat we glimpsed suspended over the open fireplace as we took our places for the 9:15 seating, the only time we could get. The goat is cooked three ways -- the leg roasted, the chops grilled and the shoulder braised. It's accompanied by fresh Oregon porcini tossed with crisp roasted potatoes.
Dessert is heavenly -- ice cream with apricot compote, accompanied by a flaky cookie twist. The apricots aren't just any apricots, but come from Frog Hollow and are the Golden Sweet variety, a name I'll remember for future farmers' markets forays.
The service: Because the staff concentrates on one menu each night, they really get to know the food and can practically pull out pedigree papers for each mushroom, herb or grain of salt. Their service techniques are flawless and unpretentious.
The pairings: We had glasses of two wines with the three-course menu. The 2004 Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc ($10) from South Africa had kind of an herbal gooseberry quality that freshens the palate, smoothed by the goat cheese in the tart. The goat was paired with the 1999 Domaine Tempier Bandol ($11), a Mourvedre blend that some have characterized as animalistic and compared to sweaty saddle leather. The wine brought out the sweet nuances of the meat, creating another stellar match.
There are only 250 wines on the list, but the 20 by-the-glass selections change daily.
The look: The interior is a Craftsman showcase, with rich wood paneling, copper chandeliers and sconces, and a handsome wood-beamed ceiling in the low- slung dining room. Pristine ingredients star in the interior as well as on the plate, with fresh flowers at the entrance and display bowls of produce announcing what's in season -- on our visit, it was green beans and apricots. The kitchen, where you can see the chefs cooking, feels like an extension of the dining room, with all the warmth and charm of a friend's home.
Vitals: 1517 Shattuck Ave. (near Cedar), Berkeley; (510) 548-5525. Dinner Monday-Saturday. Beer and wine. Credit cards accepted. Reservations accepted one month in advance.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: FOUR STARS
Atmosphere: THREE AND A HALF STARS
The menu: $115 for nine courses plus three extras from the chef to begin, choices from a trolley of lollipops and candies and boxed caramels to take home; $68 for three courses, with choices; $89 for a six-course traditional or vegetarian menu.
Wine pairings: $74 for nine wines
Time at table: 3 hours
Ron Siegel, who garnered a top rating at Charles Nob Hill before turning around the kitchen at Masa's, has brought star power to the Ritz-Carlton. Now some of the city's most exciting food is being served in one of the city's most staid environments, a dining room that reminds you of a rich grandmother's parlor.
Since Siegel became the first American chef to win the original Iron Chef contest in Japan a few years ago, he's continued to nurture a love affair with Japanese food, and that respect for ingredients and focused flavors is a guiding force throughout the menu.
The food: The nine-course tasting menu features different preparations for everyone at the table; one person may have pan-seared foie gras with spicy pickled cherries and a peach reduction infused with vanilla, while the other will have a chilled terrine, with tiny squares of Sauternes gelee, a dash of mulberry jam and purslane, a crunchy succulent with a viscous juice not unlike okra, studded with candied nuts.
Dinner begins with one of the most memorable dishes -- a sea urchin panna cotta. It's almost as light as whipped cream, as rich as butter and as fresh as a sea breeze.
I didn't think the meal could get any better until the sashimi of spot prawns glistening with squares of tomato gelee arrived, followed by a parade of waiters, one carrying a bright green root of fresh wasabi and a shark-skin grater and brush for dusting the shavings over the top of the seafood, another carrying two small black iron pots of salt, and a third holding a tray with two white dishes and a pitcher of lemon juice. The server gently mounds a different salt in each dish, pours in a little lemon juice and makes a slurry for dipping. The flesh of the shrimp is sweet, with a rich velvety texture, enhanced by the salt and lemon. The servers also bring the deep-fried shrimp heads -- crisp, salty and delicious. It's a memory that will stay fresh in my mind for years.
A master at concentrating flavors, Siegel makes generous use of gelees and intense ingredients not often found in the traditional Western kitchen, including peppery sancho leaves, pickled black plum, fresh hearts of palm and masago caviar infused with jalapeño. He also uses a collection of salt, even sending the waiters out with an onyx-like chunk of Bolivian salt that they grate over the dish that adds a fresh sparkle to whatever it touches.
Siegel balances contrasting textures to dramatic effect in such dishes as sauteed Japanese sole on still-chewy slices of abalone and crunchy baby leeks, smaller than a pencil. He pairs roasted Maine lobster with a slab of pork belly, lobster mushrooms and an incredible sweet-and-sour sauce that tickles the tongue like a gentle barrage of Champagne bubbles.
The pairings: Stephane Lacroix likes to introduce diners to small- production wines such as the 2002 Warwick Estate Three Cape Ladies, a South African Cabernet Sauvignon blend that focused the flavors in the veal tenderloin with crispy sweetbread and Bordelaise sauce. Finding a wine to go with a pungent sweet-and-sour sauce isn't easy, but his choice of the 1999 Henschke Chardonnay from South Australia was brilliant; it helped to cool things down a notch without destroying the pleasant, tingling sensation that went along with it. If possible, the 2003 Tablas Creek Vineyards Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc became even better -- showing a complex, fruity side -- paired with the halibut and spot prawn ravioli.
In all, the list includes about 1,200 bottles.
The service: Much like the French Laundry, the service here seems smooth and choreographed, with black-suited waiters effortlessly gliding around the 92-seat room, bringing food and then disappearing into the background. However, like personal butlers, they appear when needed, and are always around to answer questions.
The look: Some say if you've been to one Ritz-Carlton, you've been to them all. They're luxurious, to be sure, but a bit stuffy, with swags of shimmering drapes and a kaleidoscope of red-hued patterns on the floor, chairs and banquettes. An attempt has been made to lighten the mood with more contemporary art on the light wood walls, but the room still isn't the best environment to showcase this chef's exciting, cutting-edge cuisine.
Vitals: 600 Stockton St. (at California), San Francisco; (415) 773-6198. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations accepted one year in advance (four months for holidays).
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: FOUR STARS
Atmosphere: THREE STARS
Chef's menu: Diners construct their own menu; tasting menu by request. $70 for three courses; $78 for four; $88 for five. Two amuse bouches to begin, and an array of sweets to end.
Wine pairings: $45 for three courses; $55 for four; $65 for five
Time at table: 3 1/4 hours (for five-course menu)
Fleur de Lys is the grandaddy of the constellations, still on top after 35 years. Hubert Keller, who pioneered the fixed-price vegetarian menu, continues to break new ground with his lush French-California style. He's worked for several Michelin three-star chefs, including Paul Bocuse and Roger Verge, and his training is evident on each plate. When the restaurant reopened after a fire several years ago, Keller and partner Maurice Rouas reconstructed the tented dining room while improving the bar, private dining rooms and kitchen. Last year Keller opened a Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas, but even when he's away from his San Francisco restaurant, the food continues to shine.
The food: Keller has reached back to his native Alsace for his new menu, taking seemingly humble ingredients and transforming them to haute dishes such as Duo of Foie Gras Bartholdi. It combines foie gras, truffles and fingerling potatoes, which are baked in a pastry-sealed dome, removed tableside. That's accompanied by a seared duck burger with foie gras on a brioche bun.
An earthy flan of red beets enhances marinated venison loin, shimmering in a peppery sauce accented with Kirsch. The chef adds another surprise with the julienne of fresh pineapple that seems to lighten everything up.
A rustic "stew" of potatoes accompanies the lamb loin with whole-grain mustard, honey and red wine. Chunks of caramelized cauliflower lifts a pistachio-crusted salmon, dressed up with potato blini with caviar and watercress coulis; it's a complicated amalgamation of ingredients, yet the flavors are integrated.
One of the best starters is a degustation of three soups -- a chilled salsify vichyssoise with a big dollop of osetra caviar, warm oxtail consomme with a glaze of foie gras, and hot Maine lobster bisque with veal sweetbread "croutons" that have the crunch and flavor of pork rinds.
You have to give the kitchen credit for trying, but the pie-shaped slice of sweetened tomato pizza, dotted with pineapple and arranged next to a crescent moon cheesecake and a quenelle of intense basil ice cream, is a best- forgotten novelty. The classic chocolate souffle is much better, and the kitchen redeemed itself completely with warm madeleines, tiny tarts and bite- size chocolates that preceded the check.
The pairings: Of the four-star restaurants, Fleur de Lys was the least sophisticated in matching wine and food. Even with nearly 1,000 wines on the list, the pairings seemed predictable and safe -- 2000 Domaine Trimbach Pinot Gris with the trio of soups, 2003 Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc with a soft-shell crab on spinach leaves with piquillo pepper coulis and lobster succotash, and 2001 Havens Merlot with the lamb main course.
As a bonus, sommelier Marcus Garcia brought the 2004 Clos Sharon "Tickled Pink" rosé wine to try with the crab, and that turned out to be the best match of the evening. When it came time for the cheese course, our waiter asked if we wanted port or a red wine, but he didn't seem too enthusiastic about either. With dessert, he admitted he wasn't sure what to serve, so we opted out.
The service: It's evident the staff has been well trained, but they sometimes fall down on the details. It took about 25 minutes to get the first glass of wine, and when food was brought to the table we had to ask for descriptions, which were cursory at best. On our trio of soups, for example, the kitchen added a spoon of caviar and a spoon of crispy sweetbreads to the platter, but the waiter gave no indication which garnish was designed for which soup.
The look: This is the most romantic space in the city. The walls and the ceiling are draped in beautiful printed fabric, making the 75-seat dining room feel womb-like and somewhat exotic. A mammoth flower arrangement in the center speaks of luxury. The soft lighting has a Mediterranean aura, making everyone over 35 look at least a decade younger.
Vitals: 777 Sutter St. (near Taylor), San Francisco; (415) 673-7779. Dinner Monday-Saturday. Reservations accepted two months in advance.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: THREE STARS
Atmosphere: FOUR STARS
The menu: $175 for a nine-course tasting menu plus two to four "unofficial" courses; $175 also for a seven-course menu or a nine-course vegetable tasting menu.
Wine pairings: Pairings are done individually, but generally cost about $150 a person for about 10 wines to go with the tasting menu
Time at table: 5 hours
Thomas Keller continues to raise the bar for all the other four-star restaurants, even with the challenge of running an equally demanding restaurant, Per Se, in New York. It doesn't matter how many components a dish may have -- the result is so vibrant that the flavors practically leap off the plate.
Early experiences taught Keller to treat each ingredient with care and respect. He recalls the time he accidentally snapped the leg of a rabbit when he reached into the cage to grab it and didn't have a proper grip. He still remembers the squeal of pain, but that gruesome incident became a defining moment in shaping his approach to food -- every element is treated with dignity, and cooked in a way that celebrates it. Keller is one of the most thoughtful and precise of chefs, and it shows in every preparation. He's so exacting and particular that he has designed just about every plate and serving piece in the restaurant. About a year ago, he raised his menu price from $115 to $175, and recently also added an automatic gratuity, which is split among the staff -- much as Chez Panisse has been doing for years. While the price is formidable, with Keller's culinary genius and Laura Cunningham's front-of-the-house magic, the experience is well worth the extra dollars. The menu changes anywhere from 30 to 60 percent a night, depending on what's fresh that day.
The food: Every meal at the French Laundry begins with salmon coronets, a scoop of tartare and creme fraiche in a sesame tuille cone. It's such an important signature that Keller has designed a special silver stand from which to serve it that costs about $250.
While the repertoire changes nightly, a few items have become standards, including Oyster and Pearls (tapioca sabayon and caviar) and Coffee and Doughnuts, cinnamon-sugared pastries and a demitasse of cappuccino semifreddo.
Keller is always creating items that reveal his keen sense of humor. There's "Thomas' English muffin," a play on the giant bakery, that accompanies his eggs perigourdine, but the name is where any similarity ends. His muffins have a yeasty flavor and a crisp texture that stands up to the poached Araucana hen egg, truffled hollandaise and shavings of Perigord truffles.
To me, the true test of a great restaurant is what you remember the next morning. After most meals, I might remember two or three dishes, but after eating at the French Laundry my recollections could fill a notebook: tender confit of veal heart glazed with a turnip glace; house-made truffle pappardelle, brown from its exquisite flavoring, glistening in butter and reinforced with perfect paper-thin rounds of more truffles; and a stunningly fresh roasted trumpet fish with an array of forest mushrooms and a drizzling of 50-year-old sherry vinegar. Sirloin of Wagyu has so much marbling that while it has the texture of beef, it also has the liquid essence of foie gras. Keller serves it with half moons of bone marrow bread pudding, tiny glazed carrots and a sauce Bordelaise.
The pairings: Wine director Paul Roberts creates his pairings nightly using the 30 by-the-glass offerings and the more than 100 half bottle selections on the 1,400-item wine list. It's impossible to keep up with the kitchen, which might send out a course on a whim.
A master sommelier, Roberts selects wines that surprise and startle. With the confit of veal hearts with baby mache and turnips, he decants 1998 Vilmart "Grand Cellier de Rubis" Brut Rose to make the wine seem creamier. Its natural astringency, however, offers a refreshing counterpoint to the meat, which in turn brings out a note of fruity softness in the wine. It's a magical roller-coaster ride.
A dish composed of avocado and Russian sevruga caviar is enhanced with a Sato no Homare (Pride of the Village) Junmai Ginjo Sake. A rich, smoky Brunello 1999 Ciacci Piccolomini is a heavenly match for the luscious Wagyu beef, smoothing and enhancing the character of both. Eggs with truffles call for a 1978 Barbeito Madeira.
The service: As with the food, the French Laundry is the gold standard of how service should unfold. Every aspect of the experience is carefully choreographed by Cunningham, who is so exacting that she brought in an expert from the American Ballet Theatre to give the staff classes in movement. Unlike formal French service, where only the captain answers questions, here everyone on the staff is up to speed and conversant. They move with confidence and ease, and pass off duties to one another like an Olympic relay team.
The look: The dining room has the luxurious atmosphere of a French countryside Michelin three-star, with an impeccably maintained garden, a beautiful bright kitchen and a cozy dining room with 62 seats over two floors. Boxed-beam ceilings and a fireplace in one room, a century-old rock wall in another and an upstairs seating area overlooking the garden all contribute to the experience. Everything is so meticulous that even the gravel in the parking lot is raked every day. The polished look extends to the customers -- this is one of two four-stars that requires jackets for men.
Vitals: 6640 Washington St. (near Creek), Yountville; (707) 944-2380. Lunch Friday-Sunday; dinner nightly. Reservations accepted two months in advance for parties of one to seven; one year for parties of eight to twelve.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: FOUR STARS
Atmosphere: FOUR STARS
Tasting menu: $85 for five courses, plus one amuse bouche and small treats at the end; $60 for three courses; $75 for four.
Wine pairings: $55 for four wines
Time at table: 2 1/4 hours
La Folie started out as a casual affair when it opened in 1988, but with each year chef-owner Roland Passot cranked up the style. Even after a remodel about seven years ago, the interior never paralleled the artistry of the cooking.
Earlier this year, Passot closed La Folie for a few weeks for an around- the-clock remodel, and reopened it with a dramatically upgraded dining room. He enlarged the tables and took out a dozen seats to make the experience more enjoyable for guests.
The new interior also reinvigorated his cooking. His classic French training is modulated with a California sensibility, and he's interjected a little humor in his offerings such as quail and foie gras lollipops or an opening salvo of "steak frites" -- beef carpaccio topped with truffles and a little cone of shoestring potatoes.
The food: Where Passot differs from his colleagues is with the humongous size of the portions; it's kind of the Hungry Man's version of four-star dining.
The menu begins with a bright green chervil-scented soup with crisp-fried nuggets of frog legs, followed by pan-roasted sturgeon on a raft of leeks sailing on a red wine and thyme reduction. The sauce anchors the fish to the other element on the plate -- a silver-dollar-size polenta cake mounded with oxtail meat as silken as foie gras. Passot arranges baby turnips, onions and carrots alongside.
The most memorable dish is the warm, crisp patty of gooey pig's feet, sweetbreads and lobster, topped with a tight mound of frisee salad, all arranged on lentils flavored with bacon and a hazelnut vinaigrette.
His trio of rabbit is nearly as impressive -- and filling. A fat leg, the size of a good-size chicken drumstick, is arranged at the top of the plate, with a sprig of rosemary protruding from the bone. The loin is rolled tightly around carrots, garlic cloves and spinach, and sliced to look like a colorful mosaic. The rack and a medley of vegetables are piled in the center, adding color and crunch to the blend.
Diners have a choice of desserts, including coconut tapioca pudding with passion fruit sorbet, or a rich chocolate caramel mousse. Before the check arrives, the waiter brings a tray of bite-size sweets, but by that time another bite seems impossible; the staff graciously packs them up and sends them home with you.
The pairings: While some of the matches are adequate, there's not much excitement, and the price seems steep compared to other restaurants of this caliber. The 2003 Chateau la Gatte Bordeaux Blanc Sec took on a harsh note when paired with the frog leg soup. From there, the menu called for red wine. A 2001 Domaine Desertaux-Ferrand Ladoix was innocuous, but a 2002 Acorn Medley, Alegria Vineyards Russian River, a blend of 15 varietals, made a spectacular showing with the rich pig's feet, sweetbread and lobster terrine; and the 2001 Domaine Le Galantin Bandol, a Mouvedre blend, enhanced the rabbit.
In all, there are 275 wines on the list.
The service: There's little one can fault about the competent service, but the staff seems a little unpolished and self-conscious, lacking the grace and smoothness seen at some of the other places.
The look: La Folie has a comfortable, dramatic interior, awash in tones of brown, with deep red banquettes. Mirrors and polished strips of copper- colored moabi wood cover the walls of the main dining room, adding rich notes and visually expanding the space. Shimmering copper-brown drapes now cover the once-open pass-through to the kitchen, adding a note of opulence and warmth.
Vitals: 2316 Polk St. (near Green), San Francisco; (415) 776-5577. Dinner Monday-Saturday. Reservations accepted as far in advance as desired.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: THREE STARS
Atmosphere: THREE AND A HALF STARS
Chef's Menu: $98 for nine courses plus five "extras" to begin and three extra sweets to end; three-course menu, $58; four-course, $68.
Wine pairings $65 for nine wines
Time at table: 3 1/2 hours
David Kinch is an innovative chef who dazzles diners by combining seemingly incongruous flavors -- foie gras and broccoli; black olives in sweet madeleines; abalone and pig trotters; turnips, plums and vanilla.
His style, which combines French and Catalan techniques, is influenced by his years at Quilted Giraffe in New York, which was known for its outlandish combinations. It's modulated by his extensive work in Germany, Spain and France and as executive chef at the legendary Ernie's in San Francisco.
Kinch opened the Los Gatos restaurant three years ago, a follow-up to his popular Sent Sovi in Saratoga. The building is a low-slung ranch house just off Santa Cruz Avenue, in which he's designed his dream kitchen and a 68-seat dining room with a modern, casual atmosphere.
The food: Kinch knows how to orchestrate a brilliant succession of flavors on his tasting menu. The evening begins with frosted domes of red gelee that look like dessert but are actually savory red pepper with a little chile heat, and madeleines made from pungent black olives. When the waiter brings the check at the end of the meal, what appear to be the same items reappear -- but this time the red gelee is strawberry and the madeleines are chocolate.
In between, Kinch offers other surprises. Dice-shaped golden fritters are designed to be eaten all at once so that when you bite into them, a gush of cream corn explodes on your tongue. He pairs seared slices of butterfish with gelatinous wild celery bouillon, and accents a salad of Santa Rosa plums, warm turnips and radishes with a vanilla-scented dressing.
Every meal at Manresa begins with his signature egg shell filled with soft eggs, maple syrup, sherry vinegar and a topping of cool cream. One of the most spectacular combinations is a broccoli and foie gras Royale, a demitasse cup of the mousse-like liver topped with a frothy broccoli puree.
The chef roasts beef in its own fat so it has the richness of the accompanying foie gras, moderated with thick slices of porcini. He breads local abalone and places it on a platform of gooey rich pig trotters, surrounded by brown butter.
Roast suckling pig is served five ways, with bite-size tastes of the shoulder, tenderloin and leg, surrounding a pile of fava beans crushed with mint and little nubbins of bacon. When you don't think you can eat another bite, the waiter revives your palate with a few strawberries drizzled with 50- year-old balsamic, followed by several sweets including a silver-dollar-size pain perdu, New Orleans-style French toast topped with a roasted apricot and a scoop of corn ice cream.
The pairings: Wine director Tom O'Connor features mostly European wines that are new to the market to pair with David Kinch's idiosyncratic cooking style. The 2003 Schlinkhaus Spatlese offers just enough sweetness and acidity to stand up to the foie gras and broccoli appetizer. The most interesting match, however, is the sirloin of beef roasted in its own fat with foie gras, which brought out a burst of ripe fruit in the 2003 Campos Reales Tempranillo from Spain.
Not everything worked, however. One of the most problematic was the more expensive 1995 Chivite Coleccion 125, that became rough and unbalanced when paired with the roast suckling pig. The 2004 Naia Verdejo was a disaster with the strawberry gazpacho, but matched well with cool melon soup topped with silken almond tofu.
The service: General Manager Michael Kean is a consummate professional whose experience is reflected in the well-trained staff. However, compared to other restaurants in this class, the staff seems young and inexperienced. At times they seem ill at ease, and the tables are so close together that it's difficult to achieve the kind of orchestrated service that Kean has in mind.
When I asked about the tasting menu, the waiter was vague, saying hesitantly that it changed nightly, and then rattling off several items such as squab, foie gras and butterfish that might be included. It was such a poor selling job that if I had been undecided, I would have forgone the tasting menu for the less-expensive option; that would have been a mistake.
The look: The room has a hard-edged architectural feel, with a few softening features such as silk drapes at the windows and a patchwork of Oriental rugs covering the polished concrete floor.
The casual sensibility of the 68-seat room plays well in Silicon Valley, but is less inviting than other places with four-star food. The tables are close together, the linens feel like standard hotel-grade, the flatware is stainless and the butter dishes are the type available at any restaurant supply house. On the other hand, there are cloth towels in the bathroom for drying your hands, and the tasting menu is inscribed nicely on embossed sheets of stationery.
Vitals: 320 Village Lane (near Santa Cruz Ave.), Los Gatos; (408) 354- 4330. Dinner Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations accepted up to two months in advance.
Overall: FOUR STARS
Food: FOUR STARS
Service: THREE STARS
Atmosphere: THREE STARS
RATINGS KEY FOUR STARS: Extraordinary THREE STARS: Excellent TWO STARS: Good ONE STAR: Fair (box): Poor. $ Inexpensive: entrees $10 and under $$ Moderate: $11-$17 $$$ Expensive: $18-$24 $$$$ Very Expensive: more than $25 Prices based on main courses. When entrees fall between these categories, the prices of appetizers help determine the dollar ratings.. ONE BELL: Pleasantly quiet (under 65 decibels) TWO BELLS: Can talk easily (65-70) THREE BELLS: Talking normally gets difficult (70-75) FOUR BELLS: Can only talk in raised voices (75-80) BOMB: Too noisy for normal conversation (80+). Chronicle critics make every attempt to remain anonymous. All meals are paid for by the Chronicle. Star ratings are based on a minimum of three visits. Ratings are updated continually based on a least one revisit.


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How do short stories work? How does any story work? Stories are a series of events connected by a theme, time and circumstances. They lead into one another and eventually conclude. Every ending is a beginning, of course. The end of a relationship is the beginning of a life as a single. Still, we live with these beginnings and endings – we draw lines between childhood and adulthood, day and night and Mondays and Sundays.
If you want to aim for realism, you need to remember this bias when writing stories. Beginnings and endings are what give stories meaning and we tell a story because it means something. It can be funny, it can show something about love but you never tell a story just to tell a story. Carver's stories have some kind of a beginning, but no real endings. Sometimes they end with a punch, sometimes with the implication something terrible is about to happen. Concrete endings are rare, yet these stories still work.
Is this poetry, or is this literature? What's the boundry between them?
Carver's stories work because he puts the purpose way ahead of structure. His purpose isn't clear-cut, which makes it all the more impressive when his stories work. There is no specific situation Carver wants to explore, no guideline that connects the stories. A lot of drinking happens and love is a big deal, but that's because love is a big deal in general.
He tries to tap into life's energy. If this sounds overly-sentimental, it's because it's hard to talk about the stories in any other way. How he achieves such emotional resonance is still unclear. Characters might as well not exist and stories rarely end or begin. It must be because of the unique structure of the book.
Few stories here stand on their own. Even the best one requires prior experience with his style before enjoying them. In fact, even as an experienced reader in minimalism and in Carver (I actually read this a long time ago in its original version – Beginners) it took me time to get into it. The style is so minimalist, so sparse that it's shocking at first. We're used to maximalist literature. Every beginner writer who gave me their stories to review has overflowing language.
We look for the grandness. We look for the symbol or the sentence that repeats itself, or characers talking about who they are. Carver creates Everymen by letting the situation speak for itself. In one story, everyone lives in Alburquerque but are all from somewhere else. In another, a man puts his whole house – couch and TV and kitchen – outside. In another, a couple fights violently over a baby.
Each of these small tidbits are rife to analyze. Just by telling you what happens I imitated a whole story, and do we really need more of it? A couple fighting violently over a baby is a great illustration of a fallen relationship. The baby is a product of both parents, yet the two parties want it for themselves. The baby couldn't exist if it wasn't for the other. Relationships need room for selflessness, for caring about the other. One of the last line feels like Carver summing up every fallen relationship:
"He felt the baby slipping out of his ands and he pulled back very hard."
Is this how we should react when love comes down? Should we pull back towards ourselves stronger and stronger at something that can only exists thanks to co-operation?
Self-insert characters are often criticized as lazy. That's true, but there is a time and place for them. Sometimes the situation is the main character. The objects moving carry the meaning, not the personality. It's true this has been used for escapsim – Harem anime create a situation many guys would like to escape to. Carver doesn't create comfortable situations.
His situations are soaked in pain, but more than anything confusion. It's as if by expressing the events in the most blunt way possible, he hopes he could make sense of the human condition. As evidenced by the last two stories (who gain a lot of their power by their position), Carver didn't even come close to a solution.
These stories are a journey through a land that's not really barren. People exaggerate when they describe Carver's stories as 'people drinking and talking'. He's more concerned with the absurdity of life. That's why a lot of these stories involve weird situations that feel odd in this collection. When was the last time a person with no hands asked to photograph your house? Life is strange – any attempt to capture realism by removing odd events results in bland monotony. Since strange events are confusing, many authors write about them with colorful language and your dull feel-good ending. "Viewfinder", in different hands, would've been distorted into how 'it all depends on your perspective! snap out of your depression!'. In Carver's hands, he lets the interaction stand on their own. The loneliness is obviously there, and that makes their connection all the more engrossing and life-affirming.
'Empathy' is another word that suits Carver's style. His style is so warm, so intimate. You can pop this book in the middle and it wouldn't feel any different than starting from the beginning. The stories like a collection of aimless anecdotes friends tell each other into the night, just to have something to talk to. Like your friends' anecdotes, the stories ramble and swerve into unnecessary territories before snapping back to the main topic. This isn't sloppy writing but a deliberate attempt to capture the warmth of sharing stories.
Although Carver has been hailed as a master of minimalism, it didn't actually come from him. Gordon Lish, the editor. The original manuscript wasn't as minimalistic, although Lish clearly saw the potential there. The attraction to these stories is in the how intimate they feel. Even when Carver starts writing in bigger paragraphs, this would remain the defining feature of his work.
It's as sparse as a Joy Division record, but don't read Carver for the minimalist macho bullshit. This isn't about covering up an iceberg like Hemingway. He does the opposite. By writing about the stories just as they are, he mines them for every sip of emotion there is. A lot of great authors gave us insight into the human mind/condition/experience, but none feel so intimate as Carver.
4 talking about love out of 5


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Goodyear Eagle RS-A EMT - 285/40R20 104W Tire
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A couple of nights ago, I was at the library, talking to a friend I ran into there. I was smiling calmly, holding my eternal blue mug, filled with herbal tea. In a zen tone, borrowed from a number of my yoga teachers and very unfitting of me, I gently said: "I feel so less stressed now that I don't have the internet."
Ok, I didn't feel like that the first night. I barely slept. What little sleep I had was interrupted by constant gasping for air. Whether or not it was anxiety or just this annoying cough that's been plaguing me for the past week coming on, I don't know. I've had trouble breathing on and off my entire life. After being screened for every breathing disorder under the sun, I was eventually referred to a support group for people with mood (and anxiety) disorders. (I'll say, though, that I met many of my dearest friends via mood group so I'm actually grateful to have been told "it's all in your head".)
It's ok, you can laugh at me. I'm too dependent on one machine. I don't have a smartphone, or even a semi decent phone. I don't watch any TV. All my planning, my communication, my entertainment is dependent on a single collection of electric circuits. I had the rug completely pulled out from beneath me.
But it didn't take me too long to adapt. Here's what I've been doing out here in the tangible world.
1) I started using an agenda! I always use my agendas for, like, the first 2 weeks of a semester. Then I give up on it: I can just rely on classmates and checking my email at the last moment. But then I couldn't do that anymore. So I went to the lab, pulled up my emails and transcribed everything into my agenda. And OMG! I can't believe how much easier it is to have all this information neatly sorted in front of me, on paper. As a result, I've attended more stuff over the past week than I have in the past 2 months.
2) I watched some TV. Ok, I only know of two channels: TLC and Slice. And those channels play nothing but wedding and baby shows. But! If anyone needs a wedding planned or an emergency delivery, I'm totally your girl. Actually, it did come in handy the other day. I had my class on pregnancy care and the prof asked if any of us knew was eclampsia was. I raised my hand Hermione-Granger-style: I knew exactly what eclampsia was! One of the girls featured on I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant suffered from eclampsia and had a seizure while driving. Who says sensationalist shows aren't educational?
3) I traded one form of escapism for a slightly more useful one. I did something that completely shocked me. I wrote two exams last week: toxicology and cardiology. Tox is a 1-credit course so there's no pressure, but cardiology is like getting run over by a train of a giant trucks. Having both of them around the same time was brutal. The exam writing wasn't shocking, but feeling confident while writing them was very much a new feeling. I never feel confident writing exams. But the thing is this. WoW is my escapism, how I unwind. Without a computer, I didn't have WoW. I looked around for a different escapism and all I could find was studying. I'm now completely addicted to studying. I bring my notes with me everywhere and I constantly fight the urge to read them. I'm so far ahead in all my classes, you wouldn't believe it. I expect this to come in handy when Cataclysm drops itself smack in the first week of finals. I'm hoping to have all four of my finals prepared before then.
4) I've developed a feeling of deep solidarity with the other inhabitants of the general library's fourth floor. And no, I don't mean inhabitants like the issues of the past 50 years of the Sedimentology journal (which are, I'm sure, very friendly). I get my own health science library at the hospital, but its constantly overrun by too-chatty medical and nursing students. The fourth floor of the general library is a world apart from the rest. And I have this feeling of quiet understand with Guy-with-noisy-cold, Girl-who-wears-shorts-in-this-weather, Guy-with-MacBook and Girl-with-scarves. I don't know any of their names or what their majors are (I'm guessing Math, Kinesiology, English and Liberal Arts respectively because I totally don't stereotype or anything like that), but after spending night after night in each others vicinity, in that cold, dark wing of the library, we've become intimately acquainted. To the point where we smile and say hi to each on campus. I'm positive they call me either "Girl-who-can't-breathe" or "Girl-who-gets-angry-at-paper".
5) I finally became acquainted with Freya Stark. I first heard about Freya Stark when I was reading Alice Steinbach's European traveling records. I just had to find out more about this extraordinary woman who traveled alone throughout the Middle East, at a time where it practically unheard of for a woman to travel alone, especially to such exotic locations. (Although, so far, so she's met other British women all over Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan so it probably wasn't as unheard of as we think.) I picked up The Freya Stark Story from the school library (I couldn't find a link to it on Amazon): her personal account of her early life and first few travels to the Middle East. And wow. Just wow. It's hard to remember that this was written by a woman who was born in 1893. She's hard to follow at times: she jumps from one topic to another without transitioning and she often says "we" without letting the reader know who "we" consists of. But otherwise, she's amazing to read. She uses a lot of imagery (I suppose they don't call her the poet of travel guide writing for nothing) and she has a strong but subtle sense of humour that I just adore. Sometimes it feels like she's in my head, writing my thoughts. And her "I'm going to do what I want, and I'm going to do it while looking fabulous" attitude is so perfect. I would have loved to meet her.
6) I hung out with myself. I spend a lot of time alone, but between studying and doing WoW related stuff, I haven't really spend time with myself since coming home from out West. I did some touristy stuff by walking around St. John's and taking pictures (which I'll probably publish somewhere once I get my computer back), then climbed Signal Hill. Can you believe that I've lived in St. John's for 5 years yet have never climbed Signal Hill? I visited the GeoCentre while I was there and was amused by how their geological history exhibit have fantastic "planet", "local" and "human" history sections while the "future" section of the exhibit was closed due to being under construction. Then I came home and watched the cat sleep on my bed. The hard part is getting my brain to shut up. It thinks of every potentially embarrassing thing I've said in my life or social faux pas I've ever made and repeats it over and over and over again until all I can think of is "I screwed up my every opportunity at ever getting a job, my profs must all think I'm an inconsiderate, unprofessional idiot, I should stop burdening my classmates by talking to them." Took me a few hours, but I eventually got it under control and could think more pleasant thoughts. I can see why so many people have trouble spending time with themselves, though. It takes a lot of patience to come to terms with one's unresolvable distance from perfection.
And that was my little-over-a-week of no computer. It's not so bad, I'm getting a lot of work done, I've been more sleep than I thought my body was capable of and I'm enjoying the break from internet stress. I do, however, miss my guildies so much that it's kind of embarrassing and I'm very annoyed that they always pick the weeks I'm not there do to All You Can Eat which is STILL the only achievement standing between me and my drake $^&$%$#$@.
I wonder if I could pay a random guild off the realm forums to carry me to it…