Abendigo R.'s Profile

You know, it's funny, every once in a while, you get a bunch of whiners who charge their Whaaambulances around, trying to get folks attention, when they probably shouldn't EVER EAT OUT, b/c their IGNORANCE IS DANGEROUS, and they should DO THEIR HOMEWORK AND GET SOME EXPERIENCE BEFORE THEY OPEN THEIR MOUTHS.

The reason I say this, is because Yelpers can hurt businesses with their talk, and rightly so, as Yelp is a powerful tool, and should be used wisely.

However, when it comes to messing with places I love, they need to get a life, only b/c they DON'T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT.

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, as many who describe a bad experience they had do it constructively and responsibly.

But SOME DO NOT.

For example, AV C http://www.yelp.com/us... recently wrote, during a 2 star review of Just For You, that if only she'd had beignets and coffee, then she'd of given 5 stars, and she whines about $2 home fries.  Are you kidding me?  Welcome to San Francisco, or to eating out for that matter @ a conscious place that actually uses Slow Food principles!

Then you get Paula H. http://www.yelp.com/us... claiming she'll get shot on 3rd St.  Obviously she's never been out of Pac Heights, or whatever, Parkside, oooohhhhh!  And she's says Just For You isn't God's gift to foodies.  What?  Talk about expectations.

And then she says Just For You should close its doors, and she says it's too expensive.  Why don't you get a life!  Yeah, I guess $14 for a whole mess of organic home-made goodness is too much in San Francisco, why don't you go eat at Denny's.

Anyway, Just For You is a good place to eat.  

Before you open your mouth, you should probably get a little more experience first, and make that experience something real, rather than writing a Yelp review, so that you feel like you've accomplished something, when in actual fact you're hurting a good business that you haven't even experienced properly.

So, in the interest and spirit of Yelp, how about I make a few recommendations to you?  Try Just For You a few more times.  Don't have such expectations.  Try it for dinner Wed - Fri.  Try it during the week, like on a Tues.  Try it on Sunday when they open @ 8am.

Get the corned beef hash (made with Guinness poured over the corned beef, red bell peppers, onions) on a weekend with homemade biscuits and poached eggs, for $12!!!

Get the Huevos with Christmas (homemade red and green ranchero sauce) on corn tortillas, with a side of homefries, for less than $10!  Add avocado for $2.

Get the Crab Cake po boy with Creole Mustard or homemade tartar sauce, and a side of fries for like $10 or $11.

Get a pint-sized Fresh Squeezed grapefruit mimosa for $7.

Get the grilled chicken sandwich on a French Roll, add bacon and cheese, and ask for a side of BBQ sauce, with fries for $10 or $11!!!!

Too expensive?  Well, then you should probably STAY HOME OR GO TO MCDONALD'S.

If you like mouth-watering, juju-love, locally-sourced-within-5-miles fare, this place is for you.

And here are another few reasons:

* It's all about community.
* It's the only gold LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) restaurant in California.
* It's one of long-time Sebastapol local Tom Waits' favorite places, as he's building a new recording studio just a few blocks away.
* The space is sleek, ambient, and the speaker system makes anything (from David Byrne to grassroots hip hop) sound stunning.
* By eating here, you're supporting all of the local artisans, producers, artists, gourmands...;-)
* The prices are unbelievably reasonable, given the quality.  I hail from San Francisco, and you'd pay twice as much for something as chalk-ful of nutrients, aesthetics, seasons, and life.
* And last of all, Lowell is just a really good guy, he'll make you feel right at home.

Notes:
I tried his home-made bagels -- they were outrageous.
The chocolate Nemesis cake is nemesetical (is that a word?).
The Neapolitan style pizza, made with organic flour (btw, everything is organic here), melted in my mouth.  The Woodstone Bistro must have been turned up just right, or maybe it was the angle at which the pizzaiolo turned the crust.
He has one day of the week were he serves Pinots and Pizzas, where you get a glass of Pinot with your pizza.

Oh and by the way, breakfast is almost as good as dinner...

If you're ever anywhere near Sebastapol, check out Peter Lowell's, and did I mention it's housed in a sustainable community called Florence Lofts, whose greywater system would make Bill McDonnough proud?

Okay, that's enough for now, I'll have more to report later.

Lately I've become fascinated by industrial recycling for spent catalysts and non-ferrous metals.  In many ways, I think they deserve more "green" credit, especially during this time of green-washing where every corporation sings its own praises for some green initiative they claim to have implemented, when in actual fact the companies they hire behind the scenes to make them look good are the true green heroes.

Since 1978, PM Recovery, Inc has been a leading direct processor of scrap metals and spent catalysts. The company specializes in reducing the environmental liability and footprint of other industrial behemoths, such as Exxon-Mobil. These are the kinds of behind-the-scenes companies that are the true "green" heroes of today.

Specializing in tungsten carbide, cobalt, vanadium, nickel and molybdenum, these guys are basically a logistics company that takes part in every aspect of the industrial catalyst and metals recycling process. In other words, they aren't brokers but actual participants in the systems of industrial recycling, with actual physical secondary materials recovery plants.

On the catalyst side, you've got industries like aerospace, electronic, magnet production, medical, mining, automotive and other applications. And on the metals side, you've got industries like oil and petroleum, pharmaceutical and industrial gases. And PM Recovery does it all.

Mark Spano, a former college football star in Harrison, New York, founded the company in 1978, and they've taken recycling, IMHO, to another level.

EspressoBiz services the entire Bay Area with espresso machine repair.  Marlon Hernandez is incredible at fixing machines.  This is definitely the place to call if you need your espresso machine fixed, worked on, refurbished, or you just need some general consultation.

He's a true professional that's been doing it for years.

You can call Marlon at 415.621.1171 for his espresso machine repair service line.

PastaBiz is the main local purveyor of pasta machines in the Bay Area, supplying everyone from the French Laundry to SPQR.  Owner Emilio Mitidieri has a 30-yr. background in industrial pasta manufacturing and machines.  He's passionate about pasta and puts his customers first.  I know this from first-hand experience.

He also has national and international clients, as pasta is made all over the world.

His company does pasta machine repair, installation, consulting, you name it.

We need more passionate local afficianados like Emilio around in this age of outsourcing and desecration (and pretentiousness) of food!

I know, I know, it's fairly popular, doing quite well, and somewhat hip.  But guess what?  These things ain't got nothin' on me.  The food rules!

I went there with my friend who supplied SPQR with their pasta machine and they gave us the royal hookup, so I'm sure I'm slightly biased, but appreciate the fact that I'm being as honest as I possibly can (the hookup was something we of course were not expecting), and I have to say that that's my favorite way to eat -- tasting everything on the menu in one fell swoop of a sitting!  

It's definitely a competitor to Bar Tartine, IMHO, of which I'm a fan -- similar ambiance with the bar countertop, the bar layout, the lighting.

Exquisite dishes.  Fresh pastas.  Fantastic wine seletion.  Rockin' great chef Daniel Holzman, and also a great guy.  And did I mention the freshly fallen snow?  It's an almond powdered snow blizzard surrounding a gelatinous dollop of espresso crema ice cream.  God!

I've only been for lunch, but I'll be going back for more.  Love it, and guess what?  The folks at SPQR love you too.

I'm kind of a bagel snob, and I hate steamed bagels, you know, the kind that are all fluffy and fat and too freakin' big to fit in your mouth, sometimes dry and have little flavor and they inflate your stomach like an automated camping mattress pump, leaving you wonder why you even like bagels in the first place, only to to do it again, and again, and again.

That's what I think about Noe Bagel.  In fact, you'd have to pay me to buy bagels here, seriously.  

Now take a short walk down the street, toward Martha Bros. Coffee, and you'll hit the somewhat annoying din on Saturdays called Noe Bagel, and guess what?  THEIR BAGELS ARE BOILED!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE BOILED BAGELS.  They're chewy and moist and more modest in size and if they're really fresh, they're even better untoasted.

Imagine that, my friends, a bagel that's so freakin' good, it's better untoasted.  This is not the case at places like Noe Bagel, which are the norm.  Remember, I'm a bagel snob, so don't think I'm in the norm.  Bagels from places like Noe Bagel are better uneaten.

And I'll stand by what I say over your dead bagel.

I'm originally from Washington state, grew up in Chehalis, and lived all up and down the I-5 corridor.  Anne and Peter Reebs are incredible insurance agents, the kind who will actually talk to you, develop a relationship with you.  Who actually care and take the time to make sure you've got what you need.

You know, insurance is an extremely important thing, especially as lawsuits are on the rise every year, and you never know when an accident is going to occur.

If you live in Western Washington (or even Oregon, for that matter, I think), and you need property or casualty or auto or life or just a friend to talk to regarding these things, give Peter and Anne Reebs a call at American National Insurance.  By the way, they're now located in Chehalis, WA.

Look no further, seriously, if you don't want to get screwed by your insurance and you want an agent you can trust.

Today my friend D. took me to Graffeo in North Beach, and gave me a tour of the coffee roaster which he built 17 years ago. It's one of the only fluid bed roasters in the world, where the coffee beans are treated like fluid.

I don't know if you've ever had Graffeo. I was turned onto it recently, and I think, quite frankly (and this is no bullshit, as I've had my share of good coffee), it's the best coffee I've ever tasted. It reminds me a little of what I like about Kona coffee. It's better than Blue Bottle, much better, and I think Blue Bottle is excellent, though my friend D. thinks otherwise. And he's a coffee expert among experts.

It's not grassy, like San Francisco Bay coffee. It's not burnt like Charbucks. It's nutty and chocolatey and smooth. It's got that something going on that's undefinably delicious, almost offputting. It's so good you can't believe it, and believe it you will, at least I did. And now I'm a convert.

Ruch Reichl of the New York Times once called it the best coffee in the world. It's a combination of New Guinea, Columbian and Costa Rican beans.

D. described the process of the fluid bed roaster to me. It'll roast 3 loads in an hour, a load being 180 lbs. It's got a vacuum that sucks the beans up through a pipe into... I'm not a mechanical engineer, and since I'm slightly tipsy, I can't recall the terms D. used as he led me through, but I can assure you that if you like coffee and you're in San Francisco, you'll be pleasantly blown away by Graffeo.

If you need a clasp, a catch, a clamp, a clench (everybody needs a clench), a fastening or maybe even a grapple, hasp, pin or snap, Beadissimo just might have it.  And they're also really, really nice too.

I'm not really a bead guy, but you know them hippies are all right with me (p.s., I spent a couple years acting like one less the BO).

Put a little Berkeley in your Mission day gents and gals.