Brady F.'s Profile

Fantastic little neighborhood gem with a unique, seasonal menu and staff that makes you feel like home. Mixed in between the trendy and the wealthy restaurants of the always lively North Beach district, you won't find a better warm meal, with a better group of people. Dinner is a mix of unique creations of chicken, veal, seafood, pastas & the usual antipasta + appetizer. Follow up your dinner with a home made tiramisu or their unique chocolate raspberry heart. Once, they had a 'calamari steak', and I've been dying for it to return...

So far, this restaurant has lived up to two Valentine's Day dinners, 2 birthday parties, and 1 general dinner. I'm looking forward to many more:)

Brady J. Frey
http://bradyjfrey.com

I lead a dual role in my position at http://bentlyholdings.com, http://bentlyreserve.com and http://kamalaspa.com - I'm the Art Director and the IT Director. This puts my consultants in the unusual circumstance of having to be 1) technically sound and 2) socially adept: so it says a lot that MacCentric has been our exclusive IT consultancy company.

I've had the luxury of watching Noam, the founder of MacCentric, grow from a one many show to the president of a small business, and although the growth has been significant, the character has stayed the same. Professionally, he's the only consultant, in any aspect of our business, where I know I can rely on in a pinch. I've migrated our mac servers from Panther through Leopard, and each time I'm pulling my hair out in the migration of 300+ heavy imap users, Noam has either stayed with me for the almost weekend long extravaganza, or bailed me out when I've been the only person available at the office on a weekend early morning disaster.

When I go on vacation, I call on MacCentric to be on 24 hours a day in case of need... and the poor team has had to go through with it, but they've done so with flying colors. When I've had multi-million dollar buildouts that required a second opinion in technicals, I've called MacCentric to give me their thoughts. In short, I've used them from small projects such as imac repairs, to large server rebuilds, to debates on IT-long-term plan-of-attacks.

4 years later, even after all those hours of work and documentation and everything else that comes with the IT industry, what I find even more impressive is that I now consider Noam a close, personal friend. How many executives get lucky enough to find a company that they trust as if they were their own employees, and yet still invite them to Holiday Dinner not to talk shop, but to talk life?

MacCentric is one of those rare companies that seems NOT built off financial throes, but built off personality. I looked for a company to rely on, and was lucky enough to find a long term business colleague with a team of individuals taking pride in their work; I don't doubt you'd find the same.

A few weeks back, I had a weekend planned in Napa with my girlfriend at a local resort to celebrate my friends birthday. Everything had been scheduled ahead of time, and everything went as planned... except the rent-a-car. I had to pick it up before 5:30 pm at Enterprise, and when I arrived, I was in line behind 3 already disgruntled guests being managed by one service rep and one manager typing away on his computer. When it came my turn after a 20 minute wait, I introduced myself and started to finalize my paperwork when payment was requested. I handed over my debit, unaware of the deposit fees using debits, and the young lady quickly charged me a $500 deposit... then decided to let me know that was the policy after the swipe, the receipt in hand

Financially, I could afford it and that wasn't the problem - the issue was more so the lack of explanation, coupled with the poor customer service shock when I questioned the reasoning for the scenario. As her manager rambled from his desk 40 feet away about their policies (and couldn't cite the policy in any paperwork), I checked my zipcar account on my iPhone, and rented a nice mini cooper for the weekend at a paltry $40 more than Enterprise (which, for those of you with a zipcar know, includes gas and 180+ miles per trip). I requested a reverse of the charge and cancelled my Enterprise reservation. I walked two blocks, picked up the Cooper by swiping my keycard on the dash, and was off for my weekend free of company time constraints and staff pre-occupied by the coming weekend.

Maybe I'm spoiled now, but in an economy where old model rent-a-car businesses compete with new industries, I would assume making it easier to keep my business is a target high on the list. In this case, the Enterprise in SOMA helped lose a long time national customer and professional traveler.

Although pricey for some items, an excellent market for sushi grade fish and other Japanese groceries. I've never had any problem with the staff at the location as long as I've lived here.

Unlike y Y.'s racially biased review below, I wouldn't assume any Latin worker is from a Mexican decent, and I wouldn't question why there would be any race working or visiting a public business. I'd imagine if I did, I'd be a racist moron. In fact, I'd question why any member of the opposite sex would hit on me, since I'd have little intellectual qualities to offer in an adult relationship... but that's just me.

Top of the line diner in San Francisco - not only the best breakfast food food, but the best local atmosphere. It's been great to find a real breakfast joint in san francisco, I put up a thorough review with photos of this place for all to see:
http://bradyjfrey.com/...

Some info:
"...you're teased with everything from the best waffles and pancakes in the Bay Area (I'd argue, in my travels, most of Northern California), packed with blueberries or walnuts, or smothered with peanut butter or bananas, to french toast and cooked-just-right-hashbrowns, maybe omelets stuff fat with the local fixings, burgers by exquisite locally ranched meats; even beer battered mushrooms with an Elvis special.
Catch yourself in a dinner mood? Maybe you'll be lucky and stop by on a Friday night before the crowd hits: you'll run into one of the owners, Bruce, and he can tell you about the original cast iron he cooked that massive burger on, flavored for generations, over house tap. You can order breakfast if you want, sure, but sift through four pages of menu filled with hot off the grill Lamb Chops or perfectly marinated Steaks. Follow up with a traditionally home-made milk shake, maybe a banana split or Bruce's very own mud pie."

We had an excellent experience on our first Tandem Jump here. The staff was very friendly and professional with us, we didn't have any of the problems that some people were noting below. The atmosphere was untraditional to normal business customer service, but that's part of the element of what you're doing: you're jumping out of a plane, not ordering at a French Restaurant. Nevertheless, we went with 9 people and scheduled to be first thing (which I recommend, since if the weather permits, you don't have to wait for the other folks to jump), all of us had a great time and we're thinking about going back to get AA certified.

You can read my full review of the event on my To Do list:
http://todo.bradyjfrey...

You can see videos of all of our jumpers, photos of the event, and if you scroll down to the heading 'The Surprise' you can skip past all of my research referencing and get a detailed explanation of our event.

A special appreciation to Jackie for helping my girlfriend plan this huge event since November, and answer little questions for us (such as wearing contacts or glasses, average temp, all the unusual stuff), and to Mike and Raff for not only keeping Sheryl and I alive, but showing the ropes and explaining in detail what we were doing. I wanted an experience where it didn't feel like a cheap roller-coaster - pay your money, get on the plane, jump off. They offered feedback, explained historical and industry specific questions. All of the Jump Masters seem highly skilled and searching online to verify references was easy to do. All of them were very caring of safety, even explaining certain things we can and cannot do for safety regulations.

So, for the most part, I'm seeing these bad reviews as people who didn't listen to the fact that it says you may have up to 6 hours of delay (on their website, and told over the phone), and expected concierge service for their adventure. It's not the Hilton, you'll be treated the same as any other person in there - with the average respect of a client who has next to nothing in experience compared to the person that will keep you safe. If anyone has questions about our jump, you're welcome to contact me further, thanks!

Dr. Dal Santo has been nothing but professional and genius. Over the past few months I was in extreme pain, and although my dentist had little in the way of answers for me, I was transferred to Dr. Dal Santo for a more thorough review.

He discovered that some of my pain was actually medical related (found out to be a damaged nerve from a botched dental treatment) after bouncing between dental professionals, and that other areas of pain were related to the awkward growth of my wisdom teeth. After recommending me to the proper medical care, he extracted two of my wisdom teeth (two more to come) both quickly and as painless as I could imagine with local anesthesia. Included in the extraction cost were two brief followup appointments to monitor my recovering, and his staff has been available to answer all the questions I have.

Interestingly enough, during my wait in the medical office (the Dr. was performing an emergency appointment), I had the chance to review my medical files and the notes he had taken on our interaction (his assistants opened the file on the monitor in my office for the Dr.). I was surprised to see such an extremely thorough detail of our discussions and detailed documentation of his thoughts/theories/recommendations and followups. I've seen doctor notations before, but never ones that kept intricate documentation of exact discussions as well as future questions for progress, and it was enough to reassure me of his skill.

You'll find his prices maybe steeper than others in his professional; could be the location in the city or it could be his skillset. Regardless, it didn't bother me - the cliche bit is true, you get what you pay for, and I wanted to make sure whatever permanent decisions I made for my body came out perfect. So far so good, money well spent. I recommend him to those looking for top notch work.

I had high hopes for this restaurant based on some of the reviews I read here, but I was very disappointed... and on our New Year's dinner.

The evening started out well - it is an intimate setting with a warm decor, tucked away in the side areas of Nob Hill. Although smaller than I'd say most restaurants, it is quaint (or as the girlfriend described it 'cute') and every one of the staff was courteous and a pleasure to talk to. The nice lady who seated us had referenced that she just started working here, and the ambiance was a delight to be in - I'd have to agree with her.

Our waiter was a little absent-minded from the beginning, but I don't slight them for this, it is a busy holiday, and I'm sure they were already feeling the stress (although it was only half full at the time) - we said bottle, he brought us two glasses - and when we ordered our meal, he wrote our entree selection wrong. We ordered one of their recommendations for sparkling (their champagne list had excellent choices, but not a large variety - although their wine list looked great) and sat down for our meal in candle light. The 6 course meal went as follows:

1. They opened with 'Amuse Bouche' (Bisque of White Corn, Sea Urchin Roe) soup; although this is the smallest portion of a soup I have ever seen in my life, I think that's the Chicago kid talking. The soup was fantastic, both the lady and I agreed... it had a silky texture, with a pleasant creamy taste in it's cold temperature. It was a great opening, though it started to go downhill soon.

2. Salad of Mache, Lobster, Oysters en gelee, vinagrette aux lardons - a small salad, the Lobster was overcooked, but nothing horrible or great.

3. 'Escalope of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Pan seared and presented on a slice of Broiche bread with confit of cranberries'... the bread was burnt on both sides for the girlfriend, although mine was fine. The Foie Gras was unusual for me - a squirmish texture with very little taste. I wasn't impressed by this, but my experience with Foie Gras is minimal, so I could chalk this up to lack of experience on my part, and therefore don't consider it part of the score. The visitors to our side were openly not enjoying either, however (entertaining facial expressions).

4. Green Apple Sorbet in a Calvados... almost like eating wasabi on ice... we both cringed, and were overjoyed that although it was part of the meal, it was a teaspoon of the substance in a wine glass. I have had Calvados before without the above reaction.

5. Here's where the meal split between a choice of Filet of Venison with Gratin potatoes, or California white Bass dressed in a lobster and anise bisque. My girlfriend went for the Bass, which turned out extremely dry, overcooked and lacking taste (she stopped after eating a quarter of it) - she enjoyed the side vegetables. The venison was cooked soft, and decent, although not very flavorful, which was a surprise for me.

6. Desert was a 'Terrine of winter fruits, served on a Nougat cookie'. The cookie was nothing special, covered in a quarter inch of white, flavorless ice and some raspberry/cranberry joint addition. Removing the ice, it was a decent cookie, but still very bland and lacking taste.

And we're done. Aside from the soup, I really didn't 'like' anything - some things weren't horrible, but everything was just blatantly lackluster.

To top it off, with a $40 bottle of wine, the bill came to just shy of $200 for the evening... and they added 24% gratuity by default (odd that they didn't go for a clean 25%, who knows). I typically go to a restaurant for New Years Eve, and I've had the tip charged to large parties before, but not to a party of two people especially at such a high rate. Not that I don't think it's deserved for the staff, aside from my waiter's initial confusion, he was great - but it's a bit pompous to hit me with such a charge of their own presumption.

So on top of the poor food performance, the billing was a sad ending. Had the billing not been so rough, I may have argued it worthy of a second chance on a night not holiday focused.

Beautiful restaurant. I brought my girlfriend here for our Anniversary, the matre d' held the flowers I ordered for the event aside for an hour, and was very courteous. She fell in love with the Tuna Tartare, the duration of the meal was portioned spot on and delicious. Our waiter was prompt, polite, and genuinely funny.

As we were exiting at the close of the evening, Scott came out to meet and greet some of the guests... sad to say I had a bit too much wine, so I'm sure I wasn't that sharp, but he was sincere with a firm handshake and some nice words. We'll frequent on our special occasions without delay.

The perfect comic book store in San Francisco. It's become a ritual for the girlfriend and I: enjoy 'It's Tops' next door for breakfast, then visit Al's for the best comic book selection in San Francisco.

Personable, attentive, and always knowledgable - very few comic stores can boast a fantastic business owner that meets and greets his customers. Much less, while other stores have pitched the comic book genre as a cold museum of hipsters, this one retains the real flavor of a comic book store owned by a comic connoisseur. Whenever I have a question about an old line, a missed issue, etc - All fills me in, and if it's not on hand, will order it for me promptly. My only downfall is that they make it too easy for me to spend money.