leena "ree" k.'s Profile

Chai (tea) is indeed the Great Indian Timepass. A steaming cup with a sweet cardamom aroma is all you need in order to absorb and ponder in a relaxed state of mind.  It's more than Timepass. It's meditation.

I have had the pleasure of imbibing Timepass Chai at a South Asian performance event, Yoni KI Baat, and also at a wedding.  Chai fits right into these settings without needing much of an explanation.  I could also see it being perfect for all types of conferences/trainings, or as part of catering for film productions or other projects.  I wouldn't mind starting each day of work or pleasure with a cup of Timepass Chai.

All my Konkani and Maharashtrian peeps must try this place for a nice, finger-licking feast: finally, an Indian restaurant in the Bay that actually takes us back to aaji's cooking!  The place offers seafood, chicken, lamb, and veg dishes cooked in various types of coastal preparations: Malvani, Hariyali, Kolhapuri; and yes, they have sol kadhi, that delicious, tangy, coconut-based pink wonderment with which you love to drench your rice. And they have komdivada (this puffy crunchy fried bread)! And varan (a thick yellow lentil soup)!!

Among the appetizers, I was a fan of the curry leaf calamari and the sabudana vada (the latter is not listed on the menu, but they had it instead of batata vada on one of the days I went).

The ambiance is clean and welcoming, though I think they could do more to romanticize the coastal theme.  The servers are extremely kind, though not completely on top of their game.  For example, a server brought out two dishes at the same time, and we asked which was which, and he just answered with a wide-grinned "yes."  But then someone else came and clarified. And both were totally delicious anyway!

This review is for ICC as an Indian wedding venue.

The pros:
- The event managers are genuinely warm and kind people who personally attend all events and seem to be working all the time. They've very prompt and responsive to emails and phone calls -- although it is your responsibility to make sure you are very thorough and specific in your inquiries!
- The hall is huge and can be arranged in different ways -- I believe it can accommodate more than 400 people banquet-style.
- There is a large stage, which is perfect for the ceremony and/or entertainment.
- The venue allows indoor fires.
- The staff is expedient in rearranging the set-up, such as between the ceremony and reception.
- They have worked with many types of Indian wedding vendors, so they can provide referrals, and generally can work easily with most of them.
- They have an on-site cafe (Amber Cafe) if you want to grab a quick snack before/after meetings with them, or even set up a lunch or dinner in one of the meetings rooms with your relatives the day before the wedding.
- They have most stuff that you could need, although you may need to pay extra and/or be extremely persistent in order to get it (ie bar set-up, access to A/V stuff, an extra room to use for changing, and high chairs, which they somehow only had 9 of).

The cons:
- It is expensive.  They have different pricing options depending on whether you are using just the space or also the wait staff, but I think it is probably expensive either way.  To be honest, we were on a time crunch, so we didn't research it as much as we could have, but you should definitely get quotes from restaurants to see if it makes sense to pay for the wait staff at ICC or just grab the venue at a flat rate.
- The ability to negotiate discounts with vendors was exaggerated at the time of signing the contract.
- Bring your own drinks -- alcoholic and non-alcoholic. They will help you wheel it in and leave it in their office a day or two before, and they can set up a bar and serve the drinks for a fee.
- We didn't realize that the venue did not have beer glasses.  They could have served beer in soda glasses, but it wouldn't have looked right -- so we ended up having to rent beer glasses.
- They don't slice/serve cake! They ended up doing it because we were not prepared with any other option, but the cake just sat there for a good while before they finally dealt with it.  This is something that definitely should have been more clearly communicated -- but it also is just weird that it wouldn't be a norm for them to handle it.

Overall, the event turned out great.  There were just a few quirks that worried us in the week or two beforehand, but it was very helpful to have two event managers present on site.  ICC combined with Eve Decor did a pretty impressive job.

Eve Decor did a fabulous job with a recent wedding in the family.  Aside from providing a convenient one-stop shop for all our visual needs, from the mandap (Indian ceremonial structure) to the draping, pillars, red carpet, flowers, bouquets, uplighting, and centerpieces, Eve Decor completely managed to transform the space from an ordinary banquet hall to a stunning and elegant wedding venue.  

Pamila, the proprietor of Eve Decor, is very friendly and professional.  She showed us a variety of options for each of the elements mentioned above and walked us through the different color and pricing options.  The service and rental fees were certainly not cheap, but it was worth the peace of mind; everything was handled by a team of very capable hands with great care and precision.

Eve Decor makes an absolutely perfect aesthetics planner for your big fat Indian wedding!

Hiroo Vaswani is simply a genius in interior design.  While he specializes in assisting with furniture selection and design for studio apartments in San Francisco, he also helped me out with two very important projects: 1) Setting up my first grown-up one-bedroom apartment in Oaktown; and 2) Staging a private residence in the 'burbs for an Indian engagement ceremony/party.  He approached each project methodically and with complete commitment to achieving the client's vision aesthetically, while also ensuring that the set-up was functional, sensible, and easy to maintain in light of any foreseeable obstacles (such as children running around during the engagement party).  He is very versatile in his knowledge of decor; he achieved my requested look of Classic-Bollywood-meets-the-W with the greatest of ease.

The thing that sets Hiroo apart from most is that he is genuinely interested in people.  He asks a lot of questions, not only to understand how you want your place to look and on what sort of budget, but to understand who you are, what got you to your place, and what motivates you. He puts great care into helping you select the right pieces in the right colors (including wall paint, if desired), has a great knack for incorporating what you already have in the right spot and suggesting what else would fab up your place, and comes prepared with his nails and hammers to get everything set up efficiently.  He is a believer in "vibes" and will ensure that things are positioned to optimize good energy. He can also give you practical pointers to keep up the appearance of tidiness even in times of laziness.

I normally would have thought that engaging an interior designer would have been out of my league as a young, single professional, but luckily, that is just the niche that Hiroo is here to fill.  I'm glad I found Hiroo in time to make my place truly fabulous and not just another dorm room.

I liked the fab ambience that had mostly been achieved (but for the flat-screens playing sports :P), but this place disappointed in most other respects.  The $10 bottomless bubbles were some cheap variety, and the OJ used in mimosas was Sunny D or something in that league.

Then there was the food. The pumpkin french toast sounded promising, but the bread tasted stale and hadn't really absorbed much flavor, and had been topped off with canned fruit. My sister's omelette was bland and appeared to have been microwaved.

Unforch, the service didn't much compensate for the bad food or drinks either.  Nobody even came around to offer the supposed bottomless bubbles until we were done consuming whatever we could stomach.

The crowd primarily consisted of overgrown frat boys and blonde women with too much plastic surgery.  

The live music was a good touch.

Megha possesses all the qualities one would wish for in a yoga instructor: patient, gentle, and knowledgeable.  I have taken yoga classes from her in three very different settings (including a private session), and I have been very impressed with how she has been able to customize sessions for students to achieve their goals.

Megha has experience teaching yoga to families in their homes, at yoga studios, at schools, and at conferences.  With a degree in counseling therapy and extensive practice in meditation, she is very approachable, as well as eclectic in her approach, adept at working with people of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of spirituality.  I have always left her classes feeling relaxed and refreshed.

Also, it's nice to have a yoga instructor who can pronounce the Sanskrit postures correctly. ;)

Thrice the price of Mickey-D's, but a hundred times the quality.  This cozy lil' burger stand had been closed down for so many years, and I am so overjoyed that it is back and gentrified with daily-ground premium chuck and all. It's open reasonably late, and conveniently located steps away from the gorgeous Grand Lake Theater. Aside from burgers and shakes, it's also got things like pizza, chicken wings, desserts, and Mexican hot choc!

I don't smoke cigarettes -- but give me something better to smoke, like an Irish Cream and white chocolate truffle cigar, and hell yeah, I'll inhale that ish!

Aside from containing such combustible offerings, The Cigar Bar is a nice spot to hang, with a bar that serves wonderful drinks, a heated, Euro-style patio, and a separate indoor area with live music and salsa dancing.  I went on a Friday night, and it wasn't too hard to find a table on the patio after just a few minutes of hovering.  It gets crowded to a comfortable level, and there is eye candy for a variety of tastes.

My only gripe is that food is not served very late, and I'm more interested in eating than dancing. The website says food is served until 11pm on Fridays, but I swear we asked to order something at around 10:40 and the server was like "Um no" and was kind of a bitch about it.  Also, you have to go up to the bar to purchase cigars rather than be able to order them from the patio, which somehow detracts from the diva experience one might like to have. Also, there is sometimes a cover -- $7 when we went.

It is so random that they use this hotel meeting room as a comedy club, but I'm so down with COBO for several reasons:
1. It's in Oaktown, and in a fabulous location at Jack London Square.
2. You can order food and drinks from Miss Pearl's Jam House while watching the show.
3. There is not a drink minimum, and drinks are reasonably priced.
4. They make a decent effort to get diverse comedians in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion. A stuttering comedian too!
5. There are several comedians in the line-up, all with different styles, so if you aren't feeling one, you may very well feel the next.
6. It is regularly hosted by a Jewish Indian guy. Represent! (I'm not Jewish, but I'm still proud.)