Mike "maringuy" B.'s Profile

I've been wanting to check out Dear Mom since day one, and haven't had a chance til today (day 12). Everything I'd heard has been fantastic, so I was preparing myself for an underwhelming experience like when you hear Super 8 is the best movie of the year, and then it's just another monster flick that ripped off Stand By Me.

Anyway, Oliver is the coolest dude ever. He makes a mean Violet Bouregard (try it trust me). And despite what he tells you, he's more than bad jokes and overly inventive drinks.

Ambience: 10
Food: 9
Drinks: 10
Music: 9
Go-there-again-ability: 10+
Go-there-tomorrow-ness: 10+

I see myself here many many many times in the very near future.

Congrats fellas, and game on.

Wifi? Check. Great coffee? Check. Lox & bagels for the half-jew inside of me? Check. And possibly the nicest dude ever manning the shop, pouring coffee, and making bagels.

Place was totally unexpected, had a client meeting, showed up an hour early to get some work done, and was so impressed by the hospitality and the vibe that I'm starting the day giving my man a 5 star Yelp review instead of answering client emails.

Table layout - tight but friendly, and high bar chairs are available for those who prefer it. The decor is very cool but not pretentious, and the light / fan / shelf over the coffee bar adds a little something too. There were even little dogs walking around inside.

Only drawback - no music was on when I got there, and it would have been nice to get a little Soundgarden with my coffee. But dude is only one man, and he had his hands full creating a rad morning for his customers, of which there were plenty.

Well done Cafe La Vie. If I ever find myself in Hayes Valley needing coffee, I'm coming to your front door every time.

Five star company, five star service, four star food.

Had been wanting to hit up Picco since it opened. A friend of mine's dad is  a part of the ownership group, and frankly everyplace these guys touch turns to gold, or at the very least white gold. Or let's just agree that Buckeye has no equal and Betelnut is a guaranteed good time every time out. Tiger beer...Mmmm...Tiger beer. Anyway. Wanted to hit Picco, finally hit Picco, was impressed by Picco.

My night actually started off down the hill at the Silver Peso, and if this were a Blu-ray you could click over to my (as yet unwritten) review of the Peso, which would highlight two things: 1) every time I'm there someone gets in a fight, and 2) I think I still have a bag of contraband buried in a planter box out back from 1996, so if you help me find it I'll split it with you.

Anyway, I started off at the Peso, warmed up with a few happy hour Stellas, and then walked up the hill to meet my wife, my high school WR and his girlfriend for a nice meal. We were first seated on the deck at a tiny table, then asked to be moved inside and were accommodated right away. Let me just add that the night was perfect. 70 degree weather, beautiful view of Mount Tam, amazing small-town feel, and the smell of Madrone Canyon and brick pizza ovens coming together to create the kind of night that makes you want to be in Tahoe City in July.

The service remained excellent from then on. Our waiter was attentive without hovering, knew the things my pregnant wife should avoid in order to keep our baby alive, and kept all our glasses full from start to finish. In fact, the only service ding comes from the bar - the bartender is a friend of mine from my own restaurant days while in college, and he never sent over a drink. I mean he could have sent a creme de banana - anything - would have been a nice gesture I think.

The food was great - we got some shared plates, mostly meat, and the highlight for me was the scallops or possibly the tuna tartar. We also ordered up some cheese plates, which were nice and tasty, and of course the specialty risotto, which I actually thought was good but not amazing. For a house specialty dish, I expect to be blown away - see: Oysters Bingo at The Buckeye.

We closed it out with a dessert I think (I'd thrown down a few Hoegartens by that point), and that was probably good too. I'm not really a dessert guy, but it didn't make anyone grimace noticeably.

All in all I give Picco four enthusiastic stars, and I'm definitely coming back to soak it in again.

So much good and so very little bad. Los Socios, or as Chris Farley would have referred to it, The Socios, is a great option for takeout Mexican lunch. In fact, it's really hard to beat.

Above all else, the food stands on its own. It's great. All the meat is legit - no knees or beaks or weird rubbery pieces mixed into the chicken; they subscribe to the lost art of shredding beef; and the steak is thinly sliced and super tasty.

The burritos are great in a quantity of one or by the shit ton - we get them ordered in for Free Lunch Wednesdays at work from time to time, and they're nearly just as good as when they're made to order. The tostadas are substantial and filling, and taste somewhat healthy too. I actually feel like I've opted for a "lite" Mexican lunch when I choose to tostada rather than to burrito.

They've also managed to create the most amazing salsa I can remember tasting. All good things.

Now for the not so good. Eating IN Los Socios is not so fun. The owners and help staff are nice enough, but the layout is not very conducive to enjoying your meal or relaxing at all. It's so small and the line for takeout runs right behind your table, so there's this constant feeling of anxiety as you throw down your food as fast as you can and try to dodge elbows from takeout customers.

Takeout isn't much better. The layout again leaves much to be desired. Once you've placed your order there's really no safe place to loiter - on one side you're blocking the waitress at every move, and are constantly ducking and dodging so she can deliver food from the kitchen. On the other side you're basically intermixed with the rest of the line and on top of the chips n' salsa bar. No matter where I stand in there I feel bad like I'm in someone's way.

And finally, while Los Socios may have the best salsa in all the land, they also have militant policies protecting its consumption. The Law, as they call it, states that you may only take ONE little (and I do mean little)  bag of chips and TWO containers of salsa.

Um...excuse me? Are you really trying to ration my chips n' salsa? I'm a 30 year old man who just paid you $7 for some meat wrapped up in a tortilla. I can make my own salsa decisions, and if I prefer two bags to one, I think I'm entitled. Don't get petty on the small stuff. I like to have plenty of chips n' salsa to take down with my meal, and I feel like I'm committing highway robbery every time I try to take enough salsa to match my chip intake. I'm the guy who scoops a hefty dip of salsa on each chip, and I can double and sometimes triple dip my chips. I'm gonna need 3 or 4 salsas, and I don't want to have to go say hail Marys afterwards.

So, Bottom Line Johnson, the food is spectacular if you can stand being shamed at every turn. If you've got the self-confidence, Los Socios is not to be missed. Just make sure you order takeout, and wear an overcoat to smuggle extra salsas.

I'm giving BrewCo 4 stars, but I'm going to lobby Yelp to include an asterisk option in future site feature updates. BrewCo has always been and likely will always be in my top 5 favorite bars in the Bay Area, but lots of that is nostalgia-based - I had what feels like hundreds of great nights here in high school and college; BrewCo helped me evolve into the drinker I am today.

It's like having a kid - I love you BrewCo, and that will never change. Even when you charge $15 for a simple cobb salad with bay shrimp, even when you replace your amazing sourdough chunks with cheap shitty bread, and even when you turn $2 Tuesday into $2.50 Tuesday into $3 Tuesday.

But unlike a kid (or a gay cowboy), I can quit you BrewCo, so you watch your ass.

BrewCo's still a fun place for me to go, and one of the few spots in Marin that you can actually go out and have a good time any day or night. Spring and summer afternoons outside are neck and neck with Sam's for best in Marin - sure, Sam's has the water, but their food sucks ass. I'd rather kill and eat a seagull than order anything off the menu at Sam's, and if I'm sitting on the left side of the deck that's basically my only option since they only serve popcorn and chips. BrewCo doesn't have water underneath your feet or a full bar, but it doesn't have as much wind and the chances of getting shit on aren't nearly as high. I can let my 2 year old son run sprints on his own at BrewCo, but at Sam's he'd end up in the bay if I looked away for a few seconds.

It's been a year or so since BrewCo pulled the good bread in favor of a cheaper option that bears more than a passing resemblance to cardboard, and they'll never fully recover from that in my eyes. But of course I still give them my business, so they win. Solid bar food, great beer and a fun atmosphere for families or drinking buddies alike make this place the cat's pajamas.

Go enjoy the shit of a Mount Tam Pale Ale today.

Gold's Gym fired me in 1994, and yet I still show up every day. Of course, they don't pay me $6.50 per hour anymore, and I can no longer charge people guest fees and deposit said fees directly into the slush fund in my shorts pocket. But I leave with a fresh pump and a carton of muscle milk, so by any standards I'm still a winner.

I've been in a revolving door between Gold's and 24 Hour Fitness for the past 10 years, primarily based on location. In LA I worked out at the original Gold's in Venice, where the workout floor was filled with the meathead celebrities who lined the framed pictures hung on the wall. It was kind of a parody of itself, with industry types reading scripts on the elliptical machines and Malibu housewives testing the elasticity of their fake racks doing pushups with their younger trainers.

My membership also got me into the West Hollywood Gold's, which may be the gayest place on earth outside of Clay Aiken's pants. The place was basically a catwalk with squat racks, built for perfectly groomed meatheads to strut around in spandex and look each other up and down. Once I actually caught on fire while doing preacher curls. Fabio was a regular. And I was once offered 10 phone numbers (dudes) in 3 minutes at the smoothie bar.

I switched from Gold's to 24 Hour Fitness at Larkspur landing years ago - primarily because Gold's sucked ass and was overrun by meatheads. One could argue the latter point is still the case, but considerable improvements have been made on the former.

Gold's has new equipment and plenty of it - rarely is the gym packed full of meat to the point that I can't find the empty racks, machines and mats I need to complete my workout on time. There always seems to be a free bike, and there are plenty of flatscreen TVs that I can see from any cardio machine.

The locker rooms are a little tight, and there's no steam room (there IS a sauna), but aside from those very minor complaints, I have to say I'm impressed with the gym's improvements since the early days and I enjoy working out there. Friendly staff, clean and well-maintained equipment, and plenty of TVs are pretty much all you can ask for. Oh - and someone else mentioned the ventilation - it's pretty solid, and there's none of the crotch rot / dead body odor that's included in your monthly dues at many gyms.

4 out of 5 stars - add a steam room, maybe a smoothie bar (I picked up some fruity habits in LA), and give me some more room to hang out with my wang out in the men's room and we'll bump this rating to a solid 5 out of 5.

This is one of those times where I wish I could find a sixth star to slap on this review. Scotty's is simply the best market ever, and coming from a market snob like myself that's high praise indeed.

As a Marin county lifer, I was and raised with walking-distance access to two pioneers in the world of high-end markets - Eddie's and Woodland's Market. I was a kid with a love for sandwiches that bordered on addiction, and Eddie's was a dream come true: top shelf sandwiches and charge accounts that sent the bill right back to my parents. Genius.

My mom moved to Mill Valley when I was in high school, and Mill Valley Market became my go-to sandwichery. Again, I was spoiled. Through all stages and phases of life, proximity to an amazing deli has almost become a prerequisite to my living situation; a neighborhood check-box if you will.

So when I moved to Terra Linda in 2005 after a stint in LA down the street from Canter's Deli (and kitty-cornered from Wood Ranch Barbecue, home of an amazing tri-tip sandwich AND salad), I was pretty nervous walking into Scotty's for the first time. I ordered up my go-to sandwich, maple turkey on sourdough roll with mustard, lettuce, provolone and onions, and I stood by anxiously as it was made by an older lady named Barb.

The sandwich was amazing; Barb made it with love.

From that moment on, I was sold. My wife and I hit up Scotty's at least 4 times a week, often with my 2 year old son in tow, and we've become friends with everyone who works there. They're all amazing - especially Amber and Barb - and the shopping is wonderful time and again. My only disappointment is when I go in for my favorite pre-made Scotty's specialty salad (BBQ chicken) and they're either all gone or decided not to make them that day. Then I cry a little, but come back the next day with a hopeful heart.

Their tri-tip is excellent, their pre-made food is very high quality, their Scotty's-brand salsas and made-on-the-premises bread is amazing, and they also have plenty of gummi bears - the good Haribo kind.

All that, and free popcorn while you shop. What a market!! Get there now.

You know those weird white circles with pink on the outside that come in some udon varietals and you never really know what they are or want to touch them without gloves? Well, Tokyo Express makes me want to eat them. The place is that good.

How good is Tokyo Express?

So Good that I go there 4 out of 5 days a week for lunch.
So Good that I don't mind being bounced around like a pinball as their waiters blow by me to serve seated customers while I wait for my takeout.
So Good that I try to rally others in the office to go there for lunch on a daily basis.
So Good that my office smells like udon 24-7 and I enjoy it - in fact, I've created an udon-scented air freshener for my car (not really).
So Good that I proposed to the hostess twice since Tuesday.

You get the idea. Place is good. Nabe-yaki udon is my staple, and never before have I had such high-quality meat, seafood and vegetables in my udon - usually I find Japanese places to throw the knees, beaks, elbows and eyeballs into the soup and hope that the heat, noodles and broth make you forget what you're really crunching. Not Tokyo Express. White meat baby. Real fish. 3 shrimp per order!

My only qualms - I have to remove the tails of my own shrimp, and the salads taste like cardboard. But hey - the salads are complimentary, and removing the tails has become part of the ritual.

The sushi is also quite good. I started adding a roll to my lunch order, and have yet to find something that I don't like. I recommend the Hopping Roll, which is a California Roll that's fried like tempura with some teriyaki sauce on top, and a few tobiko just for giggles. It's awesome.

Two thumbs to the sky - hit it up immediately or sooner.

i should start this review like I start most conversations with my wife - with a confession. In this case, my confession will be strictly culinary in nature. My name is Mike, and I'm a sushi addict. When it comes to sushi, I am powerless. I wasn't always this way...

...I used to live in Foster City and my wife worked at a private equity firm hell bent on burning out its best people and systematically undermining the self esteem of its secretarial staff. Good times. And by good times I mean the place may have actually been an outpost of Hell. I was never actually there long enough to catch a glimpse of Satan at the vending machine, but I'm pretty sure if I had visited my wife more often I would have been invited to join the man's fantasy football league.

Anyway. The one silver lining in two years of my wife's indentured servitude was that they would order in lunch every day for the partners. Lunch was always from the finest places in all the land, and it was always brought in in quantities that far exceeded the amount that could actually be eaten by those in the office. For me, this was a big win, especially on sushi days, when wife would bring home styrofoam containers full of the most expensive sushi around. It became routine for me to plow through up to 70 rolls in a sitting, and so began my spiral into addiction.

In Marin, there are some truly great sushi spots - Robata, Samurai, Sushi-ran, Taki, Sushi to Dai For and Sushi Ko are all on my list of spots that I'll never say no to. The problem is that none of these awesome destinations are within walking distance of my house in Terra Linda.

Enter Mikado Sushi.

Brought to you by the folks who opened the Mikado restaurants in San Francisco, this one is newer, cooler, and best of all I can stagger home after killing the sake bar. In a word, it's awesome.

The food itself is amazing. I saw some plates being prepared as I walked in, and immediately got really excited. Then when it was actually delivered, there were no disappointments. Mikado offers a mix of sushi and cooked foods, including a bunch of hot and cold apps and small plates. More importantly, there's a solid sake list, with at least 20 different sakes available in both a bottle and cup. I recommend the bottles.

I went with my wife, our 2 year old son, and another couple with their 2 year old daughter. The staff was amazingly nice, and super tolerant - they custom made some rolls for the kids, brought plenty of napkins, and pretended to be cool with it when my son dumped a miso on his chest. We ordered about 3 rolls per person, a couple large Asahis each, and 2 bottles of sake (one was on the house), and the bill came to around $170 before tip - totally reasonable for the amount of food and drink we ordered. We obviously tipped out strong because the kids were little animals, and we plan to make this a weekly stop at least, and most likely more than that for me. I have no qualms hitting this place up at 9 on a Wednesday and staggering home at 11:30 to bed.

A great place for family eats, or for a quick and delicious bite with a friend or two.

Every time I go to Izzy's, I get laid. True, it rarely occurs on the premises, but this isn't Manhattan in 1986 so no ratings deductions will be taken.

Sometimes you don't have to overthink it to do something right. Izzy's is a great example of taking a simple formula - good meat + good service + flatscreens = good restaurant. I actually added the flatscreens part on my own, but sometimes the little things can be really strategic - especially if you want people to enjoy the time they'll spend in the bar while they wait for their table. And enjoy it I did.

For some reason I always arrive at Izzy's about a half hour before my reservation, and the place is always pretty packed so I end up sitting at the bar for a few drinks before sitting down. The bar is beautiful, the beer tastes like beer, and my wife says the wine list is satisfactory too.  (for further evidence of this fact, please see the lead paragraph)

One quick thing you should know about me - standard outfit is a t-shirt and jeans with a blazer. I'll dress up the t-shirt appropriately depending on venue, but that's about as far as I'll take it. Izzy's atmosphere is classy without being stuffy; upscale without stifling casual diners. Good times.

The food is always a strong 4 out of 5 stars. For starters at the bar, an order of calamari. Honestly, it would be nice if the fried part didn't always slip off the squids as I dip them in the tartar sauce, but calamari is like a hand job - pretty hard to totally mess it up, it's not really what you're there for, but when done right it gets things off to a good start.

Once seated, I prefer to start off with a bowl of lobster bisque, and Izzy's makes a good one. Nice tender chunks of what I presume to be lobster, and a piece of sourdough bread slapped in the middle like a huge sailboat in a backyard pond. Tasty. Then it's on to a choice filet that's cooked very nicely to my specifications - and the petit size usually fills me up, along with the two sides that accompany the meat.

The sides are what prevent Izzy's from achieving that coveted fifth star. They're too bland. I wish the chef would head over to The Buckeye and borrow a page from their book. The spinach tasted kind of like spinach, and the macaroni and cheese didn't taste like my mom's does. Admittedly this is a tough measuring stick, and a total unknown to the chef, but I'm not here to be fair. Mom's is better.

The service is always fast and friendly, and the check is never as bad as I expect. And like I said earlier, after dinner I get laid. That's pretty hard to beat. Got a date? Head on over to Izzy's. You won't be disappointed.