and then off to Davis, CA

Feb 17
CCM

San Francisco was without a doubt worth the insane drive the night before. Once again Jack and my inability to sleep came in very handy. We were up at the crack of 7 or 8. Before we left the Hotel to check out and stroll around San Fran I sent off an e mail to an old friend, Miro, who I had not seen in two years. He had moved to SF 5 years ago and was making attempts to live the dream. Miro is one of the foodiest people I know and there was rumor he had opened or co opened a restaurant. I, for the past few months, had sent threatening e mails of needing a dish washing job in California- pronto. My last visit had included a walk to the Framers market thanks to Miro. I told Jack we had to go, it had blown my mind. Half peaches wrapped in pancetta ham and then tossed on the BBQ, tomatoes not only purple but striped like zebras…
This time it was caviar, mushrooms, dried dates I had never heard of and Boudin bakery with bread made with original sour dough culture from 150 years ago, they also used a weird tramway system to get bread from bakery to shop counter- the coffee was ok, but the sourdough cheese and jalapeño role was great.


As Jack and I were eating lunch at a spot called the Stinking Rose, we had ordered pints and Bagna Calda (roasted garlic, olive oil & anchovies in a frying pan with bread)—an Italian dish introduced to me at Jerry Granelli’s annual Birthday celebrations in Halifax, his source of stamina quickly became clear, my phone rang. Miro had just gotten up after a late night celebration.
“where are you?” I explained, he laughed and suggested we meet him and just hang out, perhaps stare out at the ocean some place and catch up.

Miro had been involved in the opening of a restaurant, but it had since closed and his all-star chef and he had instead gone into consulting. Miro was a main man in the good old days of the heady 90s Halifax Music scene and was a former Cinnamon Toast Records partner/art director. His love of music has not dimmed, he is now helping to run another lable: Pressing-Issues featuring Dubstep music. We met up and he quickly took over the driver seat and began winding us through his San Francisco; beaches, parks, hills, restaurants, shops and history. We only had two or three hours but like a French goose we got our fill.

With threats of you gotta come back for more than 24 hours you M@#$F$%*#er, we said good bye to Mr Miro and off we drove to our final destination: Meg Jones and Davis, California. Our trip would be over in less than two hours unless we hit traffic, and we did.