Issue #16 April: A Restaurant Worth Crossing the Bay Bridge For

Plus a new oceanfront park, the best book I’ve read this year, and where to dine before a show downtown (no, it's not Morton’s)

Happy Cowboy Carter Tour Week to all who celebrate! 🤠 I’m getting ready to see Beyoncé in LA on Sunday and cannot focus on anything else. I will write about my experience in excruciating detail next month, but for now, here’s everything I’ve been up to lately. 

Eat 😋 

Pomet (Oakland, CA)

I don’t venture across the bridge for much, but after seeing Pomet featured on Check, Please!, I knew I had to make the journey. The restaurant is owned by the farmer behind K&J Orchards, which I often shop at the farmer’s market. What they don’t grow on their own farm, they source from other local purveyors (full list on the back of their menu). This is as farm-to-table as you can get and even recognized with a Michelin Green Star. Highlights include the crispy turnip tots, ugly mushroom caramelle, milk bread rolls, and Liberty duck à l’orange 🦆. The vibe is friendly and casual with both indoor and outdoor seating. 

Sisterita (FiDi, SF)

Hidden down an alleyway is a cute newish brunch spot that attracts a line of tourists and locals. Sisterita is a type of place content creators flock to with its French bistro style decor and a wall lined in what I assume are fake books. The food, a fusion of Thai, American, and French, does live up to the attention. I went with my mom and we split the Pirate Caribbean omelette made with a generous serving of fresh Dungeness crab meat 🦀 and a side of perfectly roasted potatoes. We also had the Viola French Toast Brioche 🍞 that came with caramelized bananas and toasted walnuts sprinkled in powdered sugar. It somehow managed not to be overly sweet. I washed it down with a housemade strawberry lemonade and for a brief second did feel like I was on a European vacation.

Kiss of Matcha (Inner Richmond, SF)

This tiny storefront on Clement Street often has a crowd outside waiting for their matcha treats. I swung by one afternoon after perusing Green Apple Books (see below). The shop serves a variety of unique matcha drinks made of ceremonial-grade matcha as well as desserts like soft serve, mochi, and cheesecake. I ordered one of their most popular drinks, the matcha strawberry latte 🍵🍓. It’s served on ice with an intense earthy matcha flavor sweetened only by the strawberry puree on the bottom. I happily sipped my drink as I walked home in the sun.

Shop 🛍️

Green Apple Books (Multiple Locations, SF) 

In honor of Independent Bookstore Day 📚 last Saturday, I thought I’d share my favorite independent bookstore, which has been around since the ‘60s. It started on Clement Street selling books, comics, magazines, and over the years has expanded its footprint. In 2015, they opened up shop in the Inner Sunset on 9th Avenue near Golden Gate Park, then took over Browser Books on Fillmore Street in 2019, and most recently, opened at SFO Harvey Milk Terminal last year. With their large inventory of new and used books, helpful staff, author events, and commitment to serving the community, it’s no surprise they’re every book lovers’ go-to store. I can easily spend hours just browsing all the books and reading the handwritten descriptions by the employees. Green Apple also ships anywhere in the U.S. so consider shopping with them the next time you need to send a gift!

See 🖼️

Sunset Dunes (Great Highway, SF)

As dog owners, we never miss a new park opening. Even one fraught with as much controversy as Sunset Dunes, a 2-mile oceanfront park 🌊 stretching from Sloat to Lincoln Way. The measure to turn this highway into a permanent pedestrian walkway passed in the November election. Since then, the city has been working hard to make this a beautiful park complete with murals, sculptures, installations, and community programming. Who knows what will happen to the future of the park, but walking along the coast with the sun on our faces as kites blew in the wind made us feel lucky to live in SF.

Watch 📺

Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)

I love a thriller and Black Bag might just be the most stylish one I’ve seen in a while. Starring the stunning Cate Blanchett and the handsome Michael Fassbender, they play a married couple who are spies for a British intelligence agency. They wear impeccable designer clothes, host dinner parties in their gorgeous London townhouse, and are the envy of their colleagues who can only hope to be half as smart and cool. The couple realize that they’re being set up by someone inside the agency and decide to play their own games to figure out who. The movie and cast are mesmerizing to watch and the tension is just serious enough to keep you interested, but not anxious. Also, the kitchen will forever live in my head rent free! 😍

Read 📖

Homeseeking (Karissa Chen)

I know I said last month’s book was the best I read this year, but Homeseeking is definitely the best book I’ve read this year. It was recommended by a member of my book club who went to an author event. Part love story, part historical fiction, this novel is about childhood best friends, Haiwan and Suchi, growing up in the same neighborhood in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. Their romance is cut short when the two are torn apart by the tragedies of war. Decades later, they surprisingly run into each other at a grocery store in LA. We learn through the course of the book everything that happened in between: family lost, sacrifices made, dreams crushed, and the true power of love that endures despite it all. Perhaps it’s because my family is also from Shanghai and lived through the same history that I felt all the heartbreak in this novel deep to my core. Now I wish I had also gone to the author event. 😔

FAQ ❓

Q: Where should I have dinner downtown before my show?

A: We recently saw Aziz Ansari at The Curran Theatre and forgot to plan a dinner reservation beforehand. We took our chances at Bodega, the Vietnamese pop-up turned downtown hotspot, and managed to slide into the bar. We started with the nom, a fresh papaya salad with spicy beef jerky, which sounds weird, but gave the fruit a nice texture. Then we had the nem chua with dungeness crab and shrimp patties served with vermicelli, greens, and nuoc mam to dip. Next we had the bo luc lac, beef tenderloin with baby potatoes and pearl onions and a side of the thit kao mushrooms, a mix of maitake and king oyster mushrooms sauteed in nuoc mam (this is actually a dish I want to try recreating at home). And, of course, we couldn’t leave without their mochi pandan bar. For first timers, I recommend making a reservation and trying the chef’s tasting. 🧑‍🍳 Just make sure you have enough time to make your show!