The hoax email threatening serial blasts across Calcutta on Tuesday night has woken Bidhannagar Municipality and police up to the need to rein in cyber cafes in the township. The email was sent from one of the 150-odd Salt Lake cyber cafes that the authorities do not have any information on.
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Kokopelli Winery & Bistro among the latest businesses to be licensed by Surprise. Check the list of licensees and incorporations.
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The West Bengal government on Wednesday enforced strict monitoring on all cyber cafes in the city and districts with specific guidelines in this regard.
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Brunch is about indulgence. There’s nothing quite so gratifying as sleeping as late as you want on the weekend, and then wandering out to a meal over which you can linger as long as you like and whose dishes are crafted to satisfy sweet tooth and searing headache alike. Brunch may be more socially acceptable for adults than having pancakes for dinner, but it offers the same exciting prospect of choosing what to eat with only our pleasure as a criteria.
Dinner is the most sophisticated meal, but brunch is the most hedonistic. If only because no one seems to think twice about having, say, donuts, bacon, steak and booze before 11:00 AM.
I have been valiantly indulging in brunch in San Francisco for more than ten years, and I’ve had more than a few adequate meals in that time period, but more importantly, I’ve discovered a few places that truly do brunch the right way, and at the risk of reviewing myself right out of my coveted corner window table on a Sunday, I’m going to tell you about them.
But first, let’s talk about what makes a great brunch restaurant and menu. Brunch is more than breakfast. To qualify as a great brunch restaurant you have to do more than just serve eggs and bacon from 11 AM to 2 PM on the weekend. You need to have a menu that is a nice balance between savory and sweet. Good brunch restaurants will have some breakfast items, and some lunch items. Great brunch restaurants will have dishes that combine and defy both categorizations. The best brunch dishes can seem like breakfast for those who lean towards that end of the spectrum, while at the same time appealing to those who might just have already eaten their breakfast for the day.
The best brunch restaurants will also serve alcohol, and ideally have a wine list that includes champagne. My favorite restaurants also tend to serve fresh squeezed juices, and it goes without saying that the best among them also serve excellent coffee and espresso drinks.
Finally, the finest brunch restaurants in the city offer an atmosphere of respite. This isn’t to say that they’re tranquil — most great brunch restaurants aren’t oases of calm — but the best brunch restaurant needs to make you feel at home and relaxed enough to order that second bloody mary and finish another section of the Sunday paper while nibbling on the last piece of bacon.
So without further ado, I offer to you my list of the absolute best places to have brunch in San Francisco.
Bar Tartine
Tucked into a sign-less storefront on Valencia Street, this bright, nicely decorated restaurant would make it into the best brunch category simply for serving fresh chunks of the country bread from it’s namesake bakery four blocks away, which it does. The fact that it also makes french toast (be still my beating heart) from what I consider to be the best bread on the planet cements this as my number one favorite place to have brunch in the city. A regularly shifting menu features many delectables that often redefine the notion of brunch food. On a recent visit I had a watermelon gazpacho to start followed by a duck confit panini spread with peach mostarda (again on the world’s best bread). Now if we could only get them to serve the breakfast bread pudding from Tartine Bakery, I would never have to go anywhere else on a Sunday morning. A nice wine list and beautifully designed decor make this a decidedly upscale experience, though without a shred of pretension. Despite the fact that it looks like they do on OpenTable, they don’t actually take reservations for brunch. Show up shortly after they open at 11 and you′re sure to get a table.
Bar Tartine
561 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-1600
Open 6PM to 10PM Tues to Sun, Saturday and Sunday 11AM to 2:30PM
Universal Cafe
Until Bar Tartine opened up, this was my favorite spot for brunch in the city. This small cafe offers a constantly changing menu of 12 to 15 dishes that are always made with excellent ingredients. There’s almost always some sort of delicious hash with poached eggs on it as well as some variation on stuffed french toast, a flatbread, as well as several other dishes that shift with the seasons. Those that are interested in a little sun (should the weather cooperate) can snag one of the four outside tables on the sidewalk, while the hungover folks can slouch on the long wooden bench banquette that makes up half the seating in the narrow restaurant. There’s usually some sort of fresh juice cocktail on the menu, as well as a compact and usually crap-free list of wines by the glass. No reservations here, so eating on the early side will mean less waiting.
Universal Cafe
2814 19th St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 821-4608
Open Tues to Fri 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM, Saturday and Sunday 9AM to 2:15PM
Mama’s on Washington Square
There’s a reason that the last time I ate at Mama’s I waited for half an hour in a line that stretched around the corner and up the street. This restaurant has been a San Francisco Institution for years. Home made baked goods of all kinds are one of the features of the restaurant, which essentially serves breakfast all day every day for those of you looking for a Wednesday brunch fix, as well as hearty lunches for those who can afford to wait 30 minutes to be seated at lunchtime. One of the only restaurants I’ve been to that offers several different varieties of french toast (all made with different house baked breads), Mama’s is a great family restaurant with a homey feel, big portions, and great food.
Mama’s on Washington Square
1701 Stockton St
San Francisco, CA 94133-2914
Phone: (415) 362-6421
Open Tuesday to Sunday 8AM to 3PM
Ella’s Neo Classical American Cooking
I’ve never managed to figure out just what Neo Classical American cooking actually means, unless that’s just a fancy way of saying “damn good pancakes″ which certainly applies to this Presidio Heights breakfast and brunch institution. People seem to flock to the restaurant for the various species of pancakes on offer, as well as for their freshly made sticky buns, which are truly a spectacle to behold and a pleasure to eat. The cozy restaurant (which has a nice four seater counter for those who might be dining alone) also serves lunch and dinner, but everyone knows breakfast and brunch are what they do best. No reservations are taken, and because it’s a small restaurant, you need to get there before 10 to avoid a wait on the weekends.
Ella’s Neo Classical American Cooking
500 Presidio Ave
San Francisco, CA 94115-2423
Phone: (415) 441-5669
Mon to Fri 7AM to 11AM, 11:30AM to 9PM and Saturday and Sunday 8:30AM to 2PM
Q Restaurant
I first discovered Q when I was living in the neighborhood and now even when I live all the way across the city, I find myself occasionally making the trek back to the Inner Richmond for a fix of foccacia benedict and blackboard doodling. Q is a really fun, funky restaurant. Set up more like a diner than a restaurant, it’s got a counter, a few booths, a pillow filled front nook with a blackboard wall behind it (lots of chalk and magnets to play with), and a series of tables that are as much art projects and game consoles as they are tabletops. My favorite table here is one that has that magnetic hair stuff under the glass that you can move around with magnetic pens, just like those old kids games. The food is eclectic with little twists like the focaccia bread under the benedicts, or red onion marmalade and blue cheese in their omelets. A nice wine list and funky music round out the experience.
Q Restaurant
225 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 752-2298
Open Mon-Fri 11AM to 3PM and 5PM to 11PM, Saturday and Sunday 10 AM to 10 PM.
Just For You
I have one word for you: beignets. That’s all you need to know about this little hole in the wall in the Dogpatch neighborhood. Freshly made to order New Orleans style beignets covered in powdered sugar. An order of these and one of their monster omelets and I could simply crawl back into bed with a smile on my face. This little diner is an odd bird of a restaurant, from the decor to the folks who staff the place, to the clever quips in their menu descriptions. But as long as you don’t find that distracting, you’ll love the southern influenced comfort food that comes in huge portions with no pretense or fuss. This is just good eating, which is why when you arrive you’ll have to quickly jot your name down on the clipboard hanging by the door and wait a while, especially if it’s after 11 AM. The liquor store next door sells newspapers, and a bench makes the wait pass a little more quickly. The nice folks inside will even pour you a cup of coffee if you ask.
Just For You Cafe
732 22nd St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 647-3033
Weekdays 7:30AM to 3PM, Weekends 8AM to 3PM
Before there was Rolland and Accad, long before Helen Turley and Clark Smith, ages before Cotarella and Tachis, there was an influence in winemaking that probably has had as much authority, over time, as all the above combined. (And you can throw in all the high-ranking wine critics too). Were his techniques natural, or did he meddle?
Recently I read this in one of the old books on wine that I inherited from a friend and mentor who recently passed away. The passage went like this:
Q. In winemaking, what do you get if you don’t intervene?
A. Vinegar.
The following are some excepts regarding winemaking, translated from his mater lingua. Seems that was the way in those days in sunny old Frascati, i.e. Tusculum. Have some fun nothing new under the sun?
• Wine for the family to drink through the winter: Pour into a jar 10 quadrantals of must, 2 quadrantals of sharp vinegar, 2 quadrantals of boiled must, 50 quadrantals of fresh water. Stir with a stick thrice a day for five consecutive days. Then add 64 sextarii of old sea-water, cover the jar, and seal ten days later. This wine will last you until the summer solstice; whatever is left over after the solstice will be a very sharp and excellent vinegar.
• If your place is far from the sea, you may use this recipe for Greek wine: Pour 20 quadrantals of must into a copper or lead boiler and heat. As soon as the wine boils, remove the fire and when the wine has cooled, pour into a jar holding 40 quadrantals. Pour 1 modius of salt and 1 quadrantal of fresh water into a separate vessel, and let a brine be made and when the brine is made pour it into the jar. Pound rush and calamus in a mortar to make a sufficient quantity, and pour 1 sextarius into the jar to give it an odour. Thirty days later seal the jar, and rack off into amphorae in the spring. Let it stand for two years in the sun, then bring it under cover. This wine will not be inferior to the Coan.(Coan wine is wine from the Greek island of Kos)
• Preparation of sea-water: Take 1 quadrantal of water from the deep sea where no fresh water comes; parch 1½ pounds of salt, add it, and stir with a rod until a boiled hen’s egg will float; then stop the stirring. Add 2 congii of old wine, either Aminnian or ordinary white, and after mixing thoroughly pour into a pitched jar and seal. If you wish to make a larger quantity of sea-water, use a proportionate amount of the same materials.
• Recipe for Coan wine: Take sea-water at a distance from the shore, where fresh water does not come, when the sea is calm and no wind is blowing, seventy days before vintage. After taking it from the sea, pour into a jar, filling it not fully but to within five quadrantals of the top. Cover the jar, leaving space for air, and thirty days later pour it slowly and carefully into another jar, leaving the sediment in the bottom. Twenty days later pour in the same way into a third jar, and leave until vintage. Allow the grapes from which you intend to make the Coan wine to remain on the vine, let them ripen thoroughly, and pick them when they have dried after a rain. Place them in the sun for two days, or in the open for three days, unless it is raining, in which case put them under cover in baskets clear out any berries which have rotted. Then take the above-mentioned sea-water and pour 10 quadrantals into a jar holding 50; then pick the berries of ordinary grapes from the stem into the jar until you have filled it. Press the berries with the hand so that they may soak in the sea-water. When the jar is full, cover it, leaving space for air, and three days later remove the grapes from the jar, tread out in the pressing-room, and store the wine in jars which have been washed clean and dried.
• To coat the brim of wine jars, so as to give a good odor and to keep any blemish from the wine: Put 6 congii of the best boiled must in a copper or lead vessel take a hemina of dry crushed iris and 5 pounds of fragrant Campanian melilot, grind very fine with the iris, and pass through a sieve into the must. Boil the whole over a slow fire of faggots, stirring constantly to prevent scorching; continue the boiling, until you have boiled off a half. When it has cooled, pour into a sweet smelling jar covered with pitch, seal, and use for the brims of wine jars.
• If you wish to determine whether wine will keep or not, place in a new vessel half an acetabulum of large pearl barley and a sextarius of the wine you wish to test; place it on the coals and bring it to a boil two or three times; then strain, throw away the barley, and place the wine in the open. Taste it the next morning. If it is sweet, you may know that the wine in the jar will keep but if it is slightly acid it will not.
• To make sharp wine mild and sweet: Make 4 pounds of flour from vetch, and mix 4 cyathi of wine with boiled must; make into small bricks and let them soak for a night and a day; then dissolve with the wine in the jar, and seal sixty days later. The wine will be mild and sweet, of good color and of good odor.
• To remove a bad odour from wine: Heat a thick clean piece of roofing-tile thoroughly in the fire. When it is hot coat it with pitch, attach a string, lower it gently to the bottom of the jar, and leave the jar sealed for two days. If the bad odour is removed the first time, that will be best if not, repeat until the bad odor is removed.
• If you wish to determine whether wine has been watered or not: Make a vessel of ivy wood and put in it some of the wine you think has water in it. If it contains water, the wine will soak through and the water will remain, for a vessel of ivy wood will not hold wine.
• To impart a sweet aroma: Take a tile covered with pitch, spread over it warm ashes, and cover with aromatic herbs, rush and the palm which the perfumers keep, place in a jar and cover, so that the odor will not escape before you pour in the wine. Do this the day before you wish to pour in the wine. Pour the wine into the jars from the vat immediately; let them stand covered for fifteen days before sealing, leaving space for air, and then seal. Forty days later pour off into amphorae, and add one sextarius of boiled must to the amphora. Do not fill the amphorae higher than the bottom of the handles, and place them in the sun where there is no grass. Cover the amphorae so that water cannot enter, and let them stand in the sun not more than four years; four years later, arrange them in a wedge, and pack them closely.
• If you wish to make a laxative wine: After vintage, when the vines are trenched, expose the roots of as many wines as you think you will need for the purpose and mark them; isolate and clear the roots. Pound roots of black hellebore in the mortar, and apply around the vines. Cover the roots with old manure, old ashes, and two parts of earth, and cover the whole with earth. Gather these grapes separately; if you wish to keep the wine for some time as a laxative, do not mix it with the other wine. Take a cyathus of this wine, dilute it with water, and drink it before dinner; it will move the bowels with no bad results.
• Throw in a handful of black hellebore to the amphora of must, and when the fermentation is complete, remove the hellebore from the wine save this wine for a laxative.
• To prepare a laxative wine: When the vines are trenched, mark with red chalk so that you will not mix with the rest of the wine; place three bundles of black hellebore around the roots and cover with earth. Keep the yield from these vines separate during the vintage. Put a cyathus into another drink; it will move the bowels and the next day give a thorough purging without danger.
• To blend a wine as a remedy for retention of urine: Macerate capreida or Jupiter, add a pound of it, and boil in 2 congii of old wine in a copper or lead vessel. After it cools, pour into a bottle. Take a cyathus in the morning before eating it will prove beneficial.
• To blend a wine as a remedy for gout: Cut into small chips a piece of juniper wood a half-foot thick, boil with a congius of old wine, and after it cools pour into a bottle. Take a cyathus in the morning before eating; it will prove beneficial.
• Recipe for myrtle wine: Dry out black myrtle in the shade, and when dried keep it until vintage. Macerate a half-modius of myrtle into an urn of must and seal it. When the must has ceased to ferment remove the myrtle. This is a remedy for indigestion, for pain in the side, and for colic.
And my personal favorite,
• Dogs should be chained up during the day, so that they may be keener and more watchful at night.
Thanks to William P. Thayer for the translation and the actual words from the Loeb Classical Library, 1934
Original post by Alfonso Cevola
The cops are now asking cyber cafes in the satellite town to install closed-circuit TV cameras apart from maintaining guest registers and checking ID-cards of users.
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PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Three area wineries will be featured on a chartered bus tour sponsored by Two Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Area. The tour begins at 10 a.m. in Pittsfield on Saturday, Sept. 6 and ends at 6 p.m.
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From: Napa Valley, Calif. California viogniers have been a mixed bag ever since the state’s vintners latched on to this elusive and once-rare white Rhone Valley varietal in the 1980s. They routinely deliver gobs of fruit, but often in a ponderous package of low acid and high alcohol.
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The Gurgaon police Monday arrested five cyber cafe owners for failing to install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in their cafes and for not maintaining the identity records of customers.
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Gurgaon, July 28 : The Gurgaon police Monday arrested five cyber café owners for failing to install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in their cafes and for not maintaining the identity records of customers.
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