yes! she's ten feet tall

Well, the meal was truly divine. So far they have not posted last night's café menu on the website, but if I see it come up today I'll append it here.

Parking was an adventure, but we had plenty of time. Finally found an appropriate place on Vine just up from Shattuck, and went to a positively wonderful bookstore (I believe I bought Uncle Scrooge: His Life and Times there), Black Oak Books, which I'm sure you know, Suze.

So. Our dinner date was at five, and we were the first people in, of course, but half an hour later the place was full.

First course: I had avocado and grapefruit salad with some crushed red pepper (not hot, just tasty) in a light vinaigrette. Sprigs of chervil. For something so simple, it was positively wonderful. Florence had baked goat cheese and green salad. Again the vinaigrette was just right. The cheese was dipped in crispy crumbs (presence of duck fat unmistakable) and warm. I don't even like goat cheese, but I ate half of one and it was superb.

Second course: I had duck confit with canellini beans, cardoons, and other vegetables. Again, wonderful. I gave the skin to Mom. She had pork shoulder with spinach, potatoes, turnips. Also quite good.

Dessert: I had apple tart glazed with meyer lemon and a scoop of wonderful ginger ice cream. Mom had cherry/vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate wafers. She ate every bite.

Everything was wonderful. We washed it down with a bottle of Zinfandel made in Napa especially for the restaurant. Also quite good. A great meal; I'll go there again (and again!).

Otherwise an uneventful day. We went to the kitchen store and wine store (corner of Buena Vista and Park in Alameda). Jeff in the wine store recognized me this time. I'm here too often!

Then I dropped Mom up at Thea's and came back here to read and sleep. I only had about two hours, really (after doing some aimless driving around in the Oakland hills), but it was nice.

Thea gets a day off today (I'm sure she's welcoming it!) while we ferry off to SF. We only plan to spend four hours there; it's cold and yucky. Ferry goes to pier 41, so that's nice. We'd talked about a bus tour, but there's not one at a convenient time to allow us to have lunch.

Over and out. Thanks for the damned earworm, Suzy.