Saturday, January 20, 2018
Breakfast at home: leftovers. Finally finished watching Black Mirror s1:e2. Rode UberX to the Castro with Patrick. Errand: optometrist. Lunch at Slurp! Noodle Bar: shrimp pad thai for Patrick, slurp ramen for me, green tea and water for both: $37.70 before a $6 tip. Service by Keith H was very good. Rode Muni home with Patrick. Home improvement: resolved the problem with the surge protector mounts from a few weeks ago by measuring again and in one case redrilling all the mount holes anew. Installed a third surge protector by the larger bedroom door. Cleaned and washed the Black and Decker small vacuum. Emptied the paper shredder. Nap. Rode Uber Pool downtown. Dinner with Romy, Drew, Phil, and Paul at Michael Mina. We had cocktails to start and did the five-course tasting ($145 per person) and chose wine from bottles instead of pairings. Because of the complexity I can't recall everything we ate. Paul ordered almost entirely differently than the rest of us. I happened to make all the same course selections as Drew. Before ordering I wondered, "How would they do a shabu shabu here?" because it was on the menu and we found out because Paul had ordered it. A small pot of hot broth arrives with the rest of the plate, and the meat is swished in the broth with chopsticks by the wait staff. Service from all was impeccable: timely, efficient, polite, napkins folded almost immediately after one departs for the restroom, etc. Foods were frequently served in trios. We started with a complimentary amuse bouche trio and ended with a complimentary confection trio. Afterwards Drew drove (!) and dropped Paul and me near Paul's place. Paul went home. I walked to the Castro and barhopped; everyone else was too tired to join. I looked in at but did not enter The Cafe (where to my surprise a doorman said he recognized me from earlier visits). Ms. Jackson spun at Beaux, where I stayed a while enjoying the music, different and much better than what I usually hear at Badlands or Toad Hall. I briefly visited 440. Haute Toddy spun at QBAR but I didn't enter. Midnight Sun was mostly empty. I had a drink at Toad Hall, meeting Denmark and Brian whose women friends were having a disagreement. Back to Midnight Sun where I stayed a while. Mushroom pizza slice at Nizario's: $4 before a $1 tip. Rode Uber Pool home. Of all the bars I visited, only 440 seemed particularly full of gay patrons; the rest seemed a lot more mixed than I recall from previous visits.