Sunday, December 23, 2018
Breakfast: I prepared for myself a breakfast sandwich with egg, smoked cheddar, herbes de provence, grilled sage-spiced mushrooms; mango smoothie. Archived documents. Lunch: leftover chicken cacciatore with spaghetti-os with meatballs from a can. Nap. Rode UberX to dinner at Canela with Patrick: Half bottle of sangria to start. We had the five-course Christmas tasting menu with only one of the wine pairings: amuse bouche: chef's pintxo (poached shrimp, Spanish olive, garlic-paprika aioli). Next: Patrick chose the beet and persimmon gazpacho, I chose the Christmas salad (red and gold beets, marinated cranberries, hazelnuts, frisee, citrus vinaigrette). Next: crab and sea bass volavan (puff pastry, roasted piquillo pepper cream sauce). Next: 21-day dry-aged ribeye (cava-cranberry jam, potato-vegetable gratin, broccolini). For this course Patrick and I agreed at the server's suggestion to split a glass of the paired wine, which was Costers del Priorat, Petit Pissarres 2015. Dessert: Patrick chose bourbon-pecan pie, I chose churros and chocolate. I thought all the food and drink was perfect. Service was excellent except noticeably slow near the end. (A lot of large groups had arrived over the course of our meal.) The menu had a number of misspellings, such as pinxto instead of pintxo and volovan instead of volaván. This volaván—or vol-au-vent—was not a true vol-au-vent, but it was indeed wrapped in puff pastry, and I didn't care that it seemed to have been misrepresented. $187.71 before a $35 tip. Dinner had taken longer than we had expected, so we hurried to leave. Rode UberX with Patrick to Jason Brock's 6th Annual Holiday Show at Martuni's with Dee Spencer on piano, Ollie Dudek on bass, and ? on drums with special guest Shawn Ryan. The seating was particularly cramped. We had seats in the premium section, which basically meant that we could almost high-five Jason Brock if we all wanted to. By happenstance we shared a table with Don Berger of Regency Limousine, whom we learned was a limo driver for many celebrities, and which we learned because Jason Brock reviewed a rather long list of shoutouts to audience guests, many of whom were local celebrities, politicians, and community leaders. Jason even called out Patrick for Lodestar Quarterly and me as a sidenote to that. Donna Sachet was present, and I had a perfect view of her across the room looking her usual glam. Jason sang a mix of popular favorites like The Christmas Song and Winter Wonderland along with lesser-known Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa songs. Shawn Ryan performed a hilarious rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas. Shawn was amused by a woman who had been watching him through a large mirror on the rear wall since that was easier for her due to her seat position. There was even a round of trivia questions with prizes: Scrabble, a strange kind of camera, and a poop emoji pillow. For one of his numbers, Jason appeared in a full Santa suit and stripped it over the course of the song down to his elegant black and burgundy suit. For an encore he sang Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind," delightfully changing "New York" to "San Francisco" at the very end. He's such a bouyant personality and has such a presence that it's impossible to avoid smiling when he's in the room. Oh, and that incredible voice, too! Singing, music, and jokes were perfection all around from both performers. A fine time. Drinks: The Blue Hawaii (coconut vodka, pineapple, blue curaçao) for Patrick, Cherry Blossom (Cruzan black cherry rum, lemon, sparkling wine) for me. $21.50 before a $4 tip.