Friday, September 20, 2024

Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Deleted an old Google account that had been set up in the OSACA days that we no longer needed (and barely used at all when we had it). Edited a news story for Suzan. Reviewed social media graphics in Photoshop for Katherine. Added Instagram to the footer of our html email template for MAK Seed Award. Comm team meeting. Lunch: bbq chicken salad from Ladle and Leaf, bread, water from my water bottle. More MAK Seed Award followup. Met with Katherine and Suzan to train them on uploading images to The Archive. Afterwards I spent some time updating fields. Altered the future pub date of a news story for Suzan. After work I walked and rode Muni home to drop off my bag and refresh then walked and rode Muni to meet Patrick for dinner at Fisch and Flore (2298 Market Street), our first time since they reopened in April 2024. A glass of lemonade here is $7—exorbitant! We sat at table 55, which is the two-top just inside the front door. The interior is a big upgrade from what we remember of Cafe Flore: seemingly new everything yet they retained the wall of windows (but with new windows) that make it feel like you're inside a giant greenhouse. Outside the front door steps are somehow gone, new concrete seems to be everywhere, and there are no heat lamps but there is a fire pit. Cocktails: Drain or Shine (tequila bianco, italicus, elderflower, lime, rhubarb bitters) for Patrick, L'Etude d'Or (brandy, benedictine, pomegranate, chamomile, honey, lemon, egg white) for me. Patrick had a grilled oyster. We shared fisch and chips (beer battered cod, hand cut fries, Old Bay seasoning, walnut tartar sauce) and grilled fish tacos (rockfish, coleslaw, pickled red onion, salsa verde), which come three to a plate with a sauce to spoon atop. The menu says the dish comes with salsa verde, but I thought it was more of an avocado crema, which I thought had a bit of spiciness. The fisch and chips both had Old Bay seasoning. I could barely taste Old Bay in the fisch, but it was quite notable in the chips. The chips (fries), about a quarter-inch to three-eighths-inch thick, were a little spicy for me, but I was able to tolerate it. The fry exterior was crisp, and the interior was notably soft—like mashed potatoes. All the seafood was notably fresh and prepared excellently. Patrick didn't realize his cocktail would be so diminutive, and mine didn't seem to get me any woozy, but we enjoyed them. Service by Z'amir S aka Z was excellent. About $100 after tax and tip. While departing we saw a neighboring table receive what appeared to be a plate of four off-menu head-on prawns, and Patrick thought they looked especially tasty. When we return we want to try the salmon sandwich with fries, and Patrick wants to try more oysters. Afterwards we attended and enjoyed Academy Homeroom: The Bee's Knees with Barr Hill Gin at The Academy. Walked and rode Muni home. I had accidentally left my eyeglasses behind. Both to bed soon afterwards.