Friday, June 6, 2025
Tina visits, day 2 of 5. Tina, Patrick, and I walked to a late breakfast at Wooden Spoon (2172 Market Street): we shared: fried chicken and biscuit, swedish society pancakes, salmon scramble. Cappuccino for Tina, coffee with cream and sugar for me, orange juice for Patrick. All food and drink were delicious with one exception: the biscuits were drier than expected compared to the high quality of all the other dishes, and we believe it was due to being reheated too many times. Service by Santiago F was excellent. Afterwards we walked to buy groceries at Whole Foods then walked home. Rested. I caught up on journaling. Reused styrofoam from a Blueair 411 replacement filter to line my Solo New York laptop bag with extra padding at the bottom. Two 2-inch strips side by side fit perfectly, and I cut it with a large cook's knife. It replaced a spare pillowcase. Patrick prepped for tomorrow's dinner. Weeded Google Drive. No lunch. Early afternoon snack: slices of herb slab focaccia with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tomato, parm regg, and basil. Afternoon nap for Patrick and me but I didn't actually fall asleep. Dressed for dinner. Tina, Patrick, and I rode Lyft to One Market Restaurant to celebrate its legacy before it permanently closes on June 11. We arrived a bit early and got drinks at the bar: 2 happy hour La Fronteras for Patrick and me, 1 glass of tempranillo for Tina. We waited in a short line to check in and Tina recognized worker Larry who returned from Atlanta to work just this week. We were seated near the back and adjacent to Quinn McKenna's table as requested, and Tina visited their table to say hello. Tony G and his fiancee Dani arrived to join our table. The drag show began. Bobby Friday hosted and performed alongside other performers Bebe Sweetbriar, Ehra Amaya, and Pearlteese. Bobby Friday sang the first song which was "Material Girl" by Madonna. Our table and Quinn's table seemed to have received all service after all other tables. The meal was $65 prix fixe, three courses, and the drag show was included. All the performers did a great job, and we saw costume reveals, death drops, and cartwheels. In the middle of the performance Bobby Friday asked for a volunteer to live their drag performance dream, and Dani volunteered and did fantastic with "Man, I Feel Like a Woman." All the tips she received was donated to benefit a local transgender organization. First course: summer bean salad with basil, mint, marcona almonds, burrata. Main course: your choice of pan-seared Alaskan halibut with fresh corn "polenta," summer squash, herb emulsion or applewood-smoked bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with sauteed apples, dandelion persillade, salsify, cider reduction. Dessert: strawberry "shortcake" with lemon cream, strawberry sauce. Last song was We Are Family by Sister Sledge. We took a photo with Chef Mark Dommen. The meal was perfect. There was some confusion over the splitting of the bill due to an error on my part; I had mistakenly thought that Tina's, Patrick's, and my dinner had already been paid, but we sorted it and everything was correct at the end. Complimentary vanilla cream caramels with the receipt. Upon exiting, we were very surprised to encounter a very large raccoon. We rode Lyft home.