I’ve found myself having a hard time getting back in to the swing of things, with the craziness of the last few weeks. I’ve spent some time in the kitchen, but we’ve also eaten out more than usual. I think I’ve also gotten in to a rut, although I’ve been cooking some things, I haven’t really done anything particularly new or inspiring recently. That is going to change here soon, because I have a few ideas that I think will be very fun to blog – but in the mean time, I thought I’d do a restaurant review that had been on my To-Do list for several months now, Nibblers Eatery and Wine Bar.

We first visited Nibblers sometime in December, I’m not exactly sure when – but it had been on my radar for a while. As one of the very, very few restaurants in our area that focuses on local and sustainable food, I was keenly interested in checking it out. There was, however, a small stumbling block that kept us from going sooner – and that was, they happen to have the fortune (or mis-fortune, I suppose) of being right next door to our favorite sushi place. So it kept getting put off, because if we went out, we would frequently end up next door at the Sushi place instead. However, when we found out that one of Miss Thing’s friends knew the chef and owner, we decided it was time to make it a priority.

Since that first experience, we’ve gone a few more times – and it has definitely become short-listed to our favorite restaurants. Where we live, there are precious few restaurants that put any kind of emphasis on where their ingredients come from, and refreshingly – Nibblers puts a great deal of emphasis on where they get their food – frequently calling it out on the menu. They focus on Seasonal and Sustainable ingredients, and I believe the majority of them are sourced locally. As someone who is pretty passionate about the food that I make at home, I think it’s awesome to find a restaurant that cares as deeply as I do. When I look at their menu and know that the cheese that I’m eating came from Cowgirl Creamery, that the lettuce came from Capay Valley, that the pork is Berkshire, and so on, it makes me feel good. I mean, I try not to get all preachy on my friends and loved ones, but I do feel very strongly that local and sustainable food is worth the extra effort and cost, atleast most of the time. Like a lot of restaurants that focus on seasonal ingredients, Nibblers Menu will change frequently – typically they will have a monthly regional theme, with some smaller weekly changes depending on produce availability and such. The nice thing about this set up is, every time you go (unless you’re going more frequently than once a week, naturally) there will always be something new for the adventurous to try. Also important to note is that the menu is Tapas (small-plates) style, meaning most of the portions are small-ish, designed to be shared, and you will probably need 2-3 plates per person.

The Nibblers location is small and intimate, charming – with wine crates stacked strategically to create separate spaces and to have wine bottles and other interesting food related objects places to be displayed. There are several strategically placed little nooks containing books, some of them well worn, and all with some sort of relation to food or cooking – in fact, if it wouldn’t have been rude, there were a few that I wanted to lean over a table for to check out the titles. Fortunately, my Momma taught me better than that, so I didn’t. lol The restaurant is family owned, so on busy nights, you will sometimes be greeted by a young teenage girl, helping out the family for a little spending money. Then they give you a little dish of what I think are shrimp flavored chips, that are fairly addictive – in fact, I may need to hunt down a source for them for a movie night snack one of these days.

After we placed our order, we were offered the Nibble of the day, typically a one bite Amuse-bouche. When we went yesterday, the Nibble of the day was a pita chip, topped with a soft cheese, a sprig of chickweed, drizzled with oil. I’ll admit, this was probably one of my favorite offerings of the evening. The flavors combined nicely to tingle the appetite and get me geared up for the remainder of the meal.  It also put me in mind of spring, and how the season is beginning to turn. Every time I go to Nibblers, the Nibble of the Day puts me in mind to make up little one bite snacks for get togethers. The last couple of times we went, we looked over the Prix-Fixe, and didn’t find enough there to interest us – despite the fact that it is undoubtedly the best value on the menu. This time, however – there was enough listed that we found appealing, so we decided to give it a try.

In addition to the Prix-Fixe menu, we decided to get an order of the entirely-too-addictive Flash Fried Spinach, something we tried on our last trip and is considered to be one of the mainstays of Nibblers, and is definitely one of my personal favorites. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, because these spinach leaves are amazing. They are delicate, and crispy, and an almost melting quality when you eat them. I highly recommend trying them – if nothing else for the very cool textural experience. For the record, Mr. Man has specifically banned me from attempting to make these at home. Something about how we’d all die of spinach overdose if I were to successfully replicate them.

We also ordered the Moroccan Seafood B’stilla off the regular menu, mostly because I’m just a huge, huge fan of B’stilla, which is another dish that I’m technically not ever supposed to make at home. Typically B’stilla is made with poultry, eggs, almonds, cinnamon, and powdered sugar in Phyllo, for a sweet/savory crispy pie type thing, and prepared right, it’s to die for. The Seafood B’stilla was very good – although not what I would call a B’stilla really, since it lacked the complex sweet/savory combination, and was more like a seafood Pasty or Hand Pie. Aside from that minor complaint, it was delicious. The Spicy Harissa Emulsion that was served with it was a big hit with Mr. Man – I think he ended up eating all of it except for a couple of small tastes from me, since I’m a big wuss and couldn’t handle the heat… lol.

The first course of the Prix-Fixe was a Crispy Risotto Cake, with chanterelles, topped with a red pepper emulsion and mizuna. It reminded me a little bit of the deep fried macaroni that we used to get sometimes at a restaurant in the city, since it had a similar texture… crispy on the outside, but warm, cheesy, and soft on the inside, but from there the resemblance ended – because this was much more awesome. The risotto was so creamy and cheesy, with little chunks of chanterelle Mushrooms embedded in it, while the outside was deliciously crispy and golden brown. The Red Pepper emulsion was a perfect complement – and even the leaf of butter lettuce was completely devoured.

Next was the savory Chanterelle Flan Tart, made with a Seasonal offering by Cowgirl Creamery called Devil’s Gulch, farm eggs, and rapini. If I’m not mistaken, the Rapini got the same treatment as the flash fried spinach earlier, since the leaves were crispy, although I could be wrong, as the stems were not as crispy. The tart was very quiche like, and enjoyable. However, this dish wasn’t really my favorite dish. It was fairly oily, whether from the rapini or the tart I can’t really recall, but it was definitely a distraction. Aside from that small complaint, it was still very good.

For the “main course” we had a choice of Grilled Meyer Natural Hanger Steak with heirloom chicories and sherry creamed chanterelles, or the Maple Leaf Duck en Croute. Mr. Man and I both didn’t really have to think too hard about that choice though, since both of us are ginormous Hangar Steak fans. And what amazing Hangar Steak it was. Perfectly Medium Rare, with creamy sauce and big chunks of chanterelles, and tender enough to cut with a butter knife. Mr. Man said it was one of the bestest hangar steaks he’d ever had, and was definitely the highlight of the meal.

Dessert was a Passion Fruit Crème Brûlée, served with a shortbread-like cookie, and a couple of fresh raspberries (where did they find fresh raspberries this time of year??). I tend to like my caramel to be a little lighter, so I found the burnt sugar topping to be a little strong for me, but the passion fruit custard was simply amazing – so rich, and creamy. It’s got me itching to make some custard with the mangoes that I received in my FFTY box. I also loved the little shortbread cookie that came with it. It had teeny little chunks of dried fruit in it, with a soft, tender crumb, and was a perfect complement to the custard, and together was a great way to end a great meal.

One thing we forgot to order this time, that I want to specifically call out, because they ROCK, is the flatbreads. If you go, please make sure to order a flatbread. They are amazing.

In the end, I think this place is pretty awesome – and the fact that they are convenient to us makes it just that much better. They are spendy – but the trade off is you can really feel good about supporting a local business, local farms, and sustainable farming. And the food is very good. For those of you who enjoy wine, there is an extensive wine selection, and various wine flights – as well as micro brewery beers both bottled and on tap. I imagine that probably deserved more than a blurb in the summary, but since we aren’t wine people it’s really hard to write about their selection very well. I did try one of their wine flights last time we went, and found a couple of wines I didn’t hate, but I think I still need to work on developing my wine palate. Also, we have never had a problem getting seated – although I think the word might be getting out, because last night they were packed to the gills and we almost didn’t get a seat. Of course it was a spur of the moment decision to go so it was probably our own fault, if you are going out for a special occasion I’d recommend having a reservation, just in case.

As far as service goes, this restaurant isn’t for the quickly eat and then go person. A visit to Nibblers is the main event, not the opener. When you come, expect to spend some time lingering over your food, your wine, etc… The keyword here is ‘savor’. Go ahead and have a little chat with Trace, the Patisserie, Hostess, and All-Around-Wealth-Of-Information, if she’s not busy. If you’re lucky, Chef Daniel might poke his head out of the kitchen to say hello, and if you’re like me you’ll have to bite your tongue to prevent yourself from geeking out on the food because you don’t want to keep him from getting back to the kitchen to make your next course… Basically what I’m saying is – the service is awesome, but don’t expect to be in and out, or if you do want to get in and out, you need to communicate your expectations to your server, who can then guide and pace the meal accordingly. Expect to spend $30-40 on food per person if you order À la carte, roughly, and then whatever drinks you get on top of that.

On Sunday, Mr. Man and our houseguest decided to go out to Berkeley to check out the Berkeley International Food & Music Festival that Allison of Local Lemons had twittered about last week. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there until about 2PM, and by then it was crowded and the food didn’t really appear to be very impressive. I was kind of imagining a farmer’s market meets restaurant tastings, and instead it was more like restuarant sidewalk sale. Even more annoying than that, it was crowded – and someone was blaring Michael Jackson music. So we decided to pack it up early and find someplace else to get lunch. We stopped by Caffe Trieste to pick up some coffee, whipped out out our nifty iPhones and used UrbanSpoon to help us choose a place to eat.

We settled on a place called Grègoire – the reviews looked excellent and I liked that they use local, in season, produce. I also figured a restuarant review was overdue on teh blog, since I can’t really remember the last time I did one, so I brought the camera in with us and snapped a bunch of pictures. We found street parking pretty easily, although I imagine that it helped that it was Sunday afternoon and several of the other businesses in the area were closed. Seating at the restaurant was limited to two bench tables outside and a couple of stools inside, but it was a lovely day and we just loitered around and snagged a table as soon as someone left. Grègoire  mostly focuses on being a take-out restaurant, which is why the limited seating – so for all you people who live near Grègoire in Berkeley let me just say: I envy you.

The kitchen area was open to the ordering counter, so after we placed our order, we were able to watch the chef prepare everything – which is pretty awesome. I love being able to watch chefs work their magick. The kitchen was small, but well set up, and I had some serious appliance envy when checking out their Wolf oven. We decided to order two Grilled Flank Steak and Warm Brie baguette sandwiches and one Housemade Cold smoked Salmon with Tangy Guacamole on Puff Pastry, along with two orders of Crispy Potato Puffs, with Pineapple & Coconut Bread Pudding with Caramel sauce and Raspberry Mousse with White Chocolate Sauce for dessert.

The Flank steak sandwiches were excellent, with a nice mustard. The brie was all melty, and the flank steak was flavorful. It was just a teeny bit dry, and could probably be improved upon with an Au Jus or something to dip in – but overall, it still beat the snot out of most sandwich shops I’ve been too.

The housesmoked Salmon with tangy guacamole was nothing short of amazing though. The Guacamole was lighter than I expected – almost like a savory mouse, with lots of lemony flavor, and the salmon was incredible as well. Together, they were absolutely sublime. I would say that they were my favorite, (with the possible exception of the Raspberry Mousse).

Mr. Man’s favorite was the Crispy Potato Puffs. While I was sitting at the counter snapping pictures, I was able to watch the chef make them (although I wasn’t quite quick enough to get a good picture of her doing it) and it looked like something no more complicated than deep-fried scoops of Mashed Potatoes, but oh – the taste! They were really delicious. Crispy on the outside, with a soft interior – a creamy, sour creamy-mayonnaisy dip – they were delicious. Mr. Man has said that I’m never, ever to make anything like them at home though, since he believes his arteries would likely explode if I did.

The Pineapple & Coconut Bread pudding with Caramel sauce was next up – and was adorably prepared in a mini loaf pan. I only had a teeny taste of it and thought it was pretty good, but our friend said that it was nothing short of amazing to him. Well, actually what he said was “Wow.” He tends to be a man of few words, so for him that pretty much translates to “really awesome.” Mr. Man didn’t really want a dessert – instead he snagged the last potato puff. (He’s usually more of a savory fan than a sweet fan anyways.)

And the raspberry mousse? Well. It was glorious.  It was creamy, light, smooth, rich, tart, sweet, and just quite simply… exquisite. I wanted to roll each spoonful around on my tongue and let it linger – I now have dreams of bathing in a swimming pool of this stuff – it was that good. It was simply divine. So yeah – if you happen to be in Berkeley it’s definitely a “Go!” in my book. It was well priced (about $40ish for three people), and is absolutely delicious.

Afterwards, we rolled ourselves and our full tummies back to the car and headed back home, but I’m already trying to come up with an excuse to trek back over the Berkeley… I’m sure there’s some urgent errand that needs attending to over there. Honestly. I’m sure I can think of something. And while I’m there, well – if I happen to get hungry… which might happen if I were to say… skip lunch… it wouldn’t hurt anything to pop in to Grègoire again…

We head out at around 5:00, which at first, I thought was way too early for dinner, since we’d had a late lunch, but it turned out that he had everything all planned to perfection. First, we drove down to Pacifica to this little Restaurant right on the waterfront called Ristorante Portofino We got there a few minutes before our reservation, so we looked around and snapped a few pictures.

These were taken in front of the Ristorante Portofino:

Our Reservation was for 5:30, which Don had planned out to coincide with the sunset (Scheduled for 5:49pm).  We were seated and ordered in very short order, and then were able to enjoy this stunning sunset from our table.

We ordered the Insalata Italiana to start with;

And for Entrees we had the Gnocchi Fondenti:

And the Veal Parmigiana:

Sadly, the food was not as good as the view, but it wasn’t bad. The texture on the gnocchi could definitely have been better, although the sauce was very good. The Veal Parmigiana was ho-hum, although the pasta served with it was perfectly al-dente, which was nice. My favorite part however, was that itty bitty side of Spinach that was served with it. It was garlicky and yuuuuummmmay. Overall they were a 3.75 on a scale of 1-5. They got a 4.5 for view, but only a 3 for food and service. So I’d recommend them, but with reservations.

After dinner, we headed back to Downtown San Francisco to Great American Music Hall. We really lucked out, too – finding a fabulous parking spot directly across the street from the Venue. There we saw Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with Ovo and  Estradasphere opening for them.

The first group to go on was Ovo and I gotta tell you… I hated them. lol Hate hate hated. Their music seemed mostly to consist of the woman screaming or grunting, or them intentionally creating feedback to drums. It was probably the most jarring noises I’d ever heard that were intentionally made with the intent of providing musically entertainment. The drummer was good – really good. If it’d just been him drumming, I probably would have enjoyed them. One interesting (interesting re: offputting in a nails on chalkboard sort of way) was that at one point, the woman took one of her dreadlocks and a violin bow and ‘played’ her hair. > . < It made my skin crawl.

The second group to play was Estradasphere. They were a very talented group of people. Their music was sort of folksy meets rock, and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t exactly my style, but it was fun to listen to. The one downside to their music, and probably the reason I didn’t care for it more, was that they did not really have many songs that had words. In fact, during their hour long performance, I think they had two. Now, I know that good music doesn’t have to have music, but in all honesty, theirs I think would have been well complemented by some lively words.

Then we get to the headliner, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. They were quite an interesting show as well, although in a different way. Some of their music was very primal and dark, and some folksy and lighthearted. They had a lot of new sounds, which is likely due to the fact that several of their instruments are handmade. Their music is actually kind of difficult to describe, to be honest – but it was good enough that I am actually considering buying some of their music. Except that I don’t think I’d listen to it. lol

You might think from reading this that I didn’t enjoy the show, but nothing could be further from the truth. They were all very talented musicians (with the possible exception of yowling dreadlock girl), and it was definitely a unique experience, and it makes me want to try other new events. By far my best Valentines Day to date.