Breakfast (and dinner) with Bear

Bear came to visit the Bay Area at the end of April, so naturally we spent a majority of the weekend eating. We took him to Brown Sugar Kitchen on Saturday morning. The first time we ate here, I thought, “Man, we need to take Bear here.” I think he liked it.

Hungry Bear!


Macaroni and cheese


Cornmeal waffle with brown sugar butter, buttermilk fried chicken, and apple cider syrup

That night, we had dinner at Spork, this relatively new restaurant in the Mission. It was formerly a KFC, hence the restaurant’s name, as the spork was born at KFC. You can read more about how the current restaurant was born and how they transformed the space here.

Thirsty Bear!


Sprok! Yes, that's right, SPROK!


Griddled calamari with ginger slaw: Monterey Bay calamari with shredded cabbage, sesame seeds, ginger and soy vinaigrette; Mushroom soup in the background


Mussels and pork with a spork: Mediterranean mussels, slow roasted pork, Belgian beer, green beans, smoked chili aioli


Alaskan halibut: wild caught Alaskan halibut with fresh corn polenta, beet puree, fava beans and mustard vinaigrette


Scallops with crab risotto: seared scallops with fresh dungeness crab risotto, watercress, meyer lemon poached artichokes


"Elvis Has Left the Building": warm peanut butter cup, vanilla gelato, bananas, caramel and salted peanuts


Strawberry shortcake

The mussels were pretty darn good, but the rest of the mains and appetizers were only so-so. Desserts were OK; the strawberry shortcake really needed some strawberry sauce because it was really dry, and the Elvis dessert was not very memorable.

After dinner, we went to a pub and met up with some of Bear's other friends up here. We were there for nearly four hours, and I had half of a drink. Can you tell how much I enjoy drinking? Ha! We finally left sometime after 1:00 AM, and a drunk Bear announced he was hungry. We went to Daimo, one of the few restaurants still open at that hour, and had another full-on meal.

Bear's flight the next day was in the early afternoon, so we had an early lunch at Koi Palace, before bringing Bear to the airport and sending him back down to southern California.

Needless to say, I think I undid a whole month of working out in this weekend alone, but it was worth it.