Dinner – Wednesday, December 29, 2021 It’s been over a year since I last wrote about a meal at Aubergine. We ate at the restaurant three times in 2021, and I’m rather glad I held off posting about the previous dinners – this was the strongest of the year. Admittedly, with surging Omicron cases, we […]

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Dinner – Friday, December 17, 2021 Nisei opened back in August, the brainchild of former Californios chef de cuisine David Yoshimura. True to its name, it (and its sister establishment Bar Iris next door) espouses a modern Japanese-American cuisine. I’d been quite interested in checking out both spots, but waited to schedule a dinner with […]

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Dinner – Wednesday, November 3, 2021 Finally, my favourite restaurant in the city received a much-deserved (and IMHO overdue) second Michelin star. I was happy to celebrate with a meal, naturally. As usual, I opted for a seat at the live-edge kitchen counter, settled in, and enjoyed the ride. Sweet onion, Golden Osetra caviarSoured cream, […]

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Dinner – Sunday, October 24, 2021 This 15-month period has been the longest interval between my meals at Single Thread since it first opened – no thanks to Covid. We missed the entirety of their outdoor dining residency, but with an unvaccinated toddler, it was the most prudent choice. I was very glad to be […]

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Dinner – Tuesday, September 7, 2021 My first (and only) visit to Californios was over four years ago, back when they were a modest operation in a small, dimly lit space. Revisiting those dinner notes now is instructive – it seems I saw promise, but evidently not enough to return anytime in the intervening period. […]

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Dinner – Wednesday, May 27, 2021 This dinner was a long time coming – a group of us had a reservation here in January 2020, which was aborted after a fire shut the restaurant down on New Year’s Day. The expected reopening never happened, because the whole world shut down. We did partake of their […]

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Dinner – Sunday, May 9, 2021 We dropped by Angler a few times in 2020, when it took a turn as Saison Smokehouse (good, not great), and for some of their holiday take-home dinners (fun). However, Mother’s Day seemed like an appropriate time to return for a meal with the family, at a restaurant I […]

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Dinner – Thursday, November 12, 2020 We should have seen it coming, shouldn’t we? Halloween, the election crowds, the approaching cold season and pandemic fatigue all combined to push COVID-19 cases to new heights (I won’t use the word “wave” because let’s be frank, it’s all been one long wave – this country never successfully […]

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Dinner – Thursday, August 6, 2020 And so the state’s shelter-in-place order carries on interminably. In search of a way to take a break as responsibly as possible (and trying to support our friends), we skipped down the coast for a one-night stay at L’Auberge Carmel. Of course, the purpose was to dine at Aubergine, […]

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Dinner – Thursday, July 9, 2020 Our previous dinner at Single Thread was in the immediate aftermath of the devastasting Kincade Fire. Who could have known then that our next meal would occur in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic? Our family has been beyond fortunate so far, even as so many around the […]

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