Maine Root Handcrafted Beverages

Fancy soda.  It is a thing.  I expect this in some locations, but, Maine?  Yup, Maine.  Home of Maine Root Beverages, a producer of fair trade certified, 100% organic sugar sweetened, sodas.  I wouldn't call them healthy, just, a touch fancy and more nicely packaged than most.  And of course, a touch pricier too. 

I haven't ever seen their beverages on the West coast, but, I encountered them a few times when visiting New England.  I remember having their classic root beer, and their ginger brew, but alas, I never took notes on those.  If you are looking for slightly fancy soda, they are an interesting choice.

Mandarin Orange Soda.

"The Deathstar is complete. We added our latest flavor after many requests for a third brother to our fruity flavored offerings. Here it is, Mandarin Orange! Light, drinkable and thirst quenching. Mmm."

This is easily the fanciest orange soda I've ever had.

It had a nice amount of fizz.  It felt a bit funny to be drinking orange soda out of a bottle, it seems far more fitting for a can :)

The mandarin flavor was quite nice, a more sophisticated version of orange soda.  But overall, I found it a bit too sweet.  ***+.

Pumpkin Pie Soda (Seasonal).

"It doesn’t have to be autumn to appreciate this delicious beverage. We’ve bottled the flavor of everyone’s favorite gourd-based dessert for your year-round enjoyment. You’ll be thankful you tried it."

I really had no idea what to expect from a "Pumpkin Pie Soda".  I got this during the height of pumpkin-flavored everything season, mostly out of the novelty.  Sure, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, etc all make sense, but pumpkin pie soda?

It was ... strange.  It didn't taste like pumpkin pie.  It seemed more like a mild root beer, but with different spices.  I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't get another.  A fried took one sip, made a horrible face, and didn't want anything to do with it.

I give them creativity points here, particularly for joining in on the pumpkin-spice all the things bandwagon, but I can't say this was a success.

**+.

Read More...

J. M. Rosen Cheesecake

Cheesecake.  A fairly common dessert, one that is generally pretty good, no matter the source.  One that has some unique styles, e.g. lighter Italian style with ricotta, decadent dense New York style, fluffy bouncy Japanese style, and more recently deeply caramelized Basque.  It can have a sour cream tang, a fruity topping, incorporate Asian flavors like matcha, or be seasonal with pumpkin.  A pretty diverse dessert, when you think of it.  I've definitely had my share of cheesecake over the years (you can read about them all here), and, although I don't do much cooking nor baking myself, cheesecake is actually something I learned to bake as a teenager, using my mom's no fail recipe (that uses a box of vanilla cake mix, part for the crust, part for the cheesecake itself).

Since it is so common, and so generally average, it takes a lot to impress me with a cheesecake.  Particularly a mass produced cheesecake.  But J.M. Rosen cheesecake did just that.

"Unlike any other desserts you will ever experience. While others say that about their own desserts, we don't. It's our customers who say those words and flock to our wholesale bakery to knock on the door and hope someone will answer to grant their wish for a whole cheesecake to take home. This is our inspiration and continued success. We've been a wholesale bakery for years, now anyone can order online. It's our pleasure to share these fantastic desserts known to Californian's for 35 years. Surprise your family with a new tradition this year, something special, order the best desserts available online."

J.M Rosen is a wholesale cheesecake distributor, based in Northern California.  So, sadly, you can't just walk in to one of their stores to order one, but, you will find them around the area, as they distribute to many restaurants (such as Joyride Pizza, where I had it).  J.M. Rosen is probably most known for their classic New York Cheesecake, a hefty, rich creation, but they also make a "Chocolate Fantasy" version with a layer of regular cheesecake, chocolate mousse, AND chocolate cake, all in a chocolate shell, a Neapolitan cheesecake with a layer of regular cheesecake, plus layer of strawberry mousse, and a chocolate cake layer (yes, just like the ice cream), and a mocha cappuccino variety (plus seasonal eggnog, cranberry, and pumpkin).  They also make a epic looking many layered carrot cake, and a chocolate fudge cake.

I've only tried two of their products, but I'd gladly try more.

Classic NY Cheesecake.

"The best "New York Style Cheesecake'' outside of NYC! Made by master baker J. M. Rosen right here in Northern CA. The same cake Frank Sinatra would order when he toured SF. Luscious, velvety textured cheesecake filling makes this the perfect meal time finish, celebration treat -- or anytime snack." -- Joyride Pizza

"Our "New York Style Cheesecake" is the best cheesecake recipe you can buy. This is the infamous New York Cheesecake with the original Shortbread crust New Yorkers flock to when they visit California. It's our Cheesecake. It's that good! This New York Cheesecake is filled with pounds of the most luscious, thick, dense, velvety textured cheesecake filling you have ever tried. It's dense texture is divine cheesecake lust so we've been told. The dramatic impact of the the robust size, thickness, and original flavor of this New York Cheesecake does not compare to any on the market. NO KIDDING. You don't need a topping but there's always variety in life. Once you try it, you decide how and when you like it, we mean LOVE IT. Honestly, Frank Sinatra ordered (this exact cheesecake from exact baker and company) when he would come to California!" -- J.M. Rosen

I started with the simple, basic, classic NY cheesecake.

Ok, so, this cheesecake gets some accolades.  This I knew.  And I've had very good cheesecake before.  I expected this to be good, but perhaps not quite as magical as everyone seems to think it is.

But, wow, this is very, very, very good cheesecake!  I was blown away by just how smooth and creamy and luxurious it was.  Shockingly smooth.  Shockingly creamy.  Absolutely incredible.  "Velvety" as they say.  The flavor was fairly, well, classic NY cheesecake, certainly cream cheese flavored, and sweet, and sorta vanilla (they use quality Nielson Massey vanilla), and just, well, simple and delicious.  There isn't much more I can say.  

The crust was also notable, not a dry, crumbly, cardboard like graham crust that I so loathe, but rather, a shortbread crust, sweet, just the right thickness, easy to cut through with a spoon but didn't break apart too easily.  The crust extended up the entire backside.

This is certainly one of the best classic cheesecakes I've ever had.  And yes, it is a hefty creation: the 6'' cheesecake weights 3-4 lbs (6-8 slices), and the 9" is 6-8 lbs, 16 slices, so, definitely not a light and fluffy and airy style, for sure.

****+ and I'd gladly get it again and again.

I got a slice for $9 at Joyride Pizza, you can purchase a full 6" cheesecake from J.M. Rosen directly for $79.95, or 9" for $119.95.

Snicker's Cheesecake.

"Guittard Chocolate shell, caramel, perfect shortbread crust, nuts and Snickers Bar chunks... this cake makes your mouth smile and your heart sing. Amazing quality, flavor, and mouthfeel. You'll definitely want to order more than one slice!" -- Joyride Pizza

"What do you get when you cross a Snickers Bar with our Secret Recipe Cheesecake Filling, Guittard Chocolate Shell, Caramel, Famous Shortbread Crust, Nuts and Chunks of a Snickers Candy Bar? Your looking at it! It tastes better than it looks. Certainly, enough to change anyone's mood from "bad" to "great". Bet you can't have just one piece. Try it now! When you wake up looking like Marilyn Monroe you know, it's authentic snickers and you ate too much cheesecake last night! Order while it's hot!" -- J.M. Rosen.

Next, I moved on to the Snicker's cheesecake.  

Here we had the same shortcake crust, along the bottom and the full backside.  Again, far superior to standard graham cracker crusts, sturdy but not too hard, sweet, not too crumbly.  A nice base.

The cheesecake itself was sweeter, I believe it was actually caramel cheesecake.  Still incredibly creamy, insanely smooth, but definitely sweeter, and richer, from the caramel flavor.  On top was a reasonably thick layer of nice quality dark chocolate ganache (Guittard), and little bits of chopped Snickers for a bit of crunch and additional caramel and peanut elements.  There was a thin inner layer as well with some chocolate, nuts, and maybe Snickers.  It definitely was true to the candy bar nature, even though these elements looked fairly minimal at first glance.

This was a slight letdown from the classic NY, but, if you are a Snicker's fan in general, you might really enjoy it.  And don't get me wrong: it was a good cheesecake, I just thought the extra embellishments detracted from the cheesecake goodness.  ***+.

I got a slice for $11 at Joyride Pizza, you can purchase the 6" for $89.95, or 9" for $109.95 from J.M Rosen.

Read More...

Cellarmaker House of Pizza San Francisco

Cellarmaker is a local brewing company, with brewery locations in Berkeley, Oakland (soon), and San Francisco.  The San Francisco outpost also houses their "House of Pizza", pizza restaurant, that slings Detroit style pies alongside their brews.  As a non-beer drinker, the brews side of the establishment isn't interesting to me, but, they do have quite a line up of interesting sounding selections, that change frequently, with plenty of sour beers and large format options, along with guest ciders and beers.  

My experience with Cellarmaker was on the food side of things only (surprise, surprise).  I did not dine-in, but rather, ordered for delivery.  Rather than ordering through a third-party (e.g. DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc), I ordered directly with the restaurant, hoping to support them more directly, and potentially save extra fees.  I wish I could report a good experience, but, alas, it was a bit of a disaster.

Ordering online on their website was easy - they use Toast for both delivery and pickup orders.  The menu was clear, yadda yadda.  Delivery is done via DoorDash silently in the background.  The delivery fee turned out to be higher than the one via DoorDash ordering directly, and menu prices weren't actually any lower. It turns out, it would have been cheaper to order on a third-party site, which surprised me.

Anyway, my order was immediately confirmed, and prepared quickly.  A delivery driver from DoorDash was assigned, and picked it up within 20 minutes.  I was given a reasonable delivery estimate.  But ... it then took 2.5 hours to get to me.  I'll spare you all the details, but, I could sorta follow along and saw the driver literally not move for a full hour, not far from the restaurant.  Since it wasn't an order directly through DoorDash, I couldn't contact their customer support.  After a full hour of no movement, I realized I could call the driver directly.  I did so.  He apologized, and told me the map was wrong.  I confirmed my address.  He said he had to go, hung up, but, at least started moving towards me.  I truly do not know what he was doing for a full hour, just sitting there, not moving, with a wrong map?  Another half an hour elapses, and he's finally in my neighborhood.  But then ... I watch him kinda circling around on the map.  For another 30 minutes.  It has now been 2 hours since he picked up my order.  I call again.  He apologizes again, and says he can't find it.  He repeats my correct address to me.  I give even more clear instructions with landmarks.  Another 25 minutes pass.  And then he shows up.

As you can imagine, this didn't bode well for my food.  2.5 hours post pickup.  The hot food was stone cold, the chilled food warm.  Likely not food safe.  I still risked it, and tried a few bites of each.  Not a smart decision on my part, as I woke up in the middle of the night with severe GI distress.  I spent the entire next day regretting those bites.  Sadness.

The delivery woes aren't Cellermaker's fault exactly, and I'd consider ordering from them again, although sadly not directly.  I'd like to actually try their pizza, they make some fun sounding creations like a Cubano pizza ...

Fried Calamari. $13.

"Buttermilk Marinated Water 2 Table Local Calamari, Onions, Micro Cilantro & Lemon. Served w/ a Remoulade Sauce."

"Dive into a world of crispy perfection with our tender calamari, marinated in rich buttermilk to ensure every bite is bursting with flavor. Each golden ring is delicately fried to achieve that irresistible crunch. And as if that weren't enough, we've paired it with a delectable remoulade sauce that adds a zesty, tangy kick. This dish will have you hooked from the first bite!"

A pizza joint, that partners with a local seafood company like Water 2 Table?  Yup!  On the night I ordered, they had two special appetizers, both seafood based, this, and a local halibut crudo.  Not your typical pizza joint options (nor brewery for that matter).

I'll start by saying it is a bit hard to give this a fair evaluation, given that it was literally stone cold when it arrived, 2+ hours post pickup, and, packaged alongside a cold cider and sparkling water.  

The calamari was nicely battered, and the coating was tasty, it reminded me a bit of onion rings, lightly flaky.  Good salt level.  I suspect it was crispy at some point.  The ring pieces were pretty chewy however, kinda the texture that makes people think they don't like calamari.  The tentacles were better, and also held more batter.  Decent distribution of rings and bodies.  As I had it, this was really just **+ though, *** once I reheated it, but, I think it may have been much better served at the restaurant.

I appreciated the lemon wedge to squeeze over it.  The remoulade however was not very flavorful.  No real zing to it.  No bits of caper.  Sorta seemed just like mayo.  Below average.  **+.

Panna Cotta. $10.

"Sweet Panna Cotta served with a Cherry or Strawberry Compote."

Panna cotta.  Oh yes.  Something near and dear to me, such that it has its own label on my blog.  I love a good panna cotta (or any style of pudding, really).  This is the only dessert that Cellarmaker offers, but, it is all I wanted anyway.  It had been a while since I had panna cotta!

The panna cotta was ... well, um, very cream forward?  I know panna cotta *is* cream after all, but, that was all I could taste here.  Lovely cream, but, just cream.  No hint of vanilla, no buttermilk tang, just, cream.  Sweetened cream.  To be fair, they don't advertise it as a vanilla bean or buttermilk panna cotta.  The description just says "sweet panna cotta".  So, it is what they say it is. The consistency was good, smooth, not grainy, thick set.  A skin on top that I actually liked.  Nice jiggle.  But ... besides cream, no flavor to it.  Nice execution, but no flavor, ***.

The panna cotta is available with either a cherry or strawberry compote topping, I opted for strawberry, which came on the side.  This was definitely needed to add some flavor to the dish.  That said, I didn't really love the compote.  It was sweet, but also a touch acidic, almost like a mostarda.  Nice soft hunks of berry though.  **.

I ended up topping mine with fresh strawberries and raspberries, plus some sprinkles, and a little coconut crumble, and enjoyed it far more that way.  **** in the end, with my additions.

Read More...

Alaska Airlines Lounge, SFO

This was my first experience of any Alaska Airlines lounge.  I've only flown with Alaska Airlines once before, when I flew SFO-SEA, which you can read about here, and didn't qualify for lounge access then.  This time, I was flying long haul, to New York, and thus, a chance to check out the lounge.

The lounge in SF is known to be one of the nicer ones in their network, having opened only last year, and pretty restrictive about who is allowed in (no more priority pass, no domestic First Class unless flying 2100+ miles in a single flight, etc).  There were only a handful of passengers there when I visited, even though it was what I'd expect to be a fairly peak time, 12:15pm on a Tuesday.

I wouldn't say the lounge is worth going out of your way for, but it seemed much nicer than most domestic lounges, certainly many notches above the United Club or American Airlines Admiral's Club.

The Space

Fireplace, Open Seating.

The lounge is pretty impressive when you walk in.  Large, spacious, well lit with large windows overlooking the planes outside.  Firepit in the center, and wing chairs all around.  A quite inviting space.

Dining Area & Bar.

There are also ample dining tables, and a bar with seating.  Again, very spacious, and sparkly populated.

Food & Drink

Candy Bar.

I was excited for one unique feature of this lounge: the candy bar!  Located right when you enter, with little bags provided to encourage you to take some sugar for the road.

Much of this was just a display however, with only the bottom row actually accessible.  The candy was mostly local: Ghirardelli chocolate squares, Jelly Belly beans, and the Oakland Fortune Cookie Factory fortune cookies.  And M&Ms.  I was slightly annoyed that the only color/flavor Jelly Beans were yellow (lemon?).  Still, this was a nice offering, better than most US domestic lounges.  ***+.

Bar Snacks.

Located up at the bar was two jars of snacks, one was just lightly salted peanuts, the other a mix, with some things I liked (rice crackers!), and lots of things I wasn't too into (cheddar goldfish-like things, pretzels, almonds), and some I was impartial to (bagel chips).  As an avid snack lover though, I was happy to see these.  ***.

Toast Cart.

Right near the front of the lounge is the other signature experience ... the toast cart.  Like the candy bar, it too features a local product, Acme Bread.  Sadly for me, it only had sourdough, and I don't care for sourdough.  Still, Acme bread is quite good bread, and this is a very unique offering.

To go with the bread was two spreads, sundried tomato hummus and lemon basil cream cheese, along with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  When it launched, they had burrata and avocado, clearly both higher end and more trendy, but alas, down to kinda meh spreads for my visit.  I did try both, and they were about as expected, nothing special.  ***.

Cold Cuts, Cheese, Salads.

The main buffet has some not very interesting cold cuts and cheese, plus more hummus, waldorf salad (that at first glance looked like potato salad and I was excited), and grapes and strawberries.  And ketchup, mustard, and mayo, that made me really wish there were hot dogs around.  Sliced bread was available to make a sandwich.

The strawberries weren't particularly flavorful, but were a surprise to see.  The waldorf salad was fine, with apples, bits of dried cranberry, creamy dressing that was not over dressed.  I didn't try anything else.  **+.

Salad Toppings.

The other side was makings for salads, although fairly meager.  Walnuts, chicken, grape tomatoes, egg, onions, cheese, and more strawberries (this time sliced), and some dressings.  The sign encouraged us to make our own "summer salad".

Salad Base.

The salad base was romaine and spinach, relatively fresh.  It looked a bit odd on a platter.  Croutons on the side.

Hot Items.

Next came the two hot items, which I thought would be soup, but actually were more exciting than that: vegetarian chili and mac and cheese.  No cheese, sour cream, or anything interesting to garnish the chili, besides the crackers on the side.  Still, better than your standard lounge soups.

Macaroni & Cheese.

The child in me went right for that mac and cheese.  It wasn't that bad, really.  Quite creamy, quite cheesy.  Not very fresh, but, pretty comforting, and far better than average domestic lounge grub.

***+.

Desserts.

The dessert lineup was your standard lounge offerings: cookies and brownies.  Two kinds of cookies, chocolate chip and oatmeal.  They looked hard and not interesting.  I tried the brownie because it had two kinds of chocolate, big chunks and disks, which was fine.  ***.

Biscoff packaged cookies were hiding up by the barista station as well.

Breakfast Leftovers.

It was afternoon when I visited, but they had breakfast leftovers on the side, with a couple banana nut muffins, a sole bagel (with cream cheese packed with it), and english muffins (with butter), along with a toaster, Smucker's jam, and Peanut Butter & Co peanut butter.  Peanut Butter & Co still makes my favorite peanut butter (the White Chocolate Wonderful flavor, which I've reviewed before), so I was happy to see that, rather than more common brands (although it was just the Smooth Operator variety).

Pancake Machine.

And of course, the pancake machine, which is operational at all times of day.  Syrup was available to go with.

Brewed coffee (regular and decaf), along with hot water and tea completed this station.  At the bar, you could also order made to order espresso drinks, which I did.  The decaf Americano was shockingly good.  

Read More...