Chester's Snacks

Everyone's favorite orange cat, Chester (you know, the Cheetos mascot) has ventured out on his own.  He has his own line of products now, entirely devoid of Cheetos branding.  As a lover of all snack foods, I obviously had to try some of these, even though I don't actually like Cheetos chips (or their branded mac & cheese ...).  His product line includes "fries" and "puffcorn", the later of which I tried. PuffcornPuffcorn is not popcorn (although the...

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Dragonfly Cakes

Dragonfly Cakes makes exactly one product.  As you may have guessed, given the name, cake.  Or, cake adjacent I guess, as they literally only make petit fours." Our petits fours are created with three layers of moist cake and filled with velvety butter cream. A layer of jam accents that balances the fruit flavors, while dark chocolate ganache enriches the flavor of the chocolate cake. All of the cakes are finished with a smooth coat of chocolate draping."The...

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Yokai

When I first got into higher end dining in San Francisco, I quickly became a fan of Alexander's Steakhouse, which I reviewed so many times I even added a label to my blog for it.  Let's just say, I spent a rather embarrassing amount of time there in those years.  A large part of that reason, besides the great atmosphere, cocktail program, access to foie gras, etc, was the skill of the Executive Chef at the time, Marc Zimmerman.  I've followed his work...

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Joyride Pizza

Joyride Pizza is a pandemic success story.  One of few I know of, at least around San Francisco.  I was fairly skeptical when it first sprung up, first as a popup, from the owners of Samovar Tea Lounge, as they scrambled to use their restaurant space for something profitable during the lockdown days.  Samovar was essentially only a dine-in location, where guests lingered over tea and light meals, which didn't work really at all for rapid shift to takeout. ...

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