Art and Commerce

On this most recent Sunday, we went to the birthday party for the lovely and wonderful Annie Galvin at Ireland's 32 on Geary.

We haven't seen Annie or her husband Eric for quite a while. Too long, in fact, since they're both sweet, funny and generally terrific people. They're both pursuing their artistic passions, and Annie is a so talented...and I want the wrestler painting (pictured with this post) from her Wexford Girl website!

One of the more interesting moments during the party was that someone asked me if I was an artist like Annie -- the answer in my case being no....

However, it did strike me that so many of our friends have combined art and commerce to hammer out a living AND follow their dreams....Annie paints, Eric is starting a printmaking business, Lauren is a photographer, Joel and Noami cook, Carter is a textile designer, etc., etc., etc. Only question is -- WTF am I doing???

Right on to them I say -- and as for myself, I better get on it and find my muse. Or maybe my muse is just stuck somewhere on MUNI....

More anon.

1 for 2 on local recommendations...

So, we got two recommendations on local joints -- the first for Chinese and the second for coffee/breakfast.

The Chinese joint, called Chinatown -- as in "I'll take you down to Chinatown" -- is on Kentucky Street in the heart of downtown P'luma.

We ordered some shrimp chow mein, potstickers, orange chicken and sauteed spinach. While the potstickers were good, the rest of it was drowned in cooking oil -- such that if have a biodiesel in need of a fillup, this is could be your spot.

We'll try it again, but order carefully.

Our second local pick, the Tea Room Cafe, was much more successful. This is a coffee/tea house that serves breakfast and lunch/brunch-y stuff. We went on this most recent warm Saturday morning, and it is a warm and inviting space, and was plenty busy. We ordered breakfast and grabbed a seat outside to enjoy the morning sun. Jen had some potato cakes (kind of a pancake made of mashed potatoes) with a side of bacon, and I enjoyed some banana-pecan pancakes. Both yummy, and sustenance enough to see us through out shopping trip to the Saks outlet....

Sooze Wine Bar + Kabuki Sushi - downtown Petaluma

We just got back from downtown.... before settling on a dinner location, we had a quick glass of wine at "Sooze" -- the wine bar in the socalled Great Petaluma Mall. Personally I was underwhelmed by the Mall and we were both underwhelmed by Sooze.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concept and I like their wine list. But seriously, $9 for a glass of unremarkable local Pinot Noir (and this was the low end) doesn't really cut it. For that kinda dough, you can go to Bacar or any other place in the city and imbibe. I can get a $25 glass of Kistler chard pretty much anywhere.

Factor in a rather pricey continental-influenced menu, and that's a tall order here in shit-kicker-ville.

Dinner at Kabuki, however, was great. Good, fresh cuts of nigiri sushi served by actual Japanese people! We ordererd several pieces of nigiri, one roll and a tonkatsu dinner. The tonkatsu (aka tempura fried pork chop/cutlet) was a big portion and the dinner sides (salad, miso soup) also showed evidence of effort by the staff. Our waitress was a bit indifferent, but the busser and the sushi chef (who asked us to do the tipout separately) were great.

Also, the guy hosting reminded me a bit of the American Taliban guy, John Walker Lindh. But I'm sure that is only a coincidence. I think the real dude is in gitmo or something.

Next up -- I may discuss my frequent trips to Whole Foods -- the melting pot of Petaluma...

roading 1.0

As all of you know, I am a bit of a car freak. I like to drive...and the new digs in Petaluma put me close to some really good driving roads in Marin and Sonoma County. The West side of Petaluma is a good jumping-off point for vehicular misadventures, particularly on rainy, lightly-traffcked afternoons...heh heh heh.

The first loop that I tried is Western Avenue to Spring Hill to Chileno Valley Road -- starting from downtown P'luma, you take Western (going West, surprisingly) which then turns into Spring Hill Road as you leave town. Western is dull, and things don't get interesting until Spring Hill, where you get to see a lot of dairy farms and cattle ranches. Spring Hill is mostly a transit, but has a few good corners -- once you get to Bodega Ave, you take a left and then turn on to the Tomales-Petaluma road, which takes you past a Coast Guard training center.

Make a left past the Coast Guard place, and you're on Chileno Valley Road -- it is a really nice combination of 3rd and 4th gear corners, with nice elevation changes and very little traffic. This section around Laguna Lake is really cool, and the views are spectacluar.

Next time, I am headed up to Bodega Bay.

Seriously, why?

Some wizened critic of the web that I read somewhere stated that blogs are nothing more than "advanced navel gazing." How true. So I suppose this means let the gazing begin!

I am sure that you will find billfreed.blogspot.com *almost* as exciting as the other web property in our family's empire -- www.billfreed.com -- My sister Rebecca built that beauty in about 1997 as a birthday present for our dad. I believe that the original plan was that pops would update the site himself, but he's been busy in the intervening ten years... But at least Rebecca owns the URL, and I'm keeping it in the family, dammit.

Not sure what direction THIS litte creative outlet is going to take, but much of it will likely revolve around mine and my wife's recent move to Petaluma, California. Expect some keen and witty observations about relocating to the sticks and comparisons with big city and So Cal livin'.

I have yet to find much out there on the web in terms of meaningful info on local food, wine and stuff to do in Petaluma -- critcal quality of life issues that are going to make our break our time here -- so I have decided to take matters into my own hands and do a bit of self-styled reportage.

Let's hope I don't piss off the locals.

Later,

Bill