| Mediterranean spot boosts Embarcadero Center lineup
There's a new kid in town: Sens, a new restaurant specializing in Southern Mediterranean cuisine, has moved into the space of San Francisco's Monte Cristo Cafe (4 Embarcadero Center) and is scheduled to open late next month. Executive chef Michael Dotson, formerly of Evvia Estiatorio in Palo Alto, and his crew, including partner Saeed Amini, moved into the space earlier this month and have been ironing out the menu and design details. Before Monte Cristo, the space was home to Splendido. "We're keeping all the beautiful wood and stonework," says Dotson. The restaurant seats 225 people, he says, and will have a lounge, indoor/outdoor tables and separate spaces for private dining. "The dishes will be directly influenced by North African, Greek and Turkish cooking," Dotson says.
Entrepreneurial twins have taken different paths
As boys, James and John Calaway took devious advantage of identical twinship. James took a makeup spelling test for John in elementary school. At Westchester High School, John, who was more the ladies' man, found himself with two prom dates from different schools on the same night. He asked James to take out one of the girls under the guise of being John and assured him that nothing serious was going on between them. But on the date, the girl tried kissing James passionately. "It was a very embarrassing moment in my life," James recalled. They no longer pass themselves off as the other, they say, and besides, it's easier to tell them apart. At 49, John looks stylishly laid-back and James more businesslike. Their careers bear a strong resemblance, though � at least in spirit.
Culinary Institute of America, a wonderful treat to myself
Nestled along the hills of world famous and renowned Napa Valley, about two hours North East of San Francisco is a huge old building which houses another famous landmark, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
Technically, it is situated in St. Helena and is known as CIA, St. Helena, California Campus. The other campus is at Hyde Park, New York in the East Coast.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
Since I was staying with my kumpare Tony and kumare Susan (their 2nd child is my godchild) in Clayton, our trip to the Napa Valley was cut in half.
Only an hour away, passing through Vallejo, another favorite destination of Pinoys in the San Francisco bay area, my "tourist" guide, in the person of Maribel or Ibing as she is fondly called, drove me to the beautiful hills of Napa Valley in her lovely BMW car!
Maribel, also a registered nurse, originally hails from Dipolog City but grew up in Dumaguete City.
Whitfield schools not outsourcing food services at this time
Some administrative meetings this week with food services managers in Whitfield County Schools led to fears that some cafeteria workers may be outsourced. But central office staff members chalk the worries up to "assumptions gone wild." While Richard Schoen, executive director for assessment and accountability, acknowledges the district has prepared an RFP (Request For Proposal) seeking data regarding outsourcing such workers, he said the request is simply exploratory."It doesn't mean a decision has been made at all," Schoen said. "We're just gathering information."George Smalley, assistant superintendent for operations, went into more detail to explain why he called a meeting Monday with food service managers at each school."We had some issues going on with staff changes, and I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," Smalley said.
As college football season begins, SEC is the talk of the nation
Ah, the sport of kegs is upon us. No league, no sporting endeavor at any level seems to engender as much taproom debate as college football, where the operative slogan is, "Can we talk?" Start with the big one, the absence of a playoff, which regularly inspires the most crackling debate since "Tastes great!" sparred with "Less filling!" Add in the fact there are only a dozen games, leaving a lot more to the imagination than what's in the won-lost column. Throw in some of the other oddities — like teams cooling their jets for 50 days from regular-season finale to title game — and you've got a sport made for another round. College football often seems less dependent on execution than it does on elocution. In the offseason, for instance, we've had Florida president Bernie Machen expressing interest in the "plus-one" playoff format.
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