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JouJou, Foreign Cinema, Laszlo, Skyview Inn, Pacifica listings, MORE
WORK • Friday Routine
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GAYLE PIRIE • co-executive chef & owner • Foreign Cinema & Laszlo
Neighborhood you work in: Mission
Neighborhood you live in: Berkeley & Bennett Valley
It’s Friday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
A typical day starts with AM check-ins with the chef and kitchen team at Foreign Cinema for ingredient needs. Whether it be organic shiso leaf, fresh curry leaf, organic coconut, or maybe Full Belly Farms walnuts. These items are found at Tokyo Fish Market, Monterey Market, or Vik’s Chaat, all in Berkeley, where I stop off on the way to Foreign Cinema, a short 11.5 mile drive. Time may allow picking blooming nasturtiums for a sauce, or rose geranium to scent ice cream or a crème brulee. I deliver lunch for the team, something super clean like salmon onigiri and Japanese green tea as an energy jolt, or possibly a quick snack of khima (ground lamb) samosas and raita from Vik’s. I feel like more of a creative director at this point with my partner, John Clark, as the chefs have taken on the daily kitchen responsibilities.
The film curation is under my domain, so selecting films is special, especially those available in 35mm format. The analogue world, with sound, flickering light, and effect are felt: the atmosphere, along with good food and thoughtful beverages must feel generous. How that translates is delivering a vibe, a joy, a sensation that speaks through the visual drama of the space and movies, to remember the history of cinema in the Mission. This is what happens every day.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Currently, we’re working on a fun Thursday night cookbook collaboration with authors Sana and Asha of The Diaspora Spice Co. cookbook, for a delicious dinner menu for Cookbook Week, April 23. We’re also creating a gala dinner and reception for the Joffrey Ballet’s production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream at Zellerbach Hall, April 17.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Last night, to get away for an hour, we grabbed Martinis at Bix and listened to jazz before heading home.
In Berkeley, Juanita and Maude is a favorite stop for a clever drink and delicious, last-second supper.
In Bennett Valley, where we try to spend time to reboot, dinner at Golden Bear Station in Kenwood is always deliciously super-duper.
Any weekend getaways?
A true-blue weekend getaway in very recent times is a pit stop in Los Alamos on our way to Santa Barbara, where our daughter attends college. A darling overnight oasis is The Sky View Inn, perched above Highway 101, overlooking the gorgeous sun-drenched or fog-saturated vistas. An open-air bar and a fine restaurant makes it the place to bring a book, rest your brain on the way down south.
What was your last great vacation?
Raising a large restaurant and two children meant mostly armchair travels with a great cookbook. But after 27 years of running Foreign Cinema, we had a life-affirming, joy-filled vacation driving through the sunflower fields and vineyards of central France. This was on the way to the epic Mont Blanc, then to The Beau Rivage Hotel in Lausanne, located at the lake’s edge in Switzerland, a splurge intensely recommended. The five-star service is old European elegance in two historical, conjoined buildings, in the Belle Époque architecture style, with an outdoor pool, and James Bond spa amenities.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A recent big purchase was a Power Plate for daily home use, as 40 years of warrior leg and foot workouts in kitchens has caught up. The great therapists at PostureWorks in North Beach are another self-care gift of holistic treatments to assist the wear and tear of your spine and neck over years on a restaurant line.
What store or service do you always recommend?
San Francisco’s Ape Do Good printing is a highly recommended family-run business making cotton apparel with extreme quality. We get all our special merchandise for our store from them.
Where are you donating your time or money?
Independent journalism is a need we are willing to fight for. We support our neighborhood Mission Local news reporting monthly, along with the good work of Eat Real, The Edible Schoolyard children’s hands-on integrated food education, and the Sprouts Training Group, which we sponsor with on-the-job training for local interns interested in a life of professional cooking.
Photo: Gayle and Jeremiah Tower during a special collaboration dinner last fall.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Has Sunset Dunes depressed area shopping? • SF pot shops might convert into cannabis cafes • The rise and fall of Everlane • German brand Klafs reveals ‘world’s first retractable sauna’ • Ten Thousand Things, the cult NYC jeweler you need to know • Rebuilding a wardrobe by hand.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUNDLISTING
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→ RSVP: Livelong Women’s Health Summit (Nob Hill) • The Masonic, 1111 California St • 04/17, 3-6p, 04/18, 8a-530p. [spon]
RESTAURANTS - First Word
Paris by Potrero
The Skinny: Lazy Bear chef David Barzelay and business partner Colleen Booth had been on the hunt for several years seeking a space to house their vision of a San Francisco brasserie, with a lively bar scene and seafood towers whizzing past in a bustling dining room. They found it, at the edge of SoMa in the Design District, and JouJou is now open and humming.