4.26.12

I have to say that it has been a really nice trip. I have set up a beautiful booth at the Hillsborough Antiques Show which opens tomorrow at the San Mateo Exposition Grounds. I have seen a lot of really great friends, enjoyed some great meals and conversation, bought some wonderful new treasures and just feel really happy, mellow and relaxed.

It was a fairly benign drive north. I stopped off and saw my friend, the famed Russian musicologist, Vladimir Smythe in the outskirts of Prunedale and then popped over to Monterey to see my pal Cam. We bought a very nice canvas together which I had been very excited to see and inspect, by the 19th Century barbizon painter Julian Rix. Fantastic and very atmospheric. Cam and I went to a local seafood grill and I ordered something unsustainable and with a purportedly high mercury content. Delicious.

Cam had the very bad idea of going out to a movie, his girlfriend is a tango dancer who was supposed to go out but decided to join us. Cam had the idea that we should see the three stooges. Now I really didn't care for the original Stooges, except maybe for Iggy but these guys were even worse. I believe that it was the worst film I have ever endured, even with the cameo by the stars of reality show Jersey Shore. One hundred twenty minutes of my life wasted that I will never be able to get back.

*

Set up yesterday than went to Berkeley to have dinner with chef friend Melissa and Gary at an Izakaya restaurant called Ippuku on Center. Ippuku is a yakitori or japanese skewer restaurant.

My friends were tired of me dragging them to Le Cheval every trip and wanted me to try something new that just rocks. A very special, exceptional place. A beautiful room. Groups of four sit on a tatami platform.

We started the meal ordering drinks. I had a meyer lemon seltzer combination. They bring you the seltzer, the fruit and a reamer and you squeeze it yourself. We then received a cabbage web with a japanese mayonnaise which was very refreshing.

The menu is so intriguing. Gizzards and hearts and leg cartilage. I ordered a plate of roe stuffed smelts. Japanese fried chicken. Beef tongue. Shoulder blade. A chef's choice skewer tray. Succulent gyoza. Bacon wrapped asparagus. Waves upon waves of food. Melissa sent me a review of Ippuku which is much better than anything I am capable of at this late hour. I can't wait to return with Leslie. Sorry about the pics but I was using a crummy loaner cell phone.

Ippuku

2130 Center St. Berkeley

510-665-1969

*

Finished setting up today and things are looking really good. This evening I met up with Kerry and BigD, who is starting to grow some facial hair after his chemo that he is apparently pretty proud of. Good for him.

We all went, after much discussion, to one of BigD's favorite haunts, Joe's Cable Car Restaurant, for top rate burgers and shakes. BigD drove his fancy new ride, the Mercedes E350 in the hot european color, mauritius blue. Very classy.

BigD wanted to know why I had to eat so much gourmet sissy food and why I couldn't just eat like a regular guy so I did. Place is a trip.

Joe's Cable Car

4320 Mission St. at Silver in
San Francisco

415-334-6699

I have a lot to write about but am frankly exhausted. New hard drive, the old MacBook Pro is humming like a top. Later.