San Francisco Offline - July 21 : THEME CHAMPAGNE

This was sort of agreed upon a couple of days ago during the June Riesling Offline. It will be challenging getting a venue but I guess we can start early. Suggestions on dates and venues welcome. Also chime in if you are attending.


DATE: JULY 21 - 6:30 PM

THEME : CHAMPAGNE (bring your own stems!!!)

VENUE: Ariake - 5041 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA


ATTENDEES: (MAX 7 seats, sorry this was an emergency venue as original plans did not pan out, hence the limited seating, we can try and squeeze 8 as a table for 7 “usually” is for 8, I hope… so please confirm ASAP)

1. Joel G (confirmed)
2. Ashish Agrawal (confirmed)
3. Ashish Agrawal +1 (confirmed)
4. Cindy Wan (confirmed)
5. Gary Ko (confirmed)
6. Craig Gleason (pending)

(unable to attend)

1. Paul J
2. Larry P.
3. Lori

I’m game if it’s before the 22nd but certainly don’t make any changes on my account.

Sushi is an amazing pairing with Champagne. If people are up for it I’ll ask around to see if we can find a place.

For sure interested but only in San Francisco.

I’m in for now while we set a date.

Paul,

People in the last offline were actually unanimous on the July theme. Venue suggestions are welcome.

count me in.

I’m really looking forward to this and we have a great list of attendees, but I think the main challenge this month is going to be finding a sushi restaurant that will let us do this at a reasonable price. Most of the sushi places that I visit regularly wouldn’t really be up for this.

Ebisu- 9th avenue. Excellent food, but very busy and the owner is somewhat unfriendly.
Sushi Bistro in the Richmond- excellent sushi, and they obviously put at least a bit of thought into their wine list, which makes them somewhat more promising. But again, they are quite popular, trendy, and it may be difficult to get around a bottle limit or corkage. I’m willing to try and call though.

Any other ideas for locations?

I might be able to do the 21st but not the 29th.

A friend of mine in the food/wine business suggested Hamano. Gave me a name to speak to there. Sounds like we could do 8 people without too much problem but we’d need to bring our own stems of course. If we think we can confirm for 8 people (or less even) on the 21st I will give them a call this week.

BTW - wanted to check on interest in a sake tasting in August? Not a bring your own sake but something more structured. I’ve got a thread on it here if you want to respond with interest: <date postponed> Sake tasting in SF - Event Planner - Online or Offline - WineBerserkers

Have fun guys. I’m sitting this one out.

I would like to attend.

If the sushi plan falls through, my friend owns a chain of shabu shabu restaurants (japanese beef hot pot).

If we can have it at someone’s home or private venue (at a minimum cost), I don’t mind looking into http://www.yelp.com/biz/creative-sushi-catering-inc-san-francisco-2

From what I see on their website, we are probably looking at from $40pp (party trays) and $100pp (bringing to sushi chefs in).

Did the group decide on a particular champagne theme? I am very thin on champagne in my cellar so I will need a little lead time to find a good one.

Jacques Selosse Vintage Champagne… (kidding)

Between Rare Wine Co, D&M and K&L, lots of vintage stuff. should be easy to source.

Hamano in Noe Valley sounds good. Just out of curiosity - the past two offline dinners have always been on Mondays, is there a particular reason for this? Asking because there is a high chance that I may be out of town on both proposed dates…

As for a theme, we should try to bring champagne that is not part of a big luxury goods conglomerate. I have done a tempura dinner a/1996 Femme of Duval Leroy, that was fun.

Anna

How about just having champagne be the theme? I feel like that is specific enough.

If it’s sushi and in the city then Lori and I would be interested.