SFGMC Executive Director Teddy Witherington is "unplugging"

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus will present two evenings of pure vocal talent in their acapella Unplugged concerts on June 15 and 16. Unaccompanied by any instrumentation, the choir will be joined by Deke Sharon, of NBC Television’s The Sing Off  and beatbox master Kid Beyond [video gets impressive at 0:13] in a program that will mix pop hits—à la Glee—with contemporary and classic choral compositions.

The June concerts’ entertaining repertoire may lean to the lighter side, but expect emotions to run high at these shows in the wake of Executive Director Teddy Witherington‘s May 29 announcement that he will be stepping down after six years in July. Plans are underway to begin a search for a new executive director who can help uphold the levels of organizational energy and success that Witherington has fostered during his tenure.

During the period of Witherington’s leadership, the SFGMC has brought on Dr. Tim Seelig as artistic director and conductor, begun collaborating with Broadway composer Andrew Lippa on an original multimedia stage production about Harvey Milk (debuting next year), and doubled its annual budget in the face of the recession.

Celebrate the final San Francisco concert’s under Witherington’s leadership by purchasing tickets to Unplugged here.

Video of SFGMC celebrating the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary, after the jump

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“What’s a foodie really? Everyone thinks of themselves as a foodie now” says Lisa Rogovin. “Your cousin who likes to go out to dinner once a week is a foodie. So is the person who only eats organic, locally grown food every day. And so is the guy who is hot to check out every new restaurant in town.”

Rogovin, a one-time Gourmet magazine ad sales manager and storied world traveler (She’s eaten warthog, crocodile, and worms along her journeys), is the head honcho of San Francisco’s Edible Excursions, offering 2-3 hour walking tours for folks who meet her definition of the overused F-word:

“l’ve always believed that the kind of people who have a genuine interest in food have a sense of curiosity that goes beyond eating. I also think that they’re willing to take the initiative to do some research and planning on their own—whether they’re locals, or travelers. So, one of my goals is to take people places they’re not necessarily going to find in the guidebooks.”

“I often get asked if  l offer tours of Chinatown or the ltalian neighborhoods in North Beach. But that’s just too touristy. People can easily cover those places on their own.”

Lisa Rogovin, owner and chief "Epicurean Concierge" at Edible Excursions

Instead, Rogovin offers a walk focusing on the Mission District, introducing patrons to an array of local merchants and restaurateurs who personify the neighborhood’s ever-evolving ethnic mix, sharing stories of tradition and gentrification along with a bellyful of good eats (tacos, arepas, eccentric ice creams, Italian pastries, unusual sandwiches, and more). Rogovin and her well-trained guides also run tours of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto and the Ferry Building market.

But the most exciting tour on offer is a recently introduced insider’s take on the elusive delights of Japantown, a gut busting, information packed itinerary that includes a guided stroll through the aisles of a Japanese supermarket, a visit to the oldest mochi makers in town, a slurp of handmade noodles, hot waffles in the shape of fish, and sweet potato lattes. Rogovin, aided by the local Japanese merchants’ association, has uncovered a real array of treasures here, and along with the food, she shares important stories about the tumultuous history of the Japanese in San Francisco.

Itadakimatsu!

A fabulous (fictional) view at the Palomar Hotel

There’s a 100% guarantee that your view of the bridge will never be obscured by fog in the newly tricked out Golden Gate Suite at the  Palomar Hotel.

Sure, that’s because the “view” from room 512 is a giant, 5-window decal—the Palomar is located way across town from the bridge. Still the whimsical window treatment, headboard, and pillows capture the spirit of the city’s year long celebration. And the nightstands and coffee table–by local artist Richard Bulan—are made of actual bridge steel, salvaged when a pedestrian handrail was replaced in 1993.

Meanwhile, the Hotel Vitale is also jumping on the Golden Gate bandwagon by promoting its views…of the Bay Bridge.

As it happens, San Francisco’s other glorious span is in the midst of its own 75th anniversary year (The Bay Bridge opened to traffic in November, 1936).  For all the Golden Gate hoopla around town these days, the Vitale will become the place to stay come autumn, when the Bay Bridge begins its two-year display of The Bay Lights, Leo Villareal’s site-specific art piece. Over 25,000 white L.E.D bulbs positioned along the west span will be triggered by traffic, weather, and the sway of the bridge to create ever changing patterns of illumination over a mile wide and over 200 feet high. That’s one hell of a night light for your hotel room.

Sweet view from the Vitale Hotel: That's not the Golden Gate either!

This Sunday, May 27, city is going all out to celebrate the official first day of  Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th anniversary year. There’s a full slate of waterfront festivities featuring bridge-related art and science exhibits; displays of antique cars and boats from 1937,  when the bridge was first opened; and an evening fireworks display to cap it all off.

The celebration is just getting under way though, with activities—including daily walking tours rich in details about the bridge’s history and engineering—spanning the summer. So if you decide to skip the crowds this weekend, there’s lots more ahead. One of our favorite upcoming tributes is…The Bridge on the Big Screen Film Series

The Golden Gate may never have won Hollywood’s golden statuette, but the bridge is featured in the films screening on Saturday nights at the Presidio (FREE ADMISSION):

• It Came from Beyond the Sea, May 26 – outdoors
• Howeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco,  June 2 – outdoors
• Superman: The Movie, June 9 – outdoors
• Vertigo, June 16
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, July 21
• A View to a Kill, August 18
• Monsters vs. Aliens, September 15

Alas, 2011′s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with loads of intense action on the Golden Gate, the streets of San Francisco, Muir Woods, and even the Cable Cars isn’t included in the series.  Click here for an awesome clip.

And get a gander of Grace Jones and Christopher Walken ogling the bridge, after the jump.

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The Russian River Estuary at Jenner, just 2 hours from San Francisco

We’re heading into the Memorial Day weekend, and while plenty of San Franciscans will stick around to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, others will want to get out of Dodge for a more laid back break.

One of  my favorite getaways is the tiny town of Jenner (Population less than 200) in Sonoma County, where the Russian River meets the Pacific Ocean along one of the world’s most breathtaking stretches of coastline. Rivaling the great land-and-seascapes of the Cape of Good Hope (on two recent visits, I ran into South Africans astonished at the similarities).

Stay in one of the riverside cottages owned by by The Jenner Inn: The Camelot Suite combines rustic roof timbers with elegant antique furnishings, a fireplace, jacuzzi tub, and a deck for watching the drama of late afternoon sun turning the estuarial waters a rippling, golden-orange. In the fall, when chinook and steelhead salmon by the thousands swim upstream to spawn at the river’s mouth, you get to watch hovering masses of birds, swooping and diving along the water.

Amble a quarter mile up the road for cocktails and dinner at River’s End  where a wide-windowed dining room offers breathtaking perspectives on both river and ocean and owner Bert Rangels holds true to a personal vow to “not ever let this become a restaurant where the food doesn’t matter because people come for the view.” A taste of the local black cod on a bed of butternut squash puree, or the blackberry duck breast over wilted spinach and beluga lentils makes his case quite handily.

Lewis DeSimone

Last night, I had the pleasure of joining novelist Lewis DeSimone at a City Arts & Lectures event where John Irving discussed his new novel, In One Person, which chronicles 50 years in the life of a bisexual man.  DeSimone’s own new book, The Heart’s History,  focuses on four years in the life of a circle of gay Bostonians.

DeSimone’s fellow local literary luminary Michele Tea has praised The Heart’s History for its perspective on ”the slow assimilation of a larger gay culture that used to be more angry and badass.”

DeSimone studied at Harvard, but has made his home in San Francisco for 19 years now. He lives in the midst of the Castro, but has badass insider tips that will take you all over town…

What’s your favorite cultural institution in the city?

Davies Symphony Hall.  It’s a beautiful space, with great acoustics and comfortable seating.  One of my favorite events of the year is the Symphony’s opening gala.

How about your favorite view?

My favorite view in the city is from the top of Market Street, when the whole skyline just opens up before you.  My favorite view of the city, though, is on 101 south, when you emerge from the Waldo Tunnel just before the Golden Gate Bridge. Even though I know what to expect by now, every time that view of the bridge and the city emerges, it’s miraculous.

Where do you recommend for shopping?

I love to stroll along 24^th Street in Noe Valley.  It has wonderful little shops and restaurants, and the street life is totally charming.

Dim sum, fine dining, and sightseeing tips, after the jump

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The Bay Club provides an escape from the office from early morning to late at night

Alas, the San Francisco Agenda’s restaurant coverage doesn’t only show up online.  It also shows up on my waistline.

Which led me to visit Bay Club San Franciso, one of the city’s swankiest gyms.

Frankly, “gym” doesn’t cut it. With five squash courts, 11,000 square feet of yoga and pilates studios, two indoor pools, a full-size basketball court, and a relentless schedule of group exercise classes, this sprawling, light-filled facility at Greenwich and Sansome near Levis Plaza is a daily vacation of sorts for many of its members, who avail themselves of the club’s free shuttle services that zip Financial District workers to and from the club on a regular loop that runs from 6:15 am to 8:45 pm.

If you bus over to the Bay Club for a work break, you may find it suits you to spend the rest of the day here. The enormous locker lounges offer sitting areas with plasma televisions running stock tickers and sportscasts, and there are quiet, glassed-in cubicles where you can plug in a laptop and get some work done between laps in the pool and shvitzes in the steam room. The spacious café has soundproof glass walls overlooking the squash courts where you can enjoy a light meal. And with wifi that flows as freely as the sweat here, you may find the Bay Club more conducive to accomplishment than your office space. Watching the constant parade of ruddy post-exercisers certainly provides far more inspiration to work out than the jellybean jar on your receptionist’s desk.

Pilates and yoga are offered one-on-one, and in group classes

Once you’ve succeeded at knocking out both your work and your workout, reward yourself with a treatment at the club’s full-service Sanctuary Spa. Spa services are also available to the general public…and if you get a facial or massage, you get full access to the Bay Club’s facilities all day.

Chef David Bazirgan of the Fifth Floor

Back in the 1990s, I covered movies, books, and music for daily and weekly newspapers. Being a literal as well as cultural omnivore, I was invited to do some restaurant reviewing. I balked.

Not because I was uninterested in the notion, but because, for all the intellectual enjoyment that turning critical thinking into shareable prose can provide, I wanted to keep one of my greatest pleasures- eating -to myself and my chosen dining companions. I wasn’t ready to regularly run another of my passions through the the gears of verbal translation and writerly angst.

Over the years. I’ve become much less interested in serving as a de facto promoter for the industrial product of the film and music industries. And as my writing on those topics has fallen by the wayside, I’ve come to enjoy the more personal aspects of writing about dining and travel: accounts of estaurant meals and trips can be miniature narratives in which the writer is also a character.

I mention all of this in light of a dinner John and I enjoyed a couple months back at The Fifth Floor. It took me right back to those selfish days when I didn’t want to “share my food.” Chef David Bazirgan and his team put together such extraordinary dishes, so smartly conceived and flat-out delicious, that I’ve resisted writing about them here. I’ve wanted to hold them as pure, vaporous pleasures in my memory, not try to pin them down with the insufficiencies of language.

From a culinary standpoint, it was the best meal I’ve had in the Bay Area over the past two years. And I’m afraid I’m going to remain cruelly withholding about it. Please, please manufacture a special occasion to try it for yourself (“I need to take my tongue on a date” or “It’s the first anniversary of today last year”).

“C’mon,” the reader coaxes, “Just show a little leg.”

Of lamb, perhaps? Well…It was perfectly accompanied with a sweet and piquant mix of pickled raisins, cauliflower and cippolini onions.

I’ll also tease you with Bazirgan’s signature Mendocino uni flan, which is like the best chawan mushiyou’ve ever had, exponentially enriched with not only urchin but also a palate-haunting blend of kaffir lime and saffron. Read more…

A model posing as a VA flight attendant (Photo: Virgin America)

In last month’s print edition of PASSPORT magazine, I chatted with a half dozen veteran GLBT flight attendants about what led them to pursue a line of work that often goes unappreciated by the traveling public. They also shared some recommendations on where to hang out in their favorite layover cities.

San Francisco’s Robb Growdon was one of the inaugural Virgin America flight attendants when the airline launched its SFO-hubbed fleet a few years back. He’d always wanted to be a crew member and, in fact, left a 25-year career in fashion retail to be part of VA’s start-up team. When his colleagues who live in other cities tap him for restaurant advice, Growdon points to a couple of personal standbys where early dinners can be followed by two of the city’s loveliest post-prandial strolls:

Hamburger heaven at Balboa Cafe

• The Balboa Cafe–where the deservedly renowned burger is served on a baguette and accompanied by super crisp shoestring fries–is a healthy five block walk from Marina Green, where you can stroll alongside sailboats as you take in the sunset

• Chenery Park serves up straightforward, impeccably fresh American cuisine, including a signature Andouille gumbo and a house smoked pork chop dressed with bacon and apricots. It’s around the corner from Glen Canyon, a steep-sided wildflower strewn natural wonder in the midst of the city. Keep an eye out for coyotes (Really!).

And here to read more about what makes flight attendants tick.

In the hot seat at the Clift (Photo: P.J.Ohm)

Whenever I think about the Clift Hotel, I start humming “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” It’s the last link in a free associative chain triggered by the Clift’s memorably outlandish lobby decor. That 1984 tune, of course, is from Tears for Fears’ fey-tastic 1984 album Songs from the Big Chair.

My bouts of nostalgia notwithstanding, the Clift plays host to a series of musical events that are utterly au courant. The next two shows are coming up soon, and if you click on the links below, you can get on the guest lists, gratis.

• On Thursday, May 24, experimental trip-hopster Shlohmo ushers in the Memorial Day weekend. GUEST LIST 
• On Friday, June 2, Diego Garcia—brainy Brown graduate and former leader of Elefant—brings his dreamy, Beatlesque pop to town. This one’s a must catch. GUEST LIST

The free shows, in the hotel’s swank Velvet Room, will get underway around 10 p.m. (Doors at 9ish). But since you’renot spending anything for tickets, consider showing up early to kick off the night with luxe libations in the adjacent Redwood Room, one of the most indisputably alluring cocktail lounges in town. Most weeknights, the post-work crowd thins out around 7:30 and the handsome room maintains a comfortable level of volume and crush for a couple magic hours, the ideal time to tap the staff’s creativity and knowledge of locally sourced spirits.

One of the handsomest bars in town (Photo: Clift Hotel)

Crackerjack barman Anthony Kim recently joined me in lamenting the sparse supply of Hangar One’s bracing chipotle-infused vodka, but made up for it with the Redwood Room’s signature House of Pisco cocktail, which blends pisco (Peruvian eau de vie) with pineapple and clove gum syrup, and green chartreuse. A skinny helix of lemon peel straddling the glass provided a bitter aromatic counterbalance to the drink’s slight sweetness. Kim is a master pisco mixologist; his concoctions using the locally imported Encanto brand recently won him a trip to Peru for the annual grape harvest.

Pour yourself a drink and check out Diego Garcia on video after the jump

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