Never mind gravy

Yesterday we headed out to meet Todd for lunch. We walked down to the Financial District and met up with him in the lobby of his building, then walked over to the Rincon Building, a beautiful Art Deco building that was originally a post office. It now holds shops and restaurants, and our lunch adventure was Yank Sing, a dim sum place.

It was my first time for dim sum and I loved it! I asked Ken if I was right in thinking that it’s kind of like Chinese tapas, he said yes, that was pretty accurate. We had all kinds of yummy things, including these wonderful pork and broth-filled dumplings. (Ken informs me that they are called Shanghai Dumplings and are a Yank Sing signature dish.) Everything was delicious and we had a great time talking over lunch.

The Rincon Building has a nice little display of the various artifacts that we discovered when the renovation and excavation took place. Wonderful bits of history that tell the story of its marina history and its Chinese residents.

Todd had to go back to his office for a bit, so we agreed to meet at his place around 5. Ken and I strolled down Embarcadero and saw the Bay Bridge, then walked by some of the piers before cutting up near Coit Tower and making our way over to Todd’s neighborhood. I’m a fairly active person and exercise six days a week, but that trek about kicked my ass! I’d forgotten how brutal some of these hills can be. That was definitely my workout for the day, and Ken’s FitBit informed him that we walked about six miles yesterday! I found some fun things along the way, including the odd bit of graffiti that inspired the title of this entry.

It wasn’t quite time for us to meet Todd, so we found a little dive bar called Black Magic Voodoo Lounge near the corner of Lombard and Van Ness. It was one of those fun finds that we occasionally stumble across (if not stumble out of) and we had a couple of beers and a total blast! We chatted with the bartender, Sarah-Alice, and she was a total sweetheart, originally from Georgia. She turned out to be a Walking Dead fan, so we had a lot of fun talking to her about that. A regular came in, obviously friends with Sarah-Alice, and he’d been binge-watching TWD, too, so we chatted with him. We all talked about our favorite characters, and this guy mentioned that he likes Beth a lot. He wasn’t quite to THAT episode, so I wish I could hear his reaction when he sees it. It was just a really pleasant interlude to sit in this little place and chat some people up. We seem to do that a lot, and it’s almost always a very fun experience! (Except for that big ol’ racist lady from Memphis that we encountered at a place in Chicago when we went to see the Stones. That really took an ugly turn!)

Then it was time to head over to Todd’s. He’s got a really great apartment with these high ceilings and wood floors. It’s cozy and comfortable and quite inviting! We had a couple of beers and chatted and he played a little guitar. He’s incredibly talented and it was a joy to hear him play again. We headed out to the place where he’d made reservations, the Wayfare Tavern, which I just learned is a Tyler Florence place. My burger was yummy, the fried chicken was delicious, and the halibut was also very tasty. The place was packed and it was a little too noisy for my tastes (which made it hard to carry on a conversation) but it was still a fun place with good food.

After dinner, we made plans with him for dinner tonight. He dropped us off at the hotel and Ken and I kicked back with a couple of drinks. Today we’re heading over to the Wharf so Ken can get his chowdah fix, then we’ll have dinner with Todd at a seafood place and THEN...the TIKI BAR! I’m wearing a vaguely tiki-ish shirt, so I am ready!