first weekend in March

By the time this goes live, I'll be enjoying the second weekend of March, in San Francisco.  So that means that this is grossly overdue.  Ah well.  Better late than something something.  I love cliches!  😜

Some of last weekend will be rinse and repeat.  Friday night sitting at an end of the bar

at Maestro, enjoying cocktails

(sorry, Conrad, but I couldn't resist this photo of you and a margarita!)

and a light meal of queso fundido

and fried quesadillas. 

Cheese was our watchword that night, it seems.  Van didn't join us, but we had his company for a lot of the rest of the weekend.

Saturday morning? 

Amara Cafe and our usual favourites. 

Always welcome!  I headed out for a haircut

and errands after breakfast, and it was a moderately productive day.

Saturday night was a nice evening. 

We met up with Heath and Nicole for dinner in DTLA.  In among the taller buildings,

a film shoot going on a block away,

we dined at Settecento, a new restaurant in a space on one end of the central LAPL building.  It was mild enough to sit outside with only a little assistance from a heater.  The company was great - Heath and Nicole are such lovely people, and it's been good getting to know them since, in a sense, they are Van's family.  The restaurant was fine.  I liked the food (I only got a shot of my appetizer, a deep-fried egg on spinach with a Parmesan cream),

but it needs a little more oomph and refinement, I think.  Service was friendly enough, but the gaps in service were noticeable.  No matter.  We had a nice time with Heath and Nicole, and the restaurant is fairly new and deserves time to find its footing more solidly and a return visit then.

Sunday came, and it was over to Van's that evening.  The Oscars, y'all, Gay Superbowl!  I joke, but I do like seeing the dresses.  I made us some oven-braised chicken in a tomatillo sauce

and a batch of perhaps the best biscuits I have ever made. 

I was pleased with those.  For dessert I had put together a walnut gateau breton

and served it with some cheese.  We snacked, we cocktailed, we ate dinner, we watched the spectacle on television.  Olive got some early attention and otherwise only paid us heed when we ate. 

It was a nice evening all in all.

Alright, I am surely in SF and at our hotel now, soon heading for a first dinner in the city.  Happy second weekend!