Today is my annual sad day—the day I leave the lake. My family understands, heck, anyone who comes up to Lake Tahoe regularly does. This place is so special—and it’s not just because I’ve spent every summer in the same cabin in Tahoma (West Shore) since I was a baby. It’s a powerful thing to have a place to return to every year, one that is familiar, and has a smell you recognize upon your arrival. I like knowing the skinny patch in the cove where I can walk into the lake on sand instead of hard stones, the way the water makes every cell in your body spring to life upon your first dive in, having the video store lady greet me warmly after a year’s absence, seeing Gary Romano at the Tahoe City farmers’ market with his incomparable greens, and after a week, intimately knowing the playlist on The River, the classic rock station I listen to up here. Yeah, it was good to get out of town.
But, back to the rat race. And it’s shaping up to be one hell of a busy week. Starting tomorrow afternoon, when I will be moderating a panel as part of SF Chefs week. The panel, an industry seminar entitled Hospitalitarianism: Love Thy Guest, is featuring quite the lineup of local service luminaries: Umberto Gibin (Perbacco, barbacco), Annie Stoll (Delfina), Giancarlo Paterlini (Acquerello), Nick Peyton (Cyrus), and Tim Stannard (Spruce, Café Des Amis). It starts at 3pm, come on by for sure-to-be-insightful answers to the questions I’ll be asking.
Friday evening is the big opening party for SF Chefs (Hog in the Fog), but don’t eat toooo much pig, because the after party I’m hosting at E&O, Happy Ending, is featuring all kinds of delicious. The lineup of Asian street food already has me hangry, and the bevvies are also going to get spirits high (har). Big thanks to liquor sponsors Brown Forman Spirits, wine sponsors Robert Sinskey and Honig (nope, we don’t mess around), and Blue Moon and Tiger beers. The party gets started at 10pm, and DJ Jeffrey Paradise will have us partying until 1am. Tickets are selling quick, get yours here.
Saturday I am going to have to shake the after hours outta my head and hair, and scoot up to Corte Madera for the Book Passage Travel, Food, & Photography Conference (my presentation is I Did It My Way—A Talk with the Tablehopper). Looking forward to seeing who’s attending. And then I’ll be hustling back to town for more SF Chefs parties that evening. Sunday: lather, rinse, repeat with more SF Chefs shampoo.
And with that, it’s time for my last dip in the lake… Ciao!
