December 16, 2020 - This week's tablehopper: go Champers go!

This week's tablehopper: go Champers go!

Hey everyone, thanks for your patience as I worked to get this Hopper Holiday Restaurant Gift Bag reindeer rodeo under control and live! (Thanks to the wonderful team at Square for their amazing help, this was a tricky one to set up!) You can read about alllll the treats in this bountiful gift bag below, 18 items in all, ho ho ho! Some of these goodies are custom-made and exclusive to the gift bag, so enjoy!

The restaurant gift bag is $225, and delivery (in SF only) is $12 if you want Santa to bring it to you. ORDER HERE. Please read the instructions carefully for pick-up and delivery times! Email me any questions and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you for all your support! It has been incredible to work with all these restaurants and bakeries and industry folks on putting this together. They all say THANK YOU!

Happy Holidaze!! ~Marcia (Champers the elf)

the chatterbox

Gossip & News (the word on the street)

Get Your Hopper Holiday Restaurant Gift Bag and Show Support to Our Restaurant Industry

Wow, that sold out fast, twice! Thank you so much! WOWZA! We have a waitlist for the second version of the bag, which is $247—it includes a larger bottle of Miss Ollie’s hot sauce and comes in a tote from The Anchovy Bar! There is still room on the waitlist, so if you want to be added, please email marcia@tablehopper.com! Thanks, everyone! You rock! XO ~M

We all know how much our independent restaurants are suffering, especially this brutal month, and yet they still manage to make beautiful food and products and holiday treats that fill us with delight. Let’s support them and celebrate them with the Hopper Holiday Restaurant Gift Bag! This abundant gift bag is packed full of some of the most delicious, local, hand-crafted, and exclusive restaurant treats! I’m talking about 18 stellar, San Francisco Bay Area restaurant-made products.

You can order it for yourself, you can split up the gift bag into stocking stuffers for your friends, or you can even send a gift bag to someone who would really love it (and maybe can’t afford it right now). Imagine giving someone the gift of supporting local restaurants…I know, it’s a good one. Check out the goods:

• The smoked egg “bottarga” from Atomic Provisions (from State Bird Provisions) Shave this on everything for flava and an umami blast, from your pasta to salads to open-faced sandwiches.
• Miss G’s pepper sauce from Miss Ollie’s Oakland (4 oz.) One of my favorite hot sauces, made according to chef Sarah Kirnon’s grandmother’s recipe.
• Black bean chili sauce from China Live (6 oz.) One of my top secret weapon condiments to cook with (and their number one seller), made with 10 ingredients, including fermented soya, fava, and black beans!
• Ma’amoul cookies from Reem’s California (six) Traditional Arab cookies with espresso-date, walnut, and pistachio fillings. Enjoy with tea, coffee, cocktails, or for an afternoon nibble. Contain nuts.
• Chili honey from Nopa (8 oz.) This is the hot honey that comes with their superlative fried chicken (obsessed!). Drizzle it on all the things, from toast to waffles, and I even dunked a piece of chocolate in it one night (mwah ha ha)!
• Rye and oat granola from Kantine (300g) Perfect for topping your morning yogurt or evening ice cream. Made with old-fashioned oats, crumbled Danish rye bread, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, butter, honey, brown sugar, salt.
• Jeera biscuits from Besharam (seven cookies) Chef Heena Patel is making these special holiday cookies for us! They’re like a salty-savory shortbread, made with semolina, flour, fennel, and a touch of cumin. They’re wonderful with tea (and a cup of hot chocolate).
• Torrone from A16 (3 oz. bar) It’s not the holidays without torrone! Leave it to A16 to make their own housemade version, striking that perfect chewy-crunchy balance, and it’s light as air. Contains honey, sugar, water, egg whites, almond, pistachio, vanilla, almond and orange blossom extract, salt.
• The Chef’s Press (13 oz. size) from chef Bruce Hill (Bix, Zero Zero) I don’t know how I’d make a grilled cheese, burger, or quesadilla without my Chef’s Press! Chef Bruce Hill has created one of the best tools for even (and vented) cooking, and wants you to have that perfect sear!
• Chinese Hot mustard from Palette Tea House (6 oz.) Palette’s Chinese hot mustard is made from horseradish and mustard. The spiciness level gives a nice zing to your sinuses and pairs well with everything! Try it in a sandwich for some pow!
• Seasoned flour from SF Chickenbox (1 lb.) Chef Christian Ciscle is one of our O.G. fried chicken whisperers here in the City, so he knows his way around a proper dredge! Use his magic seasoned flour for fried chicken, pork chops, or fried fish. If you detect a hint of Old Bay in there, you are correct—he’s a Baltimore native!
• Housemade rigatoni from Montesacro/54 Mint (1 lb.) There’s nothing like a hearty bowl of rigatoni with a meaty ragù in the wintertime, mmmhmmm. The elves at Montesacro have a pound of housemade rigatoni for you to cook up at home with your favorite sauce. Buon appetito!
• Fina’Denne’ vinegar from Prubechu (5 oz.) This is the perfect vinegar to have around when you need a pop of acidity on your food, from anything fried to your rice to a hearty stew. Give it a Chamorro hit! It’s made with soy sauce, onions, and white vinegar.
• Plum jam from 20th Century Cafe (8 oz.) Chef Michelle Polzine is known for her marvelous and small-batch plum jams, featuring peak-season and top-quality produce. Get excited to level up your morning toast.
• Holiday marzipan treats from Schubert’s Bakery (four) Much love to this Inner Richmond bakery, which has legions of fans for their cakes, since 1911 (including their legendary princess cake). You’ll enjoy a selection of three marzipan petit fours: Nutella-filled, apricot-filled, and raspberry-filled. (Please note the marzipan contains almonds.)
• Custom Sesame Swirl S’mores Bar from Not Too Sweet Penelope Lao was the opening pastry chef at Liholiho Yacht Club, and is now running her extremely delicious “pop-up pastry CSA box.” She’s going to be custom-making a special chocolate bar for the gift bag: a Sesame Swirl S’mores Bar, with chocolate chunk brownie, soy-sesame seed praline, and toasted graham marshmallows (contains gluten and butter, nut-free).
• Cheese knife and tote from The Cheese School of San Francisco Guess who’s back in action? That’s right, The Cheese School at Ghirardelli Square! They’re offering virtual cheese classes, gift baskets, cheese club subscriptions, and more. You’ll be toting home your goodies in their sturdy navy blue canvas tote, with a mini cheese knife that will come in handy for your holiday snacking!
• Reusable tote bag from Mister Jiu’s Since this gift bag is pretty bountiful, you’re actually going to need two bags to get everything home! You’ll love this reusable Baggu tote bag from Mister Jiu’s, designed with scallions, for future and stylin’ shopping excursions.
• $10 donation to SF New Deal Your gift bag includes a donation to this incredible organization that has been helping restaurants feed our communities in need during the pandemic. Thank you! If you want to make a bigger donation, please click here. XO

Whew! So how’s that for an extravaganza of flavor? The Hopper Holiday Restaurant Gift Bag is $225 (click to order), and 100 percent fabulous. All sales are final, no refunds or returns.

Everything will be shelf-stable, so you don’t have to worry about getting anything into the fridge after you receive it (but some items will need to be refrigerated after you open them).

Unfortunately, there are no substitutions or custom orders. If there’s something you can’t eat or enjoy, I’m sure you can find someone who will! Thanks for understanding. If you need more details about any ingredients, please get in touch.

Items are subject to change and availability—since we’re dealing with so many items here (18!), there’s a small chance we’ll need to make a change or swap an item. Please trust it will be delicious. Thank you for understanding, we’ll keep you informed of any changes.

This run is going to be limited to 25 gift bags, so you’ll want to hop to it. You have until Saturday December 19th at 3pm PST to order (unless it runs out first). Email me to be added to a waitlist if it’s sold out.

In-person, pre-paid pick-ups will be available at Nopa Tuesday December 22nd and Wednesday December 23rd from 4:45pm-9pm and Thursday December 24th from 1pm-3pm (pick up some house-smoked trout and cocktails while you’re at it). Nopa: 560 Divisadero St. at Hayes. (Please don’t contact the restaurant for any questions you have about the bag. Hit me up instead.)

Delivery in San Francisco will also be available Tuesday December 22nd through Thursday December 24th for an additional fee of $12. We will finalize your delivery time window after we get all orders in and can map things out. Please specify your preferred day and timeframe to start (morning is 9am-12pm; afternoon is 12pm-5pm, evening is 5pm-8pm). Available time slots will be Tue afternoon, evening; Wed morning, afternoon, evening; Thu morning. Stand by for more details and a better ETA soon if you choose this option. If you miss your delivery (things happen!) and there’s nowhere safe for us to leave it, you’ll be able to pick up your bag at Nopa. No refunds (unless it’s totally our fault).

Sorry, no shipping (I’m crazy, but not thaaaat crazy), and I won’t be able to offer the gift bags any earlier than next Tuesday.

On behalf of all our local restaurants, thank you. We appreciate all your kind and generous support, and this gift bag will be a great way to share and show and feel the love. Our Bay Area hospitality industry is so special, let’s do everything we can to support it.

(If there are any elves who have a car and/or spare hands to help me out with product pick-ups or bag assembly on Sunday or Monday, I’d be so grateful! Please send me an email and I’ll get back to you. Mwah!!)