{Local artisan chocolatiers make some phenomenal sweets, but when San Fran-based Poco Dolce bittersweet tiles finished with grey sea salt came across my desk recently, it was hard not to reach for a square. And another. And another. The texture on this dark chocolate is so smooth and the flavor barely sweet – the perfect pick-me-up for a gal whose palate sways toward savory.}
{When Nick Del Gaiso, exec chef at new Clayton sports bar The Wheelhouse didn’t see the numbers he wanted for orders of smelt chips, he didn’t pull them off the menu. Instead, he piled the crunchy creatures onto a smelt po’ boy fit for a rich man. Now we’re all winning with this weekly special.}
{Last month, Kyle Mathis of Taste earned a spot at the Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender finals, which take place in September in Las Vegas, with his Bombay gin-inspired Pattu Punch. But Justin Cardwell of BC’s Kitchen deserves kudos for his runner-up drink, Making Love to a Tonic and Gin, that featured homemade tonic syrup turned fizzy with a soda siphon, the happiest garnish of bright lime zest spirals, and pearls of piney juniper berries. Gin lovers, order it!}
This article appears in August 2013.