Daily Loaf

This week, our heroes bring in guest and CL contributor Katie Machol, talk about the Bay area’s best food sites, fill your wine rack and dish on a bad meal at Aquaknox.

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We talked about these brand (and relatively) new places in the blog (L’Olivier, AquaKnox, several, Bin 27, Ocean Prime, and L’Olivier again) but who’s actually braved these joints while they get their feet wet? Were they ready for the big day, or just struggling to keep up? The kitchen a disaster, or primed and ready?

Comment — we desperately want a scouting report.

Obama was inagurated on Tuesday, and in the frenzy of media coverage you may have missed what’s really important — sustenance. No worries, we have the entire week distilled down to a mere few links. Just for you:

• Listen to the inaugural episode of Nosh Pit, CL’s new food and wine podcast.
• Brush up on Girl Scout Cookie gossip.
• Bourdain calls Alice Waters “very Khmer Rouge”.
• I call Alice Waters out for $500 dinners.
• Three new Tampa restaurants (and Cupcake Spot) are scheduled to open this weekend. Taylor already ate at one of them.
• Three words: waffle fry butts.
• Obama orders a medium-well cheeseburger. For. Shame.
• Chocolate and bacon cupcakes with peanut butter icing.
• Argentina kills our last bets hope for quality beef.
• USDA releases ineffectual, voluntary rules for the term “naturally raised”.
• Ingredient Basics: Garlic

Hidden inside the bland box architecture of Westin’s brand-new hotel on Tampa’s Courtney Campbell Causeway lies the posh, sleek Aquaknox, a new restaurant featuring fine-dining seafood. Once you see the uber-cool waterfall wall veiling the wine room, you kinda know something different this way comes.

A recent sneak peek of the dining room — dripping with modernity — and the goodies emerging from Chef Jim Sheibler’s kitchen — thanks to a soft opening lunch — confirmed my suspicions. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple high-end restaurants are bucking trends by opening in the middle of the deepest economic slump in recent memory. Unsurprisingly, both are chains, albeit small ones. There’s also a cool cabaret and bistro kicking off in GaYbor this weekend. Here’s the rundown: Read the rest of this entry »