Review on Yelp

517 Shattuck Ave [map]
(between Cedar St & Vine St)
Berkeley, CA 94709

During Adam’s exposé of the “non-profit” Common Sense Media, he was listing off the elites in this “drinking club” –  one of them was Alice Waters. Dvorak replied that this seemed like the kind of project she’d be involved in. Adam wondered who she was and John reminded him that she’s the owner of Chez Panisse. That still didn’t register with Adam so they moved on. Alice Waters is widely known for her food activism, supporting organic produce and healthy eating and gardening programs for local school kids.

Dvorak has brought up Chez Panisse before. It’s a famous restaurant in Berkeley’s “gourmet alley” that is the quintessential leader of the organic, locavore movement and has been a major influence for many California and American chefs. Adam and John haven’t done one of their dining reviews here but Dvorak has probably mentioned eating there before.

Jo's original location - photo credit: laughingsquid.com

Jo's Downtown, West 2nd St. - photo credit: laughingsquid.com

During the donation’s segment of NA 373, Adam asked a donater to “meetup at Jo’s and have a cup of coffee.” Jo’s is popular hipster coffee joint in downtown Austin. Every year during SXSW, Jo’s becomes a big hub where people meetup and drink coffee.

Photo: Lance Iversen / San Francisco Chronicle.

Adam came up to San Francisco for a Mevio board meeting, so this meant it was time to put a meal on the expense account with his No Agenda partner, John C. Dvorak!

They decided to dine at one of San Francisco’s fine dining restaurants, Fifth Floor. Located near 4th and Market Streets atop the Hotel Palomar.

Adam reported that Dvorak showed up in Crocs, jeans with his shirt tail hanging out. He went on to suspects that to onlookers, they look like a gay couple when the come in for their 5:30 dining dates.

As usual, Dvorak had to be a crank with the Sommelier, quizzing her why the French Pommard wine was underpriced. Instead of just ordering it, he was suspicious why it was being cleared out for a below market rate.

FifthFloorRestaurant.com
12 Fourth Street [map]
San Francisco , CA94103
Within the Hotel Palomar 

It was Dvorak’s birthday so he and the family headed to New York City to celebrate! For a special birthday meal they dined at one of John’s favorite NYC restaurants, Bouley. During No Agenda 293, John reported that Bouley, “is quite tasty and they have a rather inexpensive tasting menu for lunch!”

Looking at the Yelp reviews, one sees many raves for their lunches which are quite a good value at this fancy eatery.

davidbouley.com
Yelp review

163 Duane St [map]
New York, NY 10013
Neighborhood: TriBeCa

Adam just visited SF, so he went out to dinner with John Dvorak at the Peruvian restaurant Fresca on Fillmore. One of around five Peruvian restaurants in SF that Dvorak has mentioned before.

It was reported that they had a great meal but perhaps spent around ten dollars too much even though they didn’t drink like they used to according to Adam (remember the Ritz Carlton dining days?). Dvorak ever the wine expert, picked a nice Vino Verde to wash down their Peruvian cuisine.

Adam and Micky were recently  dining with some guests at Los Angeles’ swank, Mondrian Hotel, when they spotted genius, physicist Stephen Hawking also dining with a group of young people. Adam couldn’t help but notice his feeding process while being helped by his assistant. Dvorak asked why he didn’t record it this event with his iPhone! Adam seemed shocked to see gook driibbling out of his mouth. Micky thinks Hawking winked at her. In the end, Adam thought he’d be too much of a douchebag to go over and get a photo taken with him.

MondrianHotel.com
Yelp Review

While John and Adam were discussing how they only use cash during NA 56, John mentioned Brooklyn’s Peter Luger Steak House as an example of a business that only accepts cash.

He didn’t really go into dining experiences there, but we here at No Agenda Entertainment have placed this establishment high up on our ‘must dine’ list the next time we go to NYC. Peter Luger is famous for incredible, dry aged steaks that they serve to you sliced up on a plate. Other classics there are the big slab of bacon they serve and the creamed spinach.

www.peterluger.com
Yelp review

178 Broadway [map]
(between 6th St & Driggs Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Adam spent a couple days in the Monteceto area of Santa Barbara with Micky and some friends. While visiting, they dined at the extremely expensive Stonehouse Restaurant. The food was great but you were mostly paying for the beautiful locale

www.sanysidroranch.com
Yelp Review

900 San Ysidro Ln [map]

Santa Barbara, CA 93108

Lark Creek Steak

Reviewed in NA #43 – 8/17/2008

The boys ate at upscale steak house, Lark Creek Steak. Located inside the Westfield Shopping Center in downtown SF. Owned by reknown Bay Area restauranteur,
Bradley Ogden, Dvorak explained how as a chef, Ogden makes very flavored food.

This restaurant was discussed at length so I’ll break it down to the Adam and John’s comments.

Adam

• Placement – interesting, liked the booths!
• Music was 3 dB to loud – kinda Kenny G.
• Being asked if they wanted tap water instead of bottled water. (Dvorak: tap water is in!)
• Server a little over zealous – but that’s ok.
• Iceberg with Waldorf dressing – the chef is ‘famous’ for this!
• Eel River – 8th rib rib steak – said his was good but didn’t blow him away and it was kind of bland. The waiter recommended mixing their famous horseradish mixed with A1 steak sauce Adam requested.
• Adam thought Dvorak’s pick of wine was perfect, a 2005 Caymus Cabernet served in ‘appropriate’ glasses which are large and thin walled so you can look at the wine.
• Side dishes – loved corn and mashed potatoes.
• Adam’s sorbet desert – the cantaloupe sorbet tasted with a sip of the Calvados was amazing!

Dvorak

• Bleu Cheese salad dressing ordered with the cheap green salad but he thought it was so ammoniated he couldn’t eat it. He returned it for a regular vinagarette.
• Hearst Ranch Grass Fed NY strip. Dvorak thought they should re-source their steaks. Maybe get their steaks from some guy in Iowa.  ”that Eel River shit, who cares!”, said Adam.
• Fries – bland. Maybe need some salt?
• Hollandaise sauce didn’t really work and was more like Bernaise and didn’t really stick to the  fries. The waiter then brought some ketchup which Dvorak thought was mediocre and probably not homemade either.

Dvorak said the best steak is at a place called Downtown in Berkeley (we couldn’t find a listing for it).

Lark Creek Steak
Yelp review

Westfield Mall
845 Market St. [map]
4th Floor
San Francisco, CA

Oh no! One of the Dvorak’s didn’t have the right ‘papers’ to get a drink here!

John Dvorak mentioned Pyramid Brewery because the Dvorak’s didn’t have the correct papers to get a drink here. JC (his son), had a US passport but not a California ID. The management at Pyramid didn’t accept a passport, only a California ID. The restaurant management blamed the policy on the Berkeley PD, but Adam thought that was BS as he looked up the law.

Pyramid is a full-scale, large brew-pub on Berkeley’s Gilman St. It’s right across the street from the infamous ‘Gilman Street’ punk rock club.

While leaving Seattle, Dvorak stopped here for breakfast.

His review during NA 38: Don’t eat breakfast at Anthony’s at the SeaTac airport! Uuuggh – horrible!

Yelp review

Sea-Tac Airport
17801 International Blvd [map]
Seattle, WA 98127

Le Club Cinquante-Cinq

During NA #38, Adam talked about how he and his wife were spending July 2008 hobnobbing around the South of France. They stayed at a friends place in Saint Raphaël which is in between Saint Tropez and Cannes.

One highlight of the trip was a visit to the famous Le Club 55 in Saint Tropez. There, you can hang with the ‘beautiful people’ and eat fish and veggies. Amongst the Russian mobsters and their chickas, models and actresses, was Gordon Ramsay.

Adam ate some nice, fresh vegetables served on a piece of a canoe shaped tree bark. Next, he had a wonderful artichoke and then, some steak tartar.

Le Club 55

Plage de Pampelonne
Boulevard Patch [map]
83350 RAMATUELLE – FRANCE

Tél. +33 (0)4 94 55 55 55

Adam and John’s favorite lunch place in SF. It’s a couple blocks west of the Mevio office. Adam raved about his lamb shank which takes days to prepare.

For wine, they had the 2007 Côtes du Rhône for around $35. 2007′s from here are all ‘killer’ according to Dvorak. Fringale was first mentioned in NA #37 when John mentioned how the meter maids circle around this area like sharks.

fringalesf.com
Yelp review

570 4th Street [map]
(between Brannan St & Freelon St)
San Francisco, CA 94107

RN74 is a San Francisco restaurant that is owned by chef Michael Mina [Michael Mina, Clock Bar]. Dvorak is taking his daughter there for her birthday dinner. Adam reported he had dined there before. He thought it was a great place and thought the food was good even though he wasn’t happy with his dinner company at the time.

RN74
Yelp review

301 Mission St [map]
San Francisco, CA 94199
Neighborhood: SOMA

Creative Commons - Some rights reserved by neror

Adam used to live in Gitmo Nation Low-lands, better known as Holland. One of his favorite places to get a late night snack is at  Ben Cohen’s Shwarma. He says it’s important to get the white garlic sauce with the schwarma. Some of the locals even drink a couple glasses of milk with these.

Located at Rozengracht 239 in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. [map]
Open 5PM to 3AM.

Dining here earns the Living Large prize! During the Christmas holiday in 2007, Adam’s family dined at London’s super expensive, Cliveden House.

Adam wanted to give a gift to himself and get a real good bottle of wine.  He was trying to choose between two different 1953 Latour Bordeauxs. Dvorak tried to guess the price to be $7500US or  £3000UK. After discussing with his wife, Patricia, he balked at the expensive purchase.

Dvorak said he could probably go find a ’53 Latour Grand Vin for about $1000 around town. Dvorak recommended a ’59 that is ‘fresher’. The 1953 could be fading though absolutely tasty. Adam mentioned he saw many Le Tour’s from the 95 vintage and Dvorak said the 12 years old Bordaux’s are considered the perfect age.

Cliveden

Taplow, Berkshire
SL6 0JF, United Kingdom

Located in San Francisco’s Lauren Heights neighborhood. Adam dined here and was impressed even though he thought the portions were a little small. Dvorak wondered how Adam even got in – Spruce is one of the hot restaurants in town. Adam further expressed that the presentation and quality is great with knowledgable service.

Adam also recommended you sit in the back room if you want to have a conversation as the front is noisy. Dvorak said the owner runs Village Pub in Woodside, California so maybe you can go eat there and save some money.

Spruce

Yelp review

3640 Sacramento St
(between Locust St & Spruce St) map
San Francisco, CA

Village Pub

Yelp review

2967 Woodside Rd map
Woodside, CA

Dvorak mentioned NOLA during episode #7. This New Orleans restaurant is owned by famous TV chef, Emeril Lagasse (the annoying BAM guy).

Dvorak this restaurant was outstanding! He thought the wine list was impressive –  all the wines at the different price points were winners.

Yelp review

534 Saint Louis St. map
New Orleans, LA

Adam came here for a Sequoia Capital hosted, ‘Presidents and CEOs’ dinner. Nola is a cajun/creole, New Orleans style restaurant. Adam had a strip steak with mashed potatoes topped with fried onion strips and reported it was excellent.

Nola

Yelp review

535 Ramona St map
Palo Alto, CA 94301

Adam described this place as the Eurotrash restaurant on Sunset Blvd.

Yelp review

8654 W Sunset Blvd map
West Hollywood, CA 90069