How to go to the head of the list
Sure, pizza, takeout Chinese and burritos are terrific choices for dinner. But once in a while, it’s fun to stretch the budget and do it up right: make a reservation at a fancy place, get dressed up for it, bask in the luxury. As long as you’re able to pay the bill, even if you’re not a regular, you’re entitled to the same meal as anyone else.
But wait. Looming on the horizon is Queue, “an exclusive club of restaurants and diners” that a news release says “gets you exclusive access to premium restaurants with unparalleled dining experiences.” Those who pay for this service app, which founders hope will be released in early 2018, receive a list of restaurants that the company says will expand every month. The special treatment given to Queue subscribers means you can skip any wait list for reservations and “access tables” reserved for members. It’s something like concierge medical care. “Restaurants go out of their way for the caliber of our members,” says the release.
Bon appetit to you of high caliber, but isn’t this potentially hard on those of us with medium caliber? I was hoping to be judged kindly for paying the bill and not chewing with my mouth open.
On the other hand, Ken Maley, who was one of the guests at the Friday, Nov. 17, Original Joe’s 80th anniversary party (I couldn’t make it) was among the 400 or so guests, each equally treated with grace, he says. “Having lived through Washington Square Bar & Grill and Moose’s,” emailed Maley afterward, “both defined in their eras as the North Beach watering hole and/or meeting place, Original Joe’s has certainly filled that void . ... I ascribe that to the graciousness of the owners/hosts.”
Marie and John Duggan as well as their offspring, Elena and John Jr., welcomed guests to the restaurant where they provided generous buffet displays of food, as well as hors d’oeuvres passed around on trays and rounds of drinks. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White presented them with a brass bell, and the Duggans presented every guest with a souvenir glass with commemorative etching marking the day.
As to the clock on the wall behind the bar, which is stopped at 4:20, the owners told Maley it has nothing to do with the 4:20 the rest of the city celebrates. It’s the time at which the fire broke out at the Joe’s on Taylor Street, and it was that fire that spurred the move to North Beach.
Calvary Presbyterian Church, Grace Cathedral, Congregation Emanu-El and St. Mark’s Lutheran co-sponsored the Wednesday, Nov. 15, event honoring nationally known physician and “reproductive justice advocate” Willie Parker, whose new book is “Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice.”
Among those who attended, reports Fran Johns, was Pat McGinnis, who founded the Society for Human Abortion. McGinnis was known in San Francisco and Berkeley for standing on street corners handing out information on where women could get safe abortions.
Among the others who attended were two protesters, who were outnumbered, but “friendly and polite,” says Johns. Minister Joann Lee, whose 5-month-old daughter was strapped to her for most of the evening, went outside to introduce herself to the protesters and invite them inside for a glass of wine. They declined.
A San Francisco nonprofit had a preThanksgiving potluck lunch, reports one worker there, and an organizer had put up a sign, saying “What are you thankful for?” There were cards and pens s o participants could answer for themselves. “Among things like ‘Puppies!’ and ‘My Co-Workers,’ there was this one: ‘Robert Mueller .’”
And Fred Reiss is fearing that the turkey that President Trump will pardon this year is Roy Moore.
Another example of Marin awesome, from Dan Giesin: The Marinscope Sausalito police log note: “A citizen reported to police that someone in the area has been pretending to be a pirate (arrggh!) all day, including the firing of a cannon. Units were dispatched.”
David Schneider stepped into a Muni elevator at Church and Market streets the other day with a man who was using a twisted old needle to shoot up. Schneider asked how he was, and the man said, “Fine.”