20 GREAT GIFTS for foodies, travelers and more
From Recchiuti truffles to a colorful tent, here are terrific ideas for holiday shopping
Holiday shopping can be an exhausting affair. The traffic! The parking! The multitudes of Santa-seekers and elves! Not to mention the strain involved in coming up with yet another gift idea. Fret not. We’ve got you covered with 20 fantastic gift ideas for every foodie, cocktail maven and outdoors enthusiast on your list.
1 EAT: Cowgirl Party Box
Cowgirl Creamery’s Party Box ($275) offers everything anyone needs to host a cheese and salumi shindig — from the handmade cheeseboard from San Francisco’s Mac Cutting Boards to the Cowgirl Red Hawk triple-cream cheese, Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor and Creminelli salami. There are 11 party-perfect items in the box, including a set of cheese knives, crackers and even a Napa Cakes Panforte. The only thing missing? The guests. (Tell your giftee we’ll be right over.) Order the party box at cowgirlcreamery.com.
2 DRINK: ‘The Little Book of Big Experiences’
The wine lover in your life will relish all 24 Napa Valley experiences (valued at more than $1,000) in this book, which includes discounts at hotels, waived corkage at restaurants, and tastings at Freemark Abbey, Hall St. Helena and 11 other wineries. Best part? From now through the end of November, 20 percent of the book’s proceeds go to the Napa Valley Community Foundation to support those affected by the North Bay wildfires. Order the book ($100) at www.sthelena.com/experiences.
3 PLAY: Lonely Planet’s ‘Cities’
Lonely Planet’s newest coffee-table tome — “The Cities Book” ($50) — is a weighty giant, a lavishly photographed, freshly updated guide to 200 of the planet’s most enticing destinations, from Abu Dhabi to Zanzibar. You’ll find itinerary tips, “perfect day” advice and lists for everything from the best cities for bookworms (New York, Paris …) to the best spots for coffee hounds (Addis Ababa, Oaxaca …). It’s a book to inspire travel or while away a rainy day, cozied up in an armchair. Available in bookstores and online. www.lonelyplanet.com.
4 EAT: Recchiuti Confections collections
The famed San Francisco chocolatier’s Let It Snow ($21) is a swoon-worthy collection for your cacao lover. Eight pieces of Recchiuti’s signature Burnt Caramel Truffles — smoky caramel and dark chocolate ganache enrobed in semisweet chocolate — with a darling and distinctive snowman scene topped one at a time, by hand, on each piece. www.recchiuti.com
5 DRINK: Make Your Own Bitters Kit
Food52 just got even cooler by offering this fabulous cocktail lover’s kit. The box comes with tools, recipes and essential ingredients (herbs, spices, dried fruit peels and more) to create infused bitters at home. Pick from orange, cherry vanilla or habañero. Or go Naked (tee-hee) and innovate your own flavor. Bacon? Fig? Bacon and fig? Just be sure. Each kit makes 10 ounces of bitters ($48). www.food52.com
14 EAT: ‘State Bird Provisions’
There are cookbooks you buy to, you know, cook from. And then there are the others — the swanky chef-authored ones you buy as gifts, from Alice Waters’ new “Coming to My Senses” memoir to Wylie Dufresne’s “wd-50” culinary time capsule. (The latter recounts the life and times of Dufresne’s wildly creative, now-closed New York restaurant, wd-50, and recipes for things no home cook would ever contemplate. Yes, banana-tendon veal, we are looking at you.)
But if you know a foodie who longs for a return trip to San Francisco’s ridiculously popular, Michelin-starred State Bird Provisions — or for a way to score those savory pancakes or black butterbalsamic figs with wagon wheel cheese fondue off the restaurant’s signature dim sum carts without actually being there — here’s good news. Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski’s new “State Bird Provisions: A Cookbook” (Ten Speed Press, $40) is the perfect gift. Sure, there are some recipes your favorite foodie will likely never make, but the dessert lineup includes 10 of Krasinski’s signature ice creams and 11 ice cream sandwich combos. Yum.
15 DRINK: Blue Bottle holiday mug
Blue Bottle is known for its lovingly prepared pour-overs, coaxed one cup at a time through tiny filters, while an ever-lengthening line of frantic javadeprived Bay Area-ites hop from foot to foot, silently shrieking “Drip faster!” Of course, Blue Bottle buffs could just make the stuff at home, preferably with some Oakland Lights holiday blend ($9 for a 6-ounce bag, $17 for a 12-ouncer) from the Webster Roastery. Round out the gift with a holiday mug ($28) designed by longtime Blue Bottler Michelle Ott. Why, yes, that is a Blue Bottle license plate on the tree-toting station wagon. bluebottlecoffee.com
16 PLAY: Little Passports gift subscriptions
A globe in your mailbox? This San Francisco-based travel subscription service delivers the world to your favorite young globetrotter each month, suitcase, gondola and all. Much like a Blue Apron box brimming with ingredients for a specific dish, a Little Passports box ($13-$15 per month) arrives with maps, stickers, letters and interactive activities — build a Big Ben model? Yes, please! — about a specific country, from Italy to Japan. Both the world and U.S. boxes are designed for kids ages 6 to 10, but the company makes preschool-friendly editions as well. www.littlepassports.com
17 DRINK: Cork caps
Any trip to California’s sunny Wine Country requires a few essentials — sunglasses, sunscreen and a hat like this one ($32), made of black mesh and vintage cork by Mercantile 12, which delivers the message that California, after all, is “a state of wine.” You’ll find this Napa company’s wine coasters, insulated wine bottles and apparel at wineries across the Napa and Sonoma valleys and the Central Coast, as well as at www.mercantile12.com (although we think it’s much more fun to do our holiday shopping while wine tasting, rather than online). You’ll find this particular cap at Kenwood’s newly reopened Chateau St. Jean tasting room.
18 PLAY: Bedrock Sandals
This small, Richmond-based outdoor footwear company designs minimalist sandals meant to harness our feet’s natural flow of movement. What does that mean? The grippy rubber outsoles and adjustable nylon straps help you walk, hike, run or even river raft in custom-designed comfort. Yes, you get to choose your preferred sole thickness and strap width ($76-$110). www.bedrocksandals.com
19 DRINK: California Orange Liqueur
Do the budding bartender in your life a favor and replace her home bar’s triple sec with this handcrafted version ($37) by Geijer Spirits. San Franciscobased craft distiller Martin Geijer uses a combination of bitter orange peel and premium vanilla beans to produce this balanced and complex alternative to traditional orange cocktail modifiers. www.geijerspirits.com
20 EAT: Richard Carter dinnerware
Your favorite foodie may not have the culinary chops of, say, Christopher Kostow of the much-Michelinstarred Restaurant at Meadowood, where even the dinnerware is designed by artists. But even mac and cheese will look fab on plates made by one of Kostow’s favorite ceramicists. Richard Carter designed the plates for both Meadowood and Kostow’s new Charter Oak restaurant — and for the artist-designed debut dinnerware collection ($34-$150) at Healdsburg Shed. At $150 for a creamy-hued, four-piece place setting, it’s a gift for only those on the “very nice list.” (The naughty need not apply.) But we’re so smitten by the pasta and salad bowls ($38) from Carter’s Pope Valley studio, we’re thinking, who needs dinner plates? Find the collection at Shed, 25 North St., Healdsburg; healdsburgshed.com.