Kathryn Hill

I watched the “San Francisco” episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations the other night.  I thought I’d jot down my thoughts.

It was a bit strange watching this episode.  Most of the other episodes have been in locales I haven’t lived in or visited, and it was quite a gear switch to be watching Tony on my home turf.

Tony visited some good places, but I was surprised he visited some other places that I consider mediocre.  However, opinions on food are subjective, so I can’t say with affirmation that there is right or wrong here.  I was also a bit amazed he didn’t visit other places I thought he would or should.  In retrospect, I am placated that he missed some really good places, because that means they’ll stay good.  Few things kill a good bar or restaurant more than a cameo in a television show.

I noticed he had martinis at not one, but three different places during the course of the show.  That was a bit of a let-down for me, because San Francisco is such a revolutionary cocktail town – where’s the diversity in the cocktails?  OK, so he had some lychee martinis at R&G Lounge, but of all the cocktail offerings in San Francisco, why lychee martinis?  And Tony, you were less than a hour from the most popular wine country in the US and you didn’t go to one wine bar?

There was something quite “off” about Tony in this episode, I thought.  He didn’t seem as into the whole thing this time.  Who knows, maybe he was tired, maybe he was bored, maybe he didn’t want to exploit all of San Francisco’s true secrets, or maybe it was all the martinis and the sandwich as big as Giada de Laurentiis’ head.