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Laurine Wickett Of 'Top Chef' Gives Left Coast Some Market-Fresh Options

This week's cheftestant profile involves travel to you, rather than a self-initiated jaunt to a cast member's restaurant. Laurine Wickett, whose tenure on Top Chef effectively ended after what is arguably the show's most difficult challenge, "Restaurant Wars," has since returned to San Francisco where she runs Left Coast Catering.

New York born, but Northern California bred—at least in the culinary sense—Laurine incorporates the Bay Area's various cultural influences into market-fresh menus for her clients. Whether left coast parents planning a Bat Mitzvah or bride-to-be hosting a dessert reception, Laurine will provide you with options galore. We perused some of her sample menus online, which reflect a flavorful Californian approach to cooking while turning to other regions of the world for inspiration. She does everything from sushi stations to steak and french fries, on the same menu if you'd like guests to have multiple options. Her ill-fated Pork Rillette (or, as Dana Cowin punishingly put it, "cat food") made no appearance on any of the menus we saw.

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Tags: San Francisco Travel / Museum Travel / Museums / San Francisco / → All Tags

San Fran's Next Museum May Feature a Fire-Shooting Tree

Only in San Francisco would a house with a tree that shoots fire be considered a future museum site. That is, if saw player extraordinaire and former hotelier Bob Pritikin has his way. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Pritikin, who often throws lavish fundraisers at his residence—sort of an adult's fun house with kitschy memorabilia strewn throughout—is hoping to "pay the bills, make a nice contribution to the community and have some daytime visitors" by transforming his mansion into a museum. He originally suggested the less-than-humble "Only in San Francisco" name for the prospective museum site, though his hopes were dashed after learning that the city's Convention & Visitors Bureau already owns said URL.

The visiting groups would be relatively small, limited to 20 people per day, six days a week, says the Chronicle. Pritikin's idea, if realized, would place his home in the esteemed, eccentric company of one of the Bay Area's other homes-turned-tourist attractions, the Winchester Mystery House. This isn't Pritikin's first hubris-driven campaign on behalf of his home, having previously lobbied for it to have it turned into San Francisco's mayoral residence in 2004. That plan predictably never took off, and handsome politico Gavin Newsom is dwelling elsewhere these days.

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When Bridges Attack: SF's Bay Bridge Closes Indefinitely

Where you perhaps planning on driving over to Oakland from San Francisco to check out why we named Oakland as one of the Five Cities With A Bad Rap worth visiting? It's too bad you'll be cut off from the goodness for who knows how long, after steel cables snapped last night, hitting three cars on the roadway below and stopping up traffic for over two hours.

There were no injuries when the bridge cracked its metal whip, but repairs and general safety issues will keep the region's busiest bridge shut down at least through tonight. Granted, the pieces that snapped were themselves an emergency repair made over Labor Day weekend, but now we're generally worried about bridge fatigue; perhaps we should be putting pennies into boxes for "Save The Steel Bridges" instead of Ronald McDonald House?

Public transporation options, after the jump.

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San Fran Lets Medical Marijuana Take To Its Skies

Thanks to the TSA, travelers have all kinds of hoops to jump through when it’s finally time to catch your flight. Everyone knows there’s some math formula with the number three and something about one ounce when it comes to the rules regarding liquids and plastic baggies. Well if you have something else that weighs an ounce and comes in a plastic bag you won’t have to do much to get through security. Medical marijuana patients can now pass through the San Francisco International Airport and other Bay Area airports without any issues, or so they say.

As long as you have the proper paperwork you can carry up to eight ounces of marijuana with you. That’s the city’s policy, and it’s up to city police to make the final ruling. The TSA kind of has no authority over the issue, but if we had some healing hooch we’d still probably be a little discrete when going through airport security. The US Department of Justice pretty much told US attorneys to not bother passengers when they are just following the state’s rules and regulations.

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The Golden Gate Bridge Wants You To Stay Longer, Learn Something

San Francisco's majestic orange gateway, the Golden Gate Bridge, has served as highlight in panoramic film shots, and famously, a protest site for a green-friendly Hollywood actor. It's come to represent the City by the Bay like no other landmark, hence the throngs of tourists and locals that flock to it for photo opportunities, or to see its fantastic details up close.

To augment its beauty, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that The National Science Foundation "awarded the bridge district $3 million...to install outdoor exhibits explaining "its engineering and history." For visitors, this offers the chance to soak up some educational details while ogling its impressive construction. During most of our visits to the Bridge, we've seen people cruise by for a quick picture and maybe a moment of reflection, then quickly depart. The installations will, hopefully, remedy this hurried tourist mindset. Reports the Chronicle:

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Construction Under Way At Virgin America's Future Home: Terminal 2 At SFO

Late last year, work began on renovating Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport. The terminal used to be the gateway to foreign lands, but after all the new paint and fancy lighting it will be primarily used for domestic adventures. The airport is shelling out nearly $400 million to revamp things, and when complete, it will probably make all the other terminals jealous. Virgin America is especially excited over all this construction, because this will be their official home when all the dust settles.

There will be 14 gates at the new terminal, which should leave a little extra room if another carrier or two wants to sneak into Virgin America’s home turf. The gates will be designed for narrow body aircraft, but they will have the capability for some bigger jets—just in case. Some of the cool new stuff that travelers will experience while waiting for flights includes a wine bar, spa, and over ten restaurants. The airport is even looking to recruit some slow food vendors to ensure travelers are eating healthy, locally grown food—does this include Cinnabon? There will be lots of public art, and for fans of green, the facility expects to get silver LEED certification.

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Get Cozy With Top Chef's Mattin In San Francisco

As we uphold our weekly tradition of highlighting ex-cheftestants, giving due attention to the poor souls that didn't make it to the Final Three, we arrive at sprightly French chef Mattin Noblia. With a million-watt smile and red neckerchief that we hope he was wearing ironically, Noblia stole our hearts for being so disarmingly sweet...or maybe it was the accent. Either way, Padma and Co. bid Mattin au revoir after he presented a disastrous ceviche that Tom Colicchio found so offensive he actually spit it out. Tragic.

When he's not flashing his boyish grin on national television, Mattin can be found at Iluna Basque, his San Francisco restaurant. As you can guess from its name, the cuisine is inspired by the Basque region, served up on small plates that diners are encouraged to share.

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Treasure Island Music Festival Offers Indie Rock Oasis In San Fran

For Pitchfork-reading, Ray Ban-sporting music fans, the Treasure Island Music Festival delivers nothing less than a heaven sent lineup. Acts getting heavy airtime on hipper-than-thou radio stations, including MGMT, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, and club kid heroes MSTRKRFT, will all be on-hand from October 17-18 in San Francisco to get the youthful masses shaking in their skinny jeans and buffalo plaid shirts. Make no mistake, this festival is cool incarnate.

The artificial island lies in between San Francisco and Oakland and is accessible by the Bay Bridge if you're driving, or a MUNI line from within SF. Now in its third year, the two-day event is skewed more toward electro/dance on Day One and what you might broadly call "indie rock" on Day Two. We're excited to see psychedelic performers The Flaming Lips headlining Sunday's affair; we predict trippy lights, costumes, and frontman Wayne Coyne climbing over the audience in a plastic bubble, as he's known to do during their set.

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Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, The Disney Family Museum Opens October 1

The Walt Disney Family Museum will open its doors October 1, but don't expect to see Mickey's mug plastered all over the place. Instead, the museum explores the man behind the mouse in Walt Disney’s own words through listening stations, interactive media and more than 200 video monitors.

Within the museum's 10 galleries, you'll find drawings Disney made when he was young; drawings and cartoons from Laugh-O-gram Films, Disney’s first company; early sketches of Mickey (see, you'll get some mouse fun); storyboards, a technique Disney developed to map out film classics; the multiplane camera, an innovation at the time that brought depth to his revolutionary Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs flick; the unusual Academy Award Disney won for Snow White, which included a full-size Oscar and seven mini Oscarettes; the narrow-gauge Lilly Belle train he built for his Hollywood home, which recalled his youth and helped spur his vision for Disneyland; and a model of the Disneyland that the animator envisioned.

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Frommer's Range Of Expertise Now Extends To Travel Tweet-Ups

In their quest to remain on top of the travel guidebook world, Frommer's has embraced new media whole-heartedly. Just think: Arthur Frommer has gone from penning Europe On 5 Dollars A Day in 1957 to blogging, twittering and podcasting now, at 80 years of age. In their first major step into Twitterdom, beyond the @FrommersTravel account and more towards forming a community, they'll hold their first "tweet-up" in San Francisco on October 1.

It'll be more an event than a coffee chat, with Frommers.com's Editorial Director David Lytle speaking at the Book Passage at the Ferry Building at 6pm. It sounds like an ideal time for newbies to Twitter to hear from one of their favorite travel brands on how Twitter is "changing the nature of travel and how travelers can use the social media site to plan trips, connect with locals, and find the best travel deals."

Perhaps Art Frommer will stop by to shake his fist at Arizona, or maybe gather fodder for a new post on his blog. In any case, it's sure to be the first of many such events from Frommer's, and a good chance to hear how a print brand is adapting for a less than print-friendly future.

Related Stories:
· Tweet-Up San Franscisco [SFGate]
· @FrommersTravel [Twitter]
· Twitter Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: davitydave]

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SF's Outside Lands Festival Proves The '90s Are Alive And Well

Travel we know, but time travel? The lineup of this weekend's Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival looks like it could have been lifted from the grunge rock and jam band days of yesteryear. If you're nostalgic for the early '90s, buffalo plaid prints and all, then the festival is your musical dream come true—and you don't even have to rev up your DeLorean.

From August 28-30, Outside Lands returns to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the second year running, following 2008's Radiohead-headlined extravaganza. This year is ruled by some of Generation X's sonic heroes—namely Pearl Jam (Friday) and Dave Matthews Band (Saturday)—but there are also plenty of other of-the-moment artists on the bill that we're excited about: The National, TV on the Radio, The Duke Spirit, and Jack White's newest super-band, The Dead Weather.

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Avoid Parking Hell In San Francisco By Renting Your Spots

Anyone who has attempted to park on the car-congested streets of San Francisco knows that the task can best be described with a four-letter word: Fine. We'll admit it; we've been ticketed many a time for letting our car linger too long in one of those rare, coveted street spots. The safer alternative is finding a lot, where charges upward of $20 await. Adding to this list of aggravations is the headache-inducing search for parking, period. What's a Prius-driving San Franciscan to do?

The good people of GottaPark.com—dubbed "Your Community Parking Network"—are attempting to make the ordeal less of a pain-in-the-parking-meter for members of the Zipcar generation. We recently gave the site a whirl, with results that were so-so.

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