Foxbat and Fandom

One Reason I LIke Baseball...

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:04:53 GMT

One of the reasons I enjoy baseball is that I like the stories that come from it. Tonight's story was a classic example. Jonathan Sanchez is a young pitcher cursed with carrying the heaviest label of them all: he's a guy with potential. While he's got some wicked stuff, he hasn't been living up to his potential, and the Giants finally pulled him out of the starting rotation and put him in the bullpen a couple of weeks ago or so. They brought up another young pitcher to take Sanchez's place in the rotation and it sure looked like Jonathan had lost his starter's job.

Then Randy Johnson got injured in his start on Sunday. The Giants needed someone to fill in a start, and call on Sanchez to do the job. Tonight, Jonathan Sanchez lived up to every bit of his potential as he became the first Giants pitcher in 33 years to throw a no-hitter. He was so good, he carried a perfect game against the San Diego Padres into the 8th inning, where an error by the 2nd baseman let a runner on base. Sanchez didn't let that throw him; he got the rest of the batters out, behind some excellent defense.

Tonight's story is about redemption, about how a man can step up and make the most of a second chance. I don't know if this is going to be the spur that Sanchez needs to settle down, or if he's going to return to his form as a young guy with a million dollar arm who gets rattled and loses game. Only time will tell us that, and I'm happy to have the chance to see how it plays out.

For now, I'm just thrilled for Jonathan Sanchez; I hope he enjoys his evening of rare accomplishment. Go Giants!

2009 MLB All-Stars Campaign Widget

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:53:27 GMT

Nights Like This Were Made For Baseball

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:28:23 GMT

Matt Cain warms up
Originally uploaded by BruceHH.

I spent last night at AT&T Park, watching the Giants beat the Padres. It was a beautiful evening, warm but not hot with absolutely no breeze. The flags hung dead on their poles and a heavy air had settled over the field. In spite of that, Edgar Renteria hit a Grand Slam at just the right time (is there ever a bad time for a Grand Slam?), putting the Giants up 5 to 2 over the Pods. The score ended at 8 to 3, a nice victory and two in a row. It's a streak!

Matt Cain started. Our seats are 3 rows up from the pitcher's mound of the Giants' bullpen, and you get a really good look at the pitchers as they warm up from that distance. The Giants ain the bullpen are life-sized and not at all remote, and you could hold a conversation with them, if you knew them. In fact, we got to watch the pitching coach, Dave Righetti, chat a bit with one of the fans in the front row towards the end of the game. That was nice to see; it kind of brought the Major Leagues back down to Earth for me.

Cain was not sharp; I think he put on at least one runner per inning. He went 6 innings, gave up 9 or so hits, 2 runs, and had 5 strikeouts. Fortunately, he had run support and earned the victory.

It was a great night at the ballpark, and I'm looking forward to going back next week. Next time, I think I'll bring my camera so I can take some better photos of the guys warming up.

End of the Story

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:57:56 GMT

Last Balaren Game
Originally uploaded by BruceHH.

I ran the last session of my Balaren campaign yesterday. This segment of the campaign had been running since I moved back to the Bay Area in January of 2006 on a bi-weekly basis (with some notable gaps due to schedules and GM laziness.) I'd been running a story line in the same campaign world for a couple of year before I moved up to Seattle in 2003.

I think it went pretty well and the campaign story came to a nice conclusion. That's often rare in my campaigns; too many times they just kind of come to an end without a resolution. But this time our brave adventurers managed to fend off the horrible, evil bad guys and activate the plot device.

The first part of the run was a fight man fight where I did something I hadn't really done in any previous combats: I actively tried to kill PCs. First, I threw ridiculous foes against them (the first started with two mature adult black dragons [that used the gold dragon write up] and three mind flayer arcane casters on the board, and got worse from there), and then I did things like concentrate attacks, use dragon breath effectively, and brought in reinforcements at the worse times. My players rose to the occasion, and managed to stay alive. Man, they had gotten pretty tough for 12th level characters!

The session/campaign concluded with the PCs discussing if they would use the power of Chrysalis of Chrondell to remake the world and remove the huge mind flayer incursion before it even began or if they would incorporate the power into themselves, becoming new Powers in the world and use that power to sweep the mind flayers and their allies from the board.

In the end, they decided to ascend to Powers, as the consensus was that would have less of an impact on their families, friends, and beloved kingdoms than would going back in time and remaking the world. It was an interesting bit of roleplaying to end what was an excellent game and I'm glad it worked out they way it did.

The photo is a snap of the battlemat as it was when the party entered into their timeless moment after activating the Chrysalis. Both of the dragons were still up, as were two of the mind flayers, a beholder, and a couple of annoying human type fighters. The PCs were really low on heal spells and "come back from the dead" tricks. I think the tide would have started to turn in my favor in a couple of rounds had they not risked activating the dingus.

Thanks to all who played in the campaign. I'm noodling on a new setting, and I hope to be back running in a couple of months.

Farewell, Balaren... you were a good campaign.

Comedy Show to Benefit Child's Play This Saturday in San Francisco

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:35:32 GMT

My friend, Jeff Reitman, wanted me to pass this announcement along. I've seen Jeff perform, and he's a very funny man. (I've also worked with Jeff at Monolith and LucasArts, where he was also a very funny man.) I'm planning on going, and I hope to see some of you there.

Hey everyone,

My friend Jeff Reitman (a programmer at LucasArts) wanted me to pass this along. I’m planning on going; I’ve seen a few of Jeff’s shows and he’s a funny man. The other comics on the bill are good too.

This is going to be a great show with all the profits going to Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity. The comic lineup is even better than last time. If you want to buy tickets with a credit card, please buy them online and early. You actually end up saving $0.11 or something trivial like that.

What: Cross Platform Comedy 2 Ultra Mega Extreme
When: THIS Saturday, Dec 6th, 7pm
Where: 414 Mason St 5th Floor (Door is to the left of the Ruby Skye door)
Cost: $12 > $7 goes to Child's Play Charity

Tickets: Brown Paper Tickets - This link should work

Website:

About the Comics:

Jeff Reitman created Cross Platform Comedy to allow the gamer community to be able to laugh at itself. Credits include Rooster T Feathers Comedy Competition and performances at 750 Pub, The Clubhouse, and the Seattle Comedy Underground.

Adam McLaughlin is co-producer of Scantily Clad Comedy @ The Clubhouse and was a finalist in the Rooster T Feathers Comedy Competition.

Joe Klocek has been seen on Comedy Central's, Live at Gotham and Last Comic Standing. Check out his web site, standupjoe.com or on YouTube

Tom Anderson One of the funniest new comics to come on the scene in the last year, Tom talks about his life as an aging nerd.

Luke Lockfeld A 14yr old kid with a mouth like a sailor! Is currently filming a reality show.

Sammy Obeid performs on the CoExist Comedy Tour and was a finalist in the Rooster T Feathers Comedy Competition.

16 Cases of Wine

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:34:04 GMT

My sister, brother-in-law, and I went up to Sonoma yesterday to do some wine tasting. At the end of the day, we had 16 cases of wine in the back! It wasn't totally our fault; while we were there, we picked up a bunch of wine we had purchased through a friend who works for a winery.

Still, it was a fine sight and we were reassured with the knowledge that if we became marooned in Marin, at least we have plenty of wine.

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Pride and Shame

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:56:56 GMT

Today, I am proud to be an American. I'm proud to have been part of this historic* election and I'm proud that the majority of my fellow citizens stood up and were counted for Barak Obama. I'm eagerly awaiting the next 4 years. I don't know what they will bring, but I know we'll be heading in a different -- and better, I hope -- direction than the course my nation has been sailing.

Today, I am ashamed to be a Californian. I am appalled that a majority of my fellow Californians would vote to support something that deprives other human beings of the right to choose their mate and have that recognized in a legal manner. I'm appalled that these people are bringing their religion into my government, despite the clear separation of church and State. And my heart aches for all of those who are affected by this, who must feel like they are being treated like second class citizens. I did what I could to help defeat this hateful Proposition 8, but obviously all of our efforts weren't enough. I hope there are other avenues to pursue that will render Prop 8 invalid or meaningless.

Today, I am proud to be a San Franciscan. We had a City Initiative to rename a sewage treatment plant in honor of President George W. Bush. This was a typical bit of liberal wacko thinking that's really just expressing sour grapes. That man does not deserve any memorial that's going to preserve his name, no matter how it's intended. I'm glad the the citizens of my city voted this one down.

I am also relieved that this obscenely long election cycle is finally behind us and we can ignore that stuff for a year or so... until the next one.

Adieu, Anjou, Adieu

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:04:49 GMT

Anjou, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, closes its doors for good tomorrow. It's sad; Anjou was my go to place for dininig with friends around Union Square and was also one of parent's favorite places. I also enjoyed recommending it to friends who were looking for an excellent bistro for a special meal.

My parents and I enjoyed our last meal at Anjou on Tuesday. Though they had less than a week to go, Anjou was firing on all cylinders. The place was full; I think there were a lot of customers saying good-bye with a meal. I started my dinner with some excellent artichoke and roasted pistachio soup, which was a smooth broth made without any cream. It was like the essence of artichoke, green and flavorful. I also split the Toasted Brioche of Duck Foie Gras with Heart of Leek Salad and Sautéed Apples with my mother (hey, she offered and I never turn down foie gras). Ah, tasty and rich, the sautéed apples provided a nice sweetness to counterbalance the dish. It was a tough choice, but selected the Confit of Duck Leg with Sautéed Wild Mushrooms, Frisee Salad, and Sautéed Rousset Potatoes. As you may know, I'm a big fan of duck, and I love confit. So healthy, so good for you, so tasty. Well, one of those is true! I finished off with the cheese course, which consisted of a nice brie, a blue, and a slice of Petit Basque, which is one of my favorites. I also had half of a raspberry tart foisted on me by my mother. (I didn't protest too hard, even though I was planning on skipping the sweet course.)

It was a good meal in excellent company, a fitting farewell. Now I need to find a replacement bistro.

Posting About Politics

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:10:02 GMT

This election is getting me all worked up.

(Thanks to iamnikchick for posting this.)

Random Jottings

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:08:15 GMT

10:08 Our hot spell seems to be cooling off. Yay! Tomorrow is supposed to be 69 degrees, just what they ordered for a nice September day.

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Random Jottings

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:05:37 GMT

13:38 It's warm outside... what better time to roast some coffee, I ask you?

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Back to the Basics: Roasting Coffee

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:44:38 GMT

Since it is "beastly hot" outside (which means about 85 degrees here in San Francisco), I decided it was a good day to roast some coffee beans. I hadn't done that in a while; I didn't realize quite how long it had been until I looking at my roasting log and saw that the last time I had roasted some beans was well over a year ago!

My stash still holds a lot of green beans, so I pulled out some Brazilian I'd gotten a little while back and set up the HotTop and got the whole production rolling. Fortunately, I still remembered the moves and after about 25 minutes of setting up the equipment, weighing the beans, warming up the roaster and roasting, I had a half-pound of very nice looking coffee bean, roasting to a just-about perfect Full City+ roast.

I suspect that much of my green bean supply has gone "sacky" as some of it is quite ancient at this point. I should probably toss what I have, hop over to Sweet Maria's website and restock with some fresh greens.

I'm really looking forward to giving it a try on Monday.

Random Jottings

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:07:20 GMT

11:31 Late start, but good day so far. Mmm... Friday!
21:03 That was a fun little earthquake.

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Random Jottings

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:08:40 GMT

18:56 No traffic, Giants game on the radio... That's a good commute!

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Random Jottings

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:05:40 GMT

09:49 I love my job but... 3-day weekends are the best!
21:48 What a nice dinner! And what a beautiful view. An excellent way to celebrate my mom's .. err... 29th birthday! Yeah, that's the ticket.

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My First D&D 4th Edition Game

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:45:19 GMT

I ran a one-shot 4e game last night for my friend codrus, animated_max, seathan, Ray, and Garry. I've been playing in a 4th Edition game run by the excellent Dave Eckelberry and I wanted to give running the system a try. I created a little setting, wrote up a adventure designed to get the characters from 1st level to 2nd level (if we could get through it all), and did some prep work.

I found the prep work a lot of fun! I like the mechanics of building encounters; the system in 4e seems a lot easier than dealing with CRs as in 3/3.5. And it was a blast working up people's characters for them, printing up ability cards, and getting everything ready for a mixture of new and semi-experienced players. I also really like the concept of skill challenges and threw a couple of those into the adventure. Not for role playing situations; I think those should be handled by the players actually role playing, perhaps backup by skill rolls if needed. But I threw in a tracking challenge and a digging challenge, just for fun.

I really like the way treasure is apportioned in 4e; it makes a lot of sense and was pretty easy to do. It was fun picking out magic items that would be useful to the party, both for specific characters and in a general sense. And again, I enjoyed creating the magic item cards to hand out to the players when they found the loot; it reminded me of the old "card items" from our early D&D games.

Adventure:The game started with the players as new recruits in the Army of Summer, doing their mandatory 2-year military service. Everyone does their Deuce when they hit their majority... or when they get caught shirking that duty after reaching their majority. The PCs all met in boot camp, where they somehow each incurred the ire of their drill instructor and bonded over such great experiences as peeling potatoes, cleaning pots, and digging latrines. After a month of that, they were assigned to garrison duty in the distant town of Bel Gorge, otherwise known as the ass-end of nowhere.

The group arrived and met their new CO, Lt. Ellis. It turned out the that squad and the lieutenant was the sole military presence in this isolated mining town of 200 people. Ellis, a drunken and bitter man, had the disturbing tendency to address whichever of the squad members who was closest as "Corporal" soon had them patrolling the area of Bel Gorge. Two days patrolling, one day off. Two routes: Clockwise around the plateau and counter-clockwise around the plateau. And so it went for two months.

One day on patrol, the group saw that Farmer Harold's farmhouse was damaged and Farmer Harold wasn't in the fields to greet them as he normally did. They moved into investigate and were jumped by a group of goblins. It was a pitched fight, and poor Brother Barnabas spent most of it blinded by the vile goblin hexer.In the end, the squad triumphed over the goblins, though the hexer managed to escape.

Game Play: This was a pretty good fight. The encounter was comprised of 4 Goblin Cutters (minions), 2 Goblin Sharpshooters, 1 Goblin Skullcleaver, and 1 Goblin Hexer, for a total of 650 exp. This was a "standard" 1st level encounter, I believe. I'm still getting used to the full build the encounter system.

The fight played out pretty well. Arn, Max's dwarven fighter, did a pretty good job of tanking and Fox, Codrus' rogue, got messed up pretty well. Poor Brother Barnabas, Ray's cleric, got blinded by the hexer and had the worst luck making saving throws. With the exception of Fox, the party survived in pretty good shape.

The newer players caught the hand of the system pretty quickly. There was the standard "I forgot to mark/make him my quarry" things that happen. I broke out some condition markers, and that might have helped people remember. I also should have made a Challenge card and a Hunter's Quarry card for the fighter and ranger to help them remember to always use those abilities.

I hadn't gotten the hang of being as tactical as I should be; the goblin's shifting abilities weren't really used. Of course, the PCs didn't really miss with melee attacks in this fight, so it didn't really matter. :)

Adventure: After rescuing Farmer Harold and his family, the players decided to go after the hexer. This involved tracking the wily and fleeing goblin across the plateau towards the mountain. Fortunately, Halt, Garry's ranger, was an excellent tracker and the rest of the squad was creative in their pursuit. After a couple of hours of pursuit, the party came to a cave mouth and entered.

Game Play: This was the first skill challenge, which was set at level 1, complexity 3, meaning it required 8 successes before 3 failure to complete. The key skills were Perception and Nature (DC 8 and DC 15, respectively.) Looking back, I realize I played it wrong, only requiring 6 successes before 3 failures. The players were creative in trying to bring in other skills that played to their strengths. They had a couple of failures, but in the end found the cave mouth with no problems. If they had failed, they would have been jumped by a party of 8 goblin cutters (minions) coming out of the cave. Minor encounter to get them to expend some resources.

Adventure: Moving through the nature cave, the squad turned a corner and heard low, angry voices that suddenly went silent as someone -- or something -- notice the light spell the squad was using to illuminate their way. Making their way cautiously forward, they found a large group of goblins and hobgoblins, including their old friend, Mr. Hexer! The combat began.

It was a hard-fought battle. Arn bravely engaged the largest hobgoblin, who mustered his friends to surround the stalwart dwarf! Once again, the hexer seemed to delight in blinding the brave cleric. The squad managed to pull out a victory, but only just.

Game Play: This encounter featured 8 Goblin Cutters (minions), 1 Hobgoblin Commander, 2 Goblin Blackblades, and 1 Hobgoblin Warcaster (750 exp). It also had the Goblin Hexer from the first encounter as an added bonus.

This was a tough one, not helped by a string of bad die rolls on the PCs part and some untimely 20s on my part. On the other hand, my big bad commander managed to roll his +13 attack and miss AC 19 3 o r 4 turns in a row. It is amazing how often that guy rolled a 2, 3, or 4.

Throwing the Hexer back into the mix made this fight much, much tougher than it would have been. The hexer shut down the cleric's healing early, and caused Ray to expend a valuable healing word on himself. The hexer's stinging cloud ability knocked Fox to below 0 hit points when he decided to try to more through it after being stuck in place for a round.

The minions fell over pretty fast, mainly because I only put 4 of them on the board as I now realize. Probably a good thing.

Arn was doing a pretty good job of tanking, but the commander used his leadership abilities to get the dwarf doubly-flanked, which really made the blackblades effective. However, my dice were sucking and I missed a lot of good opportunities to put the dwarf down. Arn fell to a nasty 27-point crit from the commander's Thundering Battleaxe +1. Tal'Savian, seathan's wizard, was crossed-classed into cleric and used his daily healing word to get the dwarf back up, in the nick of time. Arn's ability to self-heal with his racial Second Wind as a minor action thing and his Comeback Strike got him back up to a respectable number of hit points.

Fox spent a lot of the fight frustrated because no one was providing a flank for him, which really minimized his damage. He made excellent use of riposting strike, and the bad guys were quite often too stupid to not attack him after that, incurring a second attack.

Arn used his marking ability to good effect on the commander, keeping the big guy focused on him. Given my sucky die rolls, that was a great move, since the sucky rolls would have been hitting the rest of the party.

The warcaster was effective in the first part of the combat, knocking the squad around with his force effects. His recharge rolls were bad and he was brought down by Fox.

Halt was pretty effective in dealing the damage, especially when Garry remembered to use his Hunter's Quarry. On the average, Halt managed to hit with one of his two arrows per round, and his vaunted elven accuracy didn't help with that.

Inn the end, the battle came down to the commander, who's high defenses and high hit points made him really hard to take down. There was some concern on the part of the players (and on the part of the GM) that the commander was going to take them all out. However, they managed to defeat him. In the end, only Fox was down, though everyone was pretty messed up. They did score a couple of healing potions and the thundering battleaxe +1, which they put into Arn's hands.

This fight cost them most of their dailies and a lot of healing surges. After their short rest, they were depleted.

Adventure: There was a lot of debate on what to do next. But Corporal-for-the-Day Halt was determined the group find the source of the goblins, so Fox went to scout forward a bit. He found a goblin and four hobgoblins over seeing some chained goblins, who were trying to dig out a cave-in at the back of the chamber.

Fox returned to the squad and there was more debate. The group finally decided to try to sneak up on this groupl, attack them from surprise, and figure out what was going on. It was a good plan, marred only by Barnabas asking, "Do you think they know we're coming?" in a loud voice as the group was almost at the chamber.

Our brave heroes rushed in and engaged the bad guys. This startled one of the goblin diggers, who turned, hit a delicate part of the wall with his pick and caused a bunch of rock to fall, burying the workers.

These hobgoblins were not nearly as tough as the last, and fell to arrows, magic missiles, and well-placed daggers. The little loud-mouthed goblin seemed to blame the squad for trapping him here, and for the "glowy." He was a lot tougher than expected, but the squad did an excellent job of using their training to keep him pinned and at a disadvantage and took him down with no real problems.

Game Play: This encounter was a Goblin Underboss and 4 Hobgoblin Warriors (minions.) (702 exp)

This fight went very well for the PCs. Though the minion's defenses were high, the PCs managed to hit them, taking them out very early. The underboss had a lot of hitpoints and a cloak of resistance +1 to help him out, but it wasn't enough. Arn kept him focused on attack the tank and while the underboss could hit, he didn't do a lot of damage or have a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Fox slipped into flanking position and went to town on the poor little dude.

The magic cloak ended up with the cleric.

Adventure: It was obvious that something had caused a quake or shake, opening a passage and then trapping the goblins here. Corporal Fox ordered the group back to Farm Harold's farm for food and a night's sleep before the group, now led by Corporal Arn, returned to the site of the cave-in. The group dug at the wall, causing another shower of stones which damaged Fox and revealed an opening leading to a passageway of worked stone. Old, old dwarven work, they determined.

The group walked down the empty corridors and took at right. They came to a set of double doors, which opened into what looked like a grand banquet hall. The walls of the room were covered with exquisite dwarven frescoes, showing scenes from the past. The room contained a fire place and three tables that held the remains of a ancient feast. And the chairs held the remains of the diners... who stood up and rushed towards the doors!

Arn stepped in to hold the doors against the skeletons. Barnabas called upon the light of Pelor and destroyed most of the horde. There was a fight with the 3 remainig skeletons, but again, the squad proved to be too strong for them.

Game Play: 8 Decrepit Skeletons (minions), 2 skeletons, 1 Boneshard Skeleton (700 exp).

This was a chance for the cleric to shine and he didn't disappoint. His Turn Undead ability took out all but of the minions, and threw the 3rd level skeletons to the back of the room, immobilizing them there for a turn.

The boneshard skeleton was a pain in the ass, due to his ability to proc an area attack when bloodied and then again when he was killed. That wasn't fair; I really don't like monsters that penalize the PCs for damaging them. That attacked probably should have killed one of the characters who was already down, if I had been running the game like that.

Wrap up: It was pushing 1 AM and we were all tired, so we held it here. The players have more to go in this adventure, but I don't know if we'll every finish it.

We all had a good time in the game. I really liked running 4e and I look forward to doing so again. I'm starting a game up at work for some of my fellow designers at NCsoft and I'm looking forward to that.

My take-aways:

Print out the monsters. It's easier to run them that way rather than constantly be flipping back and forth in the monster manual.

Make sure to get role-playing involved in the skill challenges, otherwise they are just borning die rolling exercises.

Using status markers for things like marking opponents helps remind the players to use those abilities.

The game flows well, and combats are fun.

Prepping for runs is still a bunch of work but a heck of a lot of fun. (OK, so I'm weird that way.)

I like the feel of the new magic items.

Yeah, I've rambled on way too long on this. That's about it. More thoughts about 4e as I have them.

Random Jottings

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:06:43 GMT

16:26 is heading off to run a 4e game.

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Random Jottings

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:07:38 GMT

09:48 Even My Car Is Cynical: Switch from Convention coverage to music. Radio plays "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who. Appropriate.
15:37 Oh Lord, it certain is hot here today.

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I need this...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:51:28 GMT

Oh, I SO need this.

Random Jottings

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:09:05 GMT

10:53 Sexual Harassment training today. Somehow, I don't think that says what they mean...

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Random Jottings

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:08:45 GMT

02:42 Fast tracking campaign arcs: fun stuff!
07:12 Ah, Monday, Monday...

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Stupid Quiz Time

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:30:50 GMT

Your result for The Geektastic RPG and Miniature Wargame Test!...

RPG GEEK GOD!

You Scored 90% RPG Knowlage!

You ARE the Dungeonmaster, You have Absolute Power. All Roads Lead to Destruction when Players meet you head to head. Choose the game, and dominate!

Take The Geektastic RPG and Miniature Wargame Test! at HelloQuizzy

Random Jottings

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:08:29 GMT

15:25 Go Giants! Nice outing by Zito.

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Random Jottings

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:09:00 GMT

08:15 Mach Dice for the iPhone. Get it, love it.
19:06 It is official: I hate concerts in Golden Gate Park
19:39 Go Giants!
20:22 That's what I call a GOOD inning!

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Neighborhood Flavor

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Last night I went to a local restaurant, The Richmond for dinner. This place had been highly recommend as an excellent, quiet, reasonably-priced neighborhood restaurant (and in my neighborhood), so I was looking forward to trying it.

I met my friend, Pamela, there for a late dinner last night. At 8:30, the place was pretty full but still quiet. The Richmond has a couple of different small dining rooms with alcoves and that really helps keep the noise level down. We were seated immediately; no waiting around for our reservation. The service was good; not over-the-top but skilled and attentive.

The Richmond's menu isn't long, but it has a nice assortment of dishes. I selected the Whisky Braised Oxtail with a Maine Diver Scallop on creamy polenta for my starter. This was an extremely well-conceived and executed dish. The delicate scallop was perfectly complimented by the rich and rustic flavor and texture of the oxtail. I really enjoyed it. Pamela had the Potato Leek Soup with Crab Dumplings, which was creamy and tasty.

For the main course, I went with the Roast Pork Tenderloin with Macaroni & Cheese with white bean puree & Spring Vegetables and Pamela opted for the Braised Monk Fish with heirloom tomatoes, white wine, & oyster mushrooms. My pork was flavorful and juicy and the mac & cheese was very good -- a nice combination of cheeses. The monk fish dish was well-composed, the fish delicate with a great mix of flavors.

The Richmond gives you a lot of food. I had leftovers from my entree, which is very unusual for me! The entire meal, with two glasses of wine each, came to just under $100 for the two of us (before tip), which was an excellent price for a thoroughly enjoyable meal.

I'll certainly be going back to the Richmond; it is hard to beat the price, quality, and convenience.