Password please...

My college friend Devon came to town last week on her whirlwind tour of North America (she stopped in Portland, SF, and Oklahoma City). I had the privilege of seeing her 2 nights in a row! So much fun seeing her, I don't think we have seen eachother since my wedding (is that right?).
She flew in on a Wednesday night, and her friend Leslie whisked her from the airport to my house for dinner. I made a kabocha squash, pear, & ginger soup. Delicious. Somehow, I took pictures of the raw products, but none of the completed soup (but dev has those pics..maybe she'll post them?).
We drank a Miner viogner with our soup, and had some yummy apple cake that Leslie made for dessert (although we were stuffed, and I have to say the apple cake was even better the next morning with my coffee!). I can't believe that Devon was in town, and I forgot to show her my wedding album! I guess she needs to schedule another trip out just for that =)

The next day, I met up with Devon and Leslie in SF after work. We found a cute restaurant in the Mission called Bar Tartine, and dined on a wonderful beet and persimmon salad, gnocchi with nettles, and Christopher Lee's sausage (haha, sounds dirty...really though, I wasn't cheating on Scott....Christopher Lee is a chef from the now closed restaurant Eccolo in Berkeley who now makes charcuteries...it was a delicious fennel sausage.) After dinner, Leslie and I surprised Devon with drinks at Bourbon & Branch, a speakeasy. Leslie had a special password emailed to her that we needed to get in. So we knocked on the unmarked door, were asked for the password , and said "stilts". Once that magic word was uttered, the door opened and we were allowed to enter. Bourbon & Branch has a whole list of rules, my favorite being "Don't even think of asking for a Cosmo". We did break the rule of "Please speak easy", and the bar boy straight out of Newsies had to ask to to speak softer (seriously, never been told to quiet down at a bar!).

No pictures allowed inside, so I stole this off the website: Bourbon & Branch

But the place is very cool, it was a real speakeasy during prohibition, complete with secret tunnel exits and all. The actual speakeasy is under the bar of today, and our waitress was very secretive on revealing how and if there is access to it. What a fun place for drinks!

Infront of the bar, totally forgot my camera, so I stole this one from Leslie's Blog. Me, Devon, Leslie & Ali

Hmmm, it appears that Dev's whole SF visit revolved around food and drinks...that must be why we're friends! So great seeing you dev =)