the new awesome: December 2007

Pizzeria 712 is officially the new awesome

My brother-in-law Joseph and his business partner Colton have done it! They've successfully opened their restaurant in Orem called Pizzeria 712! I've mostly had to hear about all the details from family but I've been able to participate in my own special ways.

Joseph & Colton come to San Francisco in June 2006 to research and Bex and I tag along.

Steve and Betsy conduct their own independent upscale pizzeria research in San Francisco in Spring 2007.

That whole "participation by proxy" thing ended this week when Steve and I were in Utah visiting my family for Christmas. We were lucky enough to have dinner and lunch the following day at Pizzeria 712.

They pride themselves on using local sustainably farmed produce, meats and cheeses whenever possible. If you don't know who Alice Waters is, you should read about her online...this quote of hers is on a large chalkboard inside the restaurant and it sums up Pizzeria 712 very well.

Thursday night Suzy, Steve and I set out for our dinner adventure.

Since Steve and I live in San Francisco and rarely get to visit the restaurant we decided to order lots, try it all and take the leftovers home. We looked over the menu.

For starters they bring you homemade hummus with Joseph's freshly baked pita bread. So delicious. We also ordered the short rib & polenta (one of the best thing I've ever tasted in my life) and the beet salad with homemade ricotta cheese.

They were also running a mac & cheese special...our lucky night.

Speck pizza.

Tomato, mozzarella & basil pizza.

Suzy enjoying the carmelized onion, potato, rosemary and fontina pizza.

To finish our meal we shared the homemade deconstructed s'more.

Colton & Joseph were too busy to talk to us...almost. We cornered them at the counter for a minute to thank them for the fantastic meal and congratulate them on their success.

Since we were staying the night in Provo we figured we better hit up P712 for lunch the next day because the lunch menu includes items (namely panini & soup) that aren't on the dinner menu. Here are some shots of the front of the restaurant...it was WAY too cold the night before to be bothered with picture posing in the freeeezing temps.

We started our lunch with Colton's amazing brocoli soup.

Then Steve ordered the braised beef panini and I ordered the ham, white cheddar and pear mustard panini and we shared.

This is Brian. Brian is also an important part of the P712 crew. Brian keeps things going in the front of the house while Colton & Joseph see to the rest.

Where the magic happens.

We showed up for lunch right before they were closing to prep for dinner so things were slow enough that Steve and I got a lesson in wood burning ovens from the masters themselves.

Congratulations Joseph & Colton for reaching your goal!!! I'm so excited for you both! 2008 will be an amazing year I'm sure. Here is a link to the P712 blog and other interesting/useful info.

DIY Christmas is the new awesome

I love the holidays because I feel like everyone gets all festive and creative. Especially this year, with so many people pledging to buy handmade gifts and with DIY being such a big thing, I just feel people are trying to keep things from just being all about the commercial aspect.

I have been seeing some great, creative holiday window displays. I LOVE this wreath out of sunglasses:

Or this festive chandelier made of stuff you can find in the hardware store!

And, all the holiday parties I am going to this year seem to be about getting together and making things too. Like the Kessler's annual cookie decorating party. (We even had those contraband cancer causing little silver edible balls to decorate with, so we got creative AND had the thrill of partaking in illegal substances)

Or Tom's birthday/ornament decorating party!

Any party with a table set up that looks like this is going to be my kind of place.

Everyone had a polaroid photo taken of them against this sparkly background when they walked in, and then had to make an ornament for the tree out of it. A fun activity AND such a pretty, personal tree.

So many great ideas!

I cut mine out so that my mouth opens and my photo can sing along convincingly to Christmas carols.

Merry Christmas, ya'll. Or whatev.

Got married is the new awesome

This is totally old news now but Steve and I got married on November 2nd and we were so lucky to have our good friend Karen Rusten there (with her fabulous assistants Minna & Greg) to capture everything in beautiful photographs.

You can check out all the pictures here. There are a ton so pace yourself. You can view them page by page so it doesn't take as long. They sort of go in the following sequence:

getting ready...
bride & groom...
bride, groom & family...
photobooth...
reception...

So if you want to find pictures of yourself from the photobooth at the reception you can try and jump to them. Enjoy!!!

B.F.F is the new awesome

Emily and I made a new best friend yesterday:

No big deal. Only one of the most fascinating actors ever. And look how close I am to almost pinching his butt!

We got to interview him about his new film that he will be screening next week at the Castro Theatre, preceeded by his brilliant dramatic reading/BIG SLIDE SHOW. (The interview ought to be on SFist next week). We got to sit on a couch with him and ask about hair fetishes and his unique middle name, but our interview was cut short because he had to catch a plane and I didn't get to ask him all sorts of things that I had planned to.

The thing I think is so funny about Crispie (I can call him that for short, now that we are BFF) is that unlike normal celebrities, no one has a boring old story about seeing him at the mall drinking a smoothie. Everyone always has weird urban legend-like stories that they swear are true, and that generally involve some sort of bizarre behavior or public outburst. I kept waiting for him to try to kick Emily's head off or something. He is almost disapointingly polite in his interviews.

So anyway, now that we are totally BFF and I think he is going to invite Em and I to his castle/sound stage in the Czech Republic, I think there will be plenty of time to ask him if he really DID go to Disneyland with Nicolas Cage while wearing a purple suit like my sister's friend says she saw him do. Or if he really did tell some guy in a Utah thrift store that he hates children's art, like Aaron's friend says. I'll ask him for confirmation on other stories too. Anyone else heard/have any really good urban C.G. rumors/myths?