The Sixth Sense (Brier Hospital Series Book 3) by Gold Lawrence

Author:Gold, Lawrence [Gold, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Grass Valley Publishing
Published: 2012-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

Lois and I enjoyed San Francisco’s gourmet restaurants. Although we earned more than a decent living, something about paying two hundred dollars or more for a dinner and wine felt obscene and left us guilt-ridden. In recent years, when we went to the city for dinner, we opted instead for ethnic dining, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, etc.

To keep in touch with the trendy foods and wines, we had FallFest, held each September in San Francisco.

“My nose is crying out to me, sweetie,” I said, as I put down the ‘What’s Going On’ section of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s FallFest time, and it’s saying, take me to the Embarcadero Center this weekend.”

“You’re on,” Lois said, patting her flat belly. “I’m not eating after Thursday.”

The Embarcadero Center with its five office towers, restaurants, upscale shopping plazas, and theaters, sprawled over five blocks of San Francisco’s prime commercial district and hosted FallFest.

As we drove over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward the city, the morning fog evaporated into the light of the midday sun. My nose savored the bay’s briny aromas. When we reached the midpoint at Yerba Buena Island, my nose registered the pungent aroma of roasting beans at the Hills Brother’s coffee plant under the San Francisco anchorage. Traffic intensified as we approached the Embarcadero Center.

Lois studied the traffic. “I hope they’re not all going to FallFest.”

“I don’t think so. Although weekend traffic in the Bay Area is ne’er impossible, nothing is going to keep us away from all that gourmet food and wine.”

We worked our way through the Embarcadero Center canyons in the shadows of high-rise office buildings looming overhead. Soon, we found signs for FallFest parking that pointed us into an underground garage.

Brightly decorated signage directed us up into Justin Herman Plaza. As we ascended, I sampled much of the fare trapped in the elevator’s air. My mouth watered and my stomach cramped with hunger. When the elevator doors parted, the refined aromas of San Francisco’s creative culinary chefs—of genius—inundated me.

Hungry gourmands snacked through the open space. Green linen-covered tables for tasters had colorful protective umbrellas. Sampling altars stood at the plaza’s periphery. The cream of the city’s gourmet restaurants, specialty food preparers, wineries, and chocolatiers displayed their tasty treats. Chefs stood tall behind their restaurant displays wearing executive chef coats embroidered with their names and a variety of headgear, including the traditional white chef hat, the chef’s toque, and a few malcontents were wearing chefs’ colored baseball caps.

We ate through the selected appetizers, sampling wines and a few microbrewery local beers. These were the best the city had to offer. Their aromas were incredible—their tastes even better.

We stopped next at Ritchie’s, and upscale continental restaurant. Ritchie himself was having a fine time with the tasters who were enjoying the chef as much as the food. Ritchie wore a chef’s white baseball cap with three Habanero peppers embroidered on the bill, green, orange, and red. Tasters sampled small pieces of grilled lamb chops with Jalapeno pepper jelly.

“Give it a try,” Richie said as we approached his table.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.