Iced Tea and Sarcasm

No, really, I'm very very interested. . .

2013-05-07T17:13:00.002-07:00

Tell me more. . .

Another reason the Christian Bible should not be used in public policy debates

2013-05-06T20:57:00.001-07:00

Inconsistent, illogical, and irrelevant in 2013. Please, can we move on now?

Things I hate

2013-04-28T15:21:00.002-07:00

Well, let's be honest. There are way more than three things, but this is my kind of humor.

Dinner at San Francisco's Coqueta: A Review with Morals

2013-04-26T18:43:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday, I decided to visit Michael Chiarello's new restaurant Coqueta. A friend was visiting from NYC, so the bf and I thought this new place would be fun. My mistake.

Moral #1: Stick with what you know.

We arrived for our reservations and were promptly...asked to wait 30 minutes in the bar area. Oh, I see how it is. It's more like a doctor's office than a restaurant. This should be fun.

Moral #2: Never go to a restaurant in its first few weeks.

Getting seated: We had to ask a couple times if the restaurant was ready for us. In the end, they tried to seat us at the bar (you know, with a reservation). Luckily, we noticed a booth in the corner of the restaurant they seemed to be saving for a party of four. "I think you need to seat us over there. We've been waiting 30 minutes." They obliged.

Moral #3: Nobody puts Baby in the corner unless she really, really wants to sit there and judge people.

The clientele: Here's what I wasn't expecting (although, hindsight being 20/20, it makes perfect sense). The people were basically a mashup of Napa meets the Marina meets Las Vegas. And I mean that in the worst way possible. The interior had a similar "we're trying too hard" feel. It's really hard to explain.

Moral #4: What happens in Napa should stay in Napa.

The food: I'll give credit where it's due. Much of the food we tried (it's tapas, so of course we ordered a ton) was pretty good. My favorite dish is pictured above: the savory clams (delicious). We also had the baby beets (good, hard to mess up, though), roasted Padron peppers (good, nothing new), calamari and grilled octopus (the octopus was superior), "tattas" bravas (easily the most disappointing thing on the menu--they're tater tots and not good ones--avoid at all cost), grilled Iberico Secreto (pictured below and quite good), and the arroz con vieira with scallops (which was nice, very good scallops).

Moral #5: Never mess with a classic tapa. Patatas are not tattas.

The service: Now this is something you may say I shouldn't directly blame the restaurant for, but our server was lacking in personality. And I blame the restaurant. SF is full of servers. If I were opening a multi-million dollar restaurant on San Francisco's Embarcadero I would probably try to find top-notch staff, not Blandy McBlanderson. In contrast, though, the woman who introduced herself as the wine director was lovely and pretty much rescued my experience. Her recommendations were spot on and I loved the wine (alas, I can't remember what it was).

Moral #6: Always lead with wine.

Would I recommend Coqueta? Not yet. They need time to refine and get comfortable. And I need to see how the mix of diners turns out. If it remains too touristy-Vegasy-post-Giants-gamey, then I'm going to say skip it.

Cheers!

San Francisco weather report: Too hot!

2013-04-20T10:24:00.001-07:00

I don't have the right clothes for this.

Water will kill you

2013-04-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Unless it's in iced tea form, of course.

What we actually ban in America

2013-04-14T11:54:00.001-07:00

Motivation at work: Dan Ariely and 7 great studies on what works -- Weekend HR reading

2013-04-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

If you have time this weekend and want to watch a 20-minute video on how we are motivated at and by work, I would encourage you to take a look at Dan Ariely’s TED talk. He’s engaging, interesting, and I believe what he says is very important to the work of managers and leaders: http://blog.ted.com/2013/04/10/what-motivates-us-at-work-7-fascinating-studies-that-give-insights/

If you, like me, work in a creative environment, we are already positioned to realize the impact of the kind of knowledge-economy motivation that Ariely discusses in his talk (you can read about it at the link, too, if you don’t have 20 minutes). I see and hear my co-workers discussing the meaning of our work on many, many fronts, and we see the fruits of our labors every time a great new product is published or produced. These studies simply drive home the overwhelming value of motivation on the performance of our employees. It’s easy to overlook or underestimate this impact, but we can demonstrably affect the perceptions of how our teams’ work is valued, how meaningful it is, and even how well we all do our jobs. All it takes is a conscious, ongoing conversation about performance (yes, I’m an HR person who supports frequent performance discussions throughout the year vs. one big annual review--and NO ratings or scores or other nonsense).

For me, this quote drives home many of the key points Ariely makes in his talk: “Ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort before their eyes,” Ariely says. “The good news is that adding motivation doesn’t seem to be so difficult. The bad news is that eliminating motivation seems to be incredibly easy, and if we don’t think about it carefully, we might overdo it.” [emphasis mine]

Motivation isn’t difficult, and we must be mindful of its absence. In fact, Ariely’s quote reminds me of a great William Carlos Williams quote: “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” I encourage each of you to reach out to the members of your teams and stoke that motivational fire in the very near future.

Sonder: An existential crisis captured by a word

2013-04-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

If it's over 70 degrees in SF, I'm drinking Rosé

2013-04-09T19:43:00.001-07:00

Cheers!

Wal-Mart is now an official sponsor of the Folsom Street Fair (allegedly)

2013-04-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

I mean, what else can I deduce from a product like this. You go, Wally World!

Parkour at Cliff House in San Francisco, Or Why I Don't Exercise

2013-04-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I could do parkour if I weren't so busy working, surfing the net, reading bad novels (I'm looking at you, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore), and drinking my way through the vineyards of the world. In lieu of actually engaging in any beneficial physical activity, I give you this: a video I found on the internet.

Flow from Brian G Cheung on Vimeo.

Facebook's flawed advertising algorithm: Targeted posts and the LGBTQ community

2013-03-30T07:41:00.001-07:00

Today, Facebook suggested a post for me while I browsed the goings-on of my digital friends and family. It was from Mormon.org. And it was in Spanish.

While I appreciate the nod to my B.A. in Spanish, I'm not so thankful for the connection to a terrorist religious cult that wants to strip me of my rights and eradicate my very existence.

Get it together, Facebook. With great power and even greater access to gigabytes of my personal information comes great responsibility. These little mishaps (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here vs. assuming nefarious intention) chip away at an already threadbare trust.

As RuPaul might say, "Don't f**k it up."

Support Jacob Rudolph and all LGBT teens

2013-03-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to BosGuy for sharing this photo of Jacob. No, he's not broken or confused. And, no, he doesn't need to be fixed.

Jesus, that's hot.

2013-03-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'd worship Paris. The city, not this talentless hack.

I'm pretty sure it's vodka

2013-03-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

My apathy

2013-03-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Why should you drink tea?

2013-03-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, other than it's awesome and comprises 90% of my blood, I guess these are good reasons, too.

Happy 80th birthday, Nina Simone

2013-03-13T23:39:00.001-07:00

You are fierce. Now, then, always.

Mo is fierce! Michelle Obama in Vogue

2013-03-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

Forget the Sequester. Can we talk about this photo of the First Lady?! Gorgeous. I can't believe I've never seen it before.

Does this sloth make me look fat?

2013-03-04T20:25:00.001-08:00

My Signature Dish for the Oscars

2013-02-24T16:53:00.001-08:00

If you want to impress your Oscar party guests, look no further than Ham and Bananas Hollandaise. It's rich and creamy with that unbeatable hint of the tropics. This dish will definitely put the "Oh!" in your Oscar celebration.

The greatest synonym list ever

2013-02-22T21:08:00.001-08:00

Look up "boor."

Prepare to be amazed.

Tipping: A Modest Proposal for San Francisco (and beyond)

2013-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky. I live in a foodie town: San Francisco. The restaurants are in a class that many people don't get to enjoy unless they travel here or to other major urban centers. Don't get me wrong. I will dive into a plate of deep fried cashew chicken or Chevy's carnitas and I will enjoy myself thoroughly. But, this is not about the food, per se.

My issue, and it's not new, is with tipping. Inherently, I believe it's evil in that it's basically mandatory. The "tip" is not so much a reward for excellent service; instead, it's a subsidy for the restaurant owner so s/he doesn't have to pay the staff an appropriate wage perpetuated by social pressure. My two cents. Take it or leave it.

Recently, I was reflecting on something incredibly boring and probably something most of you never think about: insurance broker fees. Now, you're probably thinking, "How is he connecting insurance broker fees to tipping?" "And why in the hell is he thinking about insurance broker fees?! Zzzzzz. . . ." Allow me to explain.

If you have an arrangement with a broker where they get a percentage fee based on the overall cost of your benefits, as costs go up, so do their fees. However, the amount of work hasn't changed. It's not like negotiating health insurance rates radically changes from one year to the next, but we all know that the costs have increased by double digits for some people over the past several years. Why, I ask, should we pay the brokers more? No, a flat fee make more sense.

Why can't this work for restaurants? If a waiter brings me a burger that costs $15 and my guest a steak that costs $45, does the work actually justify the difference in tip? Humor me for a minute. If I tip the traditional 20% on my burger, the server gets $3 for bringing me a burger (and maybe a ramekin of delicious horseradish aioli). The steak, however, nets the server $9! Again I ask, what is the difference in the work? Was that steak exponentially heavier? Did the server have to do anything fundamentally different when serving the steak vs. the burger? I don't think so. And this has led me to my proposal.

I am proposing a flat-fee for the time I am served. Despite my issues with subsidizing an employer's workforce, I will concede that I am willing to pay for good service. That service, however, should not be tied to the amount of my bill because the service has no impact on what I order. Instead, I am asking for a level of service for the time I am sitting in the establishment. Let's say, depending on the kind of restaurant, I'm willing to pay for $5-10/hour to be served. When added together with the other patrons, I think this comes out to a fairly decent hourly rate of pay. If a server in SF has six tables, s/he is earning $10.55/hr in salary and, potentially, an additional $60/hr. in tips. If you'll allow me to extrapolate and compare this to a regular 40 hour per week job, we're talking about a salary of $146,744. Not bad, huh?

Yes, I know the servers won't always work 40 hours per week and may not always have six occupied tables every hour. However, based on what I see (and I eat out a lot--A LOT), this is not a crazy assessment. Besides, the limited schedule, if one works fewer than 40 hours per week, may also be seen as a benefit in and of itself, too. We all know people who work in the restaurant industry just for this kind of flexibility in their schedule.

In short, I suggest you think about this the next time you're dining out. Why was that entree worth more in terms of service than the appetizer you ordered? Why, in your life, are you paid for your time and not necessarily the product with which you're associated? Is it fair? I don't think so.

It's time to change tipping. Down with 20%! Embrace the flat fee.

Viva la tipping revolucion!

Happy Valentine's Day

2013-02-14T10:00:00.000-08:00