Joe’s of Westlake

Westlake Joe's
Westlake Joe's

Yesterday was me and my wife’s 12 year anniversary and my Mom gave us money to go out to lunch at Joe’s of Westlake. Now for those of you who don’t know about Joe’s there used to be several of them in the city but they’ve all gone except for the Joe’s at Westlake. This is an old school Italian restaurant. Think “The Soprano’s” who you go there. Last time I went there was probably 20 year’s ago and our waiter was a guy with grey hair who came up to us in his little waiter jacket and bowtie and I noticed his name was “Vinny”. That is how old school Italian this restaurant is.

I’m not sure who Joe was since as the photo reads, “Bruno Scatena’s Joe’s of Westlake.” Bruno, that name just adds to it. The restaurant is priced about on average with others of this caliber, maybe a little higher. Our meal came to about $57 with the tip for lunch.

So here’s what we had. Karen and I both ordered a Caesar salad to start and I had the Veal Parmigiana and she had the Roast Beef. The service was quick, but unfortunately, “Vinny” no longer works there and we got a very nice young girl who was quick to serve us. The salad came and was a bit overdressed and a little heavy on the anchovies, but if you’re going to a restaurant for the vegetables go to Green’s at Fort Mason. I thought it was pretty good and the croutons weren’t soggy which is always a plus. The main dishes came about 5 minutes after we finished the salads. I have to say I wasn’t expecting the veal portion to be so huge, but it was clearly 16oz of veal. I joked to Karen that maybe this was beef parmigiana instead of veal parmigiana. It had a huge slathering of bolognese sauce and and nice large chunk of parmesan cheese on top that was just starting to burn on the edges. It was moist and delicious, not tough like some veal gets from excess pounding. You get a choice of sides with your meal: spaghetti, rigatoni or ravioli. Again, more old school. I chose the ravioli and Karen chose the rigatoni. Karen’s roast beef was cut from a cross rib roast which I don’t usually like, but they managed to cook it like it was prime rib. The slab of meat was floating on a jus sauce that just helped everything along.

We didn’t try too hard to finish it all as we knew it was too much food and they packed it up for us to bring home and the leftovers fed three of us for dinner. While I wouldn’t give them a 10 overall, it was one of those San Francisco experiences you have to have at least once. The funniest part about Joe’s is their Joe’s Special. It is essentially ground beef, spinach, onions and mushrooms all cooked and mixed together and served on a big plate with absolutely nothing else. You of course get bread with your meal and that’s good for sopping up the stray juices from Joe’s Special, but still that mixture doesn’t sound as Italian as you’d think an Italian restaurant would have as it’s special. My Mom also raves about their big fat hamburgers. I’ll have to try one of those when I go back because they’re served on Italian sourdough bread not a bun. The couple next to us had the Joe’s Special and one of their burgers and I have to admit they both looked good even if the Joe’s Special looked kind of like something like you might be served in a Russian prison, but hey it’s a San Francisco tradition.

Oh, and lastly if you go ask for a table in the Cascade Room. The main room is a bit like Denny’s, but the Cascade Room has the white table clothes and nice booths and is generally more quiet. As you walk inside you might want to take a look at the bar. It’s got it’s own separate room where if you don’t want to be seen it’ll be easy as it’s very dark and the bartender is standing there whistling while he’s wiping down the glasses.

Check it out!

Now THAT is one angry neighbor!

Don't mess with this guy!
Don't mess with this guy!

I was driving around today and happened to notice a sign on the side of someone’s house a couple of blocks from me. Now these people leave their garbage cans outside their house all the time. Technically in San Francisco you can get a ticket for that now because a lot of people were doing that and with your black can for garbage, your blue for recycling and your green for compost it can get to be a bit of an eye sore.

I guess the way these people get around this is by building a cute little nook to sort of hide them in. Let’s get real though, it’s not hiding them just putting them behind some ugly lattice work.

If you leave your garbage cans out even though they’re behind some lattice work cage people who have something to throw out are going to drop them in your can. If the homeowners don’t like that then they should do what is right and keep the cans in their house like their supposed to do. While I’m a pretty liberal kind of guy I’m not sure I’m going to like my young daughter seeing shit in big bold letters as she walks by the house because I know she’ll start saying “Shit! shit! shit!” instead of something like “Stop! stop! stop!” I think I might have to mention this to our local law enforcement people, but that might be considered a mean spirited of me.

I on the other hand wouldn’t mind people dropping off fish tanks in front of my house as I’d find a use for them. 🙂

Car for Sale. $2500 firm

dscn1959
1995 Mercury Sable Wagon

 

Yes, I know this isn’t really about SF so much, but hopefully some of you might be interested in purchasing a great car that I’m trying to sell. Here’s the deal. My mom has decided she can’t drive anymore and we don’t need two cars. This car is a 1995 Mercury Sable Station Wagon. It had the original tires on it that were literally falling off so I replaced them with a new set of Sumitomo touring tires. The car was recently smogged and passed as always with flying colors. The inside was always kept up and my mom was the type of person that if she heard a rattle she’d run the car down to Gene’s Auto Service @ 45th and Judah [If you need car work done he’s very good and cheap!]. This car would list on Kelly Blue Book as Excellent except for the broken hinge on rear window that had to be welded because the hinges aren’t available any longer.

Here’s the kicker. The car only has 46k miles on it. That’s right, it’s a 14 year old car with only 14k miles on it. Aside from a couple of trips up to the Sierras and a few trips to Serramonte it’s been a city car. Here’s the spec’s if you want more info:

 

Seats 8 with rear-facing bench seat/storage in the third row.  

Very clean interior, no tears, all seat belts work.

Power windows and locks. (Tailgate window does not open and close, but tailgate opens and closes just fine)

New Sumitomo Tires
AM/FM radio and cassette player
A/C recently recharged
Washer motor recently replaced in front
Rear washer & wiper
Dual front air bags (never deployed)

If you like running carfax reports the VIN is: 1MELM55U9RA612715

Email me if you’re interested

Here’s a couple more pics:

left hinge on glass is welded so tailgate opens, but not the glass.
Left hinge on glass is welded so Tailgate opens, but not the glass.
dscn1962
Clean Interior
dscn1961
46,000 Miles. No rollover

R.I.P. Deadpan Host of Horror

Bob Wilkins, R.I.P.
Bob Wilkins, R.I.P.

Thanks to my good friend Mike via email this morning I was informed that Bob Wilkins, the host of 70’s horror movie show Creature Features has died as of today. This is a bit sad to me because as a kid watching Bob on Saturday night along with ordering a pizza and hanging out with my friends watching cheesy old horror movies was the best thing a few 13 years could do since we couldn’t get booze yet.

Bob has a way about that was, well nerdish, babyfaced and deadpan. He rarely showed any emotion. I can’t remember ever seeing him laugh. He was just there, but that’s what made him something that added a bit of character in the Bay Area. I remember meeting him at a Star Trek convention at Civic Center sometime around 1976. [OK, maybe I shouldn’t have just admitted that.] All he said to me was, “Oh, Hello.” shook my hand and walked off.  That was about the friendliest I’ve ever seen him. It also made me realize how badly he reeked of the cigars he always smoked. Hopefully with a little luck KTVU channel 2 where the show ran will run a few repeats as a tribute. For now you’ll have to do with this short video I found on youtube.
Creature Features

Best Dim Sum in the Avenues!

An old acquaintance from high school (Hi Steve!) posted a comment here asking where the best dim sum was in the Sunset district. That’s something I haven’t really found yet other than a place at 33rd and Noriega that has dim sum to go and I can’t remember their name, but from talking to my friends they brought up a very nice place I had forgotten about that I visited a while ago on Geary street called Ton Kiang.

It’s a nice sit down dim sum house that offers a wide variety of asian delights at a price much cheaper than the upper crusty Yank Sing. There’s usually a line out the door on weekends for people who come for a lunch of dim sum so keep that in mind. Another nice thing about Ton Kiang is that if you’re not too familiar with dim sum or you’re a white guy like me who doesn’t know more than 3 words of Cantonese [and those words you wouldn’t want to say in polite company, of course] the wait staff is happy to help you out by explaining what they’ve brought out. You can either order off the menu or just take what they bring by, but if you’re looking for good dim sum Ton Kiang is the place to go!