The Triple Dot Newsletter: Homebrew, Beeramisu and Cocktails for You

Dear Friends,

Great seeing so many of you at our UrbanDaddy/Samsung Mobile event last month! Check out our Dot Dot Dot blog for a great photo gallery from the evening.

As usual, August sees our social calendars full to the brim and we’re excited to share what’s going on with you. This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending a client event: the Russian River Valley Winemakers’ amazing Grape to Glass Pre-Harvest Party in West Sonoma County, which offered a stellar selection of wines up for the tasting from this gorgeous region. Definitely put it on your calendar for next year!

Also new to the Triple Dot this month is the addition of two new sections that will appear on occasion for your reading pleasure: Shout Out, where we give props to a client who has had some really stellar, Ellipses PR-generated media attention, and Recipe Card, where we share a signature client recipe with our hungry readers (i.e., you). Don't worry – they’re easy as well as delicious!

Happy cooking,

Tami von Isakovics & Diana Gil-Osorio

P.S. For the latest news and tips, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our Dot Dot Dot blog.

Shake, Shake, Shake! Shake your booty!
Whether you like it shaken or stirred, back again for another year is the cocktilian extravaganza not to be missed:

the sixth annual San Francisco Cocktail Week, taking place September 17-23. Equal parts fun, curiosity, education and, of course, tasting, Cocktail Week shows off the Bay Area’s best bar talent for seven days of celebration. Kick off the week at Anchor Brewing Company for the opening night affair where the distillery opens the vault to their entire spirits portfolio for your imbibing enjoyment, or play your luck on the blackjack tables and meet bartenders from up and down the West coast at the Best of the West party. NoCal or SoCal? You decide whose drinks reign supreme. East Bayers will enjoy the new Totally Awesome East Bay to the Max! '80s party in Oakland where fuzzy navels, copious amounts of neon and skinny pants will be back with a vengeance (Oh, wait, they’re already back. Your mom was right.). Don your best carnie costume and spirit of adventure for the California Altered State Fair and play games, compete in prize-winning contests and try local bounty-inspired seasonal cocktails galore. Can you hear the melodic sound of a cocktail shaker in motion yet? (photo credit: Kristen Loken)

Home Brew for your Crew
Have you ever been sitting around at home, thirsty and too lazy to go to the store? Lucky for you, the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company has your fix: their just-launched Homebrew Kit. That’s right, you can now make your own version of their World Beer Cup Bronze-winning Mavericks Amber Ale from the comfort of your kitchen. The kit is available in two formulations: with extract for the novice brewer or all grain for the more experienced, with everything from specialty malts and hops to grains and yeast included in the box. Sounds like an awesome weekend project to us. The kits may be purchased at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company (may as well sit down, relax and have a pint while you’re there) or online through Midwest Supplies. Hop to it!

Late Night Snacks
Unlike New York, San Francisco is a city that sleeps, but we know you’ve all experienced a late-night craving and desperately wished there was something still open for you to pounce on. We recently downloaded Tablehopper’s first app from the iTunes store, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper and more fun than a flight to La Guardia. Tablehopper’s Top Late-Night Eats in SF is full of professionally vetted write-ups on more than 95 San Francisco restaurants, cafés, taquerias, pizzerias, sandwich shops, etc. Extra handy: the nicely-designed app is GPS-enabled and lists the business hours and other info, like the Website and cuisine. Say you’re wandering around Clement Street and have a hankering for something spicy, or you’re cruising around in the Mission on your fixie and gotta have a burrito before bed? Perfect for your late night munchies, Tablehopper’s got you covered.

Well, lock us up and throw away the key! We’ve found a chamber we wouldn’t mind being in: Chambers Restaurant at the Phoenix Hotel. It might be easy to pass this place by, after all, it’s not in the shiniest of neighborhoods, but what awaits you inside is a very chic, swanky, Cosmopolitan Hotel-esque culinary experience at the hands of key keeper Trevor Ogden. The man knows how to cook. And use fire. And cook using fire.

And cook using fire and bringing that fire to your table. And that’s precisely what he did on a recent visit, which is why we’re awarding the Sweet Spot this month to the Smoking Albacore Tuna. It comes to the table in an impressively smoky show, after being cured in salt and sugar and then spiced with a house BBQ rub. It’s then served with a crème fraîche sauce with cucumber, basil oil and hackleback caviar. Custom-made for the restaurant is a self-contained hot box charcoal grill that delicately wafts its flavor of applewood into the fish above and results in a melt-in-your-mouth experience that is as delicious as it is memorable. Bravo for the fire and the fish! We can’t wait to go back and see what else is cooking over there. It was a perfect dish to enjoy against the backdrop of a nearby table of bustier-wearing women celebrating a bachelorette party—the kind you actually want to attend.

As publicists, we’re constantly reaching out to local, regional and national media on behalf of our great clients. (You may have, in fact, been on the receiving end of one of our many pitches!) It’s always a great feeling when our tireless efforts yield great results. Our first Shout Out goes to Nick’s Cove Restaurant, Oyster Bar & Cottages, nestled in a secluded inlet on the pristine Tomales Bay. Visitors far and wide have been flocking to this destination for years, whether it be for the locally-sourced coastal cuisine and luxurious waterfront cottages, or a walk down the pier to the Boat Shack, cocktail in hand, to watch the sunset. Nick’s Cove recently drew the attention of Details (“Best Road Trips for Foodies”) and Men’s Journal (“MJ Approved”), plus the tremendous recognition by Martha Stewart Living (PDF) as one of the magazine’s favorite hotels for food in the country in the summer travel issue, out this month. Congrats, Nick’s Cove!

Beeramisu
Once you’ve made your own beer, you may be inspired to make this delicious riff off the classic Italian dessert tiramisu, only it’s Beerimisu and credit goes to Executive Chef Gaston Alfaro of the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. (photo credit: Chris Andre)

Ingredients

1 lb mascarpone cheese
3 tbsp Kahlua
3 tbsp powdered sugar
1/4 cup brewed espresso
1/8 cup heavy cream
16 ladyfingers
1 cup Mavericks Paddle Out Stout beer (or other stout)
3 tsp cocoa powder

Instructions
Mix mascarpone cheese, Kahlua, sugar, heavy cream and coffee with electric mixer or in a food processor until ingredients are combined, thick, and fluffy enough to spread. Be careful not to overwhip. Soak ladyfingers in stout beer, then lay half of them at bottom of a 15x10x2” glass baking dish. Spread a layer of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers, then repeat with a second layer of the remaining ladyfingers and a slightly thicker layer of the mascarpone mixture. Dust the top with cocoa powder. Let set in freezer overnight. Cut into squares and serve chilled.

Optional: Whipped Cream Garnish
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tsp sugar
Combine ingredients and whip until stiff peaks appear. Can be either spread or piped using pastry bag over top of finished beeramisu for additional flavor and presentation. Dust cocoa powder on top. Enjoy!

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to be a MUNI bus driver, consider this vintage training video, courtesy of SFist and Muni Diaries. Trust us, it’s worth the 10 minutes.

The much-rumored new iPhone 5 gets a spot-on send up in this mock Apple promo by comedian Adam Sacks, who has smartly realized that people use the iPhone to only take pictures of their food. “Siri’s all new, too. She can recognize the food you’re photographing and suggest fun new captions that imply a life worth living.” Brilliant.

Apparently we’re all turning our brains to mush on a daily basis, whether it’s trying to multi-task (and failing 98% of the time) or listening to too much complaining. Save brain cells: focus on one thing at a time and put your mental shields up!

Helping us to focus: caffeine. Here’s a fascinating look at coffee consumption in the U.S.

Interested in seeing how we can positively impact your bottom line? Drop us a line here: tami@ellipsespr.com or diana@ellipsespr.com. Mention The Triple Dot and receive a complimentary one-hour consultation.

Ellipses Public Relations is a boutique firm based in San Francisco specializing in food, beverage and hospitality publicity, social media and special events. We believe in personalized service, targeted media campaigns and building long-term relationships with our clients that help them achieve their goals. www.ellipsespr.com

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