Great Italian Food at A16 Restaurant in San Francisco

Two nights ago I had dinner at Italian restaurant A16 on Chestnut Street in the Marina District in San Francisco. My expectations were high based on the hype my friends had been building up for months raving about how great the food is. I'm happy to report that our meal more than lived up to the hype! The food was fantastic and the service was very nice.

Our first starter was the "Burrata" (a fresh mozzeralla cheese made with cream) served with olive oil, sea salt and crostini. In the photo you can really see the olive oil! I sampled a bit with soft bread and really loved the light, fluffy and creamy texture of the cheese coupled with the sea salt flavor. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.

My dinner companions also shared a salad, two pizzas, some pasta and wine... This photo of the pizza looks blurry because of the hot steam rising off of it.

While I don't mind letting my food cool so that I can get a better photo, shockingly, not all of my dining companions that night were willing to wait for their food to cool down so that I could get a better picture for all of you here on my blog. LOL not that I really expected them to :) But, as you can see, I wasn't the only one taking pictures. Carl took them for his blog and Lisa took this one with her phone of Carl and I dorking out with our cameras.

Luke, who carpooled up with us, wanted to try the Pumpkin and Ricotta Gnocchi with braised kale, onions and pancetta (a type of Italian bacon).

Lisa ordered a side of Italian Prosciutto di Parma (a type of Italian ham)

I had this side order of yummy Cannellini Beans with garlic and oregano. It was basically like mashed potatoes with some whole beans, but made out of beans instead of potatoes. It was deliciously infused with garlic... I really want to go back and have this again.

I also ordered a side of Roasted Potatoes and Cauliflower with capers, chilies and onions. It was also really good and something I plan to try to recreate at home. I don't think it would be too hard.

This photo by Carl Mindling

The Dinner Gang. From left: Carl Mindling, Me, Lisa Whalen, Andy Mark and Luke Goodman. Lisa and Andy were the friends who had been recommending the restaurant to Carl and I pretty much ever since we became friends. LOL. Earlier this year they also steered us to The Naglee Park Garage that I've blogged about (not once but twice) in downtown San Jose. So far they're two for two. Andy is such a foodie that I can trust anywhere he says is great, will be.

After dinner, but before we had dessert, we realized that time had flown since our arrival at 6:00 PM and we had to hit the road to make it to our original destination, Duncan Reye's Martini Madness event taking place at Infusion Lounge from 6:00-9:00 PM. We had just asked to see the dessert menu when Carl realized it was 8:00 PM. Woops! Waitress? Check please! Soon we were on our way and arrived in time to mix, mingle and network.

This photo by Carl Mindling
DJ Jason Mitchell and Duncan Reyes

Thanks to Duncan for hosting another great networking event. And props to DJ Jason Mitchell of Music Solutions for finding the sweet spot where the music was loud but wasn't too loud to chat while mingling and catching up on everyone's latest and greatest news.

This photo by Carl Mindling

And thanks to Carl for letting me borrow some of his pictures. You can read his recap and see more of his great photos from the evening on his blog by CLICKING HERE.

And because people are always asking m about the pictures I take for this blog...

I love playing with the buttons and knobs on my camera to figure out what it's capable of. That night at dinner I played with external lighting too. This is a photo of my water glass with a votive candle strategically placed directly behind it. It's dramatic and kind of artsy looking. I did this while waiting for our waitress to come take our order. You  may recall my light study with "ketchup" at In-N-Out Burger at the end of a previous blog post a couple of years ago.

Here is the votive off to one side...

And the votive where it was originally placed on the table. What a difference right?

And worst of all, here's my water glass photographed using the built in flash on my camera. The image is flat and ordinary like a snapshot with no style. I almost couldn't stand taking this picture because I knew it would look really bad. LOL

I just wanted to show you an easy way to find some time to learn how to more effectively use that point and shoot camera you keep in your pocket or purse :)