Michelin Guide San Francisco 2011: Restaurants & Hotels (Michelin Red Guide San Francisco) Review

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(More customer reviews)This Michelin Guide of San Francisco Bay Area restaurants does a lot better job in covering the ENTIRE Bay Area than the restaurant critics (especially Michael Bauer) of the San Francisco Chronicle. It lists a variety of restaurants from all over the Bay Area from Santa Rosa in Sonoma all the way south to San Jose. Haven't yet been disappointed at any of the restaurants that the guide has recommended.
It lists a better variety and selection of restaurants than the either Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants or the Chronicle's Bargain Bites lists.
Highly recommended.


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With 519 selected restaurants representing 43 distinct cuisines, fifth annual edition 2011 MICHELIN Guide San Francisco spotlights one of the world's most diverse culinary regions, encompassing San Francisco proper and the area from Sonoma County to the South Bay.Each restaurant in the guide is rigorously reviewed, then selected by Michelin's famously anonymous inspectors, ensuring consistent, reliable recommendations for locals and travelers alike. The guide offers a choice for every taste and budget. 29 new restaurants earned Bib Gourmand status; and the number of restaurants in the Under $25 category also grew. San Francisco boasts a total of 74 Bib Gourmand restaurants-restaurants, known as Inspector Favorites for Good Value, offering two courses plus a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less. No city of comparable size offers as many Bib Gourmands, making San Francisco a global leader in culinary value. Stars were awarded to 44 restaurants for culinary excellence, including two at the three-star level-the highest honor from Michelin worldwide. The guide offers other categories to help discerning diners, among them the Small Plates category with 16 new restaurants.81 restaurants were designated in this guide for their excellent wine lists; and another 15, for their noteworthy sake lists. Reviews grouped by neighborhood prompt easy, spur-of-the-moment decision-making. Multiple, user-friendly listings make it even easier to choose:A to Z; neighborhood; type of cuisine; brunch; and late night dining; as well as starred, Bib Gourmand and Under $25 restaurants. Time-tested Michelin symbols are used for quick reference, while colorful city and neighborhood maps pinpoint location.With its diverse restaurant selection and recommendations of 71 area hotels, the 2011 MICHELIN Guide San Francisco offers its readers the best places to eat and stay in San Francisco.

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Check-In Check-Out: Managing Hotel Operations (8th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book to understand better the modern age in the hotel industry. I run a small hotel in Greece with my family and now we are building a new more up to date one. This book helped me to understand the hotel industry as a whole and the way it is changing. It covers with detail many issues, from GDS to bed making. There are hundrends of examples that make it easy to understand what is being discused. It is abstract at the beginning of every chapter and becomes more practical (how to do things) further on.
Although the books draws most cases and examples from big properties, I found it very helpful and discovered many ways to improve the service we offer in our small hotel.
It is one of the books that I will keep for reference and the bestI have read so far, among those that try to cover almost every aspect of running a hotel. I can not think of someone in the hotel bussines who would not find this book intresting and worth reading.

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Check-In, Check-Out provides complete coverageof the hotel\'s front office and all of the support positions that make it work. Organized to reflect how a guest moves through the hotel (reservations, arrival, billing, departure, etc.) this edition provides a broad view of lodging management and covers unique topics such as corporate housing, destination elevators, and trade advertising contracts. Key industry changes are addressed throughout such as hotel technology, the greening of the industry, security issues and automation. Over 200 exhibits illustrate chapter content and help to create a work that both students and professional hoteliers seek out.

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Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Alright, if you've read my previous Amazon book reviews, then you know I'm a sucker for literary novels that feature historic literary figures - "The Hours," "The Book of Salt," "The Swimming Pool Library." Add Edmund White's "Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel" to that list.
The writer Stephen Crane is dying of TB. His common-law wife Cora, the former proprietress of the Hotel de Dream, is trying everything she can to prolong the inevitable. The two have taken up residence in Sussex and journey to the Black Forest in search of a cure. Theirs is the central love story, and White renders it with an uncommonly subtle intensity.
It has been claimed by Crane scholars that he had written, at least in part, a novella of a young male prostitute called "Flowers of Asphalt," which he destroyed at the urging of fellow writer Hamlin Garland. White picks up the strands of this lost tale and runs with it. On his death bed Crane's mind wanders back to his encounter with Elliott, a painted boy, and becomes consumed with finally dictating the boys tragic story.
I'll not disclose any more of the story. I will say that this is a beautiful prose work by a genuine master of his craft. I haven't read anything by Crane in decades. However, his "Red Badge of Courage" remains vivid in my mind. Has White captured Crane's "style," his "voice"? There are so many variables that such a question becomes moot. This is after all Crane dictating from his fevered deathbed. Is the story within a story pornographic? Not at all. The sexual relationship between Elliott and his middle-aged suiter is told frankly. It is the honest depiction of one man's obsessive love, and the havoc and chaos that follow. Would Crane have ever been able to publish such a work? Probably not. However, this story is presented as his last consuming passion, and as such wasn't subject to his good or rational judgement. I found this to be a brave and exciting work of imaginative fiction. Bravo!

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Under Grand Hotel Volume 2 (Yaoi) Review

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(More customer reviews)Volume 2 of UGH continues to outperform my expectations. In the beginning, Swordfish & Sen continue to struggle with their love & trust for each other. Their uncertainties allow the capricious warden Muto to play their mistrust & jealousy against each other.
Muto is probably my most favorite character in UGH because his actions are so believably human. He came across as this clean, handsome & respectable warden who would put his ship of a prison right. However as the story unfolds, we see this dark side of him who thinks nothing of violating his prisoners for sadistic pleasure and using them to resell his contraband items for monetary gain. I can't help but begrudgingly admire his devious, underhanded ways of trying to manipulating Swordfish & Sen for his personal gains.
Another couple that makes UGH such a compelling read is Walter x Norman. It amazes me how seamlessly Sadahiro manages to weave Norman's passionate jealousy, Walter's friendship & undercover agenda and the true love between Sen & Swordfish into two happy couples deserving of redemption of their dark pasts. I am thankful for the 2 doujinshis published towards the end of this book that make it more concrete the fates of the couples.
I will reiterate again UGH is definitely one of the best hard yaoi works ever licensed in US. The translation & adaptation are very well done. The story is compelling from the beginning to the end. I really thank 801 Media for working hard to bring the complete set of 2 volumes to the market in such a relatively short period of time. I can now exhale with relief that I can conveniently reread the full story whenever I have the need for a hard yaoi fix.


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Sen Owari, a Japanese student formerly studying at Columbia University in New York, was sentenced to serve 80 years in prison at "Under Grand Hotel" for the murder of his lover's husband. While serving his time in jail, new evidence surfaces for Sen and sheds new light on the crime. It may prove to be his chance to be released early... unless it's a setup - but a setup for who? And, why would anybody want to frame Sen?

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Slay Bells (A Special Pennyfoot Hotel Myst) Review

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(More customer reviews)Cecily Sinclair Baxter is annoyed when Sid Porter fails to show up at the children's party where he was hired to play Father Christmas. Her annoyance soon turns to horror when it's discovered that one of her footmen fell to his death from the roof where he was apparently helping Sid. Even worse, Sid, dressed in his Father Christmas costume, is found stabbed to death in her chimney. With the Pennyfoot Hotel filled at Christmas, Cecily does her best to keep the deaths quiet but it's not easy to do with a practical joker moving things around the hotel and a clown "ghost" hanging around the hotel. The police are on holiday and Cecily starts investigating the deaths herself. While Cecily is investigating, she is also worried about her husband Baxter's strange behavior and wonders what secrets he is keeping from her.
"Slay Bells" is a nice entry in Kate Kingsbury's delightful Pennyfoot Hotel series. The book is set in England in 1914 and has a nice old-fashioned feel to it. Kingsbury fills the book not only with the mystery but also with Christmas traditions such as holiday shows with skits and dancers and descriptions of food including blood pudding which makes the time period come alive. All the favorite Pennyfoot characters are there: Cecily, Baxter, Gertie, Mrs. Chubb, Michel, Madeline, the Colonel, and Phoebe are all there. Ex-maid Doris even pays a visit to the Pennyfoot and there's a new maid, Pansy, who figures quite prominently in the story line. There are several plot lines in the book: the murders, the "ghost", the practical jokes, Baxter's secret and Kingsbury neatly ties everything up at the end with quite a few surprises. The actual murder plot line is well done and the identity of the murderer will be a surprise to most readers. As Kingsbury often does in her books, the motive is a sad one that will have readers in some ways feeling sorry for the murderer.
"Slay Bells" is a nice cozy mystery to read.


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The second Pennyfoot Hotel Christmas reunion. Cecily Sinclair Baxter's Christmas becomes a working holiday when the man playing Santa Claus for her hotel is found murdered.

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Decked with Folly (A Special Pennyfoot Hotel Myst) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is the Christmas season and the Pennyfoot Spa is having its usual holiday celebration. Manager Cecily Sinclair Baxter prays they get through the Yuletide period without a murder as seems to be the tradition (see SHROUDS OF HOLLY, SLAY BELLS and NO CLUE AT THE INN - not a safe place for the holidays). Alas the homicidal jinx remains intact as a drunken man is found dead in the pond; they discover he is Ian Rossiter who used to work there and once was bigamously married to still-employed head maid Gertie. They also had a fight on the hotel's grounds in which she attacked him with a knife.
The local constable Northcott believes Gertie killed her former spouse, but Cecily thinks differently; the cops do not arrest her head maid, but remand her into her employer's custody. The Pennyfoot repairman saves Gertie's life twice, which has Cecily pondering the connection to Ian's death beyond the obvious. When Ian's current wife Gloria arrives looking for him only to learn he is dead, she goes hysterical; Cecily puts her in a guest room. Meanwhile someone watches the activity waiting for the opening to make a move while Cecily wonders what had Ian done to bring such misfortune to him and his family.
There are numerous suspects besides the ex wife whose motive is the most obvious as Ian wants to see his twins, but others also have powerful reasons to kill the rogue. Cecily is more of a modern woman than an early twentieth century female as she refuses to let her husband Baxter or any male dictate how she is to behave especially when he pleads with her to stay out of the murder investigation. The story line has the "Upstairs, Downstairs" feel that enhances the whoudnit as there is a wide schism between the classes as World War I had not started leveling the playing field yet. Readers will enjoy the latest Pennyfoot holiday mystery as a terrific historical amateur sleuth.
Harriet Klausner


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Make room for murder with all the trimmings... The Pennyfoot Hotel is decked out in holiday style, but when one of Cecily's candlesticks disappears, she realizes someone is lacking in Christmas spirit. Still, petty thievery seems the least of her problems when she learns a former employee has been found dead in her duck pond. He hasn't worked at the Pennyfoot in years, but his ex-wife is still their head maid-and now she heads the naughty list of suspects.

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The Hotel Riviera Review

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(More customer reviews)Elizabeth Adler has once again created a story that vividly transports its reader to an exotic site allowing one to believe they've actually visited. "The Hotel Riviera", an aging eight room villa, sits nestled on a sandy beach near Saint Tropez. Its proprietor and chef, Lola Laforet, quietly caters to the needs of her small but adoring group of guests while her personal life unravels. Her husband, Patrick, has gone missing and the police suspect her of offing him. Several unscrupulous people have approached her claiming to be owed large sums from her missing husband and seeking ownership of her beloved Hotel Riviera. Just when she thinks things can be no worse help comes in the form of an enigmatic but handsome drifter and sailor who has dropped anchor in her bay. Jack Farrar seems too good to be true but he is always there when Lola needs him, and along with her assorted guests they tackle the problem of finding Patrick and saving the Hotel Riviera.
Adler skillfully develops her plot and characters, slowly revealing small histories and traits until you find you have grown thoroughly attached and entirely too fond of them. It is almost as if you are leaving friends when the story has ended, but the trip is truly worthwhile.

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