In June I traveled to San Francisco for a conference. Not only was it colder than I expected, but I was far busier than I anticipated. I thought I’d have time to go out for dinner at night. But working a conference and attending one are far different experiences. Anyway, I ate hotel food for about three days before I decided to go AWOL  for dinner. A teammate of mine had disappeared every night for a drink at the spot across the street. He said the food was good, but I wasn’t convinced. Annabelle’s looks like that same bar that’s across the street from every hotel with dry burgers, frozen chicken fingers and bland quesadillas. Boy was I wrong.

When some of other girls my age who were working the conference invited me to dinner, I accepted. The only thing visible from the hotel lobby was the bar area at Annabelle’s. So when we walked in and saw into the dining area and kitchen I was more impressed.

Most of the men at the conference were at least my father’s age and hilariously unafraid to flirt with a twenty-something (which, PS is totally unflattering– hence the abrupt dismissals). While waiting for a table we encountered a man waiting to dine alone. During our brief conversation, we shared that we were celebrating a birthday and learned that he had daughters our age. He wished the birthday girl the best. When we reached our table he’d sent over champagne, but he disappeared before we could thank him. Super sweet and exactly what we needed to wake up our palates before our appetizers.

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Tags: beef carpaccio, cioppino, Italian, period, San Francisco, Tru Blood