courtesy of Spruce

1. Lunch, Spruced up
Still haven’t been able to snag a dinner reservation at Spruce? The lunch-only Harvest Menu may well be your best way to sample Mark Sullivan’s inspired seasonal food. While away the afternoon over a meal of braised spring onions, pancetta-wrapped day-boat scallops and panna cotta with blueberries; depending on your post-lunch commitments, you might consider the (optional) wine pairing.


photo by Joe Budd

2. Studying the classics
Not that we need an excuse to have a post-work cocktail, but we’re pleased as rum punch with Orson’s weeknight happy hour: All classic cocktails (manhattans, daiquiris and martinis) are only $5 every night, Monday through Friday, from 5 to 7 p.m. And if hunger strikes, you can always sate your appetite with duck-fat fries and crispy tofu.



3. Meat of the matter
Now that every locavore worth his or her salt has signed up for a vegetable CSA (a weekly box of vegetables delivered fresh from the farm), the meat CSA is the natural next step. Join Marin Sun Farms’ “Meat Club” and you’ll receive a box each month filled with sustainably raised meat. You can choose the amount (from 24 pounds down to 9 pounds) and the breakdown (more steaks than roasts? only sausages or ground meat?), then pick a delivery location near you. Click here for more information.



4. We all scream
Nothing puts us in a retro mood quite like the Fourth of July. Follow the in-town fireworks with a trip up to Napa for the Ice Cream Social and Family Fun Day at COPIA on July 5—eat burgers, sausage and corn on the cob fresh off the grill, learn to make your own ice cream and then indulge in a make-your-own-sundae bar. Adults can tour the edible gardens, then relax with a glass of wine while listening to live music.

5.  We come from the land down under
Since (we hope) your Fourth of July will be filled with ice-cold beer and margaritas, the Australian wine tasting at Blackwell’s, out on Geary, on July 5 promises to be a welcome—and civilized—counterpoint. It will feature scores of “super powerhouse reds” from Oz, including plenty of Shiraz. While there, check out Blackwell’s amazing selection of unusual spirits and not-from-around-here beer.

6.  Dizzingly delicious
On July 10, the Legion of Honor kicks off its “Cinema Supper Club,” a summer-long movie-and-a-dinner series. The $20 admission price includes evening access to special exhibitions and the screening of a themed, classic movie—the series begins with Hitchcock’s Vertigo. After the film, stay for dinner at the Legion of Honor Café, which will be serving up midcentury modern entrées, nibbles and the signature Vertigo cocktail—just like what Jimmy Stewart drank at Ernie’s.



7. Doof-ball
Already running out of things to do with your kids this summer? We’re giving you an advance heads-up about Doof-a-Palooza (think food spelled backwards), a “magical food extravaganza” taking place at Google Headquarters in Mountain View on July 12 from 11 to 3 p.m. The daylong party, which will feature a kitchen-sink cook-off for kids with Joey Altman, make-your-own snacks and vegetable bingo (and much, much more) is a kickoff for DooF, “an innovative television series for children, set to air on public television in 2009, that gets kids excited about good food through humor, science, live action, animation, music and cooking.”