By Joe Smith

It's a perfect day for Easter. Cows are grazing in the pasture next to the Caspar Lighthouse Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Like absent-minded professors browsing in a library of rare books, they pick from among only the choicest, the greenest of grasses. Lupines blaze in all their glory along the barbed-wire fence. Sun is everywhere. The light appears to be glowing from inside things rather than glancing off them. The pink ribbons fluttering from the Easter bonnet of the little girl skipping up the sidewalk to the church steps are alive with sunlight. Even the peals of the simple bell in the belfry are full of light. It's as though incandescent daffodils inhabit each ringing tone ...

By Louis Martin

I was hanging out at Tosca's a few weeks back when it struck me to ask Richard, the bartender, what his favorite drink was. I was expecting a moment's silence, a little mental searching, but his answer came without hesitation: "Negroni," he said. Now one of the little stories about the Negroni is that it makes you decisive. So maybe that was the Negroni kicking in. I am—or was, I should say—a Martini guy and had never heard of the drink. "Let's talk about this drink in a week or so," I said. It was Friday and Tosca's was filling up with that young crowd of professionals just getting off of work downtown. You see them on Fridays, never during the week....

By Louis Martin

I am making the rounds. Le Central, B44, Enrico's. It is cool now but no longer icy cold. The wind is no longer shoving you down the street, just gently pressuring you to keep moving. A Kettle One martini at Central provides some internal heat, a Woodford Reserve bourbon at B44 more, and now an Old-Fashioned at Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe completes the job; I am warm toast just out of the toaster. I have been assigned to cover the bars in San Francisco for a week—yes, I'm the "booze editor"—and in the City this is a serious assignment. It also gives you the right to drink during the day. Salud! ...

By Joe Smith

The eclectic spiritual retreat of Dharma Farm nestles in the hills beyond the reach of our coastal fog, in the transition zone between forest and chaparral, where redwoods give way to pin oaks and manzanitas. A cluster of jerry-built cabins, yurts and tee-pees, it's usually as quiet as the inside of a discarded shoe, an ideal environment for those seeking enlightenment via one of the many paths imported from countries on the other side of the Pacific. Today, however, Dharma Farm is the site of a fiesta, a noisy, Texas-style barbecue to celebrate the visit of a lama from Tibet. Built more like a sumo wrestler than a monk, the lama sports a perpetual, disarming smile, a row of white teeth set between glistening parentheses of melted butter and hickory smoke sauce....

By Nina Wu

Clement Street, traditionally an ethnic neighborhood, is fast gaining its reputation as San Francisco’s New Chinatown. It has a long history of immigration, beginning with the Irish in the 1900s, followed by Swiss dairy farmers, the Jewish, Russians, Japanese and most recently immigrants from the Far East. Nearly half the residents today are of Asian or Pacific Island origin. Stroll along Clement and you’ll see that the array of produce shops, restaurants, cafes, and businesses lining Clement Street from Arguello to 25th present a definitive Asian presence. Clement is where visitors can shop for ...

By Louis Martin

With a little time on my hands, no girlfriend even on the horizon, and my friend Bill up on the Mattole River fly fishing following a series of scandalous articles he wrote on the sex industry—scandalous because of the "firsthand" methods he used to obtain information for these articles—I thought I might get out my fly-fishing equipment and see if I could rig it up. You see, when things get bad, Bill escapes to some favorite fishing spot he has and chills out. Maybe, I thought, I should be doing the same. But about my equipment: I had never used it. To be honest, I had never been able to tie the knots required for a proper leader. Off and on, since I had bought my equipment, I have tried. God, have I tried. But it's no easy trick. If you "have a life" and a job as well, you may not have the time. I have a job now but not much of a life....