Fish & Monkeys

We totally tricked Chuck with this fake bowl of cereal, a gift for the office from Joyce.

Thank goodness we had these hi-tech Rocky Mountain Cold Activated Bottles of Coors (courtesy of our friend Cindy) when we ran out of Coke Zeros. A little carbonated drink at noon doesn’t hurt, does it? (If you haven’t tried these yet, the mountains turn blue when it’s cold!)

We thought we’d never have a problem with people misspelling Barrel when we chose the name, but we’ve seen one too many examples. We kept the pen, though.

No Black Friday for Awesome Creatures, but we’re working on some special deals for the holidays. We bought the snazzy Santa’s hat at a 99-cent store using leftover change - 99-cent stores are awesome.

Looking back on our photos from the California trip, we feel fortunate that the weather here isn’t so harsh, but we’d love to walk around in t-shirts again. Today, we kicked it back early today and enjoyed a very long lunch at Blue Smoke where we downed a few pitchers of the crisp Blue Smoke Ale and gulfed down delicious meat sandwiches.

Earlier this week, we received shipments for two cards we designed: one for Gobbl and the other for Reggie Soang, personal trainer and Barrel utility man. We used 4by6.com (thanks to the Iridesco guys for the tip) and tried the satin finish, which came out very nice. We hope to have new biz cards for ourselves soon - our brand guru Dan Sim just hooked us up with some clever designs.

Hope you all have a very delicious, warm, and enjoyable Thanksgiving! Watch football, eat well, and be sure to drink good wines!

The first four days in California reminded us why we’ve been so passionate about some of the projects we’ve undertaken in the past 6 months, namely Gobbl and Barrel to Bottles.

We’re normally budget eaters and are wary of dropping large sums of money on lavish dinners. Even on vacation, we were careful to pick out sure winners (through Interweb research and word-of-mouth info collection). When we felt all was right, we decided to drop big dollars for big-time wines and dishes. We only wished that we could Gobbl these places (Northern Cal coming soon!) and feature them on Barrel to Bottles (Napa/Sonoma wines are pricey!).

If you’re headed to SF/Napa/Sonoma in the near future, here are three places we heartily recommend:

• Fish & Farm (www.fishandfarmsf.com) - this small San Francisco restaurant has been open for a little over a month, but it’s already the talk of the town. Fish & Farm uses ingredients only from within a 100-mile radius, a clever and do-able concept since the Bay Area has most things you’d want in good, fresh cuisine. The service was above and beyond, and we could not have asked for a better combination of food and wines. Be sure to try their Boeckel Riesling, a Grand Cru for under $50 that will blow you away.
• Mustards Grill (www.mustardsgrill.com) - okay, so we’re not at the level where we can do French Laundry, but we were perfectly satisfied with a gorgeous lunch at Mustards Grill in Yountville. The wines we had at the bar were tremendous, the food (many of the ingredients sourced from its garden right outside) was fresh and delicious, and ending the meal with a 4-inch high brown sugar meringue lemon tart says it all.
• Jordan Winery (www.jordanwinery.com) - too bad no Jordan wines will ever make it on to Barrel to Bottles since its least expensive wine is the $25 2005 Chardonnay. Located in Alexander Valley, Jordan Winery produces wonderful wines, notably its Cabernet Sauvignon, and sits atop rolling hills in a beautiful chateau that was built in the 1970s but closely mimics 18th century French structures. The $25 tour with tasting and small bites is a steal, and we highly recommend it.

Check out goofy photos of us having a good time in our Flickr collection, updated each day of our trip!

California, here we come! We’re taking a week-long trip to have some fun, see some sights, and recharge.

Our first stop is San Francisco, where we’ll be cheering on our buddy Reggie Soang as he competes in the Treasure Island Triathlon. After a couple of days in SF, we’ll be driving out to Sonoma County and Napa Valley for some wine and good eats. Then it’s down US-1 as we head by car to Los Angeles, where we’ll be hanging with our buddies for the rest of the week. If you have any strong restaurant/attraction/event recommendations, please feel free to leave a comment below!

While we’re gone, please feel free to check out some recent Barrel happenings:

1 - Free Wine Giveaway on Barrel to Bottles
Yup, we’re giving away a free bottle of Sparkling Mad Shiraz for this month’s wine giveaway. Also, be sure to check out our Wines for Thanksgiving!

2 - Gobbl’s Getting Better and Better! Try It!
We’ve worked hard with our man Dru “Hill” Lie to make major improvements to Gobbl, our foodie blog community. We have much more on the way, but please sign-up to start taking delicious pics of food and sharing your foodie insights!

3- Why Aren’t You Wearing One?
It’s been a very fun ride for our Awesome Creatures biz - we’ve enjoyed learning the ropes of e-commerce and hope more sales are on their way. Also, we have a ultra-secret new design coming out in less than two weeks - be sure to sign-up for our Awesome Creatures mailing list to be notified!