Paisan

Berkeley and San Francisco, August 24, 2012—

A TRIP TO THE CITY for a movie, dinner, and an opera: typical busy day for us (fortunately only maybe a fifth of our days are busy). "Dinner" was more an early supper, lunch and dinner in one, and it began — after a decent Martini — with the green salad you see here: nicely chosen little lettuce leaves in a pleasant vinaigrette with the right amount of salt. I could have eaten another, after my main course.

The main course was the pappardelle you see above, with a rich Bolognese sauce and strewn, I'd forgotten to ask that it not be, with irrelevant ricotta. Well, I'd already made a nuisance of myself, stipulating the Martini formula (three to one, up, olives) and hesitating at the pasta, meant to be spaghetti. Men with beards shouldn't eat sauced spaghetti in public, say I; the waiter suggested they could substitute penne or pappardelle. Since we have penne so often at home, the choice was an easy one.

Primitivo di Manduria Villa Santera, 2009: rich and long

• Paisan, 2514 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley; 510 649 1031

We took our dessert in San Francisco at a soda fountain Lindsey's been wanting to try. She said her hot fudge sundae (hereby promoted to Hundred Plates) was the best she's had, and that's saying a lot. I was content, myself, with an Angostura phosphate: Angostura bitters, lemon juice, fountain syrup, acid phosphate, gum foam, soda; a fine digestivo after a rich Bolognese. (I hope this place gets a bottle of Fernet Branca, though; a Hanky Panky phosphate would be a delicious item.)

• The Ice Cream Bar, 815 Cole Street, San Francisco; 415.742.4932