By Elena Kadvany
E-mail Elena Kadvany
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I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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Ever wanted to have a cup of coffee with James Freeman, founder of Bay Area third-wave coffee darling Blue Bottle? Now's your chance (sort of).
Freeman will be coming to the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto this Thursday, Nov. 3, for a talk. The audience will get free Blue Bottle coffee and pastries.
Blue Bottle Coffee serves espresso, pour-over and siphon coffee and New Orleans iced coffee, among other drinks. The beans are ground fresh for every drink. Photo by Magali Gauthier.
Elaine Johnson, senior food editor at Sunset magazine, will moderate the conversation.
Freeman was a San Francisco-based freelance clarinetist before he opened the first Blue Bottle in 2002 in a humble location: a former potting shed in Oakland.
Today, there are more than 25 Blue Bottle cafes in the Bay Area (including downtown Palo Alto), Los Angeles, New York City and Tokyo. The
Palo Alto Blue Bottle is located in the historic Varsity Theatre building on University Avenue last spring. It shares space with SAP’s tech-hub and community workspace HanaHaus.
From left, Matt Chung, Kyu Kim and Hanna Joo chat inside the cafe area of HanaHaus during a private opening and ribbon-cutting event on March 17, 2015. Photo by Veronica Weber.
Thursday's talk will run from 7:30-9 p.m. Advance tickets are $20 for the general public and $15 for JCC members. Purchase at the door or $25.
For more information and to buy tickets, go to
paloaltojcc.org.