LOCAL LOVE - THE ALEMBIC

Me and Sara had a little date the other night. No boys in honor of Gay Pride, and pretty much just cuz.
Disclaimer: We may have been sharing a common affliction known as PMS, and needed to have a bitchfest about how insensitive men can be, how unappreciated we are, and how bloated we felt. It happens.
She put on her red skirt, a little eyeliner and those big chola hoop earrings just to impress me. Cute.
I had been reading about this newish spot called the Alembic on Haight (between Cole and Schrader) and thought we'd go check it out. Mind you, I don't normally trek to Haight street for anything other than hash pipes, Halloween costumes and the latest bondage footwear, but I heard the Alembic locally sources most of their food, so it was sounding like my kinda place.
I guess they're mostly known for their "spirits" and the Magnolia beer brewed right there on hippy dippy Haight and Masonic. The liquor menu was in fact extensively impressive. Since I'm mostly drinking Arnold Palmers these days, I have lost touch with the many foreign and domestic methods with which to get David Hasselhoff plastered.
I managed to have one cocktail and not lose my cool thanks to all the delicious small plates we shared. There was a devilled duck egg, which seemed a lot like a regular devilled egg only a little fancier than what you get at the local church's fundraiser picnic. We also had mussels with andouille; ginger turmeric mushrooms; Moroccan lamb burgers (slider-sized), and herbed gnocchi with serrano ham and arugula pesto. YUM and YUMMY. The only negative thing I can summon is that the gnocchi were slightly "doughy" tasting, but everything else was otherwise pretty sublime...especially the dessert. Yes we had room in our bloated PMS bellies, the plates were SMALL I said!
Anyway, it was an almond raspberry coffee cake, warm and moist and topped with creme fraiche. Just what we needed to cure all of our worries and send us off into the first night of summer. Girl power.