It's time for a Picnic (Where's Summer?)

This Picnic is at Bat Tartine! Surprise, we're not out at Golden Gate Park (in the fog) trying to see our food and getting dripped on by the trees. If you don't live in the lovely city of SF you may be unaware that we don't really have seasons! No snow, No big thunderstorms, No heat waves, just weather. Mostly the same weather which features either fog or mild sun depending on your microclimate/location in the city.

So it's Summer! Which is one reason why Tea Time was excited about this Picnic, 'cause we need red checked cloths and watermelon and pie, OH! the pie. Plus Bar Tartine donated the proceeds of this all day picnic to local charity Conductive Education Center of San Francisco, a school for children with motor disabilities that was co-founded by Tartine owner Elisabeth Prueitt. J.K. and I love to be able to support local food and charity at the same time! (We can't wait for the SFSFF in August...love La Cocina.)

Bar Tartine can be a bit tricky to find the first time you walk down Valencia, but we'd been here for the Blogger's meetup last year, so it was an easy mark this visit even with different decor. We got there at lunch time and missed the face painting and other fun in the evening (darn work!), but the feeling was festive nonetheless.

Look for the resto with no sign!

Picnic!

Picnic to go. Can I get another piece of pie?

The menu that we got was a prix fixe featuring a sausage with homemade bun, a corn on the cob drenched in butter and a hefty slice of watermelon. J.K. and I opted to add on a slice of pie, although once we tasted this delight it was hard be restrained and not share another piece. Condiments for your sausage were on the side table and we used them liberally. The sausage was rich, meaty and fit snugly into the tasty bun. The corn was sweet and buttery perfection while the watermelon was a great juicy compliment to the meal. Tea Time liked the corn a lot, it's hard to find good sweet corn in the city. But the pie wins this round. The pie (tart?) was meltingly sweet peaches with a flaky crust that made us want to lick the plate.

Traditional mustard/kethcup combo for Angela (with relish).

Everything plus extra sauerkraut for J. K. (See the butter pool under the corn?)

Summer, right on a plate! Who needs the sun?

 The picnic at Bar Tartine is over, but maybe you can still catch some pie! Darn, we should have gotten some to go. Let us know where your favorite summer food is happening; we need to get our seasonal dose before it's all gone. Mmmmmm, floor pie.






*warning many!!! exclamation points were used in the making of this post, but none were harmed.