My Family at Copita

 

It’s been a year since opening my first restaurant, Copita Tequileria y Comida.  We opened the doors May 1st 2012, and can I tell you that since the first minute, our tables have been full from lunch through dinner!  Having a restaurant is incredible - seriously beyond what I could have ever imagined.  Initially, I lived at Copita working 12 and 14 hour days.  The team and I worked feverishly to make sure every dish was what we had envisioned and that service was smooth.  Now, we truly have the “dream team”  but believe me, it’s taken time.   

Meet Chef Gonzalo Rivera

Copita is humming along with General Manager Brian Basmajian (have you met him yet?  He’s very funny) making guests feel at home,  and the fabulous Executive Chef, Gonzalo Rivera, who recently brought his wonderfully creative talent to the kitchen.  I still go to the restaurant every day I’m in town, to dream up dishes with Gonzalo and, of course, to taste everything!   It’s a true collaboration. 

And our margaritas?  Many people say they are the best in the Bay Area.  Have you met our bartender Juan Carlos?  You can’t miss him.  He’s the tall bald guy that mixes a mean margarita.  If you haven’t tried the Prado, I recommend that as well. It’s from my tequila book.  If you don’t see it on the menu, just ask, the bartenders will make it for you in a heartbeat.

 

As for the trials and tribulations of opening a restaurant, I can tell you one thing:  everything you’ve heard about how difficult it is, it’s true!   But the rewards are beyond description.  If you have ever worked in a restaurant, you’ll understand how quickly your co-workers become your new family.   Let’s just say that every minute, it’s something new and something that has to be dealt with...immediately.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.   But every day we get closer and closer to that well-oiled machine.   

Like most families, we’ve collected more than our share of stories to tell.  My favorite is the time one of the cooks added limeade to the ceviche instead of lime juice.  It was served to a chef friend of mine.  I went out to the table to say hi and saw the ceviche bubbling up?  When I tasted it, I knew exactly what had happened.  Yes, it was still edible.  Did it taste good?  Let’s put it this way, you won’t ever find it on the menu at Copita. 

Want more inside scoop?  Read about us here:

 Eater’s One Year In! 

Brentwood Corn Elote with Chipotle Crema

   

Pork Belly Taco

Read more here: 

http://sf.eater.com/archives/2013/05/29/copitas_joanne_weir_and_gonzalo_rivera.php

Time Flies...especially in Israel

Time flies …and I have been having lots of FUN.

I didn’t realize how much fun I was having until I sat down to write this!  During the past several months I have:  taught cooking classes in my San Francisco studio kitchen; taken students on Culinary Journeys through Provence, Tuscany and the Piedmont; published my new cookbook, Cooking Confidence, Dinner Made Simple; celebrated the first anniversary of my restaurant, Copita Tequileria y Comida; and a few hundred other things.  It’s been a crazy year!

Just when I thought I’d traveled the globe, a trip to Israel changed everything.  My husband, Joe, and I booked the trip along with good friends and I was really looking forward to my first venture to this part of the world.  Joe had been there several years earlier and I thought I was prepared for some of the incredible places we’d visit, but I will tell you that Israel was one of the most exciting trips I’ve taken in a long time.   

I have to tell you just one story about my travels, along with a few remarkable photos:

Driving around the Golan Heights through some of the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen in my life….  Cows grazing in the green grass, millions of wild flowers, rolling hills and the most beautiful deep blue sky...I was speechless!  This is one of the most important Israeli wine regions so I couldn’t pass up a tasting at Golan Heights Winery.  After wine tasting (especially two of my favorites, Gamla Riesling and Yarden Katzin), you know how hungry you can get.  We heard that grass fed Golan Heights beef at Meat Shos in Qasrin was the best and what better way to balance the alcohol than with a burger and fries?  Can I tell you that it was the best beef I have ever had?  That wouldn’t be a lie.

 

cows of Bashan and Mt Hermon

Moshe Basson!

Spice mixes for chicken and fish

village streets

Aged t-bone

cooks at the Culinary Workshop

Hope you can get there soon!

Links to some of my favorite spots in Israel: 

Meat Shos

Flam Winery

The Workshop Restaurant

Golan Heights Winery

Moshe Basson at Eucalyptus

YOU ASKED FOR IT!!!!!

I am so excited about this....  GET READY!

I have been talking about the tostapane for years.  I have used it on my TV show a hundred times, I wrote a blog about it years ago, and many of you have written asking where you can buy one!   I always made a joke and said that you had to come with me to Italy to get one.

On one of my trips, my students and I descended upon a small hardware store in Greve’s central square, and bought out their stock! Now I finally imported them into the U.S., and it is available now on Open Sky at: https://opensky.com/joanneweir/product/tostapane.

It is such a simple concept, but nowhere else to be found. It toasts bread or crostini on top of the stove and makes it taste like you’ve cooked it over an open fire, just like in Italy!  My favorite way to use it is to slice a loaf of rustic bread, toast the slices on both sides on the tostapane until they smoke slightly, then remove and rub them with a cut garlic clove. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle them with salt – a Maldon salt  or other flavored salt – and you have the snack from heaven!

my life at Copita

If you were wondering what happened to me, I promise I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.  For the last several years, I loved traveling the world teaching, sitting behind my computer writing and smiling in front of the camera but now it feels so right to be back in the kitchen.  I'm at Copita pretty much 24/7 these days cooking with my Mexican soul mate and sous chef, Dilsa Lugo.     Dilsa is from the Cuernavaca, Mexico, I am from San Francisco and working side by side, knives in hand, our creative juices are flowing together.  It feels good to be doing something as simple as shucking sweet corn for corn soup, chopping cilantro from our organic garden in the Sausalito hills and roasting heirloom tomatoes for salsa rustica.  At this point in my life, I'm learning a lot from Dilsa and teaching her what I've learned along the way.  And the best part…  people are loving what we are doing at Copita.

Here’s what they’re saying…

“Honestly, I was a little surprised that the second thing I saw was Weir—her head of red curls bobbing through the crowd with the calm of a pro. She's a woman constantly on the move with ideas and projects. Great for Copita: she's working the floor with her signature charm on a random Tuesday night.”

Then, carnitas. Oh man. They rival Nopalito's adored rendition, for sure: crisp edges, enough salt, a hit from the lime wedge, and—well, my friend said it best: "This is like crack!" I let her bring home the leftovers. 

All of the tortillas are made in house by Mexico-born sous chef Dilsa Lugo (hence the masa smell filling the dining room).

My point here, is that I'll be back, and you should not be afraid to cross the bridge on a Tuesday for a mid-week Marin escape. Considering the manageable prices at Copita, you could even make it a quarterly thing. Just don't underestimate the power of a Mexican restaurant in Sausalito. Make a reservation.”

7 X 7 Magazine, June 21, 2012

“The food at Copita is top-notch, but there’s a reason “Tequileria” comes first in the restaurant’s tag line. Weir has tequila expertise like few others, and they’re leveraging it to the max at Copita"

Restaurant Hospitality,  June 20, 2012      

“Copita, just about overnight, has suddenly become southern Marin’s most stylish destination for Mexican cuisine.”

Marin Scope Newspapers,  June 13, 2012

Named “Bay Area’s 10 Hottest New Restaurants”

Zagat, June 2012

“Copita has certainly become a Sausalito game changer”

Zagat Buzz, June 2012

And here’s what we’re cooking…

Aguachiles- I first tried this dish with my feet in the sand in Puerta Vallerta.  Shrimp "cooked" in lime juice with a sauce of chiles, lime juice, cilantro and cucumbers.  Avocados and red onions on top.  

 

   California halibut ceviche with serranos, lime, red onions and cucumbers

 

Tamailtos,three little tamales filled with corn and roasted poblanos, pork adobo and chicken verde

 

Mexican tourists are saying that our carnitas is just like their mother's. Thanks to Dilsa's Mom

 

 Oaxacan chocolate milkshake with chile arbol-spiced wedding cookies

I promise to keep posting, maybe even a recipe or two from Copita.  

I miss you all.  And if you're in the Bay Area, jump on the ferry and head over to Sausalito.  We'll have a margarita together!

i love to wine

I spent Easter weekend in Napa with one of the highlights being a visit with Michael Trujillo. Many of you wine buffs know Michael. He’s regarded by wine cognoscenti as a cult winemaker even before the term “cult winemaker” became cultish! And to boot, he’s such a great guy.

This Colorado native, and the proud father of Sophia, developed vineyards in Carneros in the mid-80’s, a magical time when wine legends like Andre Tchelistcheff and Tony Soter were mentors to many winemakers including Michael.

Back then, he was gathering advice anywhere he could from the wine world’s greatest consultants, taking classes in the oenology department at UC Davis, and crazy enough “without any money” to launch his wine business, Karl Lawrence. His first Karl Lawrence release was a ’91 Rutherford Cabernet and “it took off to the moon,” Michael says proudly. Today he’s President and Director of Winemaking at Sequoia Grove and still produces some magnificent wines for Karl Lawrence.

But, guess who else he makes wines for?

JOANNE WEIR WINES! He made our 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon that’s getting fabulous reviews.

Last weekend, I was with Michael and my wine partner, Tim McDonald, tasting and talking about what we want to do next together. We tasted a beautiful vertical sampling of vintages and loved the thread of silky quality that ran through 5 vintages of this marvelous Cabernet vineyard. Wow, this guy is a genius. You can taste that wine brilliance in every sip of his wine especially my ‘08 Cabernet.

I am so excited to introduce him to you and have Michael as part of the Joanne Weir Wine team.

how my love affair began

When I was 23 years old, I was given a bottle of wine as a housewarming gift after moving into an apartment in Boston. As my roommate and I finished the last of the bottle, there was a dead fly clinging to the inside of my glass. Yuck!

Disgusted, I wrapped the fly in a piece of aluminum foil and sent it off to a winery in France I'd never heard of. Little did I know that I sent that red wine-drenched fly to one of the top wineries in the world.

A month later,an invitation arrived in my mailbox to be a guest for lunch at Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux, France.

A Boston high school art teacher at the time, I decided to spend that summer vacation in France and cash in on the invitation for lunch.

Dressed in my favorite blue Diane Von Furstenberg wraparound dress and matching espadrilles, I spent an afternoon at the Chateau eating an extraordinary lunch of duck livers on butter-drenched toast, duck breast and a strawberry tart and drinking wines I will never forget.

We started with a Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1966, then '47 and '24 and ended with Chateau d'Yquem from 1896. I remember thinking that I was drinking nectar of the Gods.

This would be a day that would change my life forever.

For years after, I've thought back on this day... how I fell in puppy love with my host, the Chateau Mouton exporting agent Xavier de Eizaguirre in his white linen suit. He was so much older, oh-so French and oh-so worldly. He was all of 30!

I remember every moment of that day. I was so high on the experience (probably quite tipsy too) that I remember speaking like I was fluent in French. I was so not! But the thing I remember most is singing all the way to Biarritz that late afternoon.

Thus my love affair with wine began!

Check out my new Joanne Weir Wines sold exclusively online and shipped all over the US!