The List

For those of you who have not encountered 7 x 7's List of 100 Things to Try Before You Die in San Francisco it is a slightly intimidating list of things you should either eat or drink before you die. They range from the cheese course at Gary Danko to pig parts at Incanto. Most every neighborhood of San Francisco is represented as well as every type of cuisine in all price ranges.

Check it out for yourself here: http://www.7x7.com/content/eat-drink/big-eat-sf-100-things-try-you-die

Miss A made it a totally ridiculous/amazing spreadsheet that I stare at for several large chunks of time throughout the day.

Our first joint List Adventure was the Milk Roasted Pork at L'Osteria del Forno in North Beach. This restaurant was chosen for how easy it is to get to for both of us from our jobs Downtown. The restaurant is small and I noticed that quite a few of the yelp reviewers noted that they had to stand in line for a while to get in if they came sometime after 6:30 or so. Lucky for me and Miss A my eating habits resemble that of a senior citizen. 5:30 it is!

We decided that we didn't both have to order the dish for it to count. As long as you have tasted a portion of it you're good. Miss A ordered delicious ravioli with ricotta cheese in a marinara sauce and I ordered the milk-roasted pork. While good I do think I could die without trying it. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge fan of herbs, which played a large part in the overall taste. It was two thin slices of pork which I assume had been marinated in milk before going in the oven. I have heard of this technique being used with chicken. I wish I could better describe the dish but it didn't make too much of an impression. We stopped in for dessert at the bakery next door after our dinner.

Quite underwhelmed with our first List Experience. We both headed off with hopes that our next Crossing Off would be more mind blowing.

The Origin, Creation, and Birth of Ladies About Town

The story of our blog begins with a simple food list, discussed next in detail by Miss O, which has morphed and taken on a life of its own as well as consuming ours. I also had the fortune of receiving another restaurant list from our friend Miss F the same week and having a major lull in work all at the same time, which is how our master plan began to unfold.

First, creating a master spreadsheet of 'tasks' to complete. This project was perfect for me … besides being a closet nerd and actually enjoying creating excel spreadsheets (I also love math, it’s a sickness really), since pretty much all I do at work is excel, it was the perfect cover if anyone ever wanted to check if I’m working and I’ve become rather good at it. The master spreadsheet started as a cross listing of the 7x7 list with Miss F’s list and summation columns of which ‘tasks’ we had completed. It expanded to include neighborhood, type of food, and yelp link … at this point it has really become a dining ‘tool’, key to our masterful planning - in week 1 alone we completed 5 items comfortably. There is just no way that happens without it!

For those of us like Miss O and myself, staying constantly entertained is the key to happiness; we have quickly discovered, among other things, that we are terrible at being low key. This list was really a dream come true for us, 100 things to do! Really the best part, besides feeling like we’re in the know and will make really awesome dinner dates from now on, is discovering new places/neighborhoods … we hope it will become an adventure and there will be brilliant stories that come out of it.

We decided at one point, rather than recounting our shenanigans to each other over gchat, they should really be exposed to the world. Since my texts have not yet begun to make it to textsfromlastnight (there must be multiple people in my phonebook who have yet to discover the site), we half joked about starting a blog. Then we realized that it was selfish to keep all these stories from the world … if our friends are any indication, we can be quite entertaining and sort of ridiculous.

After deciding as a final step to cross list our excel sheet (excuse me, dining tool!) with restaurants included in Dine About Town, we realized as single, 20-somethings trying to finish a food list and discussing our shenanigans, Ladies About Town would make a clever? (I’m a sucker for play on words – another closet nerd sign) and cute name, and so Ladies About Town was born!

You've Gotta Start Somewhere

Who: Miss A and Miss O.  Two young ladies ("girls" sounds immature, and since we are in our twenties, it's also pretty inaccurate) on a quest to complete 7 X 7 magazine's list of 100 Things to Eat in San Francisco Before You Die.  We do other things, too, but right now The List consumes our thoughts and actions.

What: Our adventures and mishaps along the way with pictures when appropriate.   We would like to think we are going to give some insight into what it is like to be a post grad in these weird times.  Also, sometimes we forget what we do on the weekends and hope this will help us keep track!

Where: San Francisco!  Mostly - we are open to expanding our horizons to exotic locales like Vegas and Miami.  

When: The blog started in 2009.  Miss A and Miss O met in 2008 over drinks and thin crust pizza at the rather yuppie Americano.  

Why: We need a hobby.  We also like to think that we get ourselves into interesting situations and chronicling them will be entertaining to look back on.