Tim and Erin Archuleta own ICHI Sushi which was named "Hottest Restaurant" of 2014 in the Eater Awards and included in the San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 Restaurants.
Read MoreHOLLY MUÑOZ
Holly Muñoz, formerly of the band Aviette, is recording her debut solo album with John Vanderslice.
What was the food highlight of your year?
My 2013 food highlight was a two-way tie (I know, I know.) between a meal including sweet potato casserole, greens, roast beef, cornbread and butter, fried catfish, hush puppies, mac and cheese, green beans, hot pepper chocolate pie, and more cornbread and butter at Arnold’s Country Kitchen in Nashville and two memorable chef’s choice dinners at Ichi Sushi in San Francisco. I guess that’s technically three. But these meals were AMAZING. Why? Because Arnold (who I didn’t meet, but I’m sure is a badass) and Tim and Erin (who I know well, and are, badass) from Ichi use food as a delivery vehicle for endless, boundless, ceaseless love.
What was the music highlight of your year?
I recently relocated from Minneapolis, MN to the Bay Area to work with the San Francisco Symphony. Much to my surprise, it’s difficult to move from a city where you’ve lived for 15 years and know lots and lots of people to somewhere you’ve lived for zero years and know like, four people. So this summer things are pretty down, like down to the point of embracing chaos theory. And one morning I wake up and remember that I have to work the Bobby McFerrin concert. And I’m like, “Seriously, universe? Another 14-hour day that will not involve getting lost in my couch with Season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy? And it’s the Don’t Worry Be Happy guy? Classic.
But then I go. And I’m listening to this man who is a MUSICAL GENIUS. Like, HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT BOBBY MCFERRIN IS A MUSICAL GENIUS?! And he’s exuberant and warm and singing about Jesus. And his band is exquisite. And pretty much everyone at Davies is floored. I can seriously say that in that moment Bobby restored my faith in humanity. FOREVER.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
Last weekend I played a living room concert in New York City to promote a new record I’m making with John Vanderslice. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it ended up turning into one of those all night amazing people/beautiful potluck deals with a couple kale salads, veggie tacos, homemade Vietnamese spring rolls, flourless chocolate cake (four ingredients: coconut oil, cacao, vanilla, and maple syrup), a selection of some of Bedford Cheese Shop's stinkiest/finest, popcorn, more chocolate, and traditional Kashmiri lentils and meatballs compliments of the visiting mother of the guy who lives on the 6th floor and, it turns out, is a killer musician in a band called, Zerobridge.
SEAN TIMBERLAKE
Sean Timberlake is the founder of Punk Domestics.
What was the food highlight of your year?
There were many things that stick with me: Revelatory kombucha (which I previously hated) at Kookoolan Farms in the Willamette Valley in Oregon; hauntingly delicious parsnip cake from Fable in the Castro; super-umami zosui at Nabe in the Sunset; mind-bending fermented tofu that was reminiscent of bleu cheese at ICHI Sushi; eating worms, grasshoppers and ant eggs in Guadalajara. But two of my favorite meals were in our own home, honoring two food legends who left us this year. In October we commemorated Marcella Hazan with an Italian dinner featuring lasagne with bolognese from her recipe. Then just over a week ago we made Zuni roast chicken and caesar salad to pay respect to Judy Rodgers. Our friend made the gateau victoire, the recipe for which she long ago wrested from the staff at Zuni. (It’s not in the cookbook.)
What was the music highlight of your year?
Two things: We went to see Caravan Palace perform at Bimbo’s 365 in July. I’ve enjoyed their music just generally, but they brought incredible energy to the stage. Infectious and imminently danceable. On the opposite side of the coin, we attended the funeral services for Jose Sarria, a.k.a., the Widow Norton, at Grace Cathedral. It was a moving affair, full of the most illustrious and illustrated folks San Francisco has to offer. At the end, though, for the retiring procession, the organist played Jean Langlais’ “Incantation pour in Jour Saint,” which is the most apocalyptic piece I’ve ever heard in my life. Deeply discordant, it shakes your body to the core.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
We went to Juhu Beach Club, Preeti Mistry’s restaurant in Temescal, Oakland, shortly before it opened to the public. As we entered and sat, “I Will Survive” was playing. Preeti came over to our table and said that she had told the hostess to quickly put on the gayest music possible to make us more comfortable.
TIM & ERIN ARCHULETA
Tim and Erin own Ichi Sushi in San Francisco.
What was the food highlight of your year?
Tim: Eating in Tokyo, Japan. Everything from phone booth style ramen service, to miso-marinated pig vulva, to skipping out on the lauded sushi bars of Tsukiji Market and landing in a local place having some of the best sushi of my life.
Erin: The Blue Plate’s tried and true meatloaf with my Mom and Pops. It’s been a few years since I’ve had red meat. That meatloaf brought me back.
What was the music highlight of your year?
The Flaming Lips show at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium here in San Francisco on Halloween. The overwhelming sensory displacement of a Flaming Lips show combined with everyone in costumes (even a mid-40s dude dressed as Miley Cyrus at the VMAs) was nothing short of a spectacle. Wayne Coyne dressed as Carrie and us, all at her miserable prom, was the ultimate way to see them — confetti canons and all. They ended the set, booming LOVE — LOVE — LOVE at the end of “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton,” sending the crowd back out washed in sound, and well, almost weirdly Flaming Lips-style hugged.
Was there a moment when food and music came together in a memorable way?
We traveled to New Orleans for a wedding and found ourselves in Algiers, an old shipping neighborhood dating back to 1719 on the bank of the Mississippi. You get to the neighborhood by ferry, and there are only a couple of shops and the historic courthouse when you dock. We explored a little deeper, seeing old Victorian homes, banana trees growing along fences on the side of the street, bundles of flowering vines, and a real divide between well-kept homes and a poorer neighborhood heading closer to the bridges. We waited for our pals’ courthouse ceremony in a gem of a holdover from the late 1700s, The Old Point Bar. We were waiting out a tropical storm in this relic that had survived so much more, and while we were bellied up to the bar for beers and something a little harder, we watched a crew of musicians load-in for later (wanted to beat the oncoming rain). We were sad not to be able to stay.
Later that weekend, we were wandering in the Quarter, and stumbled upon a wedding recessional pouring into the street with the Algiers Brass Band playing the happy couple and their guests out into the night. There was something very special about the slow, sticky pace of our experience in the remote ward, and then seeing its finest playing what most folks picture New Orleans to sound like out into a gaggle of celebratory wedding guests and tourists. Somehow, we felt like we were in on the secret of how great Algiers was. Up the road, we popped into Coops Place for Creole Seafood Gumbo and Jambalaya, still charmed by the whole experience, having a local meal. Ever since returning to San Francisco, we’re plotting our way back to New Orleans.