As if we needed an excuse to eat all the things in Wine Country, it's restaurant week in Napa. (Courtesy of Visit Napa Valley)
21 Fun Things to Do This Week (1.23.22)
20 January 2023
Plus, all that rain brought an abundance of mushrooms and the return of the Mycological Society of San Francisco's Fungus Fair; a 10-day Seafood & Sips Festival is taking over Mendocino; Bay Area Brew Fest makes a grand return; and Oakland's inaugural Lunar New Year parade gets marching.
Have a good one.
If food is your love language, don’t miss Napa Valley Restaurant Week. It's 10 days of exclusive menus for brunch, lunch, and dinner at restaurants including Mustards Grill, Brix, Angéle, Boon Fly Café, and more; now through January 29th. // Participating restaurants and reservations at visitnapavalley.com
Try not to get dizzy as the best figure skating talent in the nation competesat the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Attend in person when the 2023 U.S. Championships return to San Jose for the fourth time (1996, 2012, and 2018) or tune in via NBC Universal and Peacock; Tuesday through Sunday. // SAP Center, 525 W. Santa Clara St. (San Jose); tickets at sapcenter.com
Let yourself free at the Fitz and the Tantrums tour. The dance-pop group will take to the stage in San Francisco as part of Wells Fargo's One Night Only series; Wednesday at 8pm. // The Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness Ave. (TenderNob); tickets at axs.com
Lace up your skates for KQED's Roller Disco. Learn about San Francisco's quirky rollerskating history before hitting the floor at Church of 8 Wheels. Feeling shaky? The pros from Rollerdance will be on-site for skating lessons; Wednesday at 7pm. // Church of 8 Wheels, 554 Fillmore St. (Lower Haight); tickets at kqed.org
Join National Geographic Live for a deep dive on whales. Nat Geo explorer and photographer Brian Skerry will share highlights from his latest project for the Emmy Award–winning documentary TV series Secrets of the Whales. Hear his behind-the-scenes stories and get an inside look at the groundbreaking science of whale culture; Thursday at 7pm. // JCCSF, 3200 California St. (Presidio Heights); tickets at jccsf.org
Help keep Ukraine's field hospitals running at Warm Up Ukraine's immersive experience featuring Ukranian artists, DJs, and food by chef Anna Voloshyna; Thursday, 6pm to 1am. // Temple, 540 Howard St. (SoMa); tickets at warmupukraine.org
Transport yourself to the bustling streets of Beijing at Cal Academy's Lunar Underground NightLife event. Grab a themed cocktail and try your hand at mahjong, ink yourself with a very real Lunar New Year–inspired tattoo, take in an LED lion dance performance, and roam the night market for treasures and treats; Thursday at 6pm. // California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr. (Golden Gate Park); tickets at calacademy.org
Get a taste of Wine Country history when Wente Vineyards, the oldest continuously operated, family-owned winery in the country, pops us at B-Side for a tasting of five wines with heavy apps; Thursday at 5pm. // B-Side, 201 Franklin St. (Hayes Valley); tickets at toasttab.com
Treat yourself to an unforgettably jazzy evening with Fred Hersch and Esperanza Spalding. The pair are celebrating the release of their new album, Alive at the Village Vanguard; Thursday at Friday at 7:30pm and 9:45pm. // Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West (Oakland); tickets at yoshis.com
Mix and mingle with established and emerging zinfandel producers at ZinEx 2023. The three-day ode to all things zin includes an opening night dining event, tasting seminar, winemaker auction, and a grand tasting featuring more than 80 wineries; Thursday to Saturday. // The Pavilion at One Market, 30 Steuart St. (Embarcadero); tickets at eventbrite.com
Bring your bib and an appetite to Mendocino for Seafood & Sips. Formerly known as Crab & Wine Days, the annual multi-day event celebrates the locally sourced stars of the sea with a family-style cioppino feed and crab cake cook-off, a Mendocino sparkling wine celebration, and regional hotel deals; Friday through February 5th. // Details at visitmendocino.com
Take advantage of a limited-time New Year’s special when you make reservations for a Hawaiian escape to Queen Kapi‘olani Hotel. Located in Waikīkī, it’s just steps from the sparkling Pacific Ocean and has stunning views of Diamond Head. // Make reservations at queenkapiolani.com.
Thank you to our partners at Queen Kapi‘olani Hotel.
Indulge in a six-course truffle-themed dinner in Maybeck's swanky private dining room. The Marina restaurant is kicking off its new monthly dinner series with an ode to the most luxurious fungus with such dishes as black truffle monkey bread with truffle butter; Dungeness crab with sunchoke panna cotta and truffle vinaigrette; and ricotta and egg yolk raviolo with shaved truffle; Friday at 7pm. // Maybeck's, 3213 Scott St. (Marina); tickets at exploretock.com
Funny man Fred Armisen brings three nights of laughs to the Bay as part of SF Sketchfest. His act, Comedy for Bass Players but Everyone Is Welcome, will feature a different guest bass player each night: Les Claypool of Primus, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go's, and Mike Dirnt of Green Day; Friday and Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 8pm. // Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell St. (Tenderloin); tickets at gamh.com
Celebrate the Bay Area's LGBTQIA+ Community with the San Francisco Ballet. This special evening includes three world-premiere performances from choreographers Nicolas Blanc, Claudia Schreier, and Yuri Possokhov; plus a meet-the-artist segment, and a post-performance cocktail party at The Madrigal; Friday at 7pm. // War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave. (Civic Center); tickets at sfballet.org
After a three-year pandemic hiatus, Bay Area Brew Fest will once again bring beer aficionados and I-just-wanna-get-drunk city dwellers together for unlimited beer tastings from more 50 breweries; Saturday, noon to 10pm. // Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, 2 Marina Blvd. (Marina); tickets at eventbrite.com
Dust off your best Burning Man fits for Pink Mammoth's 19th anniversary party. Dress in your best shades of pink and let loose to sultry house beats to raise funds for the group's return to the Playa; Saturday, 9pm to 3am. // Public Works, 161 Erie St. (Mission); tickets at eventbrite.com
The silver lining of the past few weeks of relentless rain? Mushrooms. Join the Mycological Society of San Francisco for the 2023 Fungus Fair. You'll find an incredible array of fungi collected from across the Bay Area. There will also be educational workshops, lectures, and more; Sunday, 10am to 5pm. // DVC - Horticulture Department, 321 Golf Club Rd. (Pleasant Hill); tickets at eventbrite.com
Make an event of your Sunday morning produce shopping with a special Lunar New Year celebration at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market complete with themed live performances and special deals to celebrate the Lunar Year; Sunday, 9am to 2pm. // 37th Avenue between Ortega & Quintara (Outer Sunset), sunsetmercantilesf.com/osfmm
The Oakland Museum of California will host its own Year of the Rabbit community celebration with performances—including a lucky lion dance, Filipino dance, and Malaysian drumming—family-friendly storytelling, and crafts such as paper lantern-making; Saturday, noon to 4pm. // OMCA, 1000 Oak St. (Oakland), museumca.org
Watch Oakland's streets come alive with red and gold at Oakland's inaugural Lunar New Year parade, which will wind its way to Wilma Chan Park; Saturday, 11am to 1pm. // Chinatown, between Madison St. and Webster St. (Oakland); details at ocic-ca.org