Before the pre-season game between our local football teams, 08/20/11, our mayors made a friendly bet to pay the winner in the losing mayor’s hometown food & coffee.
While my home team, the Raiders, lost, I was happy because Oakland Mayor Quan picked Vice Chocolates as part of her wager payment. I certainly hope that San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee tries Vice and learns something about good local chocolate. He offered Ghirardelli Chocolate, which is disappointing on several levels:
- While it has local roots, Ghirardelli is available EVERYWHERE. It’s like bringing somebody Godiva Chocolates as a souvenir from a trip to Brussels.
- There are excellent local artisan chocolates in San Francisco, such as Coco Tutti
, Recchiuti or XOX Truffles, which would’ve made for a more uniquely San Francisco statement. - For being mayor of a foodie town, Mayor Lee seems very un-foodie in his pick. Maybe he doesn’t like chocolate, but I think he missed an opportunity to promote local business and show some political savvy. After all, he has an election coming up.
So, once again, I’m glad I live in Oak-town with its great food scene, including awesome chocolatiers like Vice, Michael Mischer, and Barlovento, and a mayor who appreciates it. I saw Mayor Quan the next day at the Art & Soul Festival in downtown Oakland, and thanked her for choosing a good local chocolate like Vice. She said that even though she had to buy it herself to settle the bet, she was happy to do it to promote our local food scene.
Go Oakland!
