Check, Please! Bay Area Taste & Sip 2023

All floors of the San Francisco Design Center Galleria were abuzz with excitement on Monday, June 12, 2023, for this year’s Taste & Sip, an annual event celebrating the popular KQED program Check, Please! Bay Area. The show, now in its 18th season, launched in 2005 with a simple premise: to welcome local diners—not professional restaurant critics—to share their favorite Bay Area restaurants.

Host and San Francisco Bay Times columnist Leslie Sbrocco, along with reporter and coordinating producer Cecilia Phillips, audience engagement manager Coco Keevan, and other members of the Check, Please! Bay Area team, warmly greeted and took photos with guests, including the Bay Times publishers who presented Sbrocco with a colorful Pride cake from Noe Valley Bakery.

More than 50 restaurants featured on the show and some of Sbrocco’s favorite local wineries came together for the celebration that showcased the flavorful diversity and heart of the Bay Area’s culinary community. The event is wellnamed, as guests were able to taste and sip their way throughout the Galleria.

The NomaD Band provided live music. A raffle, with some prizes worth thousands of dollars, led to squeals of happy joy from the rafters as winners heard their names being called by Phillips and Sbrocco. The charismatic host rocked Elton John-inspired “bubble boots” for the memorable evening.

Watch Check, Please! Bay Area on KQED 9 and check out KQED’s live summer events: https://www.kqed.org/events https://www.sincerecider.com/

Sincere is a sponsor of Juanita MORE!’s 2023 Pride Party for which proceeds will benefit Queer Lifespace, an organization dedicated to providing mental health resources to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Author, speaker, wine consultant, and television host Leslie Sbrocco is known for her entertaining approach to wine and food. She has won multiple Emmy Awards for her work on PBS, which includes hosting the series “Check, Please! Bay Area,” “Check, Please! You Gotta Try This!” and “100 Days, Drinks, Dishes & Destinations.” www.LeslieSbrocco.com

I’ve been following the culinary career of talented chef Srijith Gopinathan since even before he earned two Michelin stars years ago at Campton Place. He went on to launch the lauded Cal-Indian eatery Ettan in Palo Alto. Thankfully, he has returned to the city with business partner Ayesha Thapar to open Copra in Pacific Heights (in the former Dosa space). In short, we’re glad he did. Copra (which translates to dried coconut kernel) is a love letter from the chef to his native Indian states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Both are situated in the south, bordering the coast near Sri Lanka. The influence of those areas is felt throughout the menu, highlighting the local spices (including chilies, curry leaves, mustard seeds, turmeric, tamarind, black pepper, cardamom, clove, ginger, and cinnamon), as well as the area’s abundance of rice, fish, and coconut. It’s an appetizing choice not prevalent in San Francisco, and I welcomed trying something new.

I dined there recently with my husband and well-known cheese expert and author Laura Werlin.