Monday. One word that says it all. A belated Easter greeting to all of our fans. We would have posted sooner but it was a frenetic weekend at the Casa De Bink. Today saw the early morning departure of the Binkomonster staff philosopher, Dr. Spilman. We were lucky enough to be graced by her presence on a whirlwind tour to the States, and although 2 days is much too short a time for debriefings, we are glad that we could at least grab that much time. Saturday saw us doing all manner of castle prep for the guest. And it also saw us visiting Coi. The short of it? The space is nice. Great color, great furniture, cozy and chic. The food? More an academic exercise of presentation on the plate and 'interesting' flavors (foie gras ice cream anyone?), but not something that is making us jump up and down with glee and drag the hordes to worship. The courses were decent, and consistent, but it should say something that 2 days on, the memory has faded and we have a hard time remembering a single memorable nibble apart from the frozen meat custard. We will give props where they ARE due however, and note that our cocktail which began the evening (blood orange juice, ginger, and Aperol) was simply divine, and enjoyed by all. We are on a quest to reproduce this lovely elixir here at the Binko-labs, but we need to locate some blood oranges (which appear to now be out of season). The high point of the weekend festivities had to be Easter Sunday, in which we started our adventures with a trip to Whole Foods for some ingredients with which to whip up a quick and tasty dinner. There was a late afternoon stop (and snack break, and wine tasting, and margarita imbibing) at our satellite offices on Folsom Street. Which, by the way, offer the most amazing view of the San Francisco skyline. And while preparing a batch of fresh margaritas, we fell in love with a new toy. Leave it to Alessi to keep creating objects we simply salivate over. This juicer is in a word, perfect. For some time now we've been using a variety of citrus presses to make the components for our cocktails. We actually have two presses, a large form factor (to accommodate oranges of all varieties), and a smaller form factor (for lemons and limes). And while both seem to do the trick, we've long stared at the rinds thinking that we could be extracting more juice from our fruit. And see, that's where this Alessi juicer is impressive. One slice to halve the willing lime, and one gentle press to the main nub of the juicer starts it whirring (while not making a mess spitting pulp everywhere). Instead you have a steady stream of clear/green lime juice making a path into the receptacle of your choice. After about a minute or so; all rind, very little pulp, and all the juice extracted. Wunderbar! We are obviously going to make a trip to Zinc this week to add this marvelous instrument to our chemistry lab. After we had the afternoon to poke, prod and fondle this new-fangled device, the party moved to Binkomonster Central. A steady stream of friends/neighbors made their way to our doorstep to share a glass, nibble on a chocolate, grab a quick dinner bite, engage in conversation, listen to some swing, and play some mah-jong. And a very cool bonus? Our CEO saw fit to purchase a fountain with spotlight which has now been installed on the deck. So when the 'lights go down in the city' our cozy space is not only warm, replete with couch and table, but also stocked with funky candles, chimes that go 'ching' in the wind, and spotlights on our lovely jungle. We may never leave.