Going Deeper into the San Francisco Restaurant Scene with Simmr

Do you think it would be fun to learn more about the restaurants you enjoy in San Francisco? You might have your favorite places and frequent them and wonder what happens behind the scenes and who the chefs are. Maybe you would like to learn how to cook some of your favorite dishes such as rice balls at Onigilly, or tapas from Antologia Vinoteca or make some cocktails from your favorite bars, or even how to make your own Indian-spiced Chai. Well, your wishes have just come true thanks to Simmr a new interactive food business in San Francisco.

In this day and age of marketing and social media "customer engagement" is a huge term. Indeed that is what inspired Wendy Lin and Neeharika Bharitya to create a fun food experience business to really engage customers and assist restaurants in making their customers into repeat customers. They co-founded Simmr and their idea is to pair food/restaurant lovers by putting on events at the restaurants. I got a great taste at a recent event at Antologia Vinoteca where I learned to make shrimp ceviche and tasted wines to pair with it.

When we arrived at Antologia Vinoteca we were greeted with a glass of housemade Sangria and snacks and there was time to socialize and meet fellow participants.  The restaurant gets turned into a cooking school with a demonstration kitchen and we were introduced to the chef Brandon Peralta. He took us through all the steps to making a tasty dish which of course we got to eat. We also learned some tips such as how to properly cut with a large knife, how to devein shrimp and how best to scoop out the fruit of an avocado.

Restaurant turned cooking school at Antologia Vinoteca

Ingredients for shrimp ceviche

We also met Carlos the wine director. He led us through a tasting of 3 wines that he suggested to pair with the ceviche. 

Vinho verde from Portugal, Sauvignon Blanc from Chile and a Garnacha Blanca from Spain which we paired with our delicious final product.  

 

Social media is a big part of these events and they request that you post your photos to twitter and Facebook. They even have contests for the best photo.


I had a great time and I came away with a great recipe for ceviche and what kinds of wines to pair with it. I enjoyed meeting the chef and wine director and had fun with my fellow participants. And I would go back to Antologia Vinoteca as I found their wine list filled with interesting selections from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. I highly recommend that you try one of their events.

Check them out at www.simmr.co

Thank you so much to Wendy and Neeharika for inviting me. I sincerely hope your business is a great success!