Bay Area Restaurants are a Popular DUI Checkpoint Location

Posted on by anothermonkeythai

Police departments throughout the Bay Area have been capitalizing on the activity surrounding some of the more popular restaurants in this community, setting up DUI checkpoints to make sure that patrons enjoying the world-class drinking and dining opportunities throughout this region aren’t putting any community members at risk a long way.

For years now, police departments throughout this region have been announcing where and when they are going to set up many of the DUI checkpoints that stretch throughout the San Francisco bay area.

These checkpoints have proven to be a wonderful deterrent against individuals thinking about driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence. DUI arrests across the board are down significantly in this part of California, even if San Francisco and the surrounding area still has relatively higher instances of DUIs and DWIs than most of the rest of this state.

Just this past week, police officers in Santa Rosa screened more than 800 different vehicles moving through a popular neighborhood filled with amazing restaurants, resting for different individuals for driving under the influence of alcohol. Two other people were arrested for possessing illegal drugs or having a probation violation, and 23 more individuals had been cited for driving without a license or driving when their license was suspended/revoked.

In the Rohnert Park community, almost 1200 vehicles were stopped and moved through a DUI checkpoint outside of a bustling restaurant community as well. A single person was arrested for driving under the influence, with another being arrested for violating probation as well as a domestic violence restraining order.

As you can see, both of these checkpoints proved to be a fantastic deterrent at stopping people visiting the restaurants in those areas from drinking too much and then choosing to slide behind the wheel of their vehicle.

Of course, DUI checkpoints aren’t perfect solutions when people are committed to drinking and driving.

A young man, whose identity has not been released to the public, crashed directly into a DUI checkpoint in Fremont after leaving a local area restaurant. His vehicle jumped the curb around the Stevenson Boulevard neighborhood, zoomed up a small hill, and then crashed directly into a police cruiser that had been set up at the DUI checkpoint.

No injuries were reported, including no injuries to the driver that was obviously inebriated, though witnesses did say that the driver just narrowly missed plowing into several of the officers that had been working that DUI checkpoint.

Interestingly enough, police officers later said that the suspect that has been arrested and cited with driving under the influence was also a person of interest for another suspected DUI crash that occurred just a week prior out in Union City.

For the most part however, DUI checkpoints are doing a great job at persuading the community members and visitors to the Bay Area to give up any ideas of driving while intoxicated. Hopefully these instances will continue to dwindle downwards, and maybe one day folks won’t have to worry about drunk drivers sharing the road with more responsible individuals.

Restaurant Liability for Customer Accidents

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How Restaurants are Liable when Customers Slip and Fall in their Premises?

Restaurants are wholly responsible for the safety of their customers. The upkeep of the establishment, everything from the quality of the food and beverages being served to ensuring there are no hazardous materials in the premises that can cause any health problem is the sole responsibility of the restaurant owner. In some cases, the manager or the chef of the restaurant may also be held responsible. The restaurant is not only responsible for the well-being and safety of the customers but also its own employees and vendors or suppliers when they are on the premises.

Should a customer slip and fall anywhere within the premises of a restaurant, there is a possibility of the establishment or the owner being held liable, according to Santa Cruz Injury Attorney. This is not a generic rule though as the exact cause of slip and fall will be ascertained. A customer can always lose balance or suffer from some physiological problem that has nothing to do with the restaurant management or its premises. A customer accessing the washroom may trip or slip in haste, which would not always be the fault of the restaurant. There is no legal culpability or liability in any instance where the restaurant has played no role in the slip and fall and has not caused the accident or contributed to it in any way. In scenarios where the restaurant has failed to attend to the upkeep of the place or where any of the staff has contributed to a slip and fall accident, there is potential legal and financial liability.

A restaurant may have wet and slippery floors, either during cleaning or because someone has spilled some liquid. There should be proper notification warning the customers of such wet floors or possible slipperiness. In the absence of any warning, a customer can sue the restaurant if one slips and falls. A restaurant may have uneven tiles, broken staircase or unstable railings. Any such anomaly causing a slip and fall will potentially have the restaurant accountable. However, the type and extent of liability will depend almost entirely on the nature of suffering and damages that a customer has had to endure.

In most cases, restaurants will be potentially be liable for the medical bills of a customer who has suffered an injury at their premises. This applies to employees as well. Any employee injured at the workplace for no fault of theirs can demand adequate or fair compensation from the employer. If the employer refuses to provide such compensation, then the employee can always take legal action. Similarly, customers too can take legal action against a restaurant should it refuse to pay for the medical expenses.

Some cases will demand compensations greater than the immediate medical expenses, according to San Diego Personal Injury Lawyers. Customers may suffer from serious conditions, there can be life altering injuries and one may be incapable of working for a while or perhaps forever in rarest of rare cases. Restaurants can be sued to pay for damages in such instances, as deemed fit after a fair assessment of the financial equivalent of the suffering endured by the customer.

Napa Restaurant settles Food Poisoning Lawsuit

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Redd, the popular seafood restaurant in Napa County recently settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Restaurant.  One of the main issues in the legal dispute was the restaurants failure to warn of the risks of eating under-cooked food on the menu as is required by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to Sacramento Personal Injury Attorney, restaurants that serve under cooked or rare food, like many seafood restaurants regularly do, need to comply with the rules and regulations of the FDA, and, at a minimum, properly advise on the actual menu the dangers of eating such food.  Eating these foods can be especially dangerous to individuals that already have health issues, as was the case here.

How to Get Around the Bay Area

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This article was contributed by Sacramento DUI Attorney Michael Rehm. The San Francisco Bay Area in northern California is absolutely stunning. You can find just about everything in the Bay Area from huge bustling urban metropolises and sunny beach fronts to beautiful hiking hillsides and the world renowned Napa Valley.

The Bay Area is composed of nine different counties. San Francisco is the hub of the Bay Area as it exists in the middle of all the other counties. Solano, Napa, Sonoma and Marin County compose the North Bay Area. Contra Costa and Alameda County make up the East Bay Area. Most of Santa Clara County composes the South Bay Area, with the exception of the Northern region. The Northern region of Santa Clara County along with San Mateo, compose the Peninsula of the Bay Area.

When you’re in the Bay Area, there are many different ways to get around and see the sights. Depending on what you want to see, there could be different ways to go about seeing them. In any case, traveling around the Bay Area is relatively easy due to the variety of options available to you.

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Driving: It’s the most obvious choice when travelling anywhere, but with driving comes headaches. The Bay Area has a series of networked freeways, which makes going from County to County a bit easier. However, during rush hour all the major freeways are subject to terrible congestion.

The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), runs along the coast and is the slower, but more scenic route. The PCH is 500 miles long and full of twists, hills, turns and stunning views.

In some of the larger cities like San Francisco, driving can be a terrible experience. It can be congested and confusing due to one way streets, narrow lanes and steep hills. Parking downtown can also be quite costly at up to $30.

BART: The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), is a light rail transit system, which runs from six a.m. to midnight, 7 days a week. BART connects San Francisco, the East Bay, Contra Costa, some portions of the Peninsula and both the San Francisco and Oakland airports.

Ticket prices for BART vary on the distance being travelled and tickets are sold at the stations through vending machines. Instead of having to buy individual tickets, every ticket is loaded with a dollar amount by the traveler. The ticket need to be scanned upon entering and exiting the train and the appropriate travel fee is removed from the balance of the card. In essence, $20 on a BART ticket could last a person a few days, depending on the use.

As with driving, BART can get quite crowded during rush hour or big events. BART also has a limited amount of stops, which mean you may still need to take other public transit systems to get to your final destination.

Public Transit: Aside from the rail system, public transit consists of buses and the iconic cable cars in San Francisco. It’s a great method to get around the more downtown areas, but if you’re looking to get out of the core Bay Area, having a car or using BART is a much better choice. Trying to get to say Napa Valley by bus would take quite some time (days potentially) and multiple transfers to different buses.

Caltrain: Caltrain is a commuter train that runs in the Peninsula. It goes from San Francisco to Gilroy. Just like the BART system, ticket prices vary by distance travelled and ticket are bought from vending machines. The train typically runs every half hour and once an hour during evenings.

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Taxis: Of course, like any other city there are plenty of taxis available. They’re mainly used in the downtown areas, but they can also take you just about anywhere else in the Bay Area. Although the price of a taxi to take you between counties could get a little high.

Uber: The Bay Area is home to Silicon Valley, the base of many of the biggest and smallest tech companies in the world. The mobile app Uber, is headquartered in San Francisco and it’s used for people to request rides. Uber services much of the Bay Area and if you’re a little more adventurous, using Uber could be a good way to get around. You could also gain some valuable insight about the Bay Area from your local driver.

Boat: There are passenger ferries available that can take you around the Bay Area. Obviously, the ferry destinations are limited, but it’s an excellent way to see the San Francisco skyline from the water or get a great picture of the infamous Alcatraz.

With the number of different ways to navigate the Bay Area, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting anywhere. If you take your time and plan accordingly, you should be able to not only see, but travel throughout the Bar Area with relative ease.

Traditional Thai food vs. American Thai food

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Can You Find Traditional Thai Food in America?

Americans are eating more Thai food than ever before. Thai restaurants are popping up in cities large and small, and Thai ingredients can be found in suburban supermarkets.

But can Thai food that’s cooked in America, by or for Americans, be the same – or even as good – as Thai food cooked by Thais in Thailand?

For many reasons, the answer is no. And in some cases, it has nothing at all to do with the food or the ingredients.

Eating Thai is a Community Experience

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Let’s start with the social aspects of eating. Whether at home or in a restaurant, Americans generally eat their meals in a more or less solitary setting. In restaurants, they eat at tables that are either feet away from their closest dining companions or in booths that put up literal barriers between them and those at the booths on either side. In Thailand, diners tend to eat at long tables, sitting elbow-to-elbow with people who may have been strangers at the start of the meal but are conversation buddies by the time it’s finished.

Even if they’re eating at home, Thais tend to share mealtimes, if not homes, with multiple generations of extended family. Children often sit on an aunt or grandmother’s lap rather than in their own seats. American families often eat in shifts, with children eating an earlier (and often different meal) than their parents.

Healthy Thai Food

OK, so this has a little to do with ingredients, but not necessarily how they affect the flavor or texture of a dish.

Diners who are familiar with Thai food made in Thailand often do not recognize Thai food served in America. Among other things, they cannot find any of the health benefits of truly authentic Thai food.

American portion sizes, especially of meat and poultry, are huge compared to what you would be served in Thailand. Servings of rice in the U.S. are typically much smaller. Thais believe, and most scientific research would probably bear this out, that a larger serving of rice and smaller serving of meat is a much better choice, health-wise.

The absence of traditional Thai herbs and seasonings is another issue, but not necessarily because of the effect on the flavor of the food (though this is an issue we’ll get into later). Pungent, tasty herbs such as Thai sweet basil, hot peppers and more, extend healing properties to the dish that are not found in the “wimpy” flavorings that most American taste buds are familiar with.

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American Thai Food: Can You Taste It Now?

Those who are accustomed to eating Thai food in Thailand say the main difference in American-created Thai food is the lack of the complex melding of flavors around which Thai cuisine is built.

Thai food is meant to be a combination of sweet, salty, hot, creamy and sour flavors. But American palates prefer foods that are highly sweet or salty, so chefs and owners of American Thai restaurants cater to their clientele by de-emphasizing or eliminating the other three flavors.

For example, those who have eaten Thai food in Thailand say the “spicy” option in America is often milder than the “mild” option in Thailand. That’s because American diners are not familiar with spiced foods. The same with sour flavors, they say.

A good example of this is the way dishes featuring Thai sweet basil are prepared. In Thailand, dishes that use this herb are packed with it. But in the U.S., the dish is predominantly meat or chicken, with vegetables and either noodles or rice, with a sprinkling of herbs that may or may not be actual Thai sweet basil.

Thai sweet basil is different from the green basil normally seen at the grocer’s or farm stand. And it has nothing at all in common with the dried and crushed leaves that come in jars.

Thai sweet basil is a purple-stemmed plant whose leaves are much sturdier than the green Italian basil normally purchased in the U.S. Its flavor is stronger, with hints not only of licorice but also of cinnamon and mint.

Other flavor differences are chalked up to the unavailability or unwillingness to use the freshest ingredients. In Thailand, chefs visit farmers markets daily. They are plentiful, inexpensive and open from early morning through late evening. Very busy cooks, such as those who run open-air food carts, might visit the farmers market twice in a day as they run out of certain ingredients.

In the U.S. farmers markets occur once a week and are limited to larger cities. Usually the products available there are more expensive than in grocery stores or through restaurant supply houses that deliver food on a weekly basis. Many main ingredients, both meats and vegetables, are frozen rather than fresh to comply with government regulations on freshness and safety. The result is a different quality to the ingredients and of course with the lesser quality, comes the lesser taste.

Thai Restaurant Scene in the Bay Area, California

Posted on by anothermonkeythai

San Francisco has always been a city that celebrates its food and its restaurants, and it is home to some of the best eateries on the planet.

Millions of people flock to San Francisco from all over the world each and every year just for the opportunity to eat at some of these specialty restaurants. And while many of them come for the sourdough bread (the only place you’ll be able to find sourdough bread that tastes just like this) or the sushi and authentic Asian food, many of them are starting to find out about the incredible Thai restaurant scene that is exploding all throughout the Bay Area.

Thai restaurants have always been pretty popular in California, but they used to be relegated to smaller eateries, café style places, and food trucks/carts. Most of the Thai food served in San Francisco was street vendor fare, and though it was delicious, there weren’t all that many established Thai restaurants in the Bay Area up until just a few short years ago.

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Today, however, Thai restaurants are absolutely exploding in popularity, with a dozen or more popping up each and every year. Though it is likely that Thai food will never overtake authentic Asian/Chinese food, sushi, or specialty craft food as the heartbeat of the San Francisco restaurant scene, it’s definitely giving those specialties a run for their money right now!

If you are thinking about visiting the City by the Bay and want to enjoy some of these specialty meals at the best high restaurants in the city, you’re going to want to check out some of the hotspot locations we break down for you below!

Amphawa Thai

For one reason or another, the overwhelming majority of Thai restaurants in the Bay Area all look like carbon copies of one another.

You aren’t going to have that problem when you come to Amphawa Thai.

Quiet, unassuming, and almost “invisible” as far as decor and design is concerned, this just kind of looks like a restaurant – and unassuming, friendly, open and inviting restaurant that you might have in your home town – that just happens to serve some of the best Thai food in the Bay Area. You’ll want to try out the Angel Wings, any of their stir-fry plates, and especially the yum pla muk.

Trust us, if there’s only one type of authentic Thai restaurant that you’re going to visit in San Francisco, it has to be this one!

Arun Thai

A smaller restaurant and definitely one of the more upscale locations offering authentic Thai food with a bit of a twist, this just might be the most famous Thai restaurant in the United States and one of the destination locations that help set off the Thai restaurant revolution in the city of San Francisco.

With absolutely no affiliation with the restaurant of the same name in Chicago, the San Francisco Arun Thai location is as special a place to eat Thai food as you’re going to find. All of the meals here are 100% authentic, prepared by individuals that have either lived in Thailand or studied under someone that has, and all of them have elite level culinary experience and skills that help them elevate the freshest ingredients available in the United States to something really, really special.

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On top of that, Arun (the owner) used to be a sommelier with the Mandarin Oriental in San Fran, which means that the wine list here is top-notch and will be perfectly paired with whatever it is you decide to eat when you visit this restaurant.

If you are looking for a very interesting and memorable experience, want to taste some of the best Thai food in the city (and maybe even the United States) and aren’t afraid to open up your wallet a little bit, you’ll need to make sure that you have reservations to Arun Thai. If you are looking for a dui attorney in San Diego, contact The Law Office of Michael Rehm.

Hint – try the “drunken noodles”. You won’t regret it!

Benjarong Thai Cuisine

As close to a “takeout Thai” location as you’re going to find that actually offers authentic and incredibly delicious Thai food, you’ll want to try and visit the Benjarong Thai Cuisine restaurant if you’re looking to grab a quick bite to eat on the fly and don’t want to spend a lot more than $10 and meal.

Everything about this location is pretty simple, straightforward, and open, and though they have a bar most regulars know that you should go into eating here with a “grab and go” kind of mentality. This is the kind of Thai food that tastes even better a day after you leave it in the refrigerator!