Au Cochonnet Marin

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first! Ernestine Ulmer

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“Désamour” is a French word meaning « falling out of love ».
It can happen to anybody, anytime and it just happened to me.

I fell out of love with La Boulange (we are still friends) my oasis in the wilderness of Marin County for many years.

This state of affairs usually happens when you come across somebody or something that looks more attractive than what you are used to.

I was accustomed to go La Boulange (still one the best “snackaria” around) and I never looked anywhere else.
It was convenient and the food was varied and decent.
But since La Boulange is scheduled to close its doors at the end of September, I decided to look for a new breakfast/lunch place.
And when I came across the Rustic Bakery (owned by Carol LeValley) in Larkspur, it was love at first sight.

One morning, upon biting in a ham and cheese croissant I realized that this place’s offerings were superior to those of La Boulange.
I also discovered that the Rustic Bakery bakes its mouth-watering pastries on the premises, and you can tell right away if you are dealing with a stale leftover or a freshly baked delicacy.
As somebody who cut his teeth on croissants, I sure can tell the difference.

All the pastries exposed under glass looked fresh and tantalizing.
If I may use a bawdy analogy, they looked as bewitching as the girls showing their wares in Amsterdam’ Red District windows.

Talking about food… I just heard in a French movie (naturellement) the following line spoken by the leading lady:
“I don’t cook, but in I am good in bed.”
Well then, if you ask me, never mind “boeuf Bourguignon” or “crêpes Suzette”…
But that’s just me…

Excuse my digression…

The prices at the Rustic Bakery are a little higher than at La Boulange, but it is worth it.

My only area of concern is organization.
With at least 10 people working behind the counter, you should not have to wait more than 5 minutes to be taken care of.
But I did. Especially for lunch when there is a long line of people waiting to be served.

The fresh-faced young people working behind the counter seem to be running in all directions at once and bumping into each other without being really effective.
There ought to be a well-defined routine to better serve the customers and so far I don’t see any. This place would greatly benefit from an efficiency expert.
Once they do this, the Rustic Bakery will be ready for prime time.

Otherwise, I still warmly recommend this place, especially for breakfast.
Give it a whirl, you won’t be disappointed.

Alain

“Life is a banquet. Arrive early and stay late.”
Carolina Jones

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Yesterday morning at 9:00 a.m. the weather was cool and it augured well for the remainder of the day, for there is nothing worse (for me anyway) than playing in subtropical heat.

Charlie Davantes, Liv Kraft, and Ken Lee showed up early and started immediately to scrub the courts since (due to a mix-up) our gardener failed to do so.
Charlie worked especially hard bagging up all the dead leaves. He is in my opinion one of the club’s most prized assets.

Ken Lee also brought coffee and croissants. Thank you Ken.

Later on, Alain Marchand found out that Verena had chosen the two “graveled” courts (the Bermuda Triangle) for the Concours’ finals.
Without asking anybody he immediately went to work and with dogged determination, almost singlehandedly he groomed those courts.

Liv Kraft and Sabine Mattei assisted Verena with her job as sports’ coordinator. This allowed Verena to participate in the tournament.

The contestants were as follows:

1. Alain Efron, Henry Wessel, Calvert Barron
2. Etienne Rijkheer, Carlos Couto, Beth Lysten
3. Alain Marchand, Francois Moser, Evelyne Marchand
4. Ken Lee, Marcia, Noel Marcovecchio
5. Charlie Davantes, Herb Moran, Brigitte Moran
6. PJ Malette, Holly Sammons, Kevin Evoy
7. Antoine Lofaro, Jacques Gautier, Eva Lofaro
8. Ed Porto, Carolina Jones, Wolfie Kurz
9. Bernard Passmar, Jean-Michel Poulnot, Verena Rytter
10. Patrick Vaslet, Shannon Bowman, Jean-Claude Bunand
11. Bleys Rose, Teri Sirico, Hans Kurz
12. Jean-Claude Etallaz, Vincent Sanner, Helga Facchini

For the record, JC Etallaz and Vincent Sanner showed up without a female player. They were fated to sit out the tournament when Helga Facchini innocently strolled in. She was immediately shanghaied into playing with them.

The games started shortly after 10:00 a.m.

There were 3 timed games to be played before lunch. In those games by the way, time is the essence. There should not be long strategy debates to decide what to do next.

Concours and Consolante would take place after lunch.

In this contest, I teamed up with Henry Wessel and Calvert Barron.
We did fairly well.
In our first game, we faced the Lofaro team. We managed a 12/12 tie.
In our second game we defeated Bleys Rose, Teri Sirico, Hans Kurz by a score of 13/5.
In our third game we faced, Bernard Passmar, Le Facteur and Verena Rytter.
They shamelessly crushed us 13/0. I will never speak to them again!

By the way, Verena has told me that — Jean Michel was extremely considerate and actually very nice to play with and she will consider playing with him again.
Good to hear.

My team and I qualified to play in the Concours and on our first game we faced the Lofaro team once more.
This time they beat us 13/5 and kicked us out of the competition.

CONSOLANTE

1^st place: Etienne Rijkheer, Carlos Couto, Beth Lysten, $15.00 each
2^nd place: Charlie Davantes, Herb Moran, Brigitte Moran, $5.00 each

CONCOURS

In the semi finals PJ Malette, Holly Sammons, Kevin Evoy defeated Ed Porto, Carolina Jones, Wolfie Kurz in an extremely tight contest.
The Porto team was leading 12/10 but was ultimately defeated by a score of 13/12.
This game was by the way much more thrilling than the final game.

In the finals, Antoine Lofaro, Jacques Gautier, Eva Lofaro faced PJ Malette, Holly Sammons, Kevin Evoy.
It was an uneven contest.
The more experienced Malette team easily defeated the Lofaro team by a final and dismal score of 13/2.

1^st place: PJ Malette, Holly Sammons, Kevin Evoy, $35.00 each
2^nd place: Antoine Lofaro, Jacques Gautier, Eva Lofaro, $25.00 each
3^rd place: Ed Porto, Carolina Jones, Wolfie Kurz, $20.00 each

The Concours winners also received a special “Champion” T-Shirt donated by Brigitte and Herb Moran (Charlie’s daughter and son in law).

This Davantes family is priceless. Couldn’t we entice more of them to join our club?

And this was the way I saw and photographed it.

Alain

PS: To look at photos of this event and listen to the accompanying background music, turn your computer’s sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page. For best viewing, go Full Screen.