On Thursday, March 3, Donato Enoteca in Redwood City will host a truffle-inspired dinner featuring the wines of Ca’ Rossa Winery in the Piedmont region of Italy. Guest chef Davide Palluda, chef /owner of the Michelin-starred Ristorante all’Enoteca in Canale, Italy (and named the best young chef in Italy by the Espresso Restaurant Guide), will prepare a special five-course prix fixe menu ($110), each paired with a wine from Ca’ Rossa.

Ca’ Rossa Winery, whose bottles have received many coveted Tre Bicchieri (three glasses) awards from Italian wine guide Gambero Rosso, is known for its beautiful Arneis wines. Winemaker/owner Angelo Ferrio will attend the dinner as well.

Sometimes it’s the most classic spots—the restaurants and bars that define a city—that we return to for basic comfort. And in the world of wine, especially on Valentine’s Day, that comfort often takes the form of the world’s most famous bubbles: Champagne. Foreign Cinema, one of San Francisco’s go-to restaurants for interpretations of American and Mediterranean cooking, also happens to be the sexiest spot in the city for bubbly.

Open for just under a year in Berkeley’s Brower Center, Gather Restaurant has become an East Bay dining destination, and not just for crunchy Berkeley types. Executive Chef and co-owner Sean Baker was named Esquire Magazine’s 2010 chef of the year, and his cooking gets more compelling with each new seasonal menu. The restaurant’s focus is local and sustainable ingredients, which Baker transforms into dishes that are as elegant as they are healthful—a haute green approach, if you will, in the tradition of Ubuntu (in downtown Napa).

While the hotel that houses (I)Spa, the InterContinental in SoMa, is largely thought of as a business hotel, the spa itself is somewhat of a secret among locals.

What makes a compelling wine list? A wide range of offerings? The quality of selections by the glass? Obscure labels? All of the above?

In San Francisco, a city obsessed with wine, no one does it better that Rajat Par at RN74, Michael Mina’s nod to Burgundy in SoMa.

The year’s most romantic holiday can pose a dining conundrum. Do you crave the privacy of a discreet, low-key experience? Or do you prefer a scene in which you and your significant other can show off your pheromonal magic? No matter what your style, San Francisco has the right venue. Here are our top five choices for 2011:

While pizza is still the all the rage in San Francisco—and Zero Zero serves up a mean “Calipolitan” pie, indeed—an equally compelling draw to the restaurant is chef Bruce Hill’s version of a quintessentially American dessert: soft-serve ice cream.