7X7 Magazine

I personally love the Eat & Drink, and Best of articles.

Went to 7×7 sponsored Big Eats event at AT&T Park. Huge disappointment as almost all the food vendors ran out of food halfway through the event. A total waste of money that we were able to only taste half of the vendors. Someone said that a whole bunch of tickets were sold and didn’t tell vendors to prepare for bigger crowd. BAD Planning and communication breakdown.

I am now trying to do 0 stars if it will let me. To have the nerve to sell your event for $ 90 on Gilt city when all you served were cheap crackers, wilted veggies and cheese really takes some chutzpah. ‘Nuff said.

This magazine is void of anything actually relevant to most people living in SF. If you moved here to work in marketing and hope to meet some creepy frat boy man child in banking and end up living in Marin this is the magazine you hope some day to be in. For everyone else there is nothing of any value in this magazine.
While they love Union Square for shopping and all thing yuppie, they also love all things hipsters like taco bars run by white yipsters (a yuppie pretending to be a hipster) and they think nothing of writing glowing things about restaurants that are owned by staff editor’s spouses.
How can a magazine be all about SF and be so completely wrong about every possible things about it from shopping, food and culture.

The staff at the magazine are cool. Nobody knows about them since they work their ass off like everybody else and they’re behind the scenes. I’m sure some of them don’t like covering assignments about the «socialites» of San Francisco and their mediocre charities and parties. But I’m grateful to staff who got me some gigs when my old job and their magazine threw a party at my store. Yes i used to work retail and bartend the event. Got some connections, more gigs, and made friends. I agree some aspects that it’s a society magazine. A magazine for the San Francisco Socialites and social climbers, but let’s not be mean to the staff. They’re like everyone else who lives here in SF, working for the benjamins, except for the publisher. He’s from Detroit like me, but came from an affluent suburb of Detroit, not like me. So you can rag on him.

One word — pretentious.

You have pretty pictures in your magazine, but that’s pretty much it.
Why 3 stars? You put Chipotle above Gordo in your recent Best Burrito vote. Really? Wow.
Also, you said that Tartine is the best sourdough in SF. Yeah, it is, if you want hard and dry bread that barely has any sourdough taste to it.
It’s almost as if The Mission Neighborhood Association were paying you to advertise for their restaurants. Here’s a NEWSFLASH for you: just because something is in The Mission, does not make it instantly good, ya dang hipsters.

I read 7×7 because I hate myself and I need to be punished.

Finally, we have an established magazine that focuses on the great YAY AREA! This mag has come A LONG WAY. There’s still room for improvement but it’s certainly off to a great start.
It covers the major scenes in the bay — north, east, south, and of course, the yay! It seems to cover the ritzy events and ritzy people. It would be great if 7X7 can also emphasize the urban scene with your low key peeps.
I really enjoy the Eat and Drink section. Keep up the good work…

Throughout 2009 I found myself at the Borders cash register with nothing but a 7×7 issue in my hand almost monthly. Why didn’t I just subscribe? Procrastination I guess.
I received a 7×7 gift subscription for Christmas and just recently got my first issue. What better way to start off my subscription than with the Top 100 Things to Eat And Drink issue??? I am obsessed with that list!
I love eating and knowing about restaurants and chefs in the city and 7×7 does a great job taking care of us food loving people.
The only thing I’m not a fan of in the mag is the party photos. They seem to be fancy parties. It would be cool if they did photos from the scene at random bars or festivals.

A few months ago, I would have given this mag a 3 or even 4 star review.
That changed with the introduction of the new format. Larger size, cheaper paper stock, and the side stitch, all which make it difficult to 1. bring to the gym, and 2. put on the bookshelf for back reference.
Yes, I did keep a few issues a year, mostly best of types for me and any friends who visited.
Aside from the new format, the rag has become all fluff. Very few meaty articles, and pages upon pages of society type reviews/​photos. And the newest design issue is mostly photos, too! I couldn’t care less about the pictures, if I wanted pretty pics and not much else, I would pick up a Life & Style… I liked the neighborhood reviews, restaurant reviews, calendar, Just Natalie, what’s hot, etc.
If I hadn’t already paid for a 2 year subscription (prior to format change), I would drop it now. As it is, I am thinking of moving over to San Francisco mag, which I also don’t dig too much but find it ten times better than the current state of 7×7.
Also…who the hell picked the Things to do in SF list? We did a little inspired crawl this weekend, and let’s just say, with the exception of Blue Bottle coffee and maybe the cocktail at Absinthe, we didn’t get it. At all.

What to say… Fail Whale?! I found you on twitter with all the hopes of a SF magazine TRULY covering the scene. What I got was a mish mash of high end events about no one I know or anything I care for. I see the SF scene as a being far more advance and on the edge than art and fine whine (and no that’s not a typo).
Where is the coverage of the recent O’Reilly Web2.0 or Gamers conferences. Our town in the past couple weeks has been overrun with some of the smartest and brightest from LA to NYC in technology… I found a brief blip on Jack and Biz of Twitter which I guess explains how I heard about 7×7…what does that tell you?
Really 7×7, you want to take it to the next level you need to get a writer that’s covering one of the largest scenes by leaps and bounds in the bay area or you will soon be «unfollowed.»

So apparently 7×7 is not popular on Unilocal,and as someone who is food OBSESSED I just don’t get that. Why you ask? Well let’s just say this. I get like so so many foodie newsletters emailed to me a day you wouldn’t believe it. Hello Gmail, can you handle that? (Well apparently so, but whatever). Out of the many blogs I get I find that 7×7 is just awesome at filling me on BARGAIN BITES. My best friend and I seriously combed one of their EAT issues and out of the 32 restaurants featured most were affordable. This isn’t surprising to me since the editor of the food section prefers Pakistani joints in the Loin more than some of the high ceilinged modern San Francisco restaurants that are, ironically enough, both boring and expensive.
So as a food lover, I gotta love 7×7 magazine, I just do. Plus, they usually send me issues for free when no one else is getting them for free and I have no idea why. Ye-​ya!

I’m a huge fan of 7×7 magazine, and it only gets better over time. Just a few years ago people were scoffing at this new kid on the block, and now its content — especially online — rivals and often times beats out San Francisco Magazine.
The Bits and Bites blog has become necessary reading for me between its coverage of trends (whole-​hog-​fests, designer coffee, etc) and restaurant openings. The Drink Blog is a god send for anyone interested in the basics of wine pairings or obscure cocktail posts on the art of the ice cube. The Hot List blog is a collection of music playlists — one by a sexy indie hipster and one by a sassy rock n roll goddess. Pick your poison and load up your iPod. Oh, and I never miss a Natalie column.
I’d love to see more of the grittiness of the city reflected in 7×7 with some cool investigative journalistic pieces — but hey, for this gal who needs to stay up on what’s up, I’ll just thank my lucky stars it exists.

What do you get when the stuffiest people in a vibrant city decide to write a love letter to themselves and their businesses?
Pages of over-​glossed, over-​rated, over-​sexed, over-​photoshopped inanity, that’s really just an advertisement when all is said and done. One star more for it possibly stimulating my city’s economy. That is, if it stimulates anything at all. For what it’s worth, I’d rather read The Street Sheet instead.

This magazine is so bad it’s funny.
I don’t drink, but I have a drinking game for the restaurant-​review section of 7X7: Drink every time
foie gras is mentioned
the word «chic» is used
zinc countertops are mentioned
You’ll be wasted after five reviews.
Unfortunately, this magazine is printed on glossy paper, so in addition to being a complete and utter waste of time, energy, and ink, it’s also bad for the environment.

You know the Swells section in the Sunday Chronicle? 7×7 is that times 100.
Endless pictures of rich, white yuppies at Society parties and asks questions like «what does luxury mean to you?»
You can just go fuck yourselves.

I learned more about SF from Unilocal talk than from 7×7.
7×7 is not a magazine about SF, it’s about rich socialites in SF.
When I first moved to SF, I picked up 7×7 at Borders, flipped through it, put it down, and walked away thinking how poor I am and if I could survive living in SF :(
The mag also has an awkward size that doesn’t go with the rest of my magazines.

You can sort of tell the make-​up of Unilocal based on the other reviews of this city magazine. So, it’s a little flaky and superficial at times; it’s a city magazine that’s almost meant to be like that.
It’s a great way for me to keep up on the social scene, read about new places opening, etc. I’m a sucker for the social photos as well.
Photospreads are sexy, but I have to question if those models even live here. Same goes for some of the stars who grace their cover.

7×7’s recent food issue was actually quite exhaustive, and I hope a sign of better things to come from Hartle Media.
Now if only they’d ditch that poorly written «Natalie» column for something spicier and decidedly more readable and interesting, I’d be happy. Reading it makes me want my money back, except that I’ve got a free subscription.. .