Home Food & Wine The Hungry Palate It looks and feels like Herb Caens old Washbag, but the foods brand new

It looks and feels like Herb Caens old Washbag, but the foods brand new

Written by Susan Dyer Reynolds, Northside Editor

Wednesday, 31 December 2003

A number of years ago, I remember Esquire magazine’s John Mariani naming San Francisco the Best Restaurant City in America (he excluded New York from the contest, referring to the Big Apple as “a Jeopardy! champ, retired after a week’s worth of victories so others can get to play.”) I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Mariani. I also couldn’t agree more with his main reason for bestowing our foggy food mecca with this coveted title: the restaurants here run the gamut from the glorious four-star La Folie to dirt-cheap delectable dim sum at Dol Ho. Thanks to a former Montessori teacher named Alice Waters who in the seventies opened a little spot called Chez Panisse across the bridge in Berkeley, the San Francisco Bay Area is also considered the home of revolutionary California cuisine, but many years before, in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade “went to John’s Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, sliced tomatoes ... and was smoking a cigarette with his coffee when ... “ Of course, you can’t smoke at John’s Grill anymore, but you can still order chops and sliced tomatoes, in a hurry or not. Perhaps the best immortalization of Baghdad-by-the-Bay can be found in the seven decades of three-dot delights penned by Herb Caen. First and foremost a reporter, Caen was always looking for a story, and his favorite place to look was the Washington Square Bar & Grill, affectionately called the Washbag, where he was a regular for lunch and often for dinner. Opened in 1973 by Ed Moose, the Washbag was sold to Peter Osborne in 1990 just as Caen’s three dots were replaced by hundreds of dots-com. When chef Guy Ferri bought the failing eatery from Osborne in 2000, he decided to revamp the look and the menu to meet the upscale tastes of the dot-com kids, and the Cobalt Tavern was born. Serving mostly French cuisine, the Tavern earned three stars and landed on the Chronicle’s list of the top 100 Bay Area restaurants. But faster than you could say “The admin at Ask Jeeves isn’t a millionaire anymore,” the dot-coms went bust and so did business. Undaunted, Ferri brought the Washbag back to its original glory, including the live jazz, the vintage black-and-white photos and the classic striped awning – he even got the original sign back from Ed Moose. While the Washbag may look like the days of old, the one thing that is very new is the food: 10 months ago, Ferri hired chef Matt Reilly to add his own unique flair to the menu, which includes everything from spicy lamb tartare served with mint crostini to “Sicilian Penicillin” – chicken soup with baby chicken meatballs, pasta and spinach – that would have made my grandfather proud. After selling the Washbag, Peter Osborne opened the popular MoMo’s across from Pac Bell Park. His lead line cook was a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, named Matt Reilly. When Reilly left Momo’s he was the executive chef, and he went on to fill that position at Chestnut Street’s neighborhood charmer, Café Marimba. He also spent time in New Orleans, where he learned the specialties and spices of Southern cuisine. The menu crafted by Ferri and Reilly has classic Italian roots, and the pastas are some of the best dishes: capellini puttanesca ($13.75) sparkles with the robust character of fresh olives, capers, anchovy and basil, while the pappardelle ($15.95), wide noodles served by most restaurants with a rabbit sauce, is the perfect mate for a rosemary-scented lamb bolognese. The linguini and clams ($16.50), some of the best I’ve had since my mother’s, was topped with tender, briny clams served properly – in their shells – and tossed in a light sauce of white wine, toasted garlic, parsley and lemon. The entrees, listed as “Grills, Braises & Fish,” also offer some standout choices, including a giant pork chop ($19.95) that has been brined and honey marinated. At once earthy and sweet, the wild mushroom and brioche dressing works nicely with the smoky flavor of the chop. I also enjoyed the aromatic sage roasted farm chicken ($17.95), prepared with sage stuffed under the nori-like skin and finished in pan juices to create a succulent bird, although I found the intense sherry vinegar sauce unnecessary. Reilly’s petrale sole dore ($19.50) isn’t going to reinvent the cheese wheel, and that’s exactly the point. Not a true sole but actually a Pacific Ocean flounder, petrale has firm, white flesh which holds up nicely when dipped in egg batter. Reilly serves it golden brown in lemon butter and topped with crispy capers, just the way I remember it at Fisherman’s Grotto on the Wharf when I was a kid. The Washbag also features nightly specials that include comfort food favorites like chicken pot pie, pot roast and osso buco. Rumor has it, though, that the chef’s New Orleans-inspired fried chicken makes this eatery the place to be on Monday nights. I also hear that if you don’t get there early they run out, so since fried chicken is my number one guilty pleasure, I plan to be there at 5:30 with bells on. Not-to-miss dish: The linguini and clams made the Italian in this girl want to wave the red, white and green. Washington Square Bar & Grill: 1707 Powell St. at Union Street. (415) 982-8123. Lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., dinner Monday-Wednesday 5:30 to 10 p.m., Thursday-Friday 5:30 to 11 p.m., Saturday 5 to 11 p.m. and Sunday 5 to 10 p.m. Weekend brunch 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 January 2008 )