| THE 11 BEST NEW NORTHSIDE PLACES TO EAT |
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| Written by Susan Dyer Reynolds | |
| Tuesday, 08 April 2008 | |
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As we slip into the fourth month of 2008, I realize that 2007 was a very good year for eating in the Northside. It started out lean, but toward summer’s end, starting with Spruce, things really picked up.
In my book, a great place to eat isn’t necessarily the latest loungey Mediterranean tapas joint, or the restaurant with the hottest $80 tasting menu paired with $80-a-bottle wines. Sometimes it’s about food I crave; food that surprises me; or food I can’t forget – as David Kinch, the brilliant chef of Manresa, once said to me, “It’s about being delicious.” My list runs the gamut, from an elegant Phoenix rising from the ashes to pristine Japanese in an artful setting to a place to slurp oysters to a stand where the dogs drip and crackle.
Not all of 2007’s newly notable places panned out. There was a fair
bit of buzz about the North Beach Lobster Shack – its sister restaurant
on the Peninsula is actually pretty good, and, as someone who spent
many childhood summers in Rhode Island, I know that steamers, Ipswich
fried whole-belly clams, and Maine lobster rolls aren’t easy to find on
the West Coast. But alas, the North Beach location suffered from poor
management and sloppy, inexcusable food quality control.
Some
restaurants I liked enough to scribble on my list of potential top 10s
throughout the year, but changes made it impossible for me to consider
them. Fish & Farm was on that list, but they hired new chefs
Charlie Kleinman and Jacob Des Voignes shortly after my visit. I was
leaning toward putting Nua on the list, but they, too, brought in a new
chef. The little appetizer bar that could, Mercury, was one of those
neighborhood gems I was thrilled to find, but they are in the process
of updating their menu. I liked Bar Johnny, but the emphasis there is
more on the specialty cocktails than on the food, and even though the
food is good, my fond memories of its former and first incarnation,
Tablespoon, in its heyday with tattooed, comfort food guru Erik
Hopfinger, may have prejudiced me. Finally, Sadko, a Russian cafe
located in the outer Richmond, serves some of the best (and most
reasonable) pelmeni, vareniki and golubsty in town, but the service was
the worst I had all year.
The restaurants that did make
the list, however, are some of the strongest contenders since I started
this list in 2005. In no particular order, here are my choices for the
top 11 best new Northside places to eat that opened in 2007.
Perbacco
opened in late 2006, but because of my policy of making several visits,
my review didn’t come out until February 2007. Chef-partner Staffan
Terje (a recent subject of “10 Questions with Chef …,” which you can
find on our Web site, www.northsidesf.com) focuses primarily on the
cuisine of Piedmont, a northwestern region of Italy bordering France in
the west, and Switzerland in the north, with simple, rustic dishes that
allow each ingredient to sing. Located in the sprawling
6,000-square-foot lower floor of the historic Hind Building, the Cass
Calder Smith design is sleek and modern, but retains warmth with rich
mahogany accents, maroon upholstery and a marbled floor and bar top.
It’s always packed and the noise can be unbearable, but the food is so
good you might be willing to overlook it when you can’t hear your
fiancé propose marriage. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Lune
pasta filled with butternut squash, sautéed with brown butter and
topped with nutty Castelmagno cheese; tagliatelle with five-hour pork
sugo and porcini mushrooms; burrata with marinated friarelli peppers,
white anchovies and arugula; piastra seared local squid with corona
beans, preserved lemon and chili; chef’s selection of salumi.
The
buzz around the opening of Spruce was the stuff a restaurateur’s dreams
are made of, and it lived up to the hype in a big way. When Spruce
opened late last summer, it revived a culinarily comatose 2007 – not
only was the food terrific, but everything, from the ambiance to the
wait staff to the management team, was top notch. Located in a historic
1930s auto repair shop, Williams-Sonoma Home’s Stephen Brady custom
designed the interior around the old structure, highlighting the
soaring steel and glass ceilings with rich earth tones, mohair walls
and faux ostrich leather. The bar is an eclectic scene of beautiful
people wanting to see and be seen, and groups of friends having
cocktails over small bites from the bar menu. My favorite spot by far
is the cozy glassed-in library room off the foyer, replete with a
fireplace and comfy leather seats. Even when the restaurant is booked,
you can sneak in early and have a few glasses of wine and nibbles or
full dinner service. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Charred Berkshire pork tenderloin; honey lacquered duck breast; house-
The
latest venture from the A16 team, SPQR is a casually charming, 45-seat
osteria that focuses on the food of Rome. Executive chef-partner Nate
Appleman’s dishes are rustic, satisfying and full of flavor. SPQR has
one of those rare menus that made me want to order one of everything
(and I practically did). There are over two-dozen starters ($7 each,
three for $18 and five for $28), making this a perfect place to meet
friends to share some wine and great food without breaking the bank.
The wine list, under the adept direction of Shelley Lindgren, features
25-plus Italian wines by the taste, glass and carafe, and 60 bottles
ranging from north to south with a particular focus on Rome’s
surrounding region, Lazio. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Fried
bocconcini; Brussels sprouts caramelized with garlic, capers, lemon,
and parsley; fried chicken livers; pasta with guanciale;
crispy-skinned, whole-fried young chicken with sea salt; panino with
caramelized milk, pears, shaved chocolate, and sea salt, which I think
should be renamed “God’s French toast.”
After
a three-year renovation, Café Majestic is a Phoenix rising from the
ashes under the astute culinary direction of 25-year-old self-taught
phenom Ian Begg (see this month’s “10 Questions” for an interview with
Begg). The room mirrors Begg’s food – quietly stunning. Pale cream and
gold brocade chairs and banquettes, ornate chandeliers and cherub
ceiling medallions that echo the Edwardian period in which the hotel
was built were wisely left intact and restored, and large, graceful
porcelain greyhounds sit beside white columns, dividing two dining
areas as they watch over one of the rooms. Service is knowledgeable,
professional and friendly, but never overbearing, and the noise level
is so wonderfully low that your fiancé could whisper his marriage
proposal and still be heard three tables away. Café Majestic is the
perfect place for a quietly elegant but unfussy meal, and the perfect
chance to catch a star chef on the rise. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Dungeness
crab salad with crème fraîche, pink grapefruit, avocado mousse, radish
and frisee; wild mushroom soup in puff pastry; crispy grit cake with
mushroom ragout, Parmigiano Reggiano, snow peas and Brentwood corn;
butter-basted halibut with corn, chanterelles, broiled shishito peppers
and tempura-fried okra.
If
you’re looking for hard-core authentic Spanish cuisine, this isn’t the
place for you. Instead, you’ll find Mark Denham’s thoughtful, clever
interpretations of classics like paella and croquettes. The second
offering from the Frisson team, pequeño Laïola is cool enough for the
Marina wine-and-flirt crowd, but substantial enough for serious diners
of all ages. The 100-plus-wine list, surely the largest collection of
Spanish wines of any restaurant in San Francisco, includes offerings by
the glass, bottle or flight. There is also a well-stocked bar that
serves up traditional as well as specialty cocktails. Servers are
youthful and laid back but knowledgeable. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Bacon-wrapped
Medjool dates stuffed with spicy chorizo; chickpea croquettes; mixed
grill of slow-roasted piglet; mushrooms topped with slow-poached egg;
roasted bone marrow with fennel salad; petrale sole a la plancha.
I
grew up in an Italian family, so I know you can’t get any more real
than Sotto Mare raw bar. Owners Gigi Fiorucci and Giovanni Toracca are
longtime North Beach fixtures, and the staff is made up of family and
friends – all characters – who love to parlare del più e del meno with
the regulars. The long granite counter has room for 37 folks to slurp
dollar oysters and clams on the half shell and wash them down with a
selection from the small, but reasonable wine list or a bottle of
Italian beer. Food prices are right, too – try bivalves for a dollar.
The daily specials, made with the fishermen’s catch of the morning, are
classically prepared to simple perfection and, as the menu says, “when
they’re out, they’re out.” Not-to-Miss Dishes:
No-nonsense
crab Louie; Mom’s traditional baccalà; a better-than-Swan’s clam
chowder; daily specials like rustic linguine with clams and sand dabs
pan-fried in olive oil and butter.
“American
roadhouse” Jones benefits from 25-year-old chef Jamaal Taherzadeh’s
brimming enthusiasm for comfort food with a twist made from top-shelf
ingredients like Kentucky’s Creekstone Farms dry-aged steaks. The menu
at Jones may not be one of the most sophisticated in the Northside, but
it’s certainly one of the most fun, as is the bar, which specializes in
cocktails made with real fruit. Add a juicy Kobe burger, a couple of
beers and some kind of ball on the flat screens, and you’ve got an
evening fit for a king and queen (if the queen’s one of those mythical
“really cool girls” who eats fat, drinks beer and like sports). Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Grilled
PBJ with Pinot Noir jelly and house-made peanut butter served with a
shot of milk; buttermilk-soaked, Guinness-battered organic fried
chicken; Tater Tots, crab corn dogs, fried Twinkies, and big fat steaks
– need I say more?
Chef-owner
Brenda Buenviaje stays faithful to her New Orleans roots with Crescent
City classics owing a few nods to her Bay Area home of 10 years. The
diminutive eatery is warm and charming, thanks to a friendly staff and
a happy crowd who can’t get enough of the beignets, poboys and
ridiculously buttery biscuits. They only serve breakfast, lunch and
Saturday brunch, and they don’t take reservations, so the wait can be
long (I drive by and check it out first – if the line’s outrageous, I
head over to Piccadilly Fish and Chips). Once you do make it inside,
you can swoon over a bowl of steamy, creamy grits, or a decadent
croque-monsieur that puts the one at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon to shame. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Chicken,
sausage and okra gumbo; shrimp or oyster poboy; baked brie en croûte
with mixed greens; flight of beignets (molten Ghirardelli chocolate;
Granny Smith apples with cinnamon honey butter; and savory crawfish
with scallions, cheddar and cayenne); croque-monsieur.
Famed
chef Andre Soltner says he is not an artist, but rather a craftsman. At
Yoshi’s, executive chef Shotaro “Sho” Kamio proves his skills as a
craftsman in an artful setting worthy of the chicest corner in
Manhattan. Housed on the ground floor of the Fillmore Heritage Center,
and the anchor of the long-awaited Fillmore Jazz Preservation District,
Yoshi’s is the best thing to happen to a Northside neighborhood in a
long time. On a visit with friend and fellow Northside San Francisco
columnist GraceAnn Walden, I watched a couple walk hand-in-hand down
glistening, rainy Fillmore Street, touched by the soft glow of
twinkling white lights from the trees above, and duck into the lobby,
where a diverse crowd waited for the first show of the evening in the
400-seat jazz club. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant, like the club
across the lobby, was designed and built from the ground up. It is as
impressive as it is stunning, with soaring 45-foot ceilings dripping
with long, organically shaped rice paper lanterns and gossamer draping.
The Zen-like lounge up front is the kind of place I could stop by
several times a week for a few pieces of pristine sushi and some sake.
Deep blue glowing glass curves around an upstairs lounge that opens to
the club’s mezzanine. Below it, the real focal point: an enormous
well-equipped, large-staffed kitchen that would make the Iron Chefs
green with envy. There, Kamio is the maestro of a passionate culinary
orchestra, turning out beautiful, modern Japanese cuisine that is more
complex than it appears. Every ingredient shines on its own, yet there
is an eloquent sense of harmony within each dish that I have
encountered in only a few restaurants. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Chawan
mushi of spiny lobster, uni and foie gras; uni “risotto” with
vanilla-infused cauliflower puree; Japanese Miyazaki filet mignon with
fresh wasabi, tonburi and yuzu kosho ponzu; Kurobata Berkshire pork
prime rib; roasted half big-eye red snapper served with toasted nori
paper and dashi ponzu; anago shirayaki; pristine sushi and sashimi.
Just
steps from Yoshi’s, and also in the Fillmore Heritage Center, 1300 on
Fillmore brings American food kissed with southern soul to a classy
spot that never loses sight of the Fillmore’s rich history. Co-owner
Monetta White’s mother and grandmother lived in the neighborhood during
the 50s and 60s, and she heard stories about thriving African
American-owned clubs and restaurants where the legends of jazz and
blues came to play. Her husband, chef and business partner, David
Lawrence, inflects his Jamaican-British heritage and classical French
training into a menu filled with stellar dishes. Set to a backdrop of
live music, and a screen in the bar that cycles photos of the grand era
so fondly remembered by his in-laws, Lawrence’s cuisine strikes a
perfect balance between north and south, utilizing the best ingredients
the Bay Area offers to put his signature on soulful classics like
black-eye pea cake, caramelized sweet onion ham hock braised greens,
and smothered rabbit.
The McCartan Design firm created
one of my favorite rooms, Americano, with its whimsical portraits of
San Francisco entrepreneurs peering down from the ceiling reminiscent
of Disneyland’s Haunted House, and I also love what they’ve done with
1300 on Fillmore – the ambiance manages to be sophisticated but not
pretentious, elegant but still comfortable. The service stands out too,
with a well-trained host and wait staff led by front-of-the-house
veteran Tony Elum. Not-to-Miss Dishes:
Barbecue
shrimp ’n creamy grits; warm poached egg salad; oyster bisque (topped
with fried okra that is so good it should be offered as a side dish);
roasted arctic char with Brussels sprouts, lobster and potato hash;
black skillet fried chicken; bourbon-braised pork belly topped with
cracklings; crispy sweet breads with cast iron corn bread; sautéed wild
mushrooms with mascarpone yellow hominy grits.
When I
first started my San Francisco newspaper career as a reporter at the
New Fillmore, I was assigned the pay-your-dues City Hall beat covering
the Jazz Preservation District, then just a twinkle in the City’s eye.
I sat for what seemed like hundreds of hours while the supervisors
talked over each other about possible projects to bring Lower Fillmore
back to life. With all the red tape and political ego swinging, I had
doubts it would ever get
I
said places to eat, not restaurants, and What’s Up Dog is a place, or
more accurately a stand surrounded by four walls. After researching
hundreds of hot dog joints across the country, the crew at WUD created
a dizzying menu of frank and sausage options, including the signature
all-beef, eight-inch dog (you can also get an organic, grass-fed
version) served over a dozen ways. If you crave a good dog like I do,
WUD is nirvana. I like my dogs straight up with mustard and sauerkraut,
but if you like yours loaded, the North Beach (fire-roasted tomatoes,
mozzarella cheese, garlic, and fresh basil) is a winner. Also grand are
the Chicago style (mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles, peppers, and my
childhood favorite, celery salt), the Southern dog (coleslaw and
chili), and the New Orleans (muffaletta and New Orleans-style olive
salad spread). If sausage is your thing, WUD has nine gourmet varieties
from kielbasa and Calabrese to low-fat, low-salt options like lemon
chicken, and there are a few veggie franks as well. Not-to-Miss Dishes: For me it’s all about the grass-fed organic – the skin crunches just like the best franks on the East Coast and the meat has a pure, beefy flavor. Pile it with whatever you like to make your own Not-to-Miss Dog.E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 April 2008 ) |
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