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
230 California St. (near Battery), 415-955-0663, www.perbaccosf.com
   

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.

SPRUCE
3640 Sacramento St. (at Spruce), 415-931-5100, www.sprucesf.com
   

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-
made boudin blanc; grilled bavette with duck fat potatoes; watermelon and rucula salad with cured sardines (seasonal), charcuterie selections.

SPQR
1911 Fillmore St. (near Pine), 415-771-7779, www.spqrsf.com
   

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.”

CAFé MAJESTIC
1500 Sutter St. (at Gough) in the Hotel Majestic, 415-441-1280, www.thehotelmajestic.com
   

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.

LAÏOLA
2031 Chestnut St. (near Fillmore), 415-346-5641, www.laiola.com
   

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.

SOTTO MARE
552 Green St. (between Columbus and Grant), 415-398-3181
   

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.

JONES
2400 Lombard St. (at Scott), 415-440-2000, www.jones-sf.com
 

“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?

BRENDA’S FRENCH
SOUL FOOD
652 Polk St. (at Eddy), 415-345-8100, www.frenchsoulfood.com
   

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.

YOSHI’S SAN FRANCISCO
1330 Fillmore St. (near Eddy), 415-655-5600, http://sf.yoshis.com/sf/restaurant
   

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.

1300 ON FILLMORE
1300 Fillmore St. (at Eddy), 415-771-7100, www.1300fillmore.com
   

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
off the ground. With the fabulous food and music at Yoshi’s and 1300 on Fillmore, however, I am happy to say that I couldn’t have been more wrong.


WHAT’S UP DOG
2211 Filbert St. (at Fillmore), 415-776-DOGS (3647), www.whatsupdog.com
   

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: