SF's Local Scene

[Margaret Pilgrim]

San Francisco is known for only a couple of major dining rooms, but what we have over many cities is the number and quality of our lesser known houses.  There are dozens that have been around for a number of years, Pane e Vino, Plumpjack, Cafe Kati, Universal Cafe, Ma Sumi Tante to name only several where the food seldom disappoints.  And within the last couple of years, there has been an explosion of wonderful small places, most unfortunately never heard of outside the city.  

My favorite is Delfina on 18th Street at Guerrero, which shouldn't need introduction to anyone who reads the national food press, serving Italian accented dishes including a ricebean salad in lemony olive oil dressing, topped with grilled calamari, melting lambshanks, and when they have it, rabbit to kill for.  Caviat: Delfina is noisy!

New last fall is Alma, on the corner of Valencia and 22nd Street, with Johnny Alamilla cooking Nuevo Latino/French style, such as a half-dozen excellent cerviches, a main course dish of white beans with butternut squash in a cumin-scented broth with a perfect confit of duck leg set on top at the last minute, perfectly cooked and elegantly sauced fish (yellowtail, yellowfin), a hangar steak accompanied by Latin influenced potatoes dauphinois, dulce de leche creme brulee, and an unctious chocolate gelato with jalapeno that is always available, but never on the menu.  We have visited Alma three times in the last month; it is that good and that comfortable.  And that inexpensive: last night's dinner for the two of us = 2 starters, 2 main courses, a shared dessert, large bottle of mineral water, 2 coffees, a bottle of very interesting Argentine Elsa Barbera (at an astonishing ย!) came to an incredible ๰ including tax and a 20% tip!

(Edited by Margaret Pilgrim at 3:07 pm on Feb. 1, 2002)

(Edited by Margaret Pilgrim at 6:24 pm on Feb. 1, 2002)

[Stone]

I haven't heard great things about Alma.  A friend went to Delfina recently and loved it.  Universal Cafe is also excellent.

Some of my favorites:

Any of the Hyde Street area Italians:

Luna Rossa (Hyde & Pacific) for excellent simple Italian cooking.  Reasonably priced, not too fancy, but delicious.  I always push the orechietta fra diavlo, and my guests are usually shocked at how good this simple dish is.

Baldoria (Larkin & Green) -- My last visit wasn't great, but this is a terrific place for game.  The wild boar is always perfect.

I Frascati and I Fratelli (Hyde and Green) -- Frascatia is a little higher end, but Fratelli does an excellent filet.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Dstone, your list is a good one.  I am confused by your somewhat ambiguous comment about Alma.  I take it to mean that you have had negative feedback. Since our several experiences have been so positive (beautifully prepared food and some of the best and most knowledgeable service we have had in recent memory), I am very interested in hearing what negative reports you have heard.  

[Stone]

All I heard was that a friend went to Alma, and didn't think it was great.  Nothing specific.  I'm surprised, she's usually a pushover for any restaurant remotely trendy.  But it could have been a bad night.

And I forgot about the Globe -- Pacific Ave down near Sansome.  Great little place, excellent T-Bone for two and tuna tartar.

[Matthew Grant]

Margaret, you mention Plumpjack Cafe, we had a fantastic night there last year when on Holiday, the food was good (not outstanding) but the winelist is great and the staff wonderful. We had a female Sommelier (I think she may have been assistant manager) who was more than happy to o[pen bottles for us to try before making up our minds, we settled on a wine from the Flowers winery which  we thought so ggod that we lugged some back to the UK with us. The night finished with us alone in the restaurant (and by this time more than a little tipsy), we were left alone at our table while the staff had a quick cigarette break and they deposited a bottle of 1963 Taylors Port on our table for us to pour ourselves (this may have had something to do with the large tip). A great experience and definitely a place to recommend.

Overall our trip to San Francisco was a great culinary success. We ate at numerous restaurants with barely a bad meal among them. Gary Danko was exceptional, Citizen Cake is good for a light lunch, Enricos was fantastic for people watching (Nicholas Cage on the night we were there). I also thought that Slanted door served some great food.

Can't wait to return , so many more restaurants to try!

[Roger McShane]

Margaret

Once again I have to (want to) agree with you. We love Delfina (even its expanded incarnation).

That whole area of San Francisco is wonderful. The Slanted Door is nearby serving great Vietnamese food and wonderful wine and, of course, just up the street is the amazing Cafe Zuni which I think serves some of San Francisco's best (and most uncomplicated) food.

Last year we went there for lunch and ordered a whole chicken cooked in the wood fired oven. Luckily, our table was near the kitchen and we could experience the whole theatre. They are just so assured in the way they cook! The end result tasted so good!!!!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Roger, Zuni is one of those amazing little places, where for, what? 15 years at least?  I have never had a bad plate.  I'll never forget one time when my husband got upset because I ordered zucchini blossoms at a time when we had 5 plants full in our back yard!  But just as I suspected, I learned something new and had a wonderful dish.  It's also one of our son's favorite places to visit during the last (10pm) seating for an excellent meal in a more relaxed setting than prime time.

[Steve Klc]

Margaret and others--have you had a chance to see the newest Gourmet, devoted entirely to the Bay area?

[Liza]

Allow me to second Margaret's description of Zuni. I've been to SF maybe once every two years for a decade or so and always plan a Zuni meal. For me, it's the perfect restaurant, exactly what I'd like to clone in NYC. Fresh raw bar, perfect Caesar, and sheep's milk gnocchi that floated off the plate.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Steve, like most of the special issues in food magazines, the March Gourmet presents the magazine's current slant on what's happening in the area.  What I usually find most valuable in these issues, and find it true of this one also, is the 100+ great things collection.  There are a lot of treasures buried in this list, for visiters as well as those living in the area.

[Steve Klc]

I'd be curious to know how their slant differed from what your slant might have been in certain areas Margaret--apart from the 100 great things list--if you care to share.  That's the food media critic in me coming out--I have an idea what I think as a frequent visitor to SF--but not from the perspective of a local.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Steve, I have no quibbles with their stories.  I would have liked to see more specifics about food in Berkeley.  While it gets local panning because it is so un-PC for Berkeley, you could do an article on 4th St., certainly on Shattuck Avenue, and on College Avenue in the borderline-with-Oakland Rockridge area.  These are great food areas. The choices in the hotel article are safe and the comments fair.  Burton and Knickerbocker have put together fairly representative lists for their chosen neighborhoods. Some of the stars missing from this article are included in the 100+ list. Caroline Bates' choices include two I haven't visited. We (three) ate at B44 early last year, where we all had excellent dishes, but this review would have been more honest had it at least mentioned the noise level. Other than that, the review was a good one.  I can't comment first hand on the suburban Asian houses, but their reporting on both Chinatown and Clement Street are pretty much on  target. I was pleased to read Jocelyn Zuckerman's notes on Healdsburg, a serene and much under-appreciated small town north of Santa Rosa. I don't want to talk about the Frisco Kid article.

Over all, I suppose I could have done with less about life-style and more nitty-gritty on where to find great food.

As a frequent visiter, what were your observations?

[Steve Klc]

OK--right off the top of my head, since I've yet to go through the whole thing, I wondered about the choice of Sonoma for a wine jaunt.  Do locals really make the effort to go there?  It had a much more touristy feel of late, that center town seems more Disney-like, the Creamery was never good, and Charlie Palmer is there now?  Personally, Napa has much better food and I'd go to the Anderson Valley anyway to get away from the crowds.  Better wine, too.  Talk about the best tasting room hospitality--Navarro.  Now that's a valid reason to leave SF.

I didn't like seeing quick, dumbed-down Zuni Cafe recipes on 146--the wording is vague enough to mislead a reader into thinking Judy Rodgers adapted her recipes herself, while I suspect it was a "Zanne Stewart."  Here's a novel idea--instead of making excuses, present recipes side by side when you screw with them--the way Judy does it and the way a food editor adapts it to fit an easy form.  Then the reader can make both and compare.

Also, I came away disturbed--perhaps disturbed is too strong a word--how about suspicious of the Patrick Kuh "Hidden Charms" piece on artichokes.  I am a huge fan of Patrick's book, "The Last Days of Haute Cuisine," but this piece--charming as it is in the increasingly popular Amanda Hesser personal diary style-- reads like it was pulled from a file somewhere--and disconnected from the recipes and photography.  Are the "cooks' notes" his?  Not from that apostrophe.  The recipes are credited to a "Shelley Wiseman."  I'd rather know how Patrick would prepare artichokes and how he would write up a recipe.  It is vague enough to lead me to believe he didn't have anything to do with them.  (Though the deep-fried baby artichokes look so good I'd readily claim them as my own.  I wonder where that idea was ripped off from?)

I was drawn to one line of Caroline Bates review of Jojo--a place I have not been to yet--that the pastry chef "is so gifted I hope she writes a dessert book someday."  Well, no, we already have enough Alice Waters/West coast style pastry chefs (he used that term loosely) with books.  

I loved the Emerging Markets piece by Bruce Cost perhaps best of all, very strong and interesting, lots of little literate turns and insider tips.

There's good and bad jumbled in the 100, for every gem like Graffeo coffee properly noted (the coffee I still drink since I discovered it in San Rafael about 15 years ago) there's an egregious inclusion--like the "inventive chocolatier Joseph Schmidt," who is inventive only in his ability to produce alot of tasteless, garish, sweet dreck.

Delfina gets a throwaway sentence.  Wonder why?  Citizen Cake gets a sandwich mention, has their time come and gone?

Any thoughts?  More later.

[Jinmyo]

I didn't like seeing quick, dumbed-down Zuni Cafe recipes on 146--the wording is vague enough to mislead a reader into thinking Judy Rodgers adapted her recipes herself, while I suspect it was a "Zanne Stewart."  Here's a novel idea--instead of making excuses, present recipes side by side when you screw with them--the way Judy does it and the way a food editor adapts it to fit an easy form.  Then the reader can make both and compare.

Excellent idea! I never follow recipes but read them thoroughly. I would appreciate seeing what steps were left out or compromised or simplified.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Steve, you are asking for pith at a time when I had promised to be nice. What can I say?  First, these special issues are usually bland in both their selection and critique.  I have seldom read a state-of-the-art wine tour in one of the popular food magazines. And from my reading, most food magazines offer only their "interpretations" of restaurants' recipes.  I never assume that they are the original.  In fact, dumbed-down is what we usually get in these special issues.  Delfina doesn't need a plug from Gourmet,and wouldn't be better for getting more than a passing nod, and Citizen Cake is usually filled midday when the locals actually do drop in for lunch, when I would guess not a few decline dessert.  And, admit it, it is comforting to know that when you realy want "sweet", Joseph Schmidt is there.:-)  What can I tell you?  My single strongest impression was that this issue was put to bed months ago.  It's an east coast magazine's impression of the Bay Area.  If you aren't familiar with the area, it has a lot of good tips.

[Steve Klc]

Re: a wine tour piece in a glossy--Did you happen to read the Saveur section a year or two ago on the Anderson Valley?  I thought that was wonderful, timely and relevant.  (Naturally it is not on the new Saveur website.)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Good point re the Saveur Anderson Valley article. It spotlighted a not-too-often-reported area, and an area that would more likely be of interest as a week-end destination for a local.  

In reflection, I don't know a sole who "does" the Napa route anymore, except to book at French Laundry and spend a night in the area, or occasionally run up for lunch someplace. It's not that it isn't interesting, just that we've done it so often. However, just last month I provided house guests with maps and winery info, and pointed them toward the bridge. Napa and Sonoma remained the magic draw for them. :-)

[MYoung]

I would like to add Zax to the list.  The twice baked goat cheese souffle is always amazing and the food and atmosphere are comfortably elegant without being fussy.  A nice place to go out if you want a strong, staight forward meal.

As for the recipes in magazines being altered - they are indeed.  Having been involved in writing a few I can tell you that the chef's initial vision is a far cry from what hits the stands.  The photographers will not allow stacked food so the plating is changed.  Items not available at the corner market are strongly discouraged so substitue paprika for the Pimenton de la vera.  Moderately difficult culinary techniques such as batonette turn into "chop" further changing taste and presentation.  "Exotic" fish such as Ahi Tuna is not available nationwide so what would you think of substituting Halibut?  Oh and about that rare fish, we would prefer cooked through.

The recipes are faxed back and forth so many times that one begins to wish arbor day were more often.  By the time everyone agrees to go forward, the dish is a giant comprimise.  From the magazine's standpoint it makes sense - I guess.  But obviously the reader can barely even guess at what the original dish looked or tasted like.

[Steve Klc]

Would you agree, MYoung, that readers would be better served with less compromise, less default to the lowest common denominator?  All that does is muddle and confuse, no?  Collaborations between writers, editors and chefs would be so much more helpful, illustrative and raise appreciation for all concerned if the substitutions and compromises were noted--and explained as inferior and less good.

Magazines that dumb down do a disservice to chef and reader, diminishing the distinction between home cooking and professional cooking.

Come over to the media board and speak to this issue further if you are so inclined.  Your voice would be appreciated.

[Bond Girl]

I will be spending a long weekend (4/23 to 4/26) in San Francisco, and I'm looking for recommendations of your favorite places to eat. While I've been to SF many times in the past and have eaten at some of the best places (Aqua, Gary Dankos, The French Laundry etc.), I want to find the local hunts this time around. The unassuming little places that has delicious food and wouldn't bat an eye if I decide to bring my 2 year old god daughter with me. So, any recommendation you have would be utmost welcome. And, any egulleter who would like to meet up with me please feel free to PM me.

[alanamoana]

truly mediterranean (16th? street)

makes a great falafel type burrito thing which you can't get the likes of anywhere else...boy i miss those.

and if you're in the mission, el farolito for a great burrito "al pastor" (barbequed pork).

[merle]

truly mediterranean (16th? street)

makes a great falafel type burrito thing which you can't get the likes of anywhere else...boy i miss those.

There are a few downtown Oakland places that might make something like that... a falafel "wrap" with falafel, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, hummus, tahini, and optional hot sauce wrapped in lavash. You can get it at Aroma (19th+Franklin), and Billy's and Jimmy's I think (Broadway, at 16th or 20th; I get the two mixed up).

[Bond Girl]

Mexican is definitely on my list, so is Swan's Oyster Depot and Ethiopian.

[alanamoana]

although swan's is a great place for "history" (been around a long time, run by brothers, etc.)...it is rather over priced for what you get. you can get better crab - believe it or not - at fisherman's wharf, and cheaper. but you go to swan's for the "atmosphere" i guess...

i lived across the street from swan's for a few years.

merle: the wraps at truly mediterranean don't really have lettuce/tomato, etc. they have fried potato, creamy sauce, falafel, and some other stuff wrapped in lavosh and then grilled so it is warm. i think you can get them with meat as well.

p.s. bond girl, i never ate ethiopian in san francisco...can't you get really good ethiopian in new york?!

Edited April 6, 2004 by alanamoana (log)

[Bond Girl]

Probably I can get good Ethiopian in New York, but I heard from friends who live in Berkely that there is a huge surgence of Ethiopian restaurants there, and since it's one of my favorite cuisines, I thought I go to look for it. I will also try to get hooked up in Napa or Sonoma but since I don't drive, that may be a bust.