Category Archives: Californian

Beachside Coffee Bar and Kitchen

Beachside inside

Running through the park and down along the Great Highway brings us to the end of the N Judah line by design. We’re usually too lazy to run back uphill through Golden Gate Park and would rather take MUNI back home. What’s great about this area is that in the recent few years a number of quaint little cafes and restaurants have sprung up – Outerlands most distinctively, Trouble Coffee, and, from the owners of the venerable Java Beach Cafe – Beachside Coffe Bar & Kitchen.

My long run one beautiful January Sunday was for 13 miles. Usual course through the park, down Great Highway, but this time with the addition of a loop around Lake Merced and back up the Highway. I remember not feeling good that day. It might have been psychological. I managed to run part of a DSE 10k course and kept getting passed up by too many folks bent on their speedy 10k pace… DD was also not with me, having run his first really intense trail – Steep Ravine – with Owen on Saturday.  Though miles 5-7 is when I usually hit my stride and begin to feel comfortable, I was tired and felt sluggish. At around mile 9 (I was looping Lake Merced by then), I needed to stop completely. I took a GU and drank some water and pretty soon got going again. Eventually I made it to 13.01m and headed home on MUNI. Continue reading →

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Blue Plate Redux

Blue Plate Entrance

One of my favourite restaurants in town, I’ve been going to Blue Plate since it opened in 1999 and began serving its wonderful, hearty neo-American fare with plays on old classics like Meatloaf and Fried Chicken. Today, it can still pack in a crowd, so that last-minute reservations on a Friday night yielded only a 9:15 opening, but we were able to get seated around 9 or so by arriving around 8:45 and waiting for a couple of the counter seats.

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Saison

Saison

Saison’s website proclaims that there is no dress code, and urges folks to “come as you are.” While the food is elevated, there’s a nice dichotomy between the white-tablecloth cuisine and the service and warmth of the staff. We had finally made it – after a couple of years and one pop-up when Chef Skenes was away.

How to describe Saison with words of praise that have already been said in a style far better than mine? DD and I had a wonderful meal here, full of beautiful and delicious moments.  Sometimes, it might be better to just let the food speak for itself.

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Addendum: Thomas Keller’s New Take-out Shack

Addendum

I’d only been to Ad Hoc once, and that was for a brunch some years ago. The brunch was a tiny bit of a disappointment. I thought too many sweet things were served – the meal started with doughnuts and ended with a banana split; the savoury course consisted of ham, eggs and potato rosli.  That probably would have more than satisfied and delighted those with a sweet tooth but I’m definitely one who craves the savoury in the mornings. For those not familiar with Ad Hoc, it serves one 4-course meal 5 days a week, a different menu each night, and brunch on Sundays. They are known for their Monday Night Fried Chicken Dinners.

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Outerlands

Outerlands

If ever there was a space that could inspire dreaming, it would be the inside of Outerlands.

It’s gorgeous, with walls, chairs and countertops made out of reclaimed wood. A slanting driftwood mosaic covers part of the kitchen counter. Proprietors David Muller and Lana Porcello initially started by feeding friends out of their ocean beach abode; soon the initiative blossomed into a full-fledged restaurant. And indeed, they seemed to have captured the feel of Ocean Beach perfectly. It’s moody, but warm, the grey light from typically overcast Outer Sunset filtering in via only 3 windows. There’s a sense of escaping to the end of the earth, and its distance from the rest of the city out on Judah and 45th may be both curse for some and a boon for those of us who live relatively close by. Continue reading →

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Nopalito

Nopalito Signage

You’ve got to respect and honor a chef who, so entranced by the offerings of his sous for family dinners, opens up another restaurant just to highlight their cooking. Nopa’s been a favourite of ours for some time, serving great, well-executed, responsibly-sourced and sustainable food, fantastic cocktails; a bright and airy convivial space that boasts a gorgeous mural by local artist Brian Barneclo… my personal favourite is their hefty pork chop, brined just so, about an inch thick, well-marbled, hugely taking up the size of the serving platter… but that’s for another post. Continue reading →

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Smith@Saison

Saison

Of late, I’ve been able to resist temporary temptations.  For over a year since it opened, I made scant little effort to get to Plum until I heard visiting Southern chef Sean Brock was coming to town and would be cooking special dinners at Coi and Daniel Patterson’s outpost in the East Bay… I hastily made sure we had a spot then.  The same applied for Saison.  In all fairness, we had been trying to get here since Chef Josh Skenes was only doing 2 dinners a week in the Stable Cafe space – we’d make reservations and then have to cancel them.  But this week, we stuck to our Wednesday 9pm timeslot for Smith@Saison – Chef Jeremy Fox’s 4-day installment while Skenes is off accepting his shiny Best New Chef award at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Continue reading →

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Sean Brock Dinner at Plum

Plum Restaurant Oakland

We’ve been meaning to check out Plum for a while.  Having visited Daniel Patterson’s Coi on a couple of occasions and Il Cane Rosso for lunch several times, we were fans, but Plum remained distant, literally and figuratively.  We are ridiculously lazy, and – perhaps psychologically – find it difficult to make it over to the other side of the bay. But when I heard that Sean Brock was coming to cook at Plum, I immediately booked a reservation.  Chef Brock’s reputation, it seems, has been growing in leaps and bounds, first garnering accolades for taking the helm at South Carolina’s McCrady’s, bringing modern techniques (à la Ferran Adrià) to the genteel old American South, and then opening Husk which is dedicated to using historically southern ingredients:

“At McCrady’s, Brock uses exotic ingredients such as tonka beans, soy powder and liquid nitrogen. At Husk, there will be strict rules about what can be served. Every item must be grown in and have historical relevance to the South. That means no salmon, no olive oil and no balsamic vinegar, among other things. But there will be sarsaparilla-glazed pork ribs with pickled peaches, wood-smoked chicken with Rev. Taylor butterbeans and chanterelles, and breads made with antebellum flours. “I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m trying to educate,” Brock said. “But I need rules. Otherwise, I’ll be reaching for the olive oil. And if they taste olive oil, they’ll think that’s what Southern food tastes like.”

–By Jane Black, Washington Post Staff Writer, “Sean Brock re-imagines Southern cuisine.”

In 2010 Chef Brock won the James Beard award for Best Southern Chef. Continue reading →

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Bar Agricole Brunch

Bar Agricole Interior

Bar Agricole is on 11th street, in a somewhat seedy area largely known for its nightlife and late-night post-drunk binging from the mobile crepe truck rather than farm-to-table dining and craft cocktails.  But it’s there, hidden cleverly behind a blocky slate wall, blue lettering on black hiding its identity in a smart understated industrial camouflage.  If you didn’t know where to look, you’d easily miss it, and one might think Bar Agricole actually doesn’t want to be known or found.  But once you step inside, you’re confronted with a lovely oasis (a bit incongruous for this area) of exposed wood, high ceilings, and striking light fixtures which hang down like cascades of frozen water.  It’s a restauarant that doesn’t quite match the immediate neighbourhood. Continue reading →

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Nojo – Hayes Valley

Nojo interior

To my delight, and cautious anticipation, we returned from Japan to a number of Izakayas opening in San Francisco.  We loved these establishments in Japan, known for providing beer, sake and small noshing plates to their patrons.  Roughly translated, the kanji for Izakaya 居酒屋 indicates sake-selling establishment (酒 – sake-ya).  We already have Nombe in the Mission, Bushi-Tei Bistro and O Izakaya in Japantown, Halu in the Inner Richmond and Izakaya Sozai in our neighborhood, the Inner Sunset.*  And perhaps because Izakayas are the New Big Thing, there appear to be a number of these bar-and-small-plates restaurants opening in our area over a fairly short span of time.  And I of course want to check them all out.  Kasumi is in the Outer Sunset on Ocean and has, thus far, received some somewhat tepid reviews.  Chotto, in the Marina, is in a part of the city we don’t much like to frequent.   So Nojo — in our old stomping grounds of Hayes Valley — won out.  Chef Greg Dunmore reached the Bay Area by way of Atlanta, a graduate of the CIA in Hyde Park, NY.  Dubbed a rising star chef in 2006 by the SF Chronicle, he first worked at the Michelin-starred Terra with Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani who mentored  him in Japanese cuisine.  Sone soon asked him to become executive chef of Ame (Asian fusion at the St. Regis Hotel), where he stayed for 4 years and also earned a Michelin.   After realizing he had a passion for Japanese yakitori and izakaya-style cooking, he’s now opened his own Izakaya-style establishment.  Nōjō, the japanese word for farm (農場), brings together this passion and reflects his commitment to small farms and seasonal ingredients.  It’s important to note however, that the food at Nojo seems to be distinctly Californian and heavily influenced by Japan, not the other way around.  Continue reading →

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