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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I'VE MOVED
I'm still writing about restaurants daily, but my Between Meals blog has a new home and a new look.
My blog is now part of a website, Inside Scoop SF, that will tell you everything you want to know about restaurants. Please come and join me at my new home. And please take a tour of the website.
To get to Inside Scoop SF, click here.
To go directly to Between Meals, click here.
To get the new Between Meals RSS feed, click here.
| May 18 at 11:00 AM
Monday, May 17, 2010
I'm packing up and heading to a new home
Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, my Between Meals blog will have a new home. It's a new Web site called Inside Scoop SF, and it will be a multi-authored blog dedicated to restaurants.
We've been working on it for several months and, barring any unforeseen technical glitches, the site will debut around noon tomorrow.
To squelch any speculation, I'm not leaving The Chronicle. I'll still be doing the same thing -- writing reviews, which will still be in the paper and on SFGate, and writing my daily blog: it will just be in a new place, along with a lot more information dedicated to restaurants.
I'll miss my home of the last four years on SFGate, but I'm excited to be among like-minded people.
I hope you'll follow me and resume our daily conversations there.
| May 17 at 05:02 AM
Friday, May 14, 2010
Favorite dishes from Oenotri, Waterbar and more
It's been a while since I've compiled some of the best dishes I've encountered on the reviewing beat, and shared my often blurry photographs. It's tough to snap a shot quickly with natural light, but I hope these are good enough to give you a taste.
Oenotri is a new restaurant in Napa that serves pristine Italian food. This is my favorite pasta: Pici with Paine Farm pigeon livers with sage and peas. The thick pasta, sage and sweet bursts of peas all help to tame and focus the bold flavor of liver.
Ristobar chef Angelo Auriana covers a boneless chicken breast with almonds and sautes it quickly, serving the meat with greens and a squeeze of lemons. The combinaton is simple; the results are spectaular.
Waterbar reinvents the shrimp Louis with this salad featuring both small and large shrimp, organic wedges of iceberg and Green Goddess dressing accented with mint.
Public House, the remake of Acme Chophouse at AT&T Park, offers all-American specialties. Thom Fox has created the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich; it's gooey from Gruyere and caramelized onions and perfectly toasted bread, lovingly saturated with butter.
Santi in Santa Rosa takes the simple galette to new heights. The rustic crust is thick and buttery with just the right sweetness to accentuate the rhubarb filling and the vanilla gelato on top.
| May 14 at 05:04 AM
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The new restaurant row
The Chronicle 2009
The Plant Cafe offers mostly vegetarian and organic fare overlooking the Bay
The freeway may have been removed more than 20 years ago, but what used to be a no-man's land between the Ferry Building and Pier 39 has reached critical mass with restaurants. Only a few years ago if you were looking to send people to a waterside view, you'd have to go to Fisherman's Wharf; now there are many options, starting with the newest which opened about a month ago.
At Lafitte chef Russell Jackson offers a nightly changing menu at the 135-seat restaurant with a covered tent-like room directly on the Embarcadero. Appetizers recently included house made pork sausage with braised beans; duck giblets on toast and for main courses roasted lamb sirloin on shaved artichokes and seared scallops sauteed with chile oil and arugula.
Jackson, who at one time worked at Black Cat and since then has made a name on the underground dining circuit, known as "the Dissident Chef." Now he has a permanent home.
Just today I did an update of La Mar, the Peruvian restaurant that opened less than two years ago. The Cass Calder Smith designed interior offers glorious views of the bay and a 26-seat ceviche bar. Here's the place for some of the best raw seafood and Pisco Sours in the Bay Area.
A little further north, Plant Cafe offers an organic, mostly vegetarian menu with a smattering of chicken, fish or duck dishes. For example there may be a vegetable curry and a duck confit risotto for main courses along with pizza and the signature vegetarian Plant burger.
The anchor of the area is the Waterfront Cafe, celebrating its 40th anniversary. Newly arrived chef Erik Hopfinger has infused new life into the upscale seafood menu. Hopfinger was most recently at Circa but was also a contestant on Top Chef in 2008 and was a Chronicle Rising Star in 2002.
All four of these restaurants offer a different style of food--and surprise, not one of them is regional Italian.
| May 13 at 06:02 AM
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Pizza, pizza and more pizza
The Chronicle 2010
The smoked mozzarella and escarole pizza at Ristobar in the Marina
It looks like we're nowhere near the end of the pizza craze, either in restaurants or at home. This week in Facts, Figures and the Future, Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert reported that frozen pizza has grown 3.8 percent annually since 2000, pointing out that Nestle has swooped in to buy Kraft's share of the U.S. business. He expects a frozen pizza war to commence in what he says is the largest pizza market in the world.
He points out that consulting firm Technomic found that 30 percent of consumers think frozen pizza is equal to or better than what they can buy at a restaurant, up from 15 percent two years ago. In addition Technomic Pizza Consumer Trend Report reveals that 93 percent of consumers eat pizza once a month; the average is three times a month.
Michael Bauer 2010
The margherita pizza at Jackson's in Santa Rosa
Of course, the explosion hasn't bypassed the Bay Area restaurant scene, either. I've surpassed the three-times-a-month average in just the last few weeks. It still seems that just about every restaurant that opens offers pizza. Here are three that deserve mention:
Ristobar in San Francisco: If you think pizza is round, you may have a problem with the oval crust at this Marina restaurant. However, it has a buttery, yeasty taste and the restrained toppings work to support the pie. Best bet is the Market Street, with smoked mozzarella, Calabrian chiles and a scattering of escarole.
Michael Bauer 2010
Wild nettle pizza at Oenotri in Napa
Oenotri in Napa: This is the place to watch; in fact, it easily moves into my top 10 pizza spots, along with Picco in Larkspur, Rosso in Santa Rosa and Gialina in San Francisco. My favorite at Oenotri: the version with wild nettles, which are added whole so they shatter on impact, accentuated with house-made ricotta and pine nuts.
| May 12 at 05:10 AM
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Some restaurants are getting even noiser
The Chronicle 2010
Ristobar is beautiful, but all the hard surfaces make it very noisy
People who don't like noisy restaurants aren't going to like this: It seems some new places are getting even louder. I can think of four restaurants I've been to recently that practically give you a headache.
The first is the elegantly casual Ristobar, which I reviewed on Sunday. It's beautiful, but at times it's so noisy you can't hear the waiters reciting the specials.
This weekend I'm reviewing Jackson's Bar and Oven in Santa Rosa, and it's even noisier. It doesn't help that as the night wears on the music gets louder to compete with the diners.
Then there's the Tipsy Pig. Even at 6 p.m. it makes you feel like you're in a packed dance club at 1 a.m. on a Saturday night.
The most recent one is Georges, which opened a little more than a month ago in the Financial District. My decibel meter never went below 80 and most times was in the 90s.It makes me want to start giving a double bomb rating.
I've discussed the problem many times in my blog. The reasons for the noise are many, but the most prevalent is the style of architecture we like today: large open spaces, often with brick walls and cement floors. The other is expense. It costs thousands of dollars to make a restaurant quieter; when a restaurant goes over budget, sound baffling can be the first thing to go.
A few restaurants are trying to quiet the din. A16 has done work; it's still loud, but not ear-splitting. And, Redd in Yountville totally transformed the noise level without altering the modern, stylish look of the interior.
| May 11 at 05:12 AM
Monday, May 10, 2010
Is fine dining an obsolete term?
The Chronicle 2009
Bocanova is a good restaurant in Jack London Square, but would it be called a fine dining establishment?
A reader recently asked a question that clearly shows the casualization of restaurants in the last decade:
What does the term "fine dining" mean today? I used it recently and got into a heated discussion. Is the term obsolete or just vague? Maybe there are better, more accurate terms to use? If you can shed any light on the question, I would appreciate it.
This is a question that seems harder to define with each passing year. It used to be clear: fine dining generally meant higher prices, professional service by uniformed waiters, tablecloths and flowers on each table. When you went to a "fine dining" restaurant, you almost always dressed up.
Now, it's all mixed up. Few restaurants have tablecloths these days. Even restaurants that may charge $25 or above for a main course have relaxed standards of dress for their staff. Most expensive places, such as Fleur de Lys, no longer require jackets; one of the rare exceptions is the French Laundry in Yountville. On the other hand, even very casual restaurants can have very professional service.
I emailed the reader and asked him more specifics about the discussion between him he and his wife.
She thinks of fine dining as places like The French Laundry and Commis in Oakland. She rules out Pizzaiolo and Bocanova as not fine dining. She thinks I use fine dining when I should use "good food."
It just seems to me that at a place like Bocanova where the host greets you, the decor is beautiful, and the food and service are great, it should qualify as fine dining. I don't consider myself a foodie and consider fine dining to be something above a great neighborhood restaurant with an elegant style (not casual) and excellent service and food.
Not to waffle, but both are right. It might be better to give examples: Boulevard is fine dining. Pizziaolo is casual dining. Baker and Banker: fine dining; SPQR: casual dining.
Yet I could argue that the service and food at SPQR would qualify it as a fine dining establishment. Would Town Hall be casual or fine dining? What about Perbacco? I could go either way, but because of the prices, quality of staff and ingredients, I'd put both in the fine dining category.
I rarely use fine dining as a descriptor these days; instead I like to refer to restaurants as either neighborhood or destination. Neighborhood places are restaurants where you'd end up if you live or work in the area; destination places are those you seek out. In this case Pizziaolo could be classified as fine dining.
It seems that everything is getting more casual and it's a term that's inching toward obsolete.
What do you think?
| May 10 at 05:13 AM
Friday, May 07, 2010
Would you buy a ticket to go to a restaurant?
The Chronicle 2001
Instead of reservations, a restaurant in Chicago proposes buying tickets as if you're going to a movie or the theater
What do you think about Grant Achatz at Alinea selling tickets for his new restaurant? It's a question several people have asked me in the last day. On the website, in a movie-like trailer, the popular Chicago chef — a protege of Thomas Keller — announced the opening of Next this fall in Chicago.
At the restaurant, the chef plans to have a different theme every quarter: Paris 1912 or Hong Kong 2036, for example. The tickets reportedly range from $40 to $75, depending on the time you dine. The restaurant will even sell a year's "subscription."
I think it's an ingenious idea. Frankly, dinner has become more like theater these days anyway, so why shouldn't it extend to certain types of restaurants? After all, if you buy a ticket to Wicked and can't go, you don't get a refund.
Achatz was quoted by the New York Times as saying: "We now pay three or four reservationists all day long to basically tell people they can't come. Most people don't realize how much of the cost of a meal is the cost of running a restaurant."
One of the major problems with high-end restaurants is no-shows; at places like Coi, which requires diners to guarantee with a credit card, an empty table can be the difference between profit and loss. These kinds of high-profile restaurants are more expensive to run, so knowing how many people want to come in advance would help both parties.
It's a risk and it may turn people off, but I think with all the publicity it has and will generate, people will be curious. I predict that nabbing a seat will be akin to going to a much-anticipated Broadway opening. In the end, the food and the quality of the experience will determine whether it survives.
That said, I'd like to know what you think? Would you buy a ticket to dine in a restaurant?
| May 07 at 05:08 AM
Thursday, May 06, 2010
The San Francisco influence in New York
Michael Bauer 2010
Chef Nate Appleman moved to New York and now cooks at the recently opened Pulino's
Yesterday, my blogging colleague Paolo Lucchesi talked about the mentor relationship that was highlighted at this year's James Beard Awards. He raised the question of who will be the next mentors. Seems like A16 should be on that list.
While in New York for the awards, I checked out the San Francisco chefs who made the move to New York: three of the four recent transplants have A16 connections: Nate Appleman at Pulino's, who left last year and later hooked up with restaurateur Keith McNally of Balthazar; Daniel Holzman, the one-time chef at SPQR, who opened the Meatball Shop; and Christophe Hille, the original chef at A16, who in November opened Northern Spy Food Company.
I also had dinner at 10 Downing, where Jonnatan Leiva — who was the chef at Jack Falstaff and moved to New York in October — is creating a menu that has a strong Northern California sensibility. Then, of course, there's also Daniel Humm, who earned four stars at Campton Place and then went to New York to transform Eleven Madison Park. On Monday, he won Best Chef New York at the awards; quite a rise to the top for a chef who's only been in the city four years.
Appleman — who since leaving for New York has been outspoken and brash about his move — has one of the best menu lines at Pulino's: "Although every effort will be made to accommodate food allergies, we are afraid we cannot always guarantee meeting your needs."
The restaurant was reviewed yesterday, receiving one star in the New York times. On some nights, Appleman said the restaurant will serve 1,000 people. The place looks like it was opened in an old Bowery space with original tile walls, stained ceiling and a checkered Linoleum floor.
Pulino's menu includes pizza, naturally. It's good but certainly not in my top 10. There's also a category for bruschetta, antipasti and salads including a burrata that tasted a day or two past its prime. Pasta isn't really part of the mix except for fazzoletti, kind of a crepe-like hankerchief folded over smoked ricotta and topped with an earthy lamb ragu. I also had goat meatballs with polenta and yogurt — good but kind of expensive for $25, especially if you walk down a nearby street to the Meatball Shop where you get four plump, juicy meatballs for $7.
Michael Bauer 2010
The Meatball Shop's $7 meatballs
SPQR alum Daniel Holzman and his partners are creating an ingenious concept that I think could easily become a national chain. Diners choose the kind of meatball — including a daily special or two — and one of four sauces such as mushroom gravy, classic tomato or spicy meat sauce. There are also sides for $4 that include spaghetti, mashed potatoes, polenta and steamed spinach. The menu is rounded out with meatball sandwiches and sliders, and for dessert: ice cream sandwiches.
At 10 Downing, Leiva creates a familiar menu that includes such starters as roasted beet salad with Castelvetrano olives, burrata and radishes; and sea scallops with foie gras. Main courses include Atlantic cod with fresh garbanzo and fennel, or an herb-roasted chicken.
While I liked what Appleman and Leiva do, the results frankly weren't as good as what they were doing in San Francisco. It could be the difference in ingredients, the change in location or the fact that both of these restaurants do more volume than the ones in San Francisco, and the chefs still haven't quite adjusted.
I regret I couldn't get to Northern Spy, but it looks like Hille is pioneering what he did in San Francisco, only in this case using East Coast product. At least it leaves something for my next trip, and who knows what chef may show up there next.
| May 06 at 05:09 AM
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
The Value of Chef Mentors
Craig Lee / The Chronicle 2005
Quince's Michael Tusk, a Chez Panisse alum.
Inside Scoop columnist Paolo Lucchesi is in New York for the James Beard Awards (the results can be seen here). His words follow:
The theme of this year's Beard Awards was "The Legacy Continues." To celebrate said theme, Outstanding Chef winners from the last 20 years each chose a chef with whom they've cooked to represent them at the reception. For example, past winner Alice Waters chose Quince's Michael Tusk, a Chez Panisse vet; meanwhile, Jeremiah Tower picked Farallon's Mark Franz, who cooked for him at Stars. Slightly gimmicky, sure, but it was an interesting statement, especially because in the restaurant business, mentorships are incredibly crucial.
Appropriately, a good number this year's JBA winners came from the industry's two current dominant "family trees": the Thomas Keller empire and New York's Danny Meyer empire.
Here in the Bay Area, there are (or were) more than a few restaurants that have become breeding grounds for young chefs who want to learn from a mentor. Places like the French Laundry, Rubicon and Chez Panisse go without saying, and Manresa has bred four Chronicle Rising Stars in the last four years alone: James Syhabout ('07), Jeremy Fox ('08), Deanie Fox ('08) and this year, John Paul Carmona.
The big question: Which Bay Area restaurant will be next to spawn a family tree?
| May 05 at 05:05 AM
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