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A recent visit to San Francisco reinforced the many similarities to Vancouver but with better wine prices.
A recent visit to San Francisco reinforced the many similarities to Vancouver but with better wine prices. Some personal tips follow. A place to stay is always a difficult choice but book online. A great value downtown near Union Square is Donatello (www.thedonatellosf.com) 501 Post with clean large rooms in the $150+ range often with special discounts.
Breakfast offers many opportunities but check out nearby the popular Dottie's True Blue Café 522 Jones sometimes with lineups reminiscent of Sophie's Cosmic Café on 4th Avenue in Vancouver. On a Tuesday or especially Saturday be sure to brunch at The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Bigger than Granville Island and more food sampling offered from fruits, vegetables (delicious seasonal heirloom tomatoes and avocadoes), Scharffen Berger chocolate, Acme bread, McEvoy Ranch and Stonehouse olive oils, etc. If you are still hungry I recommend The Slanted Door (Asian), Mijita (Mexican), and Taylor's Refresher (good fast food at the big EAT sign) all right there.
Some dinner choices:
For more formal The Ritz Carlton Dining Room on Nob Hill 600 Stockton 415-773-6168 with star chef Ron Siegel is hard to beat. Earned national fame 10 years ago when he became the first American to win on the Japanese Iron Chef program in the lobster battle. He describes his cuisine as modern French with a Japanese influence. His lobster with shiso puree, hearts of palm and lobster lemongrass sauce shows his real talent. Also superb Japanese butterfish with Italian butter beans, slow cooked suckling pig and clam jus or Kobe beef with mirin scented Japanese rice, Jimmy Nardello peppers, and green peppercorn sauce are subtle and sophisticated matching well with wines by Sommelier Stephane LaCroix.
Quince at 1701 Octavia 415-775-8500 in Pacific Heights has Chef & Co-Owner Michael Tusk rated one of the top 5 chefs in San Francisco by Wine Spectator. A protégée of Alice Waters and Paul Bertolli this restaurant is consistently rated one of the best. In a recent FT article in London it was rated above The French Laundry. His tortelli of celeriac is amazing with Four Story Hill Farm sweetbreads & extra vecchio balsamico. As is Cattail Creek Lamb three variations - rack, loin, and twice cooked breast - with appropriate savoy cabbage, delicata squash gnocchetti perfumed with rosemary porcini mushrooms. Don't miss his quince tarte tatin with brown butter-hazelnut gelato.
Acquerello 1722 Sacramento 415-567-5432 is high styled Italian with respected co-owner Giancarlo Paterlini (a leading Italian wine expert) and chef/co-owner Suzette Gresham-Tognetti who reinvents traditional dishes from all regions of Italy in a lighter more contemporary style. Try roasted breast of squab with plum mostardo and Black Angus beef cheek and bison filled agnolotti in braising jus with house cured pancetta with one of their interesting Italian wines. The dessert of dark chocolate semifreddo with pistachio and Amerena cherries is to die for!
A 16 at 2355 Chestnut in the Marina area named after a road in Italy for the Taurasi exit is very highly recommended. Not only delicious Naples style thin crust pizza and light ricotta gnocchi as well as wonderful wood fire cooking of Italy's south. Great crew includes Nate Appleman Executive Chef/Owner, and Shelley Lindgren Wine Director/Owner all doing an outstanding job. Also they have a fantastic new cookbook A16 Food + Wine (2008 Ten Speed Press) with the first 64 pages a treatise on everything you wanted to know about the wines of Southern Italy.
Coi ("kwa") with 29 seats at 373 Broadway 415-393-9000 has the innovative Daniel Patterson using local organically grown sustainable ingredients in a la carte and 11 course menus changing daily. Website has an interesting fairly current NY Times review. Check it out.
Spruce in Laurel Heights 3640 Sacramento 415-931-5100 also uses sustainable food from local farms in a new American style. Bar, restaurant and take away with noted charcuterie and fries cooked in special rice bran oil. Admirable wine list featuring many rieslings that even sommelier Tom Doughty at Fuel in Vancouver would admire.
One of the joys of SF is their wine shops. You can even buy a bottle and take it to your restaurant with varying corkage charges. Three I always check out are: The Wine Club (www.thewineclub.com) 953 Harrison (at 5th) - great selections and prices; K & L Wine Merchants (www.klwines.com) 638 Fourth (at Branson) - comprehensive online store - toll free telephone 877-559-4637 and Coit Liquors 585 Columbus in North Beach - very limited stock of wine but sometime some real bargains.
