NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 20:05:59 CDT Organization: U S WEST Interprise Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu seattle.eats:9277 chi.eats:6035 I recently returned from my first visit back to San Francisco after moving a year ago to Seattle. Since it was an extended visit I was able to try some new restaurants and pay respects to some old favorites. Much has changed in a year. The only constant was the flux in the greatest restaurant city in the US. The first thing one notices about SF in august is the ceaseless tide of tourists. The cable cars resemble the over packed trains in India. The wait at the start of the line is measured in hours. Any other stop is hopeless. It still is the greatest amusement ride in the city (even though I haven't been able to get on a cable car in years. The second greatest amusement is to grab a beer and watch the tourist try to load onto a cable car). I use to live near the top of telegraph hill near Coit tower. This is another tributary of the tourist flow. After a year the cities big improvement was to add some electronic signs indicating gridlock. I ran into my landlord. My apartment rented for $600 MORE than my rent (SF has rent control. My one regret in leaving was losing my apartment. There is a finality to leaving SF). I might not be able to afford my apartment anymore but the lattes in North Beach seem to all cost $2.25, .60 less than Starbucks and infinitely better. My favorite lattes are conjured at Cafe Roma's, Greco and Marios (although the russian hill branch is better for longer stays). Cafe Roma roasts its own beans. Marios uses Graffeo's beans. Greco uses Illy Cafe. I cannot choose among them. There is massive change around the Ferry Building. The 1989 earthquake was San Francisco's urban renewal. The Embarcadero fell down. This resembled the double decker highway that is a current blight on Seattle's waterfront. The Embarcaderos destruction opened up SF's approach to the bay. The city has capitalized on this natural disaster by lining the new boulevard with palm trees and the introduction of a street car. It fell back into poor design by adding concrete objects that could have been designed by Mussolini. This is a work in progress so it may look better when finished. Unfortunate change in the fabric of the city involved the sale of the Chronicle. Anytime the number of papers in a city is reduced its a tragedy. I thought the Chronicle was an OK paper, until I was exposed to Seattle's offerings. Their abysmal nature made me appreciate the Chronicle. There is something poetic that this desecration waited like a period of grief after Caens death. Finding a hotel in august is almost impossible. I lucked out with a small bedroom/shower in a hotel on the Embarcadero that had free use of the YMCA next door. This has to be the best Y around. You can browse the internet or watch cable as long as you keep cycling. If the tube doesn't catch your interest the view of the bay will. Really a perfect deal considering the number of restaurants I was able to fit into my schedule. Boulevard is right down the block from the hotel. When I lived in SF this place was on my "to visit" list but with the constant press of new openings it remained on the list. Its a low light, nice looking place with an exhibition kitchen (this use to be unique). The kitchen view is a mixed blessing. Its good to watch the food prep but its also demystifying. After the basics are performed earlier in the day most of the cooking is assembly. After watching umpteen orders of roasted meet I still could not discern how the perfect roast was achieved. Yet as each was sliced it looked perfect. I started with a melange of fava beans, lobster, gnocchi, chanterelles with a nage sauce. I'm not a fan of fava beans but they didn't intrude into the flavors of the rest. The roasted meats being prepared induced me to try the fillet with green beans and the new trend in potatoes (the dish had variations in several places over the next few days). The potatoes were roasted/braised with red wine, garlic and black olives. The potatoes took on the consistency of dumplings and absorbed the flavor of the garlic and olives. The past fad was to use mash potatoes as a building paste to stack food towers. I dislike mash potatoes. I have always recommended Aqua as the best seafood restaurant in SF. I could not get a reservation so settled for dinner at the bar. It is still a nice looking place, noisy but sophisticated. The prices have increased considerably. I opened with the seared scallops and foie gras. Beautiful grilled taste on both with a balsamic vinegar sauce. The succeeding dish of swordfish, shrimp pancetta dumplings with a corn cake was not up to the same level. The swordfish was dry, the dumplings overcooked. The corn cake was not a cake, only corn. I finished with a cheese course consisting of a triple cream Piere Robert and a local semi-soft goat cheese along with a little sliced apple, some tiny grapes and incredibly fresh walnuts. The service at the bar was less than stellar. The prices were the same as the room. Not a terrible meal but it was not up to my past experiences at Aqua. Thanh Long started as a Vietnamese crab house near the ocean. It now has the original place along with two upscale restaurants (one in Beverly Hills, the other in SF on Russian Hill, both called Crustacean). People came to Thanh Long for Garlic Noodles and roasted crab. The restaurant was a basic neighborhood place, nothing fancy. In the past year they remodeled and expanded the menu. The menu had a long list of intriguing sounding dishes. The room was ordering garlic noodles and roasted crab. I had to bow to peer pressure order the same. I did add an order of crab puffs to try out at least one dish off the new menu. The crab puffs were a mixture of crab with peanut sauce and helped while away the tim waiting for the crab. You have to love butter and garlic at Thanh Long. The garlic noodles seem to be made of garlic. the crab is coated in pepper, roasted with garlic, butter and oil. The crab is cracked then arranged into its original shape. This is where I go for Dungeness crab (I prefer blue crab). Some day I'll make it back to try the rest of the menu. Unlike anyplace in Seattle, beer varies. Not every place has twenty seven taps of microbrews. Thanh Long had no draft beer. It also was out of vietnamese beer. On my first trip to NYC I was walking through SOHO, relatively late at night, wondering whether it was a good idea (being from Chicago I was not use to rehabbed decadence). The Mission has that feel. It does not have the fresh scrubbed look of the usual tourist areas of SF. This translates to relatively low rents that seem to encourage new restaurants. I tried two during my stay, Delphino's and Pixtos. Delphino's is an extremely tiny Tuscan restaurant with a very amiable staff. The tables are close enough together that you're part of your neighbors conversations. In NYC there would still be that invisible barrier guaranteeing privacy. In SF the tables scope out each others food, express regrets on their orders and are not shy about asking "is that the halibut or sea bass" (it was the halibut). I started with an order of squash blossoms and a beet/goat cheese salad. The squash blossoms were stuffed with ricotta and lightly fried. The red and gold beets were on a bed of greens (the table next to me claimed watercress) with a creamy, crumbled goat cheese. Delphinos would halve orders of pasta so a "authentic" italian meal was possible. I had gnocchi tossed with cherry tomatoes and a little oil. As noted earlier I had the halibut (grilled in a banana leaf), scattered corn and a variation on those roasted potatoes (this time broth and garlic). I'm not sure if you are suppose to eat the banana leaf but I did. It was wonderfully crunchy with a vague taste of banana that was also imparted to the halibut. As to my fellow travelers at the two side tables: one side had a great looking grilled pork chop and a steak for two, the other had the sea bass. We drew the line at exchanging tastes. Pixtos is around the corner from Delphinos on a much busier street. The restaurant is another world from the street. Outside Pat from SNL obsessively swept the same section of sidewalk during the entire dinner. Inside was a quiet oasis of high ceilings, ocean colored walls broken by the occasional mural. Pixtos has a mixture of Tapas along with the main menu. I sampled a tian of red pepper, eggplant, onions, olives, anchovies and jamon Botella (a spanish version of prociutto) along with a spanish chardonnay. This time I had the sea bass with a herb/garlic mousse. The new potato trend (this time with duck fat, red wine and garlic) made its appearance. The plates at Pixtos are full of flavor but short on design. But with the late sun pouring through the windows, a late harvest El Grifo in my hands I did no feel any less pampered than at Boulevard. Pane & Vino (across from one of Reed Herrons theme parks) is my favorite leisure dinner spot in the marina. As usual I could only get a late reservation. The hazard is running out of some dishes. The upside is that the noise level is much reduced and the staff less harried. At full throttle the restaurant refuses to do half orders of pasta. Since it was so late I was able to start with a half order of gnocchi and sausage. They have the best sausage in SF and the gnocchi are creamy light confections. I could not pass up the skate for a main course. I cannot understand why skate doesn't appear more often. This is the perfect fish: one bony plate, white flesh, the sweetness of scallops. The skate was sautéed with capers,garlic, carrots and beans. Unfortunately Pane & Vinos have not jumped on the new bandwagon and served mash potatoes. Cafe Coppola is a recent addition to the building owned the director in North Beach. The building itself is beautiful with a aged copper roof. The cafe resembles a wine bar in Italy with the server/patron ratio near one. The wines are from Niebaum-Coppola and cover a wide cost spectrum (with a huge gap: bottle costs range from 10/15 then jump to $80) but a single taste level excellent. The reds are among the best I have tried (in particular the claret, best value I have recently tried). The food consists of knoshes and pastas. I tried arrancine, italian hush puppies. There were three distinct types (stuffings of the rice balls varied). I followed this with a pasta carbonara. But the real star was the wine. A great place to sample wine, have a light meal and laugh at the people queuing up at Nanking. One my last morning I stopped at the farmers market for breakfast. I got there about fifteen minutes after opening but it was already packed. Tourists looking at vegetables, residents trying to shop. Acme still sells the best bread on the west coast (maybe La Brea is better but Acme was at the market). I joined the flow looking for my old favorites (the mushroom stand, fresh pressed olive oil, the asian grandmother who always gave an extra pear) stopping for one last $2.25 latte, some hobbs bacon with eggs & tomatoes on Italian bread. I hope as I make my way through Seattle I'll learn how to put together such a week. With the exception of Aqua I would recommend any of these restaurants (especially the Pixtos/Delphinos in the Mission). I wasn't able to fit in a trip to Napa/Sonoma (it was a business trip), visit the new Sony church by Moscone center or take a cable car ride.
San Francisco, CA