Fantastic Food Weekend in San Francisco!
Jul 22nd, 2011, 07:28 AM
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Fantastic Food Weekend in San Francisco!
To beat the heat and humidity in the South Carolina Low Country a quick 5 day holiday weekend trip to San Francisco was in the cards and that's where mom and I spent the July 4th weekend.
We scored a good airfare on Delta. At $300 round trip per ticket from Savannah to SFO, we were happy with the price and we'd accrue about 5,000 sky miles! When I started looking for hotels, room rates were above the $200 mark. I turned to Hotwire.com and snatched up a hotel for $120 per night. The hotel was Le Meridien on Battery Street in the Financial District, and a short 10 minute walk to the Ferry Building and Market Street. For us, it was a great location and we really liked this hotel. The staff was accommodating, the room was impeccably clean and since we were given a handi-capped room, it was spacious with a peek-a-boo view of the Bay Bridge.
Thursday, June 30th
The alarm clock goes off at 3:30am, yes, I booked another 6:30am flight. On the bright side, we got upgraded on the flight from Savannah to Atlanta, the connection in Atlanta was smooth and we landed in San Francisco 20 minutes early.
I have to mention the fact that I haven't traveled by air much during the summer months, usually I'm trotting the globe in spring, fall or winter, so I had a few instances of eyes-popping out of my head when seeing some of the fashion choices of my fellow travelers made. I know it can be hot in the south during June, July and August, but really people, do we need to see THAT much skin? Leave something to the imagination!
Since we were in economy class for the flight to San Francisco we stopped and bought 2 Wolfgang Puck pre-made sandwiches in the airport to have for our lunch during the flight. In spite of the whopping calorie count (which I don't even want to think about!) and the price ($9.00 each) they were really good and I'd buy them again. In honesty we held off bringing our own lunch in hopes we'd get upgraded on the San Francisco flight and when we realized that wouldn't happen mom dashed over to the sandwich stand so we'd have something other than the Delta lunch offerings.
One last thing to mention about the flight to San Francisco, the pilot and crew were terrific! The pilot kept us, the passengers, informed about flight duration, weather, and turbulence throughout the whole flight and I don't know if it was just a better PA system, or better pilot enunciation but I could actually understand every word he said...usually I can only catch every other word and it sounds like the teacher on the old Peanuts cartoons...waah-waah-waah.
We arrive in San Francisco just before 12noon and since we didn't check our bags, once off the plane we headed directly for the Airtrain which would connect us with BART. We bought the BART tickets at the ticket machine right before getting on the train. It was $8.10 for a one way ticket from SFO to the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. By 1pm we were walking off BART and to the MUNI ticket desk located in this particular station.
Before walking to the hotel we stopped at the MUNI ticket desk to purchase our 3 day Muni tickets for $20 this allowed us unlimited transport on MUNI operated buses, streetcars, and cable cars, it does not include BART. I've used these 3 day tickets before and found them to be well worth the money, especially for us since we had plans to have dinner at a restaurant in Noe Valley and the Mission district, so instead of taking taxis I managed to map out the bus or streetcar routes we could take by using the MUNI website trip planner.
From the Embarcadero BART station it was about a 10 minute easy/flat walk to Le Meridien hotel at 333 Battery Street. Since it was still before their posted check-in time I wasn't sure if a room would be ready, but we got lucky and they had a room available. We had our choice, we could have a standard room on the 5th floor or a handi-capped room on the 15th floor. We took the 15th floor option and glad we did. As mentioned above it was spacious and had a nice view.
After a short rest and freshening up we walked to the Ferry Building, a place we just love and browsed around a bit and then headed to Hog Island Oysters for their Happy Hour specials. They run these specials on Mondays and Thursdays between 5pm & 7pm. We were seated at about 4:45pm but had to wait until 5pm to start ordering the Happy Hour menu. The special is a selected oyster, the ones this day happened to be from Washington State, for $1.35 each, the selected wines were $6 a glass and there were a few other specially priced items including a bowl of olives for $3 which were pretty darn good.
This was the first time mom and I ever had raw oysters and boy were they good, so fresh and briny tasting. We started by ordering just eight since we weren't sure if we'd like them or not, but once we finished those first eight we ordered eight more. We were lucky to arrive at Hog Island when we did, because there was already a line forming, but we were able to get a table right away, when we left about an hour later, the line to get in snaked through the shop adjacent to the restaurant...it pays to arrive early for Happy Hour and wait. We got there about 30 minutes before the 5pm start time.
Just before 6pm we left Hog Island and walked to Rouge et Blanc Wine Bar near Union Square. I found this place during my trip planning when I was looking for a wine bar near to the restaurant where we had dinner reservations. The place was pretty crowded when we walked it, and it seemed to attract a young crowd. There was nothing really remarkable about the place, the service was fine and we had 2 glasses of wine here to kill time before our 7pm dinner reservation.
Dinner this first night in San Francisco was at E&O Trading Company located at 314 Sutter Street. When I started planning this trip I mentioned to a friend who lives in the Bay Area I'd be in San Francisco in late June/early July and she forwarded me a link to a Travel Zoo local deal for this restaurant.
For $60 we'd get $126 worth of food and drinks. I thought it was a good deal and bought it and made a dinner reservation. We had mixed feelings about this place. Some of our choices were definitely hit and miss. The menu is Pan-Asian and we started with the corn fritters, which are a house speciality. These were unlike any fritter I had ever had. They were not the batter-type fritter I've become accustomed to, but simply kernels of corn and peas and I'm not sure how these massive misshaped fritters where bound together, but they did have an interesting taste and texture and my advice to you if you ever have these, is to definitely douse them in the accompanying sauce, the sauce really raised the flavor level!
For appetizers we had the shitaki mushroom dumplings with foie miso....ding-ding-ding...this was definitely a winning dish! I could have easily eaten twice as many as were served, these were very tasty. We also ordered the dungeness crab dip which was also excellent, however, the server forgot about this dish and when we asked it was brought to the table with our main courses.
For our main dishes we both had the shaking beef, which our server told us was the specialty of the house. I thought it was passable, mom didn't like it at all. The beef was served in very big chunks, that weren't very tender and they were placed on a plate heaping with cilantro, sauteed tomatoes and onion. Although we like cilantro, even for us, this seemed a little excessive.
The meal included two drinks, which would generally be an Asian twist on a margarita, but we were told we could replace it with any wine on the list under $10 a glass, so we each had a glass of Honig sauvignon blanc. Dessert was also included and we, or I should rightly say me because mom is not into desserts, picked the chocolate silk road cake, which was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Mom had a coffee, which was $5 extra, but they served it in a french press and it was Illy coffee and mom said it was one of the best parts of the meal. We also had an order of jasmine rice which wasn't included in the "deal". The total bill for the meal (not counting the $60 paid for the Travel Zoo deal) was $15 and then we tipped on what would have been the total amount of the check with out the deal.
We left the restaurant just after 8pm and walked back to the hotel. It was a beautiful evening, still light outside and a cool breeze and barely any humidity! A great way to end a long travel day.
Coming up next...more of the Ferry Buidling and a gourmet food walking tour in Hayes Valley
We scored a good airfare on Delta. At $300 round trip per ticket from Savannah to SFO, we were happy with the price and we'd accrue about 5,000 sky miles! When I started looking for hotels, room rates were above the $200 mark. I turned to Hotwire.com and snatched up a hotel for $120 per night. The hotel was Le Meridien on Battery Street in the Financial District, and a short 10 minute walk to the Ferry Building and Market Street. For us, it was a great location and we really liked this hotel. The staff was accommodating, the room was impeccably clean and since we were given a handi-capped room, it was spacious with a peek-a-boo view of the Bay Bridge.
Thursday, June 30th
The alarm clock goes off at 3:30am, yes, I booked another 6:30am flight. On the bright side, we got upgraded on the flight from Savannah to Atlanta, the connection in Atlanta was smooth and we landed in San Francisco 20 minutes early.
I have to mention the fact that I haven't traveled by air much during the summer months, usually I'm trotting the globe in spring, fall or winter, so I had a few instances of eyes-popping out of my head when seeing some of the fashion choices of my fellow travelers made. I know it can be hot in the south during June, July and August, but really people, do we need to see THAT much skin? Leave something to the imagination!
Since we were in economy class for the flight to San Francisco we stopped and bought 2 Wolfgang Puck pre-made sandwiches in the airport to have for our lunch during the flight. In spite of the whopping calorie count (which I don't even want to think about!) and the price ($9.00 each) they were really good and I'd buy them again. In honesty we held off bringing our own lunch in hopes we'd get upgraded on the San Francisco flight and when we realized that wouldn't happen mom dashed over to the sandwich stand so we'd have something other than the Delta lunch offerings.
One last thing to mention about the flight to San Francisco, the pilot and crew were terrific! The pilot kept us, the passengers, informed about flight duration, weather, and turbulence throughout the whole flight and I don't know if it was just a better PA system, or better pilot enunciation but I could actually understand every word he said...usually I can only catch every other word and it sounds like the teacher on the old Peanuts cartoons...waah-waah-waah.
We arrive in San Francisco just before 12noon and since we didn't check our bags, once off the plane we headed directly for the Airtrain which would connect us with BART. We bought the BART tickets at the ticket machine right before getting on the train. It was $8.10 for a one way ticket from SFO to the Embarcadero station in San Francisco. By 1pm we were walking off BART and to the MUNI ticket desk located in this particular station.
Before walking to the hotel we stopped at the MUNI ticket desk to purchase our 3 day Muni tickets for $20 this allowed us unlimited transport on MUNI operated buses, streetcars, and cable cars, it does not include BART. I've used these 3 day tickets before and found them to be well worth the money, especially for us since we had plans to have dinner at a restaurant in Noe Valley and the Mission district, so instead of taking taxis I managed to map out the bus or streetcar routes we could take by using the MUNI website trip planner.
From the Embarcadero BART station it was about a 10 minute easy/flat walk to Le Meridien hotel at 333 Battery Street. Since it was still before their posted check-in time I wasn't sure if a room would be ready, but we got lucky and they had a room available. We had our choice, we could have a standard room on the 5th floor or a handi-capped room on the 15th floor. We took the 15th floor option and glad we did. As mentioned above it was spacious and had a nice view.
After a short rest and freshening up we walked to the Ferry Building, a place we just love and browsed around a bit and then headed to Hog Island Oysters for their Happy Hour specials. They run these specials on Mondays and Thursdays between 5pm & 7pm. We were seated at about 4:45pm but had to wait until 5pm to start ordering the Happy Hour menu. The special is a selected oyster, the ones this day happened to be from Washington State, for $1.35 each, the selected wines were $6 a glass and there were a few other specially priced items including a bowl of olives for $3 which were pretty darn good.
This was the first time mom and I ever had raw oysters and boy were they good, so fresh and briny tasting. We started by ordering just eight since we weren't sure if we'd like them or not, but once we finished those first eight we ordered eight more. We were lucky to arrive at Hog Island when we did, because there was already a line forming, but we were able to get a table right away, when we left about an hour later, the line to get in snaked through the shop adjacent to the restaurant...it pays to arrive early for Happy Hour and wait. We got there about 30 minutes before the 5pm start time.
Just before 6pm we left Hog Island and walked to Rouge et Blanc Wine Bar near Union Square. I found this place during my trip planning when I was looking for a wine bar near to the restaurant where we had dinner reservations. The place was pretty crowded when we walked it, and it seemed to attract a young crowd. There was nothing really remarkable about the place, the service was fine and we had 2 glasses of wine here to kill time before our 7pm dinner reservation.
Dinner this first night in San Francisco was at E&O Trading Company located at 314 Sutter Street. When I started planning this trip I mentioned to a friend who lives in the Bay Area I'd be in San Francisco in late June/early July and she forwarded me a link to a Travel Zoo local deal for this restaurant.
For $60 we'd get $126 worth of food and drinks. I thought it was a good deal and bought it and made a dinner reservation. We had mixed feelings about this place. Some of our choices were definitely hit and miss. The menu is Pan-Asian and we started with the corn fritters, which are a house speciality. These were unlike any fritter I had ever had. They were not the batter-type fritter I've become accustomed to, but simply kernels of corn and peas and I'm not sure how these massive misshaped fritters where bound together, but they did have an interesting taste and texture and my advice to you if you ever have these, is to definitely douse them in the accompanying sauce, the sauce really raised the flavor level!
For appetizers we had the shitaki mushroom dumplings with foie miso....ding-ding-ding...this was definitely a winning dish! I could have easily eaten twice as many as were served, these were very tasty. We also ordered the dungeness crab dip which was also excellent, however, the server forgot about this dish and when we asked it was brought to the table with our main courses.
For our main dishes we both had the shaking beef, which our server told us was the specialty of the house. I thought it was passable, mom didn't like it at all. The beef was served in very big chunks, that weren't very tender and they were placed on a plate heaping with cilantro, sauteed tomatoes and onion. Although we like cilantro, even for us, this seemed a little excessive.
The meal included two drinks, which would generally be an Asian twist on a margarita, but we were told we could replace it with any wine on the list under $10 a glass, so we each had a glass of Honig sauvignon blanc. Dessert was also included and we, or I should rightly say me because mom is not into desserts, picked the chocolate silk road cake, which was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Mom had a coffee, which was $5 extra, but they served it in a french press and it was Illy coffee and mom said it was one of the best parts of the meal. We also had an order of jasmine rice which wasn't included in the "deal". The total bill for the meal (not counting the $60 paid for the Travel Zoo deal) was $15 and then we tipped on what would have been the total amount of the check with out the deal.
We left the restaurant just after 8pm and walked back to the hotel. It was a beautiful evening, still light outside and a cool breeze and barely any humidity! A great way to end a long travel day.
Coming up next...more of the Ferry Buidling and a gourmet food walking tour in Hayes Valley
Went back several times, excellent choice, LCI!
Jul 22nd, 2011, 08:32 AM
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LCI, oh gosh, my mouth is watering while reading your post! Great deal on the Hotwire, the oysters happy hour, and the travelzoo dinner! I love a good bargain.
LOL on the 3:30am alarm. I too have done that more times than I care to remember... every time I asked myself, WTH I was thinking? Yet I keep booking early flights over and over again.
Looking forward to more!
LOL on the 3:30am alarm. I too have done that more times than I care to remember... every time I asked myself, WTH I was thinking? Yet I keep booking early flights over and over again.
Looking forward to more!
Jul 22nd, 2011, 10:52 AM
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Dayenu....if I had to do it all over again, it seems the appetizers at E&O outshine the main dishes. However, the friend who tipped me off to that Travel Zoo deal also bought the deal and went several weeks later with a party of 8 people and I warned her to not go with the shaking beef, so most of them got the duck main dish and they all loved it. Just goes to show, quality of the dining experience has alot of moving parts...menu choices, who's working in the kitchen that night and service. One's great experience can be another's so-so experience! 
yk...I do love a bargain too...although I've also been known to "splash out" a time or two! ;-) Yes, every time that 3:30am alarm goes off I curse myself, but I keep doing it. Mostly because leaving from Savannah 99% of the time I've got to connect in ATL and I like leaving on those early flights because the plane is usally there from the flight into Savannah the night before and we don't have to wait for the later incoming flights from ATL, which means more likely for things to run on time, or close to on time! Plus, getting to SFO at noon we still have a full afternoon and evening to enjoy!
yk...I do love a bargain too...although I've also been known to "splash out" a time or two! ;-) Yes, every time that 3:30am alarm goes off I curse myself, but I keep doing it. Mostly because leaving from Savannah 99% of the time I've got to connect in ATL and I like leaving on those early flights because the plane is usally there from the flight into Savannah the night before and we don't have to wait for the later incoming flights from ATL, which means more likely for things to run on time, or close to on time! Plus, getting to SFO at noon we still have a full afternoon and evening to enjoy!
Jul 22nd, 2011, 02:40 PM
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Thanks for the info on Bart and Muni. We are going to San Francisco in Aug. and this is excellent info. We will be there on a Thursday so may try Hog Island Oysters. You are a good writer. I am looking forward to the next installment.
Jul 22nd, 2011, 06:27 PM
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sf7307...I would agree with you, when I walked into E&O I didn't have the greatest feeling, but I was willing to give it a try. Now I know, whenever I'm back in San Francisco, this would not be a spot to return too.
Lee Ann...I aim to please! ;-)
Brian...yes, we were "living on the edge" ;-)
butterflybush...I have to admit my knowledge of BART and MUNI came from right here on the Fodors messages boards a couple years ago when I planned another trip to San Francisco...I'm just passing on some great information I picked up here!
Lee Ann...I aim to please! ;-)
Brian...yes, we were "living on the edge" ;-)
butterflybush...I have to admit my knowledge of BART and MUNI came from right here on the Fodors messages boards a couple years ago when I planned another trip to San Francisco...I'm just passing on some great information I picked up here!
Jul 23rd, 2011, 08:29 AM
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Looking forward to hearing where else you ate. You are braver than I when it comes to raw oysters. I can eat all sorts of strange things while traveling, but put a raw oyster in front of me and all of my food alarms go off.
Jul 23rd, 2011, 07:23 PM
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Friday, July 1st
We woke up to a beautiful day, sunny and cool. We had a leisurely morning and walked to the Ferry Building just before 10am to have coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee. Do you ever have a great food experience somewhere and when you go back, it's just not the same as you remember? Well, that's sort of what happened here.
Back in 2009 when we were in San Francisco we stayed around the corner from the Blue Bottle Cafe on Mint Street and on several mornings had fantastic coffee there. Since we were staying closer to the Ferry Building this time, we decided to go there for our Blue Bottle Coffee fix. We ordered our coffees and then I spied the fresh made waffles that were on sale. We got our coffees and they were OK, but just didn't taste as smooth as we remembered. BUT, those waffles...WOW! Now, mom is not much of a breakfast person, especially waffles or pancakes for breakfast, but when we both took our first bites of this waffles we thought there were angels singing. The waffles came in their own little paper wrapper and they were hot, hot, hot, not too doughy, not too sweet, with the perfect amount of cinnamon. The waffle blew away the coffee today!
With the waffles fortifying us we decided to check out more of the shops in the Ferry Building. It was a Friday morning and the crowds were slim, it would be a much different scene on Saturday. After browsing about we still had time to kill before our 2:30pm Gourmet Walks tour of Hayes Valley. We hadn't been to Fisherman's Wharf since our first trip to San Francisco in the mid 1990's, so we decided to venture over there and scope out the meeting point for the tour we would be doing on Saturday.
We hop on the F line street car, with a zillion other visitors and made our way to Fisherman's Wharf. The moment we stepped of the streetcar I knew why we hadn't ventured there on our more recent trips to San Francisco, it was jam-packed with people and all kinds of trinket and tee shirt shops. We walked by the Boudin Bakery and stopped at the big glass window to watch the bakers "do their thing". One young girl was very talented, and her lobster bread sculpture looked very realistic, well, as realistic as bread shaped as a lobster can be!
We found the location where we would be meeting for the Mr. Toad's Tour on Saturday and after about an hour of meandering about made our way back to the hotel for a quick pit stop before heading to the Hayes Valley neighborhood for our Gourmet Walks.
While planning this trip, I randomly Googled "gourmet walking tours in San Francisco", you can imagine how many websites came up...lots! As I read through several one piqued my interest and it was Gourmet Walks, fun, foodie tours. I really liked the Gourmet on Hayes tour they offered and decided this would be a new neighborhood for us to explore. It was a 3 hour tour, with about 12 people. The guide was very knowledgable and the stops of the tour were a good mix of sweet and savory.
The tour started at Patricia's Green a small little park on Octavia Street in the heart of Hayes Valley. The first stop on the tour was at Smitten Ice Cream...wow, was this stuff good. We tried the salted caramel ice cream and this is not your ordinary ice cream, it's made with a machine using liquid nitrogen...pretty cool. To check out more on Smitten Ice Cream here is the website, http://smittenicecream.com/home/Home.html
The second stop on this gourmet tour was a big favorite and if you like tasty pork this place is awesome. The Fatted Calf Charcuterie at 320 Fell Street is like walking into an Italian deli on steroids, it was as if I had arrived in heaven! The owners made up a terrific tasting plate for our group and they did not skimp. We had several different types of salami, prosciutto, and mortadella. This shop also sets up a stall at the Saturday Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building if you can't get to the shop, just know the selection at the Ferry Building is much more limited than what is available at the shop. And if you happen to be in the Hayes Valley neighborhood on a Wednesday night, they do a Pork Happy Hour from 5:30pm until 7pm.
The tour continued with a bit of a detour out of Hayes Valley and into Zen Valley to the Samovar Tea Lounge. I am not a huge fan of teas, but I've got to say the 2 we tasted were pretty darn good, I don't remember the names of them, but the young lady at the counter speaking to us about the shop was very passionate and knowledgeable about teas. If you are interested in checking out their website, here it is http://samovarlife.com/
Once we were full of tea it was time to walk back down the hill returning to Hayes Valley and stopping at Fritz, a Belgian fries shop. The whole shop is dedicated to crispy french fries with a ton of different dipping sauces to choose from. We tasted probably 10 different dipping sauces, and as I sit here and type this I can't remember any that really stand out in my mind. To be honest, this was our least favorite stop of the tour.
On the other hand, the next stop was another favorite after The Fatted Calf, and it was Arlequin, a little cafe where we had a great cheese plate. The creamy goat cheese was perfectly sweet and the blue cheese was some of the best I've ever had. With a glass of chardonnay this place ranked high for us. I wouldn't hesitate to go back here on a return to this neighborhood.
The last 2 stops on the tour were sweet stops. We popped into the Christopher Elbow Chocolate shop, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought this corner shop was a jewelry store. The chocolates were lined up in perfect rows in sleek white display cases, they looked to pretty to eat! The final stop was at Miette, a candy/bakery shop. The big claim to fame here was the macaroons. The 2 samples we were given, pistachio and strawberry, were OK, but for us, macaroons are a tough sell. We love the Lauduree macaroons in Paris and having that as the "bar" on our macaroon meter, any others are really tough to follow!
The tour ended at about 5:30pm in the same location where we began. We said our thank-you's and good-byes to our guide and high-tailed it around the corner to an optical shop. You may be thinking, weird...an optical shop? Well, a couple things drew us to this place. The first was the name, we loved it. It was named "Through the Hayes" optical shop, we really liked the play on words as it related to the neighborhood. The second thing that drew us in was an eyeglass loop displayed in the window. I had been looking for something just like it for ages, and never finding what I really wanted until this shop. We popped in the shop and they were so nice and friendly.
I purchased my La Loop and while paying I asked the sales girl, if there were any good wine bars in the area. She recommended Arlequin, where we had been on the tour. Then I said, "Well, what wine bar would you go to?" I love using that question, because alot of times when locals are asked for a recommendations they may say a place they think a tourist would like to go. If I ask were they go, that can sometimes be a completely different answer and that's what happened this time.
The salesgirl recommended a place called Hotel Biron, it was about a 10 minute walk from the shop, and fortunately for us, in the direction we needed to head anyway. Some people may have been put off when she told us it was in an alley (just behind Cafe Zuni), but once mom and I heard that, we knew it would be just the place we would like, and our gut feeling was correct. The interior felt rustic with a bit of a hodge podge of wooden tables, iron chairs, low couches and exposed brick walls. Here is their website http://www.hotelbiron.com/
We had a couple glasses of wine at Hotel Biron, and as far as we could tell, it looked like we were the only non-locals in the place. Although we didn't have anything to eat, the meat and cheese plate the table next to us had looked pretty good.
At about 7pm it was time to catch the Muni J line to Incanto for our dinner reservation. This is a Chris Constantino restaurant and I was eagerly anticipating our meal here. Here is the restaurant's website http://incanto.biz/
We walked through the front door of Incanto at 7:45pm on the dot for our reservation and we were seated right away. The first thing that struck me about the place was it's size. From the pictures on the restaurant website I thought it would be bigger. The second thing that struck me was that although many tables were occupied the restaurant was not "busting at the seems" for a Friday night, maybe it was because of the holiday weekend. The flow of the night seemed to be by 8:30pm things were slowing down and then by 9pm the tables were full again.
Our server, Heather, was just terrific. We started with duck liver on walnut bread to share. Oh My God...all of it was absolutely delicious, I would have been happy if that was all we had and left, but hey, who am I kidding, we continued the food frenzy! We ordered a bottle of Orvieto recommended by Heather. The bottle was $38, which we appreciated Heather not trying to "hard sell" a more expensive wine, we told her what type of wine we liked and she came back with a great recommendation for us...love that in a server! Oh, and the bread and olive tapenaude amuse bouche was terrific and so were the rosemary bread sticks.
For our main dishes, mom had their handkerchief pasta with pork ragu and duck egg. Heather told us this never comes off their menu and now we know why...yes, it is THAT good. The pork ragu is decadent and delicious. I had the lamb main dish, it was perfectly cooked and tasty with squash blossoms, zucchini and olive puree and a spicy curl of sausage. My dish may have had a slight lead in the "winning" dish of the night, but not by much, that pasta was fantastic!
Mom and I usually like to end our Italian meals with a limoncello but this was not an option on the menu so we ordered 2 espresso. As we got to talking I realized mom had never had Vin Santo. I've had it in Tuscany and enjoyed it and thought, "heck, why not?' So we ordered two glasses of Vin Santo. And boy are we glad we did...this was the smoothest Vin Santo I have every had. It was a Badia di Morrona 2006 and it truly tasted like honey. And, it was an extremely generous portion. For us, the meal was absolutely perfect. The total cost came to $140.
We left the restaurant at about 10pm and walked a few blocks to the Muni J line stop. This neighborhood is definitely residential, the streets at 10pm were very quiet and few people were out and about. We took the J line to it's last station stop, Embarcadero, and walked 10 minutes back to the hotel. We then fell asleep in a happy food bliss.
Next up...a "wild" ride around San Francisco
We woke up to a beautiful day, sunny and cool. We had a leisurely morning and walked to the Ferry Building just before 10am to have coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee. Do you ever have a great food experience somewhere and when you go back, it's just not the same as you remember? Well, that's sort of what happened here.
Back in 2009 when we were in San Francisco we stayed around the corner from the Blue Bottle Cafe on Mint Street and on several mornings had fantastic coffee there. Since we were staying closer to the Ferry Building this time, we decided to go there for our Blue Bottle Coffee fix. We ordered our coffees and then I spied the fresh made waffles that were on sale. We got our coffees and they were OK, but just didn't taste as smooth as we remembered. BUT, those waffles...WOW! Now, mom is not much of a breakfast person, especially waffles or pancakes for breakfast, but when we both took our first bites of this waffles we thought there were angels singing. The waffles came in their own little paper wrapper and they were hot, hot, hot, not too doughy, not too sweet, with the perfect amount of cinnamon. The waffle blew away the coffee today!
With the waffles fortifying us we decided to check out more of the shops in the Ferry Building. It was a Friday morning and the crowds were slim, it would be a much different scene on Saturday. After browsing about we still had time to kill before our 2:30pm Gourmet Walks tour of Hayes Valley. We hadn't been to Fisherman's Wharf since our first trip to San Francisco in the mid 1990's, so we decided to venture over there and scope out the meeting point for the tour we would be doing on Saturday.
We hop on the F line street car, with a zillion other visitors and made our way to Fisherman's Wharf. The moment we stepped of the streetcar I knew why we hadn't ventured there on our more recent trips to San Francisco, it was jam-packed with people and all kinds of trinket and tee shirt shops. We walked by the Boudin Bakery and stopped at the big glass window to watch the bakers "do their thing". One young girl was very talented, and her lobster bread sculpture looked very realistic, well, as realistic as bread shaped as a lobster can be!
We found the location where we would be meeting for the Mr. Toad's Tour on Saturday and after about an hour of meandering about made our way back to the hotel for a quick pit stop before heading to the Hayes Valley neighborhood for our Gourmet Walks.
While planning this trip, I randomly Googled "gourmet walking tours in San Francisco", you can imagine how many websites came up...lots! As I read through several one piqued my interest and it was Gourmet Walks, fun, foodie tours. I really liked the Gourmet on Hayes tour they offered and decided this would be a new neighborhood for us to explore. It was a 3 hour tour, with about 12 people. The guide was very knowledgable and the stops of the tour were a good mix of sweet and savory.
The tour started at Patricia's Green a small little park on Octavia Street in the heart of Hayes Valley. The first stop on the tour was at Smitten Ice Cream...wow, was this stuff good. We tried the salted caramel ice cream and this is not your ordinary ice cream, it's made with a machine using liquid nitrogen...pretty cool. To check out more on Smitten Ice Cream here is the website, http://smittenicecream.com/home/Home.html
The second stop on this gourmet tour was a big favorite and if you like tasty pork this place is awesome. The Fatted Calf Charcuterie at 320 Fell Street is like walking into an Italian deli on steroids, it was as if I had arrived in heaven! The owners made up a terrific tasting plate for our group and they did not skimp. We had several different types of salami, prosciutto, and mortadella. This shop also sets up a stall at the Saturday Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building if you can't get to the shop, just know the selection at the Ferry Building is much more limited than what is available at the shop. And if you happen to be in the Hayes Valley neighborhood on a Wednesday night, they do a Pork Happy Hour from 5:30pm until 7pm.
The tour continued with a bit of a detour out of Hayes Valley and into Zen Valley to the Samovar Tea Lounge. I am not a huge fan of teas, but I've got to say the 2 we tasted were pretty darn good, I don't remember the names of them, but the young lady at the counter speaking to us about the shop was very passionate and knowledgeable about teas. If you are interested in checking out their website, here it is http://samovarlife.com/
Once we were full of tea it was time to walk back down the hill returning to Hayes Valley and stopping at Fritz, a Belgian fries shop. The whole shop is dedicated to crispy french fries with a ton of different dipping sauces to choose from. We tasted probably 10 different dipping sauces, and as I sit here and type this I can't remember any that really stand out in my mind. To be honest, this was our least favorite stop of the tour.
On the other hand, the next stop was another favorite after The Fatted Calf, and it was Arlequin, a little cafe where we had a great cheese plate. The creamy goat cheese was perfectly sweet and the blue cheese was some of the best I've ever had. With a glass of chardonnay this place ranked high for us. I wouldn't hesitate to go back here on a return to this neighborhood.
The last 2 stops on the tour were sweet stops. We popped into the Christopher Elbow Chocolate shop, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought this corner shop was a jewelry store. The chocolates were lined up in perfect rows in sleek white display cases, they looked to pretty to eat! The final stop was at Miette, a candy/bakery shop. The big claim to fame here was the macaroons. The 2 samples we were given, pistachio and strawberry, were OK, but for us, macaroons are a tough sell. We love the Lauduree macaroons in Paris and having that as the "bar" on our macaroon meter, any others are really tough to follow!
The tour ended at about 5:30pm in the same location where we began. We said our thank-you's and good-byes to our guide and high-tailed it around the corner to an optical shop. You may be thinking, weird...an optical shop? Well, a couple things drew us to this place. The first was the name, we loved it. It was named "Through the Hayes" optical shop, we really liked the play on words as it related to the neighborhood. The second thing that drew us in was an eyeglass loop displayed in the window. I had been looking for something just like it for ages, and never finding what I really wanted until this shop. We popped in the shop and they were so nice and friendly.
I purchased my La Loop and while paying I asked the sales girl, if there were any good wine bars in the area. She recommended Arlequin, where we had been on the tour. Then I said, "Well, what wine bar would you go to?" I love using that question, because alot of times when locals are asked for a recommendations they may say a place they think a tourist would like to go. If I ask were they go, that can sometimes be a completely different answer and that's what happened this time.
The salesgirl recommended a place called Hotel Biron, it was about a 10 minute walk from the shop, and fortunately for us, in the direction we needed to head anyway. Some people may have been put off when she told us it was in an alley (just behind Cafe Zuni), but once mom and I heard that, we knew it would be just the place we would like, and our gut feeling was correct. The interior felt rustic with a bit of a hodge podge of wooden tables, iron chairs, low couches and exposed brick walls. Here is their website http://www.hotelbiron.com/
We had a couple glasses of wine at Hotel Biron, and as far as we could tell, it looked like we were the only non-locals in the place. Although we didn't have anything to eat, the meat and cheese plate the table next to us had looked pretty good.
At about 7pm it was time to catch the Muni J line to Incanto for our dinner reservation. This is a Chris Constantino restaurant and I was eagerly anticipating our meal here. Here is the restaurant's website http://incanto.biz/
We walked through the front door of Incanto at 7:45pm on the dot for our reservation and we were seated right away. The first thing that struck me about the place was it's size. From the pictures on the restaurant website I thought it would be bigger. The second thing that struck me was that although many tables were occupied the restaurant was not "busting at the seems" for a Friday night, maybe it was because of the holiday weekend. The flow of the night seemed to be by 8:30pm things were slowing down and then by 9pm the tables were full again.
Our server, Heather, was just terrific. We started with duck liver on walnut bread to share. Oh My God...all of it was absolutely delicious, I would have been happy if that was all we had and left, but hey, who am I kidding, we continued the food frenzy! We ordered a bottle of Orvieto recommended by Heather. The bottle was $38, which we appreciated Heather not trying to "hard sell" a more expensive wine, we told her what type of wine we liked and she came back with a great recommendation for us...love that in a server! Oh, and the bread and olive tapenaude amuse bouche was terrific and so were the rosemary bread sticks.
For our main dishes, mom had their handkerchief pasta with pork ragu and duck egg. Heather told us this never comes off their menu and now we know why...yes, it is THAT good. The pork ragu is decadent and delicious. I had the lamb main dish, it was perfectly cooked and tasty with squash blossoms, zucchini and olive puree and a spicy curl of sausage. My dish may have had a slight lead in the "winning" dish of the night, but not by much, that pasta was fantastic!
Mom and I usually like to end our Italian meals with a limoncello but this was not an option on the menu so we ordered 2 espresso. As we got to talking I realized mom had never had Vin Santo. I've had it in Tuscany and enjoyed it and thought, "heck, why not?' So we ordered two glasses of Vin Santo. And boy are we glad we did...this was the smoothest Vin Santo I have every had. It was a Badia di Morrona 2006 and it truly tasted like honey. And, it was an extremely generous portion. For us, the meal was absolutely perfect. The total cost came to $140.
We left the restaurant at about 10pm and walked a few blocks to the Muni J line stop. This neighborhood is definitely residential, the streets at 10pm were very quiet and few people were out and about. We took the J line to it's last station stop, Embarcadero, and walked 10 minutes back to the hotel. We then fell asleep in a happy food bliss.
Next up...a "wild" ride around San Francisco
Jul 23rd, 2011, 09:57 PM
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Following along, I'll be back there next month. Incanto sounds great and your description might just get my husband to go. He didn't want to go last time (their reputation for offal put him "off"). ;-)
Jul 24th, 2011, 08:49 AM
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Here I am again, commenting on one tiny portion of your great post! I think you must have had a bad " operator" at Blue Bottle. I don't go that often to the one in the Ferry Building (it's across the street from my office, but the Embarcadero is a huge psychological impediment to those of us who work on the other side of the street ), but I have one in my town, and it's still great - had a latte there yesterday in fact.
), but I have one in my town, and it's still great - had a latte there yesterday in fact.
Jul 24th, 2011, 05:14 PM
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Kristina...we REALLY liked Incanto...everything from the food to the service was terrific and it was a bonus to see Christ Constantino in the kitchen expediting!
sf7307...I said to my mom I thought maybe it was just the Ferry Building location of Blue Bottle, because the cafe on Mint Street had outstanding coffee. Defintely won't put me off going back to Mint Street!
Deb...definitely check out the Hayes Valley neighborhood, it has a pretty interesting history. Before booking the walking tour I checked it out on Wikipedia and prior to the 1990's it was not a very desireable area, there were freeway on and off ramps right through the neighborhood, things have changed alot there in the last 20 or so years.
sf7307...I said to my mom I thought maybe it was just the Ferry Building location of Blue Bottle, because the cafe on Mint Street had outstanding coffee. Defintely won't put me off going back to Mint Street!
Deb...definitely check out the Hayes Valley neighborhood, it has a pretty interesting history. Before booking the walking tour I checked it out on Wikipedia and prior to the 1990's it was not a very desireable area, there were freeway on and off ramps right through the neighborhood, things have changed alot there in the last 20 or so years.
Jul 24th, 2011, 07:18 PM
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Saturday, July 2nd
It was another beautiful sunny day and being a Saturday we high-tailed it down to the Ferry Building, can you see a pattern developing here with the Ferry Building? BUT, the big draw to the Ferry Building on Saturday's is the farmer's market, it is fantastic. We stopped for a quick caffeine fix at Peet's Coffee and by 9am the farmer's market is bustling. We walked through the market stalls, there is so much great produce, cheese, charcuterie, flowers, breads, it's a market shoppers paradise. We picked up a few things including the pomegranate molasses mom had been on the hunt for, for months.
We've been to the Saturday farmer's market here before, 2 years ago and had the most unbelievable porchetta sandwich in the world, and no, I'm not exaggerating. It was all thanks to Fodorite Kristina for tipping us off to the Roli Roti truck back in 2009. By 10:30am there is already a line forming for this heavenly sandwich. We had every intention of going back here for this memorable morsel, but the more I started to think about it, the more I didn't want the memory of that first fantastic Roli Roti porchetta sandwich to be tarnished. Maybe I was having doubts after the Blue Bottle Coffee let down, so I asked mom how she would feel if we didn't have the Roli Roti porchetta sandwich for lunch?
Leave it to mom to come up with the most enticing alternative to the Roli Roti...mom said, well, we haven't tried the clam chowder or the grilled cheese sandwich at Hog Island Oysters, why don't we try that? BRILLIANT idea mom! We wouldn't be deflated if the porchetta didn't live up to our memory, which, honestly I think it would have been just as terrific, but hey, why not try something new!
We wandered over to Hog Island and they weren't quite open for lunch yet, so we got in line. Yes, I do believe there is always a line at Hog Island! We were about 4th in line and as soon as they opened we were seated in a terrific spot outside, but in the shade, it was getting hot in San Francisco!
Our server, Greg, was great, super friendly and ready with recommendations. When we said we'd like to try the clam chowder and did it come in a cup or bowl, since we wanted to share it, he said we could order one and he would have it split in 2 bowls, perfect. Then we said we'd each like a grilled cheese sandwich. Well, it looked us in the eye and said, "You really just want one to split," and we said, "OK". Boy are we glad we followed his advice. The clam chowder was unlike any I've had and believe me, I've had a lot after spending 4 years of college in New England. This chowder was so silky and creamy but the best part was that the clams were whole, fresh clams still in their shells, wow, can't get more fresh than that. When Greg placed the grilled cheese sandwich down and our eyes popped out of our heads he gave us a nod, a smile and an "I told you so" wink. This sandwich was another out of this world, oozey, gooey, crispy bread, crunchy, perfect golden brown grilled cheese sandwich. And, the pickled fennel and radishes that were the garnish to the sandwich made our lips pucker with savory delight.
This perfect lunch was an early lunch for us since we only had coffee for breakfast, so by 11:30am we paid our lunch bill and headed off towards our hotel to drop off our market purchases and then make our way to Fisherman's Wharf for our afternoon tour.
Instead of going back to the Ferry Building and trying to cram onto the Muni F line there, that would take us to Fisherman's Wharf, we left the hotel and walked over to Market Street and hopped on an almost empty F line streetcar there. I'm glad I came up with that little deviation because when the streetcar we were on arrived at the Ferry Building it was mob scene getting onto the streetcar.
While researching things to do for this trip I found Mr. Toad's Tours on Trip Advisor. Here is their website. http://www.mrtoadstours.com/index.html I thought the 3 hour "Postcard San Francisco" Tour sounded fun so booked it.
We arrived in the Fisherman's Wharf area about an hour before our tour was to start and wandered about for a bit and then walked to the meeting spot. Our tour guide, Eric, was terrific, very knowledgeable and alot of fun. We rode about the city in a 1924 Yellowstone bus. It was remarkable how many smiles on passers-by we saw from our perch in this vintage open air bus and I'm sure we are now etched in many a vacation photo across the globe. Eric kept up the commentary continuously throughout the entire 3 hours, not a small undertaking, his sense of humor was great and I learned quite a bit about San Francisco. We also saw alot of neighborhoods of San Francisco we hadn't been to yet, and probably wouldn't have had time to see on our own. We even had a stop at a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. We chugged through the Presidio, a first for us, and glided down to Crissy Field and a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We loved this tour, there were lots a terrific photo opportunities too and being a sunny day made it all the more better.
Just before 7pm we left the hotel and headed to Flour + Water for dinner. Here is their website: http://www.flourandwater.com/
Before I go on with our dinner experience I want to mention how I found this restaurant. Last November we went to Bologna, Italy for a week. On the flight over to Italy I read in the Delta Sky magazine a one page article about the chef at Flour + Water in San Francisco. We knew we'd be back in San Francisco eventually so pulled that page out of the magazine. The article mentioned this chef had gone to Bologna in order to learn how to make pasta. It just so happened that we had booked a market tour/cooking/pasta making lesson with a family in Bologna (Bluone Tours). While spending the whole day with this family, shopping, cooking and making pasta in their home the conversation turned to this article I had read. It turned out the chef at Flour + Water had worked with this same family in Bologna...talk about a small world. So, when mom and I decided to go to San Francisco, it was a "given" in our minds we had to go to Flour + Water for dinner one night...and you guessed it, we are very glad we did!
To get to Flour + Water using Muni we took the F line streetcar up Market Street to Powell and changed to the #27 bus. Once on the bus it took about 15 minutes to get to Bryant & 20th where we got off and walked 3 blocks to Flour + Water. Did we have a reservation? Yes. Were we very early for this reservation? Yes. You see, Flour + Water only takes reservations for about half the tables in the restaurant, everything else is a first come first seated basis. We had a 10pm reservation and were there about 8pm. We asked the hostess if it was possible to be seated earlier and she said she would put our name on the waiting list, but it would be about an hour wait. We asked if there was a wine bar in the neighborhood and she directed us up the street to a place called Schmidt's.
When we walked into Schmidt's there were maybe 3 tables full of diners and no one at the bar. We took 2 stools at the bar and ordered a couple glasses of wine. The bartender was friendly and let us taste a couple wines before ordering. Wines by the glass were reasonably priced at about $7. The chalkboard menu was full of a huge variety of bratwurst. Within an hour the entire restaurant was full and food coming out of the kitchen looked pretty tasty. This is definitely a place to keep on our radar for another time.
At about 9pm we walked back down to Flour + Water and the hostess seated us at the bar within 5 minutes. The bar here is used for restaurant seating, so if it's crowded sitting at the bar waiting for table is not an option. Our bartender was Eric,and he was a hoot, super friendly and terrific with wine recommendations. When we told him we liked dry white Italian wines, he said we had just described their whole wine list!
We decided to start with a pizza and had the fennel and sausage pizza the crust was thin and crispy, just the way we like it. Since this restaurant is known for it's pasta we both decided to go with pasta dishes and not venture into the secondi menu (which had just 2 or 3 choices). I had the garganella with pork meatballs and Italian chard. Mom had the strozzapreti with capers and horseradish (unusual sounding, but delicious). Both pastas were excellent, perfectly cooked and extremely flavorful. As if the pizza and pasta weren't perfect enough, we had the basil pannacotta garnished with strawberries for dessert. This dessert was perfectly creamy, we loved it. We let Eric, the bartender, recommend a dessert wine for us and he didn't disappoint. Our 2 espressos made a perfect ending to this great meal. The approximate cost of the meal was $120.
We were going to take the bus back towards the hotel, but as luck would have it, as we exited the restaurant a taxi was right in front of us and we jumped in. This was quite possibly the best taxi driver I've ever encountered. He was funny, and had us laughing for the 15 minutes it took us to get back to the hotel. Once back in our room it didn't take us long to fall asleep!
It was another beautiful sunny day and being a Saturday we high-tailed it down to the Ferry Building, can you see a pattern developing here with the Ferry Building? BUT, the big draw to the Ferry Building on Saturday's is the farmer's market, it is fantastic. We stopped for a quick caffeine fix at Peet's Coffee and by 9am the farmer's market is bustling. We walked through the market stalls, there is so much great produce, cheese, charcuterie, flowers, breads, it's a market shoppers paradise. We picked up a few things including the pomegranate molasses mom had been on the hunt for, for months.
We've been to the Saturday farmer's market here before, 2 years ago and had the most unbelievable porchetta sandwich in the world, and no, I'm not exaggerating. It was all thanks to Fodorite Kristina for tipping us off to the Roli Roti truck back in 2009. By 10:30am there is already a line forming for this heavenly sandwich. We had every intention of going back here for this memorable morsel, but the more I started to think about it, the more I didn't want the memory of that first fantastic Roli Roti porchetta sandwich to be tarnished. Maybe I was having doubts after the Blue Bottle Coffee let down, so I asked mom how she would feel if we didn't have the Roli Roti porchetta sandwich for lunch?
Leave it to mom to come up with the most enticing alternative to the Roli Roti...mom said, well, we haven't tried the clam chowder or the grilled cheese sandwich at Hog Island Oysters, why don't we try that? BRILLIANT idea mom! We wouldn't be deflated if the porchetta didn't live up to our memory, which, honestly I think it would have been just as terrific, but hey, why not try something new!
We wandered over to Hog Island and they weren't quite open for lunch yet, so we got in line. Yes, I do believe there is always a line at Hog Island! We were about 4th in line and as soon as they opened we were seated in a terrific spot outside, but in the shade, it was getting hot in San Francisco!
Our server, Greg, was great, super friendly and ready with recommendations. When we said we'd like to try the clam chowder and did it come in a cup or bowl, since we wanted to share it, he said we could order one and he would have it split in 2 bowls, perfect. Then we said we'd each like a grilled cheese sandwich. Well, it looked us in the eye and said, "You really just want one to split," and we said, "OK". Boy are we glad we followed his advice. The clam chowder was unlike any I've had and believe me, I've had a lot after spending 4 years of college in New England. This chowder was so silky and creamy but the best part was that the clams were whole, fresh clams still in their shells, wow, can't get more fresh than that. When Greg placed the grilled cheese sandwich down and our eyes popped out of our heads he gave us a nod, a smile and an "I told you so" wink. This sandwich was another out of this world, oozey, gooey, crispy bread, crunchy, perfect golden brown grilled cheese sandwich. And, the pickled fennel and radishes that were the garnish to the sandwich made our lips pucker with savory delight.
This perfect lunch was an early lunch for us since we only had coffee for breakfast, so by 11:30am we paid our lunch bill and headed off towards our hotel to drop off our market purchases and then make our way to Fisherman's Wharf for our afternoon tour.
Instead of going back to the Ferry Building and trying to cram onto the Muni F line there, that would take us to Fisherman's Wharf, we left the hotel and walked over to Market Street and hopped on an almost empty F line streetcar there. I'm glad I came up with that little deviation because when the streetcar we were on arrived at the Ferry Building it was mob scene getting onto the streetcar.
While researching things to do for this trip I found Mr. Toad's Tours on Trip Advisor. Here is their website. http://www.mrtoadstours.com/index.html I thought the 3 hour "Postcard San Francisco" Tour sounded fun so booked it.
We arrived in the Fisherman's Wharf area about an hour before our tour was to start and wandered about for a bit and then walked to the meeting spot. Our tour guide, Eric, was terrific, very knowledgeable and alot of fun. We rode about the city in a 1924 Yellowstone bus. It was remarkable how many smiles on passers-by we saw from our perch in this vintage open air bus and I'm sure we are now etched in many a vacation photo across the globe. Eric kept up the commentary continuously throughout the entire 3 hours, not a small undertaking, his sense of humor was great and I learned quite a bit about San Francisco. We also saw alot of neighborhoods of San Francisco we hadn't been to yet, and probably wouldn't have had time to see on our own. We even had a stop at a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. We chugged through the Presidio, a first for us, and glided down to Crissy Field and a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We loved this tour, there were lots a terrific photo opportunities too and being a sunny day made it all the more better.
Just before 7pm we left the hotel and headed to Flour + Water for dinner. Here is their website: http://www.flourandwater.com/
Before I go on with our dinner experience I want to mention how I found this restaurant. Last November we went to Bologna, Italy for a week. On the flight over to Italy I read in the Delta Sky magazine a one page article about the chef at Flour + Water in San Francisco. We knew we'd be back in San Francisco eventually so pulled that page out of the magazine. The article mentioned this chef had gone to Bologna in order to learn how to make pasta. It just so happened that we had booked a market tour/cooking/pasta making lesson with a family in Bologna (Bluone Tours). While spending the whole day with this family, shopping, cooking and making pasta in their home the conversation turned to this article I had read. It turned out the chef at Flour + Water had worked with this same family in Bologna...talk about a small world. So, when mom and I decided to go to San Francisco, it was a "given" in our minds we had to go to Flour + Water for dinner one night...and you guessed it, we are very glad we did!
To get to Flour + Water using Muni we took the F line streetcar up Market Street to Powell and changed to the #27 bus. Once on the bus it took about 15 minutes to get to Bryant & 20th where we got off and walked 3 blocks to Flour + Water. Did we have a reservation? Yes. Were we very early for this reservation? Yes. You see, Flour + Water only takes reservations for about half the tables in the restaurant, everything else is a first come first seated basis. We had a 10pm reservation and were there about 8pm. We asked the hostess if it was possible to be seated earlier and she said she would put our name on the waiting list, but it would be about an hour wait. We asked if there was a wine bar in the neighborhood and she directed us up the street to a place called Schmidt's.
When we walked into Schmidt's there were maybe 3 tables full of diners and no one at the bar. We took 2 stools at the bar and ordered a couple glasses of wine. The bartender was friendly and let us taste a couple wines before ordering. Wines by the glass were reasonably priced at about $7. The chalkboard menu was full of a huge variety of bratwurst. Within an hour the entire restaurant was full and food coming out of the kitchen looked pretty tasty. This is definitely a place to keep on our radar for another time.
At about 9pm we walked back down to Flour + Water and the hostess seated us at the bar within 5 minutes. The bar here is used for restaurant seating, so if it's crowded sitting at the bar waiting for table is not an option. Our bartender was Eric,and he was a hoot, super friendly and terrific with wine recommendations. When we told him we liked dry white Italian wines, he said we had just described their whole wine list!
We decided to start with a pizza and had the fennel and sausage pizza the crust was thin and crispy, just the way we like it. Since this restaurant is known for it's pasta we both decided to go with pasta dishes and not venture into the secondi menu (which had just 2 or 3 choices). I had the garganella with pork meatballs and Italian chard. Mom had the strozzapreti with capers and horseradish (unusual sounding, but delicious). Both pastas were excellent, perfectly cooked and extremely flavorful. As if the pizza and pasta weren't perfect enough, we had the basil pannacotta garnished with strawberries for dessert. This dessert was perfectly creamy, we loved it. We let Eric, the bartender, recommend a dessert wine for us and he didn't disappoint. Our 2 espressos made a perfect ending to this great meal. The approximate cost of the meal was $120.
We were going to take the bus back towards the hotel, but as luck would have it, as we exited the restaurant a taxi was right in front of us and we jumped in. This was quite possibly the best taxi driver I've ever encountered. He was funny, and had us laughing for the 15 minutes it took us to get back to the hotel. Once back in our room it didn't take us long to fall asleep!
