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GuestBlog: Two Chefs & A Table Get Stuffed In San Francisco…

2614082426_d75890544d_b photo: Darwin Bell

by Karl Gregg of Two Chefs & A Table

We decided late last year to start saving our hard earned tips and some supplier rebates to get to San Francisco for a trip that would mix some work and some pleasure. Our good friends in the Gastown area talked highly about the culinary scene there: the bartenders being quite the cocktail leaders, the local food movement being one of the best, et cetera.

We headed for Bellingham on a Friday to get the cheap flight from our friends of Allegiant Air, who if you didn’t know flies really cheap to Vegas as well (but that’s a whole other story entirely). We stayed at Parc 55 Hotel right in downtown and we got the best rate using the hint we were given by friends in the biz. First check Expedia for prices online, then call the hotel and ask them to beat that price. Given that hotels pay commission to online booking engines, it’s a trick that often works.

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We got into the hotel and, not wanting to waste any time, headed right for Fisherman’s Wharf and some lunch. Boudin is the self-proclaimed original sourdough bread baker and they occupy a big building housing a bakery, a fast casual restaurant, and a retail section with an assortment of condiments, books and souvenirs. We went upstairs to the restaurant that sits in a big great space with view of Alcatraz, an open kitchen with big forno oven, and a menu that we couldn’t wait to try.

The highlights of our lunch included French Onion soup (great croutons, dark rich stock); Chicken Frites (half chicken cooked under a brick, hand cut frites, dark jus); Pork Chop porterhouse (great thick steak, seared and roasted with herbs, sea salt and cracked pepper); and a bottle of BearBoat Sauvignon Blanc from Alexander Valley (great wine, lots of dark fruit, low acids, worked real well with a grilled dish, I would swear you can also taste some attributes of the big red from Alexander Valley Cabernets).

Mixed in were all the regular Fisherman’s Wharf attractions: an old Navy submarine, a Merchant Sailor Ship, and a penny arcade are just some of the gems in a part of the pier system called The Ferry Building. Throughout the week it has an indoor market featuring good restaurants like Slanted Door along with great butcher shops, fishmongers, Sur le Table and other great merchants.

The centerpiece and main attraction for us was Boccalone Salumeria, the butcher and deli of famed head-to-tail chef Chris Consentino. They had a huge array of great salamis, prosciuttos, salted pork livers, and handmade sausages like mortadella and porchetta, just to cover a few. It was a well set up store also offering sandwiches and small cones of daily salumerie tasters. We brought back a few of the dry-cured sausages to try and sample out on our own butcher blocks as part of our shared courses at the restaurant. There were quite a few interesting shops inside and when we had done some more research we realised there would have to be another visit the next day to check them out.

We also stopped in at Slanted Door. We had planned to eat there, but lunch was still sitting on us so we decided we’d just have some cocktails and snacks. It’s in a great waterfront space, and though we didn’t have a reservation we’d arrived at 5pm so it wasn’t a problem. They seated us at a large communal-style chef’s table, similar to our own (just lucky I guess).

The cocktail list was big with lots of Asian touches as well as a large mix of classic cocktails. The service was quick and soon we had some fantastic drinks in front of us, like a bourbon and basil smash with a hand-cut ice cube that must have been 2 inches by 2 inches and 3 inches long. Excellent.

The food came quickly, including a housemade lamb patty topped with a Chinese olive and preserved lemon relish. It was served with  6 Kusshi oysters topped with a radish and nuoc chaam-style dressing. The chicken clay pot with a light caramel, chillies and fresh ginger was also very impressive.

With a food coma setting in we set off back to the hotel to freshen up, put away the foods we had found and get ready for some wine bars and cocktail places. Overall, the trip was off to a good start.

San Francisco is well known for its craft cocktail culture, so the first stop should always be Bourbon and Branch, which is arguably the definitive institution of San Francisco’s cocktail scene. We headed there around midnight and unfortunately we forgot to get the passwords for the other rooms (4 rooms in total with 3 entrances, each accessible only with passwords which they put on their website).

image3_18We headed into the Library Room. It was a long thin space with the bar at one end and 14 foot ceilings lined with books, candles and 1920’s barware. The cocktail list was small but in a speakeasy like this I always leave it up to the bartender to craft a cocktail with the liquor I’m interested in. This time it was bourbon. I got a version of a Bourbon Smash, which was good and balanced, a great start. The rest of the group went rum, tequila and vodka, and they were all excellent drinks. For my second round, I went gin and got a Cucumber Gimlet. Again, a superior cocktail, but all in all the drinks weren’t blowing away the stuff we drink from our local experts at home, folks like JT at Market, Bobbi K and Simon at Boneta, and Josh and Jeff at The Diamond. Still, it was a great room with no loud music, and the service definitely made it a spot to go back to and fully explore.

It was late when we left Bourbon and Branch, 2am-ish. Even though we were in a food coma earlier, we hit Mason Street and found a 1950’s diner to grab a late night snack. It had an old diner feel with big booths and your regular after-bar and after-work clientele mingling with the nighthawks out late on a Friday.

The late night breakfast was good. We had a mix of omelettes, eggs, sausage and scrambles which were all spot on with classic shredded hash browns and some really good coffee. One bright spot was the massive fresh fruit and cottage cheese plate. There must have been 12 oz of cottage cheese and a pound of fruit on the plate. Everything is big in America!

Off to the hotel for bed time…or hold on…maybe a six-pack of Rolling Rock. Yes, Rolling Rock, my favorite beer in the USA and still unavailable in Canada. Strangely enough, Allan’s beer is Tecate, which is also not yet available in Canada! Damn LDB…

market_tour_6Saturday morning. The 9am wake up call came extra early after the Rolling Rock late night, so the first thing on the agenda was coffee, stat! The sunny and warm weather was welcome and I threw on my favourite combo of long shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed my camera and headed back to the pier to see what the Ferry Plaza Market held in store for us. On this day it was a certified farmers market operated by the CUESA (Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture). It’s open Tuesday and Saturday and has a huge list of products with many organic choices among them, along with artisan breads, cheeses, preserves, salts, spices, and so on. You get the picture. Its Granville island on steroids…organic and sustainable steroids.

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The best part was the food, and by that I mean the street food, in particular the porchetta sandwiches from the coolest rotisserie truck I’d ever seen. It held 18 bars of pork, chicken and ribs all in a neat little trailer. I had a drip coffee, with the water poured through wood trays with compostable filters, dripping my 2nd cup of coffee goodness. A breakfast tent was set up with local French toast and organic berries, eggs as you like em, and the biggest pancakes I’d seen in a long time.

There was also a taqueria with amazing handmade tortillas, huevos rancheros, and pulled pork tacos; a handful of bakers with perfect croissants, bagels, and savory breads; and of course sandwiches made with fine ingredients.

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Our favourite was 4505 Meats, a charcuterie and butchery shop that had everything from toad-in-a-hole to grilled sausages on a bun with the option of added Chicharrones (crispy fried pork rind). We tried the lamb Merguez: little spicy sausages, hand made sauerkraut, onion relish and a great crisp bun. We also had grilled chicken Banh Mi: a grilled chicken thigh, house made pickled vegetables, a good paté, and outstanding sricha mayo. Just perfect.

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Of all the treats, the two best things we had were a beef sausage roll with brioche (!) and a side of macaroni salad infused with pork. You’ll see this one at a new project we are working on, so I won’t divulge all the details of this treat!

While we were there, we found some dried Mexican peppers that we used on our Cinco de Mayo dinner menu and some great handmade salts. The really cool part about the farmers market was the information available on all the suppliers. They each had bios posted on the owners that detailed where they were from, what other markets they travel to in the Bay area and which sustainable procedures and routines they follow.

It was a good example of what you can do if you build a market around a solid principle. There was everyone from foodies and chefs in their whites to families all shopping in the same place, and I was told it is like that all year round – 10,000 people a day all shopping for great products.

I only wish that we had such a venue in Vancouver!

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Look out for PART TWO soon!