Gotta save room for dessert
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, etc.
We headed for Bellingham on a Friday to get the cheap flight from our friends of Allegiant Air, who if you didn’t know fly 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 a hint that 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.
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, bakery with a assortment of condiments, books and souvenirs. We went upstairs to the full service restaurant that sits in a big, great space with view of Alcatraz, and open kitchen with big forno oven and a menu which 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, and a dark jus
- Pork Chop porterhouse, great thick steak, seared and roasted with herbs, sea salt and cracked pepper
- Drink: BearBoat Sauvignon blanc – 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 with all the regular Fisherman’s Wharf attractions: an old Navy submarine, a Merchant Sailor Ship, a penny arcade are some gems in a part of the pier system called Ferry Building. Through the week it has a indoor markets featuring great restaurants like Slanted Door in its newish waterfront location, along with great butcher shops, Fish mongers, Sur le Table and other great merchants.
The centrepiece 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, prosciutto, salted pork liver, and handmade sausages like mortadella and porchetta, just to cover a few. It was a well set up store that also had sandwiches, and small cones of daily salumerie items as a taster. (atttached Pic) 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. There were quite a few great shops inside and when we had done some more research we realised there would have to be another visit the next day to check out a few more shops.
Chipotle anyone?
We stopped into Slanted Door and had though we had planned to eat here, lunch was still sitting on us and so we decided we would have some cocktails and some snacks. It’s in a great waterfront room, and though we didn’t have resos we got there at 5 pm so there wasn’t a problem. They seated us at a large communal chef style table . . . 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 great drinks in front of us, the highlight of which was a bourbon and basil smash with a hand cut ice cube that must have been 2 inches x 2 inches and 3 inches long. Great!
The food also came quickly, with the highlight being a house made lamb patty topped with a Chinese olive and preserved lemon relish served with 6 kusshi oysters topped with a radish and nuoc chaam style dressing. The Chicken claypot with a light caramel, chillies and fresh ginger was also very impressive.
With the startings of a food coma coming 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 know well for the Craft Cocktail culture, so the first stop should be Bourbon and Branch, which is perhaps the definitive institution of San Francisco Craft Cocktail culture. We headed there around midnight and unfortunately for us we forgot to get the password for the other rooms. In total Bourbon and Branch has 4 rooms, 3 entrances and a whole tonne of cocktail culture, one part of which is rooms accessible only by passwords which they put on their website.
We headed into the Library Room: it was a long thin space, bar at one end and 14 foot ceilings lined with books candles and 1920’s circa barware. Next time though we will make sure we got the password, would like to see what is on the other side!!!! 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 am interested in, this time was bourbon, which should come as no surprise really. I got a version of a bourbon smash, which was really good and balanced, a good start. The rest of the group went rum, tequila and vodka and they were all very good drinks. For my second round, I went gin and got a cucumber gimlet. Again a great cocktail, but all in the drinks definitely were not blowing away the stuff that we drink from our local experts like JT at Market, Bobbi K and Simon at Boneta or Josh and Jeff at Diamond. Great room, no loud music, and good service definitely makes this a spot to go back to and fully explore!!!
After Bourbon and Branch, it was late, 2am-ish and even though we were in a food coma earlier, we hit Mason Street and found a 1950’s diner to grab a late snack. It had a great old diner feel with big booths and your regular clientele of after-bar, after-work and nighthawks out late on a Friday.
The late night breakfast was good–we had a mix of omelettes, eggs and sausage and scrambles which were all spot on with classic shredded hash browns and some really good coffee! One bright spot was the fresh fruit and cottage cheese plate that was massive. It must have been 12 oz of cottage cheese and a pound of fruit, the again, 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 America and still unavailable in Canada. Strangely enough Allan’s beer is Tecate which is also not available in Canada! Damn LDB . . .
Fresh local poultry at the Market
Saturday morning. The 9 am wake up call came extra early after the Rolling Rock late night, so first on the agenda was coffee. Stat! The sunny and warm weather was a welcome addition to the day 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 for us. On this day it was a certified farmers market operated by the CUESA: Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture! Dare you to say that fast 3 times!!! It’s open Tuesday and Saturday and has a huge list of products with many organic choices along with artisan breads, cheese, preserves, salts, spices, etc. You get the picture–its Granville island on steroids . . . organic, sustainable, steroids.
The best part was the food and by that I mean the street food: Porchetta sandwiches from the coolest rotisserie truck I’ve ever seen. It holds 18 bars of pork, chicken and ribs all in a neat little trailer. I had a hand poured drip coffee: the water was 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 them, and the biggest pancakes I have seen in a long time.
There was also a taqueria with amazing hand made tortillas, huevos rancheros, and pulled pork tacos; a handful of bakers with perfect croissants, bagels, savoury breads, and of course sandwiches made with all of fine ingredients from cheese, to meats and produce.
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 an option of Chicharrones added to them (crisp fried pork rind). We tried the lamb Merguez that was great 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 pate, and great sricha mayo—just perfect.
Of all the treats, the two best things we had were a beef sausage roll with brioche (!) and a side of macaroni salad that was 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 great dried mexican peppers, that we used on our Cinco de Mayo dinner menu and some great handmade salts. The great part about the farmers market was the information available on all the suppliers. They all had a bio posted on the owners, where they were from, what other markets they travel to in the bay area and what sustainable procedures and routines they follow.
All in all this is a great example of what you can do if you build a market around a great principle: there was everyone from foodies, to chefs in whites, to families all shopping in the same palce. 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!
Stay Tuned for Part 2 and More . . .
Two chefs Vancouver Blog 