It`s not exactly a civil war-more like a civilized war-but it`s certainly California`s favorite skirmish. Who has the best restaurants, north or south? The battle is raging and this time the turf is San Francisco.
Hollywood`s Wolfgang Puck has invaded the north and he and Jeremiah Tower are slugging it out in close quarters. The twist is that Puck has created a splashy place that is formal enough to be considered an evolution of San Francisco tradition, while homegrown Tower has gone sunny with a new beach-themed bistro as exuberant as any found in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, as the big guns face off, Cindy Pawlcyn, the innovative, young chef/entrepreneur who has stirred the pots at such bright spots as Fog City Diner, Mustards and Bix, has launched another restaurant, Roti. Here, we take a look at all three of San Francisco`s latest and trendiest culinary contenders.
Puck`s place
When Wolfgang Puck opened the doors of Postrio last April, it was an immediate media event. Los Angeles newspapers crowed that ”their” Southern California cook, whose very name seems to define the term ”celebrity chef,” had brought the north some much-needed star power. But local skeptics sat back and waited for Puck`s latest brasserie to bomb. After all, they reasoned, with two L.A. restaurants, another in Tokyo and frozen pizzas and cookbooks to contend with, how spread out can he get?
”I was very apprehensive about coming to San Francisco because there`s always this rivalry between San Francisco and L.A.,” Puck admits. ”People in San Francisco think that they know much more about food and wine than in L.A. And I didn`t want to call it Spago or Chinois because they would think it was just an extension of an L.A. restaurant. What I really wanted to do was a place that represented San Francisco.”
Judging from San Francisco`s reaction, he has succeeded. Even before the restaurant officially opened, those old-guard San Franciscans who had attended the three pre-opening galas (a canny move on Puck`s part, they benefited the opera, symphony and ballet) came away raving.
Landmark-loving, demolition-loathing San Francisco appreciated the setting, the newly renovated Prescott Hotel just two blocks from Union Square. Designer Pat Kuleto, working closely with Puck and a whopping $2.5 million budget, managed to create an environment that has the traditional warmth of a San Francisco establishment-thick carpet, honey-hued walls, lots of brick and wood-yet is unlike anything locals have seen before.
A fashionable flock
Postrio begins at street level in the bar, where the crowd looks great. The women wear Yves Saint Laurent and Romeo Gigli, while the men look like they were plucked from Ralph Lauren`s advertisements. Here one can munch Puck`s trademark pizza, fresh from the brick oven, at the end of the bar without a reservation-a lucky thing given the typical six-week wait for dinner reservations on weekends.
From there the restaurant flows down two more stories. Puck himself chose the paintings (among them a Sam Francis and a Robert Rauschenberg created just for the restaurant). A vibrant red and pink ribbon motif winds sinuously through marble floors and carpeting as well as the piece de resistance, a bronze and copper-railed staircase that is ideal for grand entrances to the main dining room.
At present, Puck is spending three days a week cooking with his executive chefs, Anne and David Gingrass (both formerly of Spago), in the open kitchen that is placed, very much like a stage, on one side of the large, 150-seat room.
”I felt the food should reflect the city,” says Puck, taking a break from the bustling lunchtime kitchen. ”There`s Chinatown and North Beach, where a lot of Italians live, and I think the restaurant represents both of those neighborhoods.”
Typical of this melding of ethnic traditions is the classic North Coast delicacy, Dungeness crab. At lunch it is served roasted in a spicy curry sauce surrounding a creamy risotto. On the dinner menu, succulent Maine lobster is presented in a similar manner.
Another winner is the appetizer blini, a buckwheat pancake rich with caramelized onions and light because of the Anchor Steam beer added to its batter. It comes topped with thick slices of salmon, which is smoked on the premises, sour cream and golden caviar.
Other selections range from Puck`s special duck salad to grilled calf`s liver glazed with port wine and served on a garlic puree. While food prices are moderate for a restaurant like this (dinner entrees are around $19, appetizers average $9.50), much of Postrio`s wine list is overpriced. Some selections, like the 1984 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet at $40, however, are worth any price.
Beached at Speedo 690
Stars, the restaurant that has been San Francisco society`s favorite hangout for the last four years, is chef Jeremiah Tower`s statement on elegance and the art of cuisine. His newest venture, Speedo 690, is a lighthearted, youthful paean to sunshine and frivolity. On entering Speedo 690, you are immediately struck by its resemblance to the kind of hip eateries found in Los Angeles.
Speedo 690 derives its name from an automobile repair shop that occupied its location for 40 years. Despite its humble origins, Tower has made a cheery, modern environment out of the soaring, 5,000-square-foot building. Floor-to-ceiling windows encompassing two entire walls let in light and a view of traffic hurtling past on busy Van Ness Avenue. More light streams in from large skylights set into the high, exposed-beam roof. It bounces off white walls and canvas beach umbrellas that shelter dining tables on the main floor, radiates off a pair of antique British fire-engine-red phone booths and sparks color from Philip Core`s huge, brilliant mural in the bar area. The large, open-air bar and exhibition kitchen are the restaurant`s focal points. ”It`s to maximize the sun,” Tower points out a bit needlessly, since he is absolutely blinding in a starchy white chef`s coat. ”I`ve been living here 10 years waiting to go to the beach and it`s always too cold. So I thought, why not bring the beach to me?”
Tower swears that the inspiration for the restaurant came not from Southern California but from a trip he made a few years ago to Australia. ”We were sitting at the Blue Water Grill in Bondi Beach, near Sydney. It was just really wonderful and I decided I should do a beach restaurant because there was nothing at all like that here.”
Although it is less than 6 months old, Speedo 690 has quickly become as popular as Stars, but with a new, twentysomething crowd. At night, the place reverberates with good rock music and the buzz of young people at play. More than half of the space is taken up by bar tables at which couples wearing Comme des Garcons and Girbaud eye Chanel-clad matrons who have wandered over from Stars.
A bit of exotica
The food is fun. Aided by his young proteges, Ted Hiscox and David Robbins, who both interned a Stars, Tower has developed a menu that brings together exotic elements from around the globe. ”I said in the beginning that this was food that you always wanted to have at a tropical resort, but never could get,” explains Tower. ”What I meant was we all love Indian food, but often it`s very badly done. We adore Moroccan, which at its best is one of the great cuisines of the world. We love simple grilled fish and good ceviche from the coasts of Mexico, and Thai and Chinese food, but you don`t necessarily want a full menu of any of them. It`s limiting,” he says. ”So I thought, why not put a cuisine together that uses the best elements of each?”
Tower relishes culinary eccentricities and he is not averse to embellishing the classics. ”I wanted to do dim sum,” he says. ”I love those steamed little dumplings, but usually the filling isn`t very good. So you do a good filling and put a little mango and cilantro sauce on-of course the Chinese recoil in horror-and they`re divine.”
Among the unusual and successful pairings on a recent dinner menu were a small first course version of bastilla ($8), the traditional sweet and savory Moroccan meat pie that here was served with a sauce made from chopped, fresh tomatoes. Entrees included Pacific snapper grilled with papayas and minted cucumber ($13) and duck cooked in coconut, basil and saffron and served Hong Kong-style in a small clay pot with noodles and bok choy ($16.50). As reservations are not taken at Speedo 690, a bar menu is also offered for those who like to nibble while they wait.
Franco-American tastes
If you`re headed for Roti expecting to find the same kind of California cuisine that chef Cindy Pawlcyn`s Mustards Grill, Bix and Fog City Diner are noted for, you`re apt to be disappointed. However, if you`d like to sample a decidedly Gallic menu that`s neither nouvelle nor haute, you`re in luck.
At Roti, Pawlcyn melds her trademark innovative combinations with hearty French bistro fare, taking inspiration from such venerated French landmarks as Chez Ami Louis and Le Grand Veneur.
”We wanted our connection to these restaurants to be subtle,” explains Pawlcyn, who is chef and co-owner of all four restaurants. ”At Roti we have an American menu that is French-inspired.” The chef and her partners, Bill Higgins and Bill Upson, spent three weeks touring France, dining in as many as four restaurants a day. Upon their return, Pawlcyn kissed her home in the Napa Valley goodbye and took up residence at the Griffon Hotel in downtown San Francisco, where Roti is housed.
Roti is reminiscent of a Paris bistro with its dark polished wood walls, brass and glass partitions and leather-covered banquettes. Its centerpiece is a large rustic brick fireplace that is big enough to accommodate roasts and chops, which sizzle on long spits over glistening coals. In chilly San Francisco, even on a summer evening, the warm glow is a magnet for businessmen who congregate at the long bar. Near them, brass rods display copies of international newspapers.
When she is at Roti, Pawlcyn plans menus and sets up schedules in addition to cooking with chef Robert Cubberly. ”I move around a lot. Yesterday I cooked at Mustards, today I prepared lunch at Bix and tonight I`ll do dinner at Roti,” she says.
Despite the hectic schedule, Pawlcyn`s menu at Roti is worthy of her reputation. Her influence is pervasive, whether in the escargot on brioche with roasted garlic or the delicate warm salad of eggplant, artichoke and goat cheese. Foie gras is supplied by a Salvadorean couple living in Sonoma who learned their trade in France. It`s served warm with caramelized rutabagas, a way that would make purveyors of the traditional dish shudder and tempt those with more adventurous palates.
Grilled rabbit is served in a sauce of scallions and apricots, while scallops are seared in a ragout of red peppers, garlic and eggplant. Prices are moderate, with dinner salads starting at $6 and entrees averaging about $13. Roti`s wine list is about 60 percent Californian and 40 percent French. The favorite vintages at the new restaurant include Etude Pinot Noir ($25) and Neyer Chardonnay ($24), both from California.
, W/Fairchild Publications.
