Dining Out: San Francisco
Chef shuffle brightens the San Francisco restaurant scene
Editor's note: Restaurant Michael Mina, located in the Westin St. Francis hotel, has decided to close for the duration of the hotel strike in San Francisco.
San Francisco's restaurant scene has been relatively quiet since the dot-com bust of 2000-2001 and the downturn in tourism that followed Sept. 11, 2001. New bistros, trattorias and other casual restaurants, some them terrific, far outnumbered more ambitious restaurants.
But since July, a wave of major restaurants has lit up the city's dining scene. This could well herald a new Golden Age of San Francisco dining.
The high points are the homecomings of Michael Mina and George Morrone. Both made their names at Aqua in the 1990s, then left town. Mina, who built a restaurant empire that includes three hits in Las Vegas, has now opened his big, splashy Restaurant Michael Mina in the historic St. Francis Hotel. Morrone, returned from two years cooking in Australia to open the smaller, more intimate Tartare.
Meanwhile, Daniel Patterson, whose creative Elisabeth Daniel was sadly underappreciated in the location that became Tartare, brought his very personal cuisine to the new Frisson. Ron Siegel left Masa's after a four-year stint to bring his Asian-inflected cuisine to the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel (he replaced Sylvain Portay, who left to help Alain Ducasse open his restaurant in Las Vegas). Gregory Short, ex-sous chef at French Laundry, replaces Siegel at Masa's. For a few months Short is working there with Richard Reddington, who left Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley last spring and plans to open his own new restaurant in Yountville in February or March.
All these places are wine-savvy, too. Mina's wine list already has 1,800 wines on it. Tartare and Frisson both pack a raft of astute choices in eclectic lists of around 250 wines. The much larger selections at the Dining Room and Masa's have already earned Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence.
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| At Frisson, Daniel Patterson's food has uncanny balance despite the occasional unexpected touches. | |
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For me, Restaurant Michael Mina is the best, most completely satisfying jewel in a crown now studded with gems. Mina's restaurant occupies a dramatic high-ceilinged space, once the starchy old Compass Rose bar, off the main lobby of the St. Francis. Now brighter and airier, the room has a timeless style. Adding to the ambience, cable cars clang past the two-story arched windows that frame Union Square.
Mina's radical new menu is the star. Each course is actually six different treatments of the main ingredient, rather like variations on a theme. It's more than a gimmick. It reinvents the tasting menu.
On a September visit, juicy diver scallops arrived on six small plates of various shapes, nestled into indentations in specially designed platters. On one plate, a single large nicely-browned scallop was splashed with a little lemon butter and topped with osetra caviar. Another rested on a sweet corn puree enlivened with summer truffles, and a third had chopped heirloom tomatoes for a lighter garnish. Each one was matched with a different scallop ceviche, one with lemon, one with corn, one with tomato.
Much as I appreciated the caramelized surface and creamy center of the perfectly sautéed shellfish, it was the ceviches that made me sigh with contentment, especially the one with fresh corn kernels.
Serving all those preparations at once compresses what could have been an hours-long tasting menu into three courses. If you're of an intellectual bent, sampling several approaches to the same ingredient teaches you something about the ingredient and your own taste. If you're a hedonist, you have six different dishes to enjoy for the price of one. There isn't so much of any single dish to bore your taste buds, and the next taste might even be better.
Mina's menu offers five such options for first courses, such as foie gras or soft shell crab, and five more as seconds, such as crispy-skin black bass or Korabuta pork loin. Dessert comes the same way. A three-course menu of 18 little plates comes to $78.
This system works especially well for foie gras, a Mina specialty since he made his first splash cooking at Aqua. A front row of three perfectly seared lobes, one with figs, one with pineapple and one with concord grapes, was backed by three round slices of foie gras terrine given similar treatments. The varied contrasts in temperature, texture and sweet-sour-fat balance won me over. The concept carries through to dessert. In one, three tiny, disarmingly gooey warm chocolate cakes corresponded with three glass teacups holding milk shakes flavored with butterscotch, milk chocolate and peanut.
For those who don't want so many options, several dishes are available as stand-alones, which are finished tableside. Mina's ahi tuna tartare with Scotch Bonnet peppers and his lobster pot pie are minor classics. These dishes are deftly handled by the service staff. Clad in distinctive black jackets that close like short robes, they exhibit a level of professionalism and teamwork seldom seen in a restaurant open only a few months.
Mina makes a strong statement about wine, with 1,500 choices when it opened (up to 1,800 by September). Raj Parr, who created the Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning wine list at Fifth Floor and works with Mina in Las Vegas, is responsible for this one, and it's loaded with unexpected beauties in all price ranges. Big spenders can splurge on first-growth Bordeaux from 1921, 1928, 1945, 1947 and 1959, and deep verticals of Rhône reds such as Château de Beaucastel and Chave Hermitage. Other prizes include insider selections from California, Austria and Burgundy, such as the Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Boudriotte 1999 red ($45 for a half bottle) that made such a smooth match with the pork plate.
Tennis star André Agassi is a prominent investor in Mina's burgeoning restaurant group, which includes Nobhill in the MGM Grand and the recently renamed Michael Mina Las Vegas (once Aqua) at the Bellagio Hotel. This is now home base, and it's a doozy.
If Mina went lavish, his mentor, Morrone, aimed for cozy. Tartare is tucked into a tight space with a vaulted basket-weave ceiling in the shadow of the TransAmerica Pyramid. Morrone has his own clever menu idea, which, as the name suggests, centers on raw dishes.
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| Tartare is tucked into a tight space with a vaulted basket-weave ceiling in the shadow of San Francisco's TransAmerica Pyramid. | |
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I especially liked the chef's signature ahi tartare, the diced plush-textured fish drizzled with habañero-infused sesame oil and served with plums and mint. The carpaccio of opakapaka, a silky snapper-like Hawaiian fish, was another winner, dressed with orange oil and toasted cumin. He made something special of a chilled heirloom tomato soup, yellow, red and green colors separating into segments in the bowl. On the cooked side, the roasted poussin in a Thai almond broth kept me coming back for another bite. A few soups and entrees complete the picture.
Parr had a hand in this wine list, too, consulting with fellow Vegas sommelier Steven Geddes and Paul Einbund, who had been at Mélisse in Santa Monica. The 225-wine list is arranged by style, which coordinates with codes next to each item on the menu. For the opakapaka, the menu refers to the "White wine, lighter, off drier, fresh and crisp" page, from which the Dr. Loosen Riesling Auslese Graacher Himmelreich 1999 ($28 for 375 ml) worked splendidly. The "powerful, bold, rich and young" page yielded Tablas Creek Roussanne Esprit de Beaucastel 2002 ($31/375 ml), which did wonders for the poussin.
Frisson aims at a younger crowd than either Mina or Tartare. The twenty-something owners are founders of PayPal, the internet financial service. The round dining room, its dome pockmarked with recessed lights, shares the space with a lively bar that serves creative drinks and a DJ spins world music.
This works for Patterson's freewheeling menu of a dozen small plates and a like number of large plates. Patterson's food has uncanny balance despite the occasional unexpected touches. Sweet corn soup gets an earthy touch from chanterelles. Cilantro adds a zingy note in intensely flavorful (and sweet) chilled carrot soup. Keffir lime and coconut make a flavorful broth under luxuriously moist truffle-poached halibut. Desserts need work, but can build on such successes as a fromage blanc soufflé in a coffee cup that almost made up for a bland roasted peach half. A late night menu veers toward ham and cheese sandwiches.
There are no duds on the sprightly 250-wine list, by ex-Fleur de Lys sommelier Booth McKinney. Even the by-the-glass list includes Salon Le Mesnil, Tignanello and Produttori del Barbaresco. "I'm having a great time here," says McKinney. "At Fleur de Lys everyone wanted Cabernet and Bordeaux. Here they speak Syrah."
Siegel was an inspired choice for the softly lit, carpeted, wood-paneled Ritz-Carlton's Dining Room. Siegel still gets requests for the all-lobster menu he created in 1999 when he was the first American to defeat one of the Japanese Iron Chefs on the cult TV show. His cooking now is if anything more refined and focused. Sashimi of kampachi, the slices of the rich-textured fish arranged into a square topped by a relish of geoduck and watermelon radish, reflects a Japanese spirit, which also adds a welcome inflection to grilled duck breast over greens with a ginger and lemon brunoise and black rice. Both dishes were sumptuous, as was an amuse bouche of sea urchin panna cotta, creamy and satiny, topped with caviar.
Sommelier Stephane Lacroix, a laid-back Frenchman, tends the book of more than 1,000 wines. He has a knack for picking the right one for Siegel's sometimes outré flavors, such as the pure, clear Merry Edwards Pinot Noir Russian River 2001 ($70) for the duck, preceded by a glass of tangy Highfield Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2003 ($9) for the kampachi.
Fans of Richard Reddington, who dazzled all comers at Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley until he left last spring to plan his own restaurant, can catch him until January at Masa's. Before he opens his own place next spring in Yountville, he shares the cooking duties at Masa's with Gregory Short, sous chef at the French Laundry before it closed for remodeling last winter.
Both Short and Reddington rely on a Mediterranean palate, a passion for finding great ingredients and classical techniques to lend them a refined touch. They have divided the menu. Reddington is responsible for such dishes as scallops over wilted spinach with the sharp tang of Niçoise olive tapenade. Short combines chilled Maine crab with melon consommé, crisped prosciutto and a drizzle of jalapeño vinaigrette. Short managed to preserve all the juice and flavor in roast pheasant, serving it over sweet corn with Brussels sprout leaves and red kiri squash.
Sydney-born Alan Murray oversees Masa's wine list. He includes a few choice Australian icons among the 1,000 selections but focuses primarily on white Burgundies and notable California Cabernets. Also, how many restaurants offer such a rare indulgence as Château d'Yquem 1986 by the glass ($58)? Masa's does.
This kitchen has had a succession of great chefs, starting with Masataki Kobayashi, who opened it in 1983, and the likes of Julian Serrano (now at Picasso in Las Vegas) and Siegel since. Short shows every sign of taking this kitchen to even greater heights when he is on his own, but in the meantime there's the added fillip of Reddington's food to make this a destination worth getting to before he leaves.
Restaurant Information
Restaurant Michael Mina
Westin St. Francis, 335 Powell Street, San Francsco
Telephone (415) 397-9222
Open Dinner daily
Cost Prix fixe menus, $78-$120
Credit cards All major
Tartare
550 Washington St., San Francisco
Telephone (415) 434-3100
Website www.tartarerestaurant.com
Open Dinner Monday-Saturday
Cost Tartares, $13-$16, Entrees $26-$29
Credit cards All major
Frisson
244 Jackson Street, San Francisco
Telephone (415) 956-3004
Website www.frissonsf.com
Open Dinner daily
Cost Entrees $17-424
Credit cards All major
The Dining Room
Ritz Carlton, 600 Stockton St., San Francisco
Telephone (415) 773-6168
Website www.ritzcarlton.com
Open Dinner Tuesday-Saturday
Cost Prix Fixe menus, $68-$115
Credit cards All major
Masa's
648 Bush Street, San Francisco
Telephone (415) 989-7154, (800) 258-7694
Website www.masas.citysearch.com
Open Dinner, Tuesday to Saturday
Cost Prix fixe menus $79-$120
Credit cards All major
