Matt Skinner's inside guide to San Francisco
Within 24 hours celebrity sommelier and author Matt Skinner hunts down and experiences the finest, hippest and most exciting venues in San Francisco. But unless you’re Kiefer Sutherland you might want to schedule more time to make the most of this vibrant slice of northern California.
Of all the great wine and food cities that I’ve had the good fortune to review for this column, none have quite had the impact of San Francisco. In fact, if I had to rank them, San Francisco would comfortably sit right up the sharp end of the pile. There are many things that great food and wine cities around the world have in common: access to good produce, strong food heritage, ethnic diversity, pioneers and innovators. But the thing that defines them, the one key attribute that separates the good from the great, is attitude. They all have it – Paris, London, New York – but it’s how they convey it that really counts, and San Francisco does that better than almost all of them.
And so it’s after a long week of work in New York that I find myself in San Francisco. I’ve deliberately stopped here for the sole purpose of eating and drinking. I’ve heard the stories, read the reviews and listened to the almost evangelistic praise heaped on this city by those who have been there. “A virtual Disneyland for food and wine lovers,” said one. “As good as it gets,” said another. Both big calls. I now have 24 hours to find out what all the fuss is about; 24 hours, which as it transpires, will not be forgotten in a hurry.
With about eight million people, San Francisco has an amazing ability to feel much smaller than it actually is. Still, an outsider would be crazy to embark on a mission such as mine without some kind of inside help, and it comes in the form of two great friends who live and breathe food and wine. They have cleared time to show me the best their city has to offer, both on and off the beaten track.
We meet up within minutes of me getting off the plane and, with the clock now ticking, decide that the most civilised way to come to terms with what lies ahead would be over a couple of perfectly mixed negronis. Sounds like a plan. The team at Nopa (415 864 8643, 560 Divisidero Ave) mix the best in town and are fiercely devoted to championing local produce, be it gin from Lake Michigan or American Rye sourced from a secret location in downtown San Francisco. Cocktails here are a religion and those in the know come from all over the city for some of the best drinks in town.
I realise after a reasonably late night that one of the few good things about jetlag is that there’s little need for a 7am wake-up call.
As it happens, my hotel is right across the road from the Ferry Building (415 983 8000, One Ferry Building, Market St), a re-gentrified ferry terminal that is home to a growing number of butchers, grocers, cheesemakers, bakers, wine bars, food-gadget shops and cafes. It’s also home to the best weekly Farmers’ Market in the city, and given that today is Saturday, it’s already in full swing at 7am.
But before tackling the Farmers’ Market I need coffee, and thankfully San Francisco’s obsession with the bean, and lack of chain stores, means there is no shortage of great spots to re-caffeinate. We hear plenty of encouraging things about the newly opened Four Barrel Coffee (415 252 0800, 375 Valencia St, Mission) but are keen to check out the one that kicked it all off, Blue Bottle Coffee (510 653 3394, Ferry Building). If you think Melbournians can get a bit serious about their coffee, this takes it to a whole new level. Beans are organic and roasted on site. Standard coffee comes slowly from a drip filtration system, while the usual suspects (cafe latte/cappuccino/flat white) come velvet-like and primed with a double shot of espresso. Two flat whites later and I’m ready to take on the world.
It’s 9am and with the market now crossed off my list, I can almost entertain the thought of a glass of bubbles. From the ferry building it’s a short walk to North Beach Restaurant (415 392 1700, 1512 Stockton St) where Lorenzo Petroni has been serving up a big slice of old-school Italy for a little over 30 years. Prosecco now in hand, I watch as waiters in white jackets dart around the room delivering steaming platters of pasta, while healthy serves of wafer-thin prosciutto and the freshest Puglian ricotta are worthy of the visit alone. Post lunch, trainspotters should cross the street to Caffe Trieste where Francis Ford Coppola is said to have penned much of The Godfather.
With Napa a mere stone’s throw away, it’s no surprise that San Francisco has plenty of great wine shops, the most famous of which is owned by the legendary Kermit Lynch. In his seminal book Adventures on the Wine Route, Lynch brought the likes of Charles Joguet, Mas de Daumas Gassac and Raveneau to the world. Located across the bridge in Berkeley, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant (510 524 1524, 1605 San Pablo Ave) remains a shrine to small-scale artisan producers from across the globe, in particular France. If you happen to leave the shop about lunchtime, you would be mad to pass up the chance to visit Alice Waters’ nearby iconic eatery Chez Panisse (510 548 5049, 1517 Shuttuck Ave), the restaurant that kick-started the global kitchen garden revolution. Popularity means that bookings should be made well in advance.
The alternative is to make a beeline for Swans Oyster Depot (415 673 1101, 1517 Polk St) where platters of freshly shucked oysters, crabs, lobsters and little cups of chowder have been prepared by the same family for the past 97 years. The wine list, like Swans, is simple but more than adequate – Chablis, sancerre, riesling, pinot grigio: just the kind of thing you want to drink alongside the freshest shellfish the city can offer.
Round the corner from Swans is another great wine store in The Jug Shop (415 885 2922, 1590 Pacific Ave). Run by Chuck Hayward and Paige Granbeck, this store is a San Francisco institution where a devoted clientele come for first-class advice, regular tastings and a cracking selection of well-priced wine, spirits and beers from around the globe. Australia and New Zealand are particular strengths.
If you have even the mildest fetish for real Mexican food then I’d urge you to head for La Palma (415 647 1500, 2884 24th St) in San Francisco’s Mexican quarter. At the back of this Mexicatessen you’ll find at least a dozen people busy hand-rolling tortillas, stirring pots of slow-cooked meat and assembling tacos, burritos, enchiladas and tamales. We hit the jackpot because Saturday is the only day they serve their specialty: slow-cooked goat tacos complete with pinto beans and hot sauce. My fetish is once again in check for the moment.
As far as dinner goes, the hottest ticket in town now is the southern Italian-inspired A16 (415 771 2216, 2355 Chestnut St). A wave of great press means that snaring a table is near impossible. We fail, but strike it lucky with a booking at sister restaurant SPQR (415 771 7779, 1911 Fillmore St), which is a huge plus because this turns out to be the absolute highlight in a day full of highlights. When we arrive the restaurant is already packed to the rafters. Some are here for Nate Appleman’s mouth-watering take on the food of Rome, while others, us included, have come to see Shelley Lindgren – one of the most knowledgeable and well-respected wine directors in America – in action. High points of the meal include fried brussel sprouts with garlic, seared pork hearts with lemon, chickpea salad with tuna and radishes, deep-fried chicken livers, bay scallops with agritti and melt-in-your-mouth rigatoni carbonara. The wine pairing is as good as you will find and the list 100 per cent Italian with a focus on the southern regions of Sicily, Puglia, Campania and Sardinia. With dinner out of the way, it’s time to see a bit of San Francisco after dark.
If you’re after a cleansing ale then head for Zeitgeist (415 692 6839, 199 Valencia St), a legendary corner pub owned and operated by a group of heavily tattooed and pierced bike couriers. But don’t let that put you off. On any given weekend, the enormous beer garden will be packed with people from all walks of life who congregate for good times and the fine selection of beers on tap, most of which are sourced from small local brewers.
But if a glass of wine is more your thing, then San Francisco also has plenty of great wine bars that are worth checking out. The first of those is the homely feeling Terroir (415 558 9946, 1116 Folsom St) that pays homage to a huge range of natural, organic and biodynamic producers. Walls are lined with a staggering range of bottles from around the world, and within minutes we are blown away by an unsulphured, unfiltered chardonnay from Sonoma.
As wine bars go, the newest kid on the block is RN74 (415 543 7474, 301 Mission St), which is two parts wine bar/one part restaurant and modelled on a space-age train terminal. The wine list was assembled by Rajat Parr, one of the West Coast’s most talented sommeliers, and reads like an encyclopaedia of great Burgundy with an incredible range of older vintages also on offer. Specials and bin ends are advertised on an enormous ceiling-mounted information board, the same kind you would expect to see at a station or airport.
It’s now 19 hours since we began our day and my liver is begging me to stop. I jump in a cab and head for my hotel. Hotel Vitale (415 278 3700, 8 Mission St) is the perfect spot for weary travellers. Clean, centrally located, modern without being stark and filled with warm, light spaces that almost convince me that one last perfectly mixed negroni on my way to bed would be a good idea. I pass. The rooms are huge and contain everything you need. There’s even a canister of oxygen in my mini-bar that promotes health and wellbeing, and after the day I’ve had I’m tempted to try it. I decide that curiosity can wait; for now I just need sleep.
PHOTOGRAPHY SFCVB/PHILLIP H COBLENZ
This article is from the August/September 2009 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine.