Well constructed cocktails that you need to sell a major organ to afford

Review of: Bacar Restaurant & Wine Salon

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 4

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Considering that a number of my favorite bartenders have “done their time” at Bacar, we finally decided to hit Bacar after living just a block away for the past year.

I’ve always avoided Bacar after hearing the story of my co-workers heading there for a quick client dinner and not being able to get out of there for less than $100 a head for two bottles of wine, some cocktails and a light meal. Looking at the menu online, with most entrees ranging from $27 to $33, I could see how it could easily get out of hand.

However, after hearing about a supposedly amazing blackberry margarita, it was time to give them a try.

But first….

Credit cards? Check!

Statement of my net worth? Check!

Banking references? Check!

Sportcoat? Check!

Ok – now I’m ready to head in.

We got there at 6:10 and the extremely gracious, professionally dressed bartender checked to make sure we were in time for happy hour, which meant half price ($5 – $6) cocktails and $1 oysters. Two blackberry margaritas were promptly ordered and four oysters.

I’ve always had an issue with blackberries – done well, they’re rich and almost chocolate-like. Out of season or previously frozen, they’re bitter and flavorless. The blackberry puree used at Bacar was absolutely fantastic, paired with Herradura Anejo tequila. It was a drink easily worth $8 and a steal at a happy hour $5, but at the normal $10 – I would have felt that it could have had more ‘oomph’.

The oysters were properly shucked and served with an adequate cocktail sauce and mignonette. I went bicoastal with a pair of Washington Sunset Beach and two St. Simon from New Brunswick, both excellent choices.

With happy hour quickly coming to a close (only until 6:30 on Thursdays and Fridays), the bartender set us up with two more drinks before the computer doubled the prices to the normal level, which were fantastic as well.

Though the jazz would be worth coming to hear, it’s hard to justify the prices – but I’ll certainly put Bacar on my happy hour list!

Creative Cuisine in Hayes Valley

Review of: Zoya

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 5

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Between coffee, haircuts and a couple of bars we enjoy, my wife and I are in Hayes Valley at least two times a month, sometimes heading over there once a week. Needless to say, we’re starting to exhaust the list of affordable restaurants.

Enter Zoya, a tiny restaurant attached to the Days Inn on Grove. This place is, for all intents and purposes, a budding restauranteur’s nightmare – a downstairs kitchen with a couple of tables, small bar and kitchen combined with seven small tables upstairs – but to get to these tables, you have to go outside, up a set of astroturfed stairs and through a thick heat-retaining curtain to get to them. It’s a block off of the beaten path, and, let’s face it, being connected to a Days Inn isn’t the best thing for a New American cuisine restaurant trying to attract a local crowd. It’s hard enough to get people to go into a hotel restaurant like the Fifth Floor in the Palomar, let alone a divey motel across the street from a fenced in parking lot.

But just like with a habanero pepper, if you can get through your fears, you’re rewarded with some fantastic flavors.

Zoya’s space is a beautiful combination of low lighting, dark wood tones and comforting brown walls. The upstairs rotunda, where the main seating is, is comfortable, intimate and inviting. Aside from the light music and the occasional clatter of the 21 Hayes coming up the street, it was extremely peaceful.

The food was better than I expected, based on the location. Fantastic even. I started with an ahi tuna poke – beautifilly spiced with jalapeno peppers and sriracha hot sauce and accompanied by five triangular wedges of deep fried wonton wrappers to use as a crostini. The freshness of the fish, combined with a mild sesame flavor and aggressive spiciness puts this easily in the top non-sushi fish category for me.

For my main course, I went with the special, a Filet Oscar – a small filet mignon topped with freshly picked crab and drizzled with a light hollandaise sauce, served over steamed asparagus. For the first time in a year, my steak was perfectly cooked: I asked for rare, and I got rare – and the flavor of the beef itself was amazing, and the rich crab and hollandaise just sent it over the edge.

Dinner was finished with a bananas foster which I split with my wife. The bananas were fantastic, but serving it with two large scoops of Ciao Bella chocolate gelato was a little too much – next time I would recommend using either a coconut or a dulce de leche (caramel) ice cream, which I feel compliments the rich and sweet bananas better.

Two appetizers, two main courses, two beers, two coffees (which were great) and a dessert ran us $78… a deal even if the food wasn’t as fantastic as this was.

Everybody, take a walk one block north from Hayes and show Zoya some love. They deserve it.

Not for the Nicotine Free

Review of: Place Pigalle

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 1

Read review on Judy’s Book.

A great beer selection, a $2.75 draft happy hour and a policy of accepting credit cards for even small bar tabs… I used to love this place until tonight, when I had to deal with at least four people smoking cigarettes (and there were probably more in the back based on the amount of smoke in the bar).

I used to be a strong advocate of smokers’ rights at the turn of the millenium, but since then I have grown to appreciate not having to scrub the smoke off of me after a night of drinking. It’s not even like the bartender was a smoker, he just had a “well, I’m not a smoker but I guess I am tonight” attitude.

A dozen beers on tap, soju cocktails, and credit cards accepted. The bar can keep one point for my history with them. That’s it. With much better places to drink without the airborne carcinogens, this rainy Friday night will be my last time there.

Looking for that needle in the haystack…

Review of: Jeremy’s

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 3

Read review on Judy’s Book.

Listen, I’m a big guy… even if I didn’t have the gut, years of boxing left me with a 19 inch neck, which is somewhere between a rugby player and a tree trunk. Add in years of being a professional barfly and three years of heavy german food, and I’m just big. I accept it. However, when it comes to finding shirts that fit my neck without making me look like I’m being fitted by Omar the tent maker, I’m pretty much out of luck.

And if there are challenges getting a shirt, finding a nice sportcoat is even more of a challenge.

When living in Europe, Marks and Spencer was my salvation – their suits and sportcoats went up to sizes that I couldn’t ever bear to achieve… so finding something that fit me well was never a problem. Unfortunately, I left without making a final trip to London to stock up. So, when I decided that I needed another sportcoat, I was already mentally preparing myself for the horrors of clothes shopping at one of the major department stores. That’s when I remembered Jeremy’s – just one block from my apartment.

Jeremy’s is an outlet store, taking remainders from manufacturers and department stores and selling them really cheap. How cheap? Today, I found a grey pinstripe two button sportcoat – Barney New York brand no less – im my size that was originally $490 for only $90.

If you’re in the “typical” male body shape range, you’ll have tons of things to choose from. Hell, there were two racks of Lucky Brand Jeans (my favorite) there – brand spanking new for about $30 a pair. Even for us manly-sized folks, there are options. Give them a shot when you need to buy a suit, but be prepared: all purchases are pretty much final. Cross your fingers, hope for the best and make a run towards South Park. You may just find the jacket you were looking for…

Seafood Dim Sum in SOMA

Review of: Canton Dim Sum & Seafood Restaurant

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 4

Read review on Judy’s Book.

When it comes to SOMA Dim Sum, there are only two real choices: Yank Sing and Canton. Considering that I didn’t want to take out a second mortgage, Yank Sing was out – leaving us with Canton.

We’ve been to Canton once before, about 10 years ago, and we weren’t that impressed – but considering that it has survived in that same location for over a decade, I figured it could warrant another visit.

Canton is, well, cantonese – which means they focus on seafood. This is completely evident when you see the fish tanks lining the back wall – filled with bass, catfish, lobsters and dungeness crabs. Considering that most of our favorite Dim Sum has some form of seafood in it, this was a very good sign.

First off, the decor – sea foam green. Nothing interesting at all about the space aside from the fish tanks. There was a neon martini glass near the bar and some flowers which may or may not have been fake. This isn’t bad, as it means that the focus is on the food.

The clientele is predominantly Chinese. Actually, when we got there, we were the only non-Asians in the restaurant, and by the time we left, we could count the number of non-Asians on two hands. This is also a good sign – seeing tables with three generations of a Chinese family enjoying dumplings and noodles together tells me that it’s going to be more authentic – no shrimp wrapped in bacon like at Yank Sing!

The staff, well, they were pushy. Like previous reviewers said, they’ll put the dishes on your plate, forcing you to tell them that you aren’t interested. The server automatically brought us jasmine tea, which was nice, but I prefer something with a little more kick like Pu Erh.

Now onto the food…

Everything that had seafood in it was outstanding. The highlight was the crab claws – surrounded with a mixture of white fish, crab and shrimp, lightly battered and fried until it was golden brown. The seasoning was perfect with a pronounced ginger taste, and they were so juicy that it sprayed hot broth in my mouth when I bit into it the first time. These were the best I have had in San Francisco, hands down. The fried shrimp balls, which are a crab-less version of the crab claw stuffing, rolled and covered with strips of wonton wrapper and deep fried were also outstanding.

Flavor wise, the dumplings were fantastic: har gao, pan-fried shrimp and chive, shrimp and cilantro, scallop siu mai and the standard pork and shrimp sui mai were all very good, however the dough used for the dumpling skins were a little less elegant than those at Yank Sing or Ton Kiang, leaving them a touch gummy. Still, the freshness of the fish more than made up for this small defect.

The pork dishes, however, were lacking. The char siu bao were good, but the seasoning tasted of clove and five-spice and was just a little too dry. The xiu long bao, or shanghai pork dumplings, were just disappointing – flavorless, gummy and served with a black vinegar instead of the traditional red, which was way too sweet.

The price? Fantastic. We ate more than we should, and before tax, it was $18 per person.

If you stick with the seafood, it’s a definite four star – not close to the best, but pretty darn good. Vary from the fish and you may just regret it…

Amazing misunderstood food

Review of: Winterland Restaurant

By: Avery Glasser

Rating: 5

Read review on Judy’s Book.

– Note, this review is from notes taken from a August 28, 2005 meal –

Tonight, the choice was to try somewhere new: Winterland, a new eatery at the corner of Sutter and Steiner. The chef hails from one of the truly innovative restaurants of the Northern Hemisphere – El Bulli, and he has his work cut out for him, as this space is the location of the damned. For 4 years in the late 1990s, I worked out at the Gorilla Sports down the street, and that space changed names (and cuisines) at least twice. Why? The location is just horrible, not close enough to anything to get either foot traffic or cars driving by. If you go there, it’s a singular destination, not as a place to go before walking somewhere for drinks or any other sort of entertainment.

Since our table was almost ready, I first started with a Free Man in Paris (whisky based) while my wife gravitated to the Campari Cooler because, well, it had Campari in it.

After the Amuse Bouche (a melon soup with lime foam), we ordered a carafe of Grner Veltiner for our appetizers – Tai Ceviche with jalapeno and watermelon for me and White Corn and Dungeness Crab Soup for my wife. The soup service was exactly what you expect from a Michelin starred restaurant – the crab placed into a clean bowl and then the soup poured tableside from a serving pitcher. The ceviche’s fire from the jalapeno was balanced by the sweetness of the watermelon juice and was one of the better renditions of the dish.

Since the restaurant offered Goesser beer from Austria, I decided to switch to that with my main course, a fantastic duo of pork belly with amaranth grain and edamame. The simplicity of the grain and soybeans were a perfect balance for the richness of the pork belly.

Dessert started with cappucinos, though I couldn’t pass up a glass of 2003 Lillypilly dessert wine to compliment my carmelized brioche with olive oil ice cream.

My belly full and my liver pickled, it was time to go, but I will be back. Hopefully San Francisco’s palate can appreciate the unique stylings of Winterland, as this is a cuilinary treasure that needs to be cherished.