I guess you like us. You really, really like us! My partner Susan and I were blown away by the response to the Yummy letter’s first issue. Newbies can read it at www.yummyletter.com.
In the first five days since our launch (we e-mailed 15,000 last Wednesday) we’ve had 877 unique visitors to the site; 81,607 clicks, and pages were viewed over 2,259 times. But the coolest part, to me, is that we’ve been read in nine countries: the U.S., Italy, Brazil, China, Mexico, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Portugal, and Seychelles.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes Liam Tiernan and his wife Susan are poised to bring back the Washington Square Bar & Grill (1707 Powell Street) in all its glory. The Square closed at the end of 2007.
Belfast-born singer and publican, Tiernan, owned a Tiernan’s in Boston for 10 years and left to open another in San Francisco. The couple took over a former TGI Friday’s at 685 Beach Street and have turned it into a rollicking pub, grill and music venue.
Wanting to reinvent the Square, Tiernan is bringing back popular bartender Michael McCourt (brother of Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes) and several staff members, some whom go back to when Ed Moose owned it.
To reopen…..
To reopen the Square, Tiernan’s contractors just about took the structure down to the studs. There are new, updated, disabled-accessible restrooms, new carpeting, a new kitchen, and new sewage lines. Whew!
When Tiernan throws the doors open in a couple of weeks, expect well-crafted cocktails,straightforward Italian and American food, and piano music every night.
(photo: The Tiernans in front of the Square’s memorabilia)
I heard recently from Guy Ferri, the former proprietor of the Washington Square Bar & Grill and a dear friend. (I brought my North Beach tour participants to lunch there for seven years.)
“Rose and I and the kids are doing well here in Orlando, Florida [his parents live nearby]. I hooked up with a restaurant group and we’re doing great.”
Big plans for PlumpJack: Although PlumpJack Cafe, which will close for a major remodel at the end of this month, has always been known for it’s well-priced wines, in the future patrons will be able to toast the new décor with a well-crafted martini. Plans include a small service bar, meaning obtaining a full liquor license, and adding a roof to the interior walkway that leads to the private dining room. Sounds like more seats and festive libations are slated for the 13-year old restaurant. ETA may be this Fall. Stay tuned.
Hana Sushi Bang (5454 Geary Blvd., 415-752-7671) is becoming Volcano Japanese Curry House, apparently serving Japanese curry. Since the Richmond District is awash in sushi joints, this might be a very good idea. They get points for the name alone.
One of my favorite restaurants in the City is La Ciccia. How I crave their octopus stew appetizer and whole fish entree. Chef Massimiliano Conti and his wife Lorella Degan have created a gem in Glen Park.
(Photo: La Ciccia’s octopus stew)
With warm thoughts of Sardinian food in mind, I was pleased to hear that a Sardinian restaurant was slated to open in Napa sometime in March. Fabrizio’s Restaurant brings together two partners: chef Fabrizio Castangia and Alessandro Baratella, who leased the Depot, (806 4th Street) a Napa evergreen, which had been closed for several years.
For about two minutes, the space was the Lobster Shack. That Shack closed as did the one in North Beach. If you can’t sell seafood in North Beach, you’re doing something very wrong. The Redwood City branch remains open.
I spoke with Castangia, who is Sardinian born, about his project. When he talked about the food he was bringing to Napa, my heart soared. He described skate wing with a slightly spicy tomato sauce; fregola (a close relative to couscous) with lobster; lamb with mint sauce; mussels; and my favorite, bottarga (dried tuna roe), with spaghetti. I can’t wait!
Now, I don’t like to get too excited about a new restaurant — disappointment happens.
But Picán in uptown Oakland, in a burgeoning area carpeted with condos and new eat-and-drink venues, sounds like a winner. Owner Michael LeBlanc says he is opening a stylish restaurant that will encompass California-infused southern cuisine.
In a wide-ranging conversation, LeBlanc explained how his chef, Dean Dupuis, prepares his legendary fried chicken:
Dupuis starts with whole all-natural chickens from Petaluma. After he breaks them down, they’re brined for 24 hours in a solution of water, salt, sugar, black peppercorns, onion, and bay leaves. After the chicken pieces are removed from the brine, they swim in buttermilk and hot sauce for another 24 hours. Next, they are removed, rolled in southern wheat flour, which is spiked with salt, lots of black pepper, cayenne, garlic, and thyme. Finally, the parts are fried in canola oil in a cast-iron skillet. If that doesn’t tickle your taste buds, there’s also a sugarcane-roasted duck with pomegranate sauce and sautéed garlic spinach. The ETA for Picán is next month, if all goes well.
(Photo: Michael LeBlanc of Picán)
Taste of the Week: I was cruising around Redwood City, looking for somewhere for lunch, when I spied the tiny Pamplemousse Patisserie et Café. (Pamplemousse means grapefruit in French.) What a delightful place! I had a baguette topped with smoked salmon, crème fraîche, cucumber, and shallots, and took home a perfect slice of quiche. Both dishes are served with a tangle of greens, and the dressing on the salad was creamy and tasted of herbs, but was not oily.The pièces de résistance were the gorgeous pastries and macaroons in the following flavors (in part):
Amaretto
Anise
Apricot
Black walnut
Butter rum
Caramel
Cassis
Cassis
Chestnut
Coffee
Pamplemousse
Passion fruit
Peach
Pistachio
Saffron
Yuzu (Japanese lemon)
Chocolate Earl Gray
Chocolate lemon
Chocolate chili
(Photo: Pamplemousse macaroons)
Eventually, I spoke with owner, Kelli Manukyan, who is Armenian and from Montreal. As I am half French Canadian, we bonded over food and our common language. Manukyan has an interesting background. She left the California Culinary Academy, a common occurrence in recent years, and worked at Jardinière and Jeanty at Jack’s. By accident, she had to take over the pastry chef position at 7 Restaurant & Lounge (one of my faves) in San Jose, when the pastry chef quit suddenly. She liked the preciseness of the craft and the joy she saw on the faces of the people who tasted her creations.
Everything I tasted at Pamplemousse was delicious, but the macaroons are in a class by themselves.
Sancho's Taqueria in Redwood City is very popular and known for its fish tacos. Now lucky folks in Palo Alto (491 Lytton Ave.) will have their very own Sancho’s. Owner Adam Torres said it is slated to open sometime in March.
“A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch.”
Who ya gonna trust, if you can’t trust Food & Wine magazine? In their January issue their editors made several predictions for 2009. The list of ingredients they thought would be “hot” this year were a tad wacky:
When chef Richard Chapman was manager at Sur La Table in San Francisco, he staged the first ever “battle of the chefs.” Both he and I were fans of the Japanese television show, Iron Chef, long before the popular Top Chef program was a glint in anyone’s eye. I did the play-by-play. Ever the adventurer, he went on to cook in Kansas City. Now, he’s back and teaching basic cooking and knife skills at the new
ITK (In the Kitchen) Culinary school in Sausalito.
Another instructor is chef Amey Shaw. People will remember her from when she ran Bentley’s in downtown San Francisco; she also owned the Alta Plaza Café. Shaw is now the chef at Jimtown Store, nestled in California's Alexander Valley wine country. She is responsible for developing new products for the company's wholesale and retail divisions.
Many years ago, I met Milton Parker, one of the partners in New York’s
Carnegie Deli. He loved to kibitz with customers, who always left well fed on his towering pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. I told Parker I was from San Francisco and that we had everything here except a Jewish-style deli. I said if he opened a West Coast branch, I’d run it and call it Shiksa’s (a non-Jewish woman). He let out the biggest laugh. On January 30, Milton Parker passed away at the age of 90. RIP.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The winner of the first-ever Yummy contest is Bill Folbert of San Francisco, who had the correct answer first. Many were close, but the proper translation of “Se non t’ammazza, ti ingrassa” is “If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you fat.” Bill won dinner with me in the next month or so. Our next contest is coming next week.
I guess you like us. You really, really like us! My partner Susan and I were blown away by the response to the Yummy letter’s first issue. Newbies can read it at 
(Photo: La Ciccia’s octopus stew)
But 
(Photo: Pamplemousse macaroons)
(Picture: Ostrich egg)