nice.

I scored a couple pieces of Le Creuset, too. A cool vegetable braiser that's orange.

I still kick myself that I left the vintage ice crusher, and a million other things. The giant Boos cutting board, for instance. You?

Ok - here's my report from the Opening Celebration last night. I hope I get something out of these scrawled, drunken notes. All of the below are just my opinions.

* Best Newcomer - Dying Vines out of Hayward. Really nice people. They brew at the Linden St. facility in Oakland and distribute to some local restaurants. They make low ABV session beers inspired by the Brits. I had a great IPA- Hop Candi I think it was called. ***They are pouring at that Soul Dinner on Monday night at Bar Tartine. For the love of God somebody go to this dinner and report back. It sounds amazing. I can't make it. (See Escargot3's post.)

* Big Surprise - Thirsty Bear. Typically think of these guys as "after work convention beers." They were one of the only breweries pouring sours. And they were good!

* Favorite other beers -

Boun Oud Bruin from Anderson Vly: A blend of 5 beers matured in a number of different casks. Sour. Drinkable.

Longbreak Bitter from Magnolia: fantastic beer I hadn't tried to before. Very sedate hop action with an interesting finish that tasted like corn tortillas. I know that sounds REALLY gross, trust me, it was good.

New "Zymaster Series" Lager from Anchor: They've got some kind of new program going there. I'm not down with the name, which sounds too much like thighmaster. you can read about it here: http://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/zym...
But anyway, this beer was nice and flavorful and somewhat bracing and tasty and fresh.

Another major highlight for me was the band, Tiny Television, which played 2nd at the celebration. They had an amazing Strat and pedal steel player, and apparently are opening for Robert Earl Keen at Slim's next Friday. I will be checking these guys out at my earliest convenience.

1 last note: Major bathroom shortage at the event. Sort of a bummer.

Great list! If only my liver were stronger. I will be at SF Beer Week Opening Celebration. If you see me, say hi. I'll be the one with the beer in my hand.

I've always wanted to go to the Barleywine fest, but I've been very intimidated by the crowds. Check out this event too, sounds kinda fun, but WAY TOO EXPENSIVE imho. ($120.) Although it did get my curious about the Elks Lodge, which apparently is open to the public on a daily basis for lunch and dinner. I love me a good Elks Lodge.

Wednesday, February 15th
"The Three Ring Circus: A Brewers Dinner & Sideshow"
-Presented by Sean Z. Paxton, featuring Speakeasy, Ninkasi, and Shmaltz
Elks Lodge No. 3, 450 Post St. #3, San Francisco

Just wondering what events Chowhounds are excited about for SF Beer Week, which kicks off this Fri.
http://sfbeerweek.org/

I'm thinking: Gypsy brewers event at Alembic next Wednesday.
Firkin Fest at Magnolia right afterwards.

also: The Dark Horse Cajun dinner looks cool for Sunday
the Soul Food and beer dinner at Bar Tartine also intrigues...

Others?

This is a new brewpub that makes great beer and serves a full lunch and dinner in a modern indoor beer garden environment. It's located in the Mission not too far from Flour + Water, right behind Homestead bar on a weird part of Treat Street that dead ends into the PG&E yard.

My Excitement Level has been very high about this place, because 1. I love beer, and 2. This is my old neighborhood, and 3. I felt SF was in sore need of another big beer garden environment, particularly one that's indoors. I went last night, the fourth day it's been opened, and was way more impressed than I thought I'd be considering how new they are.

Housed in a beautiful vintage warehouse with giant windows, it's got a kind of industrial feel. There are two grown trees planted on the inside (nice touch!), high cafe tables that can seat multiple parties, and bits of corrugated tin roof over the bar area and over the ceiling. It's got two levels, too. I think they could use a few more bathroom stalls, once they really get rolling, but points for the fact they have that cool co-ed vintage sink thing going on that Magnolia has.

OK most importantly, the food and the beer. The menu features pizzas and burgers for dinner, along with some salads, calamari, etc. Pretty tame, which is imho the way to go with pub food. I had a blue cheese burger, it came with fries (THANK GOD - what's with burgers not coming with fries anymore? So many places are doing that now.) You could have the fries with sage if you wanted. The burger and fries came quickly, despite the fact that the place was crowded (I was there at 8:15pm on a Tues), and although said food was on the lukewarm side, I forgive them for this kink. Just means the kitchen is kickin' it out fast!

The burger was great, and so were the fries. Burger came w/ nice pickled red onion for crunch and sweetness. The beers I tried: a Pale Ale, an IPA, and a Belgian style Wit, were all great. Nice balanced spice on the wit, the IPA was floral without being overwhelmingly syrupy, and the Pale Ale was satisfying with a nice malt finish.

There was one weird thing: we ordered the pickles as an app, which the menu said were going to be assorted and housemade. We were both expecting something rad like at Bar Tartine. But they just gave us a little glass tumbler with a bunch of the same pickles that were on our burger! They were good, but it was a little bit of a let down.

Mainly the takeaway though, is that this is the awesome indoor beer garden, with solid food (takes credit cards!) that I've been waiting for. And it's enough off the beaten path to hopefully keep masses of people away. It's a cold and somewhat lonely walk at night.

Hours: Sunday-Wednesday 11am-Midnight
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11am-2am

http://www.southernpacificbrewing.com

Credit Cards: yes

Gotta chime in about roux: You don't actually need to stir it forever. Just crank up the heat REALLY HIGH and stir the crap out of it for only a few minutes! So much easier!

My husband and I walked into Zuni Cafe last year, completely bedraggled by the rain. We must have looked like homeless people. Only the difference was, we were very prepared, and in fact quite pumped up, to drop a bunch of money on a nice bottle of wine and dinner. They proceeded to ignore us at the hostess desk, and then begrudgingly sat us at a table in the bar, where people ignored us so long that we finally just got up and left, and went to Suppenkuche, where we were treated like family. Nice family.

Agree that Chloe's has great pancakes. Just ate them this morning in fact.

Another very, very, very hole-in-the-wall option, if you are a pancake whore like me, is Sunrise Cafe on 24th Street. They do a flatter Swedish-style pancake that's really great.

http://www.chow.com/restaurants/60025...

Chloe's is more the traditional fluffy kind.

Bugaloos on Valencia is decent - they have a blueberry ricotta pancake that's good. But their syrup sucks.

FYI, this thread was memorialized in a CHOW post yesterday.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/68910/f...

-Lessley Anderson
Senior Editor
CHOW.com

Hi there,
Wondering if anybody has any recommendations of "must try" dishes at Pot Sticker? I understand that the menu is pretty enormous... I'm going there on Thursday for lunch.
Thanks!

-----
Pot Sticker
150 Waverly Pl, San Francisco, CA 94108

Winter squash flan w/ red wine shallot sauce!

I'd recommend The Plant, especially for its veggie burger. There are two locations. The one on the Embarcardero has juice shots at happy hour.

I had a gravenstein from Andy's market outside Sebastopol on Sunday and it was amazing. Tart but not too tart. How good of pies do they make?

-----
Andy's Produce Markets
1691 Gravenstein Hwy S, Sebastopol, CA 95472

Hi LA Hounds,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to thank you again for all your great LA recs for the CHOW Tour. We are nearly done with our time here (boo hoo) and about to move onto steamy New York. But we have tried many of your suggestions, from Mo Chica to Lazy Ox and more, and we have not had a bad meal yet. I know that good reviews don't make for much drama or controversy, but MAN you have some good and inventive food down here!

If you haven't checked our posts recently, they are stacking up here:
http://www.chow.com/blog/chow-tour-in...

Thanks again,
Lessley (and Roxanne)

You LA Hounds are the best! thanks for all your amazing recommendations. Roxanne and I are especially excited about the LA portion of our trip. There are so many interesting fusion-y things going on there.

Hi guys,
Thanks for using my Fbook page as the guinea pig! Seems like a little less TMI might be in order, so I'll check my privacy settings. :)
L

This is not a fancy brunch, but such a great place to go in the Mission that's like a hidden gem nobody goes to, I thought I'd share it. It's Sunrise, on 24th Street. Unlike Boogaloos and St. Francis Creamery, it is never crowded (probably because there's nothing "hip" about it, other than that they offer a lot of vegan options.) Great, strong coffee, perfect pancakes, spotlessly clean, really nice service. LOVE this place.

It's got both Latin style breakfasts, and American style.

http://www.chow.com/restaurants/60025...

Here's the link:

http://www.chow.com/restaurants/91306...

Flytrap is really good - sort of nouveau Mediterranean.

Hi Cornflake Girl

I wanted to make sure you saw our slideshow, too!
http://www.chow.com/galleries/24
Thanks,
Lessley Anderson
editor at CHOW

Hey there,
Coincidentally, Table Manners (the CHOW.com advice column,) covered this topic this week.
http://www.chow.com/stories/11818

Perfume in restaurants. Sorry you had to suffer through that!!
Lessley Anderson
senior editor
CHOW.com

Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco. They put a lot of care and creativity into their food that Russian River and Thirsty Bear (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) cannot hold a candle to. Homemade sausages etc.

-----
Magnolia Pub & Brewery
1398 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117

Hasn't come to my local Bev Mo yet, but I'm getting some in by Monday. Will report back.

I would recommend Cyrus, which is in Healdsburg. A bit of a drive, but I believe it has the kind of creative, high-end, ultra-lux thing your'e looking for.

-----
Cyrus Restaurant
29 North St, Healdsburg, CA 95448

May i recommend the REALLY good recipe that CHOW.com created for Rocky Road Bars? One of my favorite things to come out of the test kitchen lately.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/25637

Quick correction: it was short ribs, not brisket.

I went last Thursday night for dinner after drinks at Cantina (which were awesome, as usual.) My bottom line opinion was that the food was good, but portions stingy, and the concept seemed off. See below for full report.

THE SERVICE
Very nice server, but glasses of wine came out *after* apps, and mains were lukewarm.
APPS
* little gem salad with buttermilk dressing (GREAT- fresh and tart dressing.)
* oyster stew with liquid hush puppies (this came out as a creamy oyster bisque in a shallow bowl, with four oysters folded in. Stew seemed like a major misnomer. The huspuppies, which were made with moist creamed corn in the center, were the best thing we were served that night.
* Scotch egg, recommended by server. Wasn't anything special. (soft boiled egg wrapped in pancetta, breaded and deep fried, served with chili sauce.

MAINS
* Smoked pork chop (good, decent sized, with collard greens and candied yams. This was, in my opinion, probably the best dish because it had the right size and mix of items as well as being the hottest of all the food and most satifying.)
* Brisket (tasty, but not a big enough portion.)
* Sturgeon w/ chive blossoms. Well cooked, but lukewarm.

DESSERT
* pear pie. Stingy portion, great pie, interesting in that the inside was sort of cold and crisp, and the crust was warm. Creme fraiche on the side, which was nice.

OVERALL:
My main problem with Wexler's, is that I think they have not nailed their concept. They're doing this southern soul food thing, but the mains are $25-28 a portion. When I'm paying those prices,I'm expecting a loung-y, kind of romantic, fancy experience. Yet, the ambience of Wexler's is very casual. It's bright inside, small, with metal chairs that scape across the floor, there are no dark nooks or leather banquets to melt into with your lover while eating, (my example of perfect restaurant design for this in SF is Range) etc.

I found myself wolfing down my food in - i kid you not - 5 minutes. And part of this was because it just wasn't a relaxed atmo. It doesn't surprise me that it's becoming more of a lunch destination, because it would work much better in that context.

They're serving the type of food that - when i eat it - i want to eat big big portions. Like, if I'm eating bbq, I want to eat a LOT of bbq. I don't want to eat a few meager strips of brisket and pay $28. I don't want a tiny slice of pie, I want a BIG slice of pie. I want generosity. It's just programmed into my DNA, I guess.

-----
Cantina
580 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94108