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© 2003-2007 Michael C. Berch
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Sun, 19 Mar 2006

A tale of three restaurants

First, let me give you all a little context here. Here in the Bay Area, it rained a good portion of February. (I managed to miss a good part of that, as detailed previously.) Then, it rained pretty much the entire first half of March... until yesterday. Yesterday was probably the first weekend day of the year where it was not raining nor threatening to rain -- which means, of course, that everyone heads to San Francisco to play. I resisted the temptation for a while, frittered away some time online, and finally around 2 in the afternoon, decided to head for SF.

I like urban walks, and had figured out an objective -- to walk the length of the Union Street shopping strip. This is Cow Hollow, a collection of boutique-ish clothing and accessory shops, twee Victorian offices for therapists and attorneys, a couple of fitness places, and, of course, a large number of bars and restaurants. The good weather brought out a gaggle of shoppers, drinkers, and general strollers, and while this was a reasonably pleasant crowd, it made it hard to navigate the sidewalks. By the time I'd made a circuit of Union Street, from Gough to Divisadero and back, I realized that the reason I hadn't been there in years is that it just was not my demographic. Not by a long shot. If you're a 27-year-old well-dressed stockbroker on a Saturday night date, it's probably your demographic, but well, otherwise, it did not hold a lot of appeal. Nevertheless, it was vaguely gettting on towards dinner time, and there were a number of plausible restaurants within a few blocks.

It was still early, but the most interesting among them appeared to be Betelnut Pejiu Wu, 2030 Union St. (at Buchanan). Pejiu wu means "beer house", which appears intended to evoke the idea of a neighborhood bar with hawker-style street food. It's one of the places that gets talked about a lot, and is in Zagat's Top 40 Most Popular in San Francisco. The menu on the door promised pan-Asian small plates and dinners (at decidedly non-street-food prices, of course) and I was a little jazzed. But even though it was only 5 o'clock, it was filling up with the aforementioned crowd of Beautiful People and was emanating a very odd, emphatically non-foodie, vibe. I didn't rule out a return later for dinner, but that meant I'd have to kill a couple of hours in Cow Hollow, which didn't seem like a lot of fun, although there was probably a cafe with free wi-fi or something.

I headed back to the car, pulled out my 2006 Zagat's, and looked up Betelnut. Zagat's remarks (without the supernumerary quotation marks) were: "Is it worth waiting an eternity for a table at this noisy and overtrendy Cow Hollow scene where young business jerks and their trophies pile in day and night?" (The response was, "Hell yeah, retort regulars, citing its innovative, spicy Pan-Asian plates", but it looks like my initial assessment was probably right, and I was so not in the mood.)

It was still early, and I thought I might drive over to the Castro District, my old neighborhood, and walk around there a little. One of the long-time criticisms of the Castro is the lack of really good food. There have been a few efforts to remedy that in the last 10-15 years, but it's still not much of a culinary destination. I happened to have a copy of SF Weekly in the back seat of the car -- the January 25-31 edition, as it happens -- and took a quick look through the restaurant capsule reviews to see if anything had popped up in the Castro since I'd last looked.

The most intriguing was a place called Tallula, at 18th and Diamond Sts., a block away from my old house, and from its description, very likely in the same space as one of my old neighborhood favorites, Ryan's. Ryan's was an eclectic California-Continental place, with a small gourmet market and take-out on the ground floor, one of the bright spots in the Castro in the early 1990s. The building is a heavily modified and remodeled Victorian town house, with small, cozy dining rooms on at least 3 levels. SF Weekly wrote: "The Indian-French fusion practiced in Tallula's exciting kitchen is like nothing else available in San Francisco--" (causing me to sharply draw in breath in anticipation) "--and it works perfectly in the many-floored Victorian houses the eccentric, bohemian dining rooms... Chef Harveen Khere dreams up alluring dishes such as a lobster-and-pea-stuffed dhosa, masala-dusted pommes frites, and almond cake drenched in orange blossom consommé." No further convincing was needed.

So I set the GPS navigator for 18th & Diamond, started looking for parking at Castro and Market, found none, managed to pass the triple-parked New Beetle (I confess, I once triple-parked on Castro Street as I ran into the old Spinelli's Coffee for my morning quad latte on the way to work), turned right on 18th, and after crossing Collingwood, started looking at street numbers to find Tallula (and confirm that it was in fact the old Ryan's). Well, when I got to #4230, I looked up... just in time to see the scaffolding, the guy scraping paint from the front, and the sign in the window that said "Restaurant for Lease". I sighed deeply... there would be no French-Indian fusion small plates for me tonight, or possibly ever.

(A quick look at Zagat's was informative -- some praise along the lines of the SF Weekly review was followed by "...however, a falling Food score suggests that this place, once considered so unique we forgive the price and the spotty service, no longer is." I wonder if that killed it.)

At this point I just wanted to get out of anywhere that required advanced parking skills, and that pointed in the direction of a barbecue joint I'd heard about on The Well, about which I could only remember the name -- Cliff's -- and the fact that it was somewhere out in the direction of Candlestick Park, though exactly where I was not certain. I found the address, 2177 Bayshore Blvd., and took a long and complex route to get there, involving Mission St., Cortlandt Ave., and then following Bayshore Blvd. out to where I expected the Cow Palace to appear at any point. It's actually very close to the Third St. exit off US 101, on the west side of the freeway, and convenient to get to unless you're blundering your way on surface streets from the Castro, which I was.

Cliff's is a small storefront on the corner of Bayshore and Blanken Ave., just north of (and above) the remnants of the large railroad yard that extends into Brisbane. It's adjacent to the end of San Bruno Avenue, which is the 101 west-side frontage road south of I-280. It's a bright space, with large windows. There are only three small tables, but if you choose to stay to eat, it's actually pleasant, though a little cramped. The menu has traditional barbecue, Alabama-style, as well as fried fish and oysters. I was third in line to order, and chose a combo of the Alabama smoked pork ribs and the beef brisket, with cole slaw and mustard greens, and since it was still early, decided to head home to eat. It's a friendly place, and there are an impressive set of awards and photos on the wall, as well as a drawing of the proprietor's parents and grandparents.

But -- you ask -- how was the barbecue? Well, as it turned out, I didn't find out until about an hour and a half later, due to exceptionally heavy traffic on 101 and the Bay Bridge. Verdict: the ribs were very tasty, very good smoke taste, a good ratio of lean to fat, but very slightly dry, likely due to the delay in eating and the need to re-heat. The ribs themselves were what are sometimes called "short ends" and were nearly boneless -- I'm not sure if that's always the case with the spareribs (baby back ribs are also available) or just the luck of the draw with my particular order. But I'd eat them again, no question. The brisket was from the flat (lean) end, and despite good smoke flavor, was also a little dry, and somewhat chewy. The sauce is excellent -- it's thinner and less tomato-dominated than most places, and I could taste molasses, vinegar, cumin, and coriander. The cole slaw was tasty, but the stand-out was the mustard greens, always a favorite, stewed up with seasonings and some chunks of pork.

It's not a part of town I get to often, but if I'm out there it will be worth another stop, and I think it's better than Big Nate's or Brother-in-Law's, and on a par with Memphis Minnie's, but not as good as Everett & Jones across the Bay. And the remainder of the ribs, beef, and greens furnished today's lunch and were even better the second day, which is one of those funny things that sometimes happens with barbecue.

Posted at 17:59 | permanent link

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