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A16 Restaurant & Wine Bar
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A16 is the Italian Autostrada that traverses the ankle of the boot, from Naples to
Canosa di Puglia; it's also the road from which owners Shelley Lindgren, Christophe
Hille and Victoria Libin draw their inspiration. A16's cork-lined bar area is dominated
by a rustic chalkboard listing all the wines by the glass (there are forty - it's a big board).
Further in, the restaurant seating is tile-lined and bright, and a gleaming open kitchen thrusts
into the room. Chef Hille may be French, but he's earned his Campanian stripes,
having been recently certified as a bone fide pizzaiolo by the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association.
His marinara pizza, made with San Marzano tomatoes, will make you weep. In fact all of his dishes
have a soul-stirring fullness of flavor that is not so much rich as inarguably complete. Shelley Lindgren's
wine list sensibly hugs the Autostrada, and the ample glass selection makes A16 the sort of place where you can
compare aglianicos from Campania, Molise and Basilicata, should you need to.
- Patrick Comiskey
A16 Restaurant & Wine Bar, 2355 Chestnut St., San Francisco; 415-771-2216; www.a16sf.com
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Aziza
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Aziza marks the migration of the Moroccan cuisine of brothers Khalid and Mourad Lahlou from the hinterlands of Marin County to San Francisco's Richmond District. Iron lanterns, brightly decorated arches and ornately carved Essouiran teakwood tables play up the food, an array of tagines, hariras, brochettes and couscous brightened by California produce and technique. Lamb Kadra is buzzed by a drizzle of balsamic; rabbit tagine given color and lift by Del Cabo yellow pear tomatoes. Wine director Carolyn Dempsey has fashioned a small but eclectic list to match, light on California in deference to more geographically congruous selections from Greece, Lebanon, Spain and southern France.
- Patrick Comiskey
Aziza, 5800 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA; 415-752-2222.
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CAV
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CAV stares boldly onto San Francisco's Market Street through an all-glass front next door to Zuni Café. The effect is at once striking and inviting, a picture made more complete by packed seats at the tall tables and snaking bar. Wine director Pamela Busch is no stranger to the local wine-bar scene, having opened Hayes & Vine in 1994. She's stocked something for everyone here, with about 300 selections that range from eccentric (Vigneti Massa's Timorasso from Italy's Colli Tortonesi) to closer-to-home (White Rock's Claret from Napa Valley). Many are available by the taste or glass, perfect for matching with Chef Christine Mullen's inventive array of Mediterranean-inspired plates.
- Wolfgang M. Weber
CAV, 1666 Market St., San Francisco, CA; 415-437-1770; cavwinebar.com
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Chez Papa
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Chez Papa has sucked the buzz from every other bustling restaurant in San Francisco since it opened this past summer. The small bistro on Potrero Hill squeezes just 15 zinc tables and a tiny bar into an oxblood-red room - raucous, close and intimate, the way a bistro should be. Plouf! owner Jocelyn Bulow brought in chef Ola Fendert to create plates from Bulow's native Nice and other southern French locales, such as lamb chops grilled with herbes de provence, or prawns skewered with rosemary. David White's 100-bottle wine list is thoughtful and inexpensive, and particularly strong on southern French offerings, about which the mostly French staff are obviously enthusiastic: Most tables this summer sported glasses of Tavel rosé.
- Patrick Comiskey
Chez Papa Bistrot, 1401 18th St., San Francisco, CA; 415-824-8210
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1550 Hyde Wine Bar & Café
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1550 Hyde Wine Bar & Café lies at the back of a romantic Russian Hill neighborhood lined with trees and bistros, with ambient noise supplied by streetcar chains as they clang and grind beneath the street. Inside the clean, small space, Peter Erickson's menu emphasizes Mediterranean flavors with dishes ranging from stinging nettle gnocchi to Petrale sole served with Bloomsdale spinach and chanterelles. Partner Kent Liggett complements the cuisine with a list compiled with an eye for the overlooked and the undervalued, like older vintage Chablis from Drouhin by the glass, or Joguet's 2001 Clos de la Cure Chinon.
- P.J.C.
1550 Hyde, 1550 Hyde St., San Francisco, CA; 415-775-1550
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500 Jackson
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500 Jackson is the new restaurant at the address of the former Cypress Club, once San Francisco's most libidinously designed restaurant, a jazzy romper room of fleshy curves and bulbous columns. The new place is toned down considerably; leather booths and inlaid wood summon old San Francisco elegance, à la the Tadich Grill or Sam's. Chef/proprietors John Skaggs and Todd Kniess menu also recalls Sam's, giving it the feel of a seafood joint serving unadorned but tasty favorites: skate, local sole, cioppino, Dungeness crab with lime drawn butter. Booth McKinney's fish-friendly list offers an especially good California chardonnay selection, forcing you to choose between Dehlinger, Kistler, Lewis and Neyers - or Gaja's rare Rossj-Bass, just to make things difficult.
- P.J.C.
500 Jackson, 500 Jackson St., San Francisco, CA; 415-772-1940; 500jackson.com
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Incanto
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Incanto takes Dante as its inspiration. Renaissance parchments hang in the eaves of the trattoria-style dining area, and a more intimate barrel-vaulted room is lined with wine bottles and includes a dour bust of the poet himself. Mark Pastore opened this Noe Valley restaurant to create an authentic Italian experience, and employs longtime San Francisco chef Paul Buscemi to execute a wide-ranging, pan-Italian menu that is simple, flavorful and cliché-free. But if Incanto has Dante as its muse, wine is his vehicle. Claudio Villani, a recent émigré from Florence, has composed an equally pan-Italian wine list, covering ground from Val d'Aosta to Sicily. For Italian wine novices, the by-the-glass list includes four instructive flights - compare three lagreins, or take an Etruscan tour - each glass ringed with a identifying tag.
- P.J.C.
Incanto, 1550 Church St., San Francisco, CA; 415-641-4500
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Jeanty at Jack's
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Jeanty at Jack's transfers the robust French cuisine Philippe Jeanty perfected at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, Valley, to Jack's on Sacramento Street, one of San Francisco's oldest restaurants, a three-story space built in 1864 with a cast-iron stairway and weirdly appropriate reliefs of hanging game and seaside catches. Jeanty's signature rustic, exuberantly flavored, Francophilic style works comfortably in the new digs, with classic dishes like croquettes of pike in lobster sauce, monkfish bouillabaisse and coq au vin. Manager Mario Daniele offers an accessible and ample French-themed list that includes many affordable selections from the Rhône and Languedoc.
- P.J.C.
Jeanty at Jack's, 615 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA; 415-693-0941
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La Table
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La Table is a two-ring circus for diners: La Table du Chef occupies a brightly-curtained back room, a dramatic setting for Chef Mark Rasic's prix fixe menus in three to six courses. Up front, La Brasserie, decorated in swatches of colored fabric and costume-ball murals, serves lighter and less expensive fare that Rasic calls a 'playful spin on multi-regional French cuisine,' such as a seared chicken breast atop a traditional coq au vin, or roasted rabbit over dino kale. Both cirques are served by a small but captivating wine list assembled by George Aknin, who favors affordable tiny French gems from tiny French places: Burgundies from Viré-Clessé and Maranges, Rhônes from the valley's hinterlands, and no less than seven reds from the Loire.
- P.J.C.
La Table, 3440 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA; 415-345-8600.
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Local
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Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant, located down the block from the new Rincon Hill residential tower, is a neighborhood spot that's arrived
before construction of the new neighborhood has finished. Partners Oola Fendert and Mark Bright have filled a high-ceilinged warehouse
space with a casual Mediterranean–California restaurant (think wood oven pizza, rotisserie chicken or smoked duck salad), sleek wine bar
and a wine retail shop with food to go. Bright's eclectic wine list–which ranges from Lebanon's Château Musar to grand cru Burgundy from
Ramonet–is a draw for locals and non-locals alike.
- Wolfgang M. Weber
Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant, 330 First St., San Francisco; 415-777-4200; sf-local.com (reviewed W&S 6/08)
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Michael Mina
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Michael Mina, the restaurant, marks the return of Mina, the chef, to San Francisco from Las Vegas and other points beyond. Mina's new digs are the St. Francis Hotel, the jewel of Union Square with its high ceilings, massive columns and plush seating, and Mina plates little jewels to go along with that feel. In the three-course prix fixe menu each course itself comes in threes: chilled scallops set against truffles, caviar and lobster, foie with a trio of fruit accompaniments, and Kobe beef rib roast with indulgent side platings, such as creamed morels. Rajat Parr sets a 1,500 selection wine list against all this extravagance, leveraging his many relationships in Burgundy and Bordeaux into extraordinary verticals that extend into the 19th century.
- P.J.C.
Restaurant Michael Mina, 335 Powell St., San Francisco, CA; 415-397-9222
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Myth
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Myth has quickly developed a reputation for presenting four-star food at two-star prices in San Francisco's reemerging Jackson Square. And rightly so: Chef Sean O'Brien offers stunning dishes like a warm sweetbread-and-bacon salad and mushroom-dusted scallops with black trumpets - no plate more than $28. Wine Director Alex Fox stocks his list with the same more-for-less philosophy, offering gems like the '95 Lenoble Champagne for $12 a glass, Guigal Condrieu by the half-bottle at $27 or Domaine Les Cailloux's juicy Châteauneuf-du-Pape for $38 a bottle.
- Genevieve Robertson
Myth, 470 Pacific St., San Francisco, CA; 415-677-8986
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Nopa
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Might have the most fun, approachable and well-priced list in San Francisco. The credit credit goes to Jeff Hanak, who designed it to fit with Laurence Jossel's rustic California-Mediterranean cooking. The wine and food combined with late hours have made it a sommelier hang-out: Join the 11pm rush and have a glass of blaufrankisch or Washington syrah with your lamb riblets.- Wolfgang M. Weber
Nopa, 560 Divasadero St., San Francisco; 415-864-8643
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Quince
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Quince is a fruit that proves useful in warding off the Evil Eye, wrote Pliny the Elder. As for the San Francisco restaurant of the same name, one can also include any fell humours involving hunger. In Pacific Heights, Michael and Lindsay Tusk have brought to fruition a long-held dream. How long? The Tusks bought chandeliers in Murano and stemware in Verona years before knowing where, when or even what they would open. Chef Tusk spent much of that time cooking for Paul Bertolli at Oliveto and with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, focusing his skill on Northern Italy (and the culinary crossroads at Mantua, specifically). Steve Kopp, also Zuni Cafe's wine director, has put together the wine list, stressing the affordable and the eclectic, like Heidi Schrock's bracing Austrian muscat or Spencer Roloson's tempranillo from Clear Lake, California.
- P.J.C.
Quince, 1701 Octavia, San Francisco, CA; 415-775-8500
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Range
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Range joins the ranks of notable San Francisco restaurants born along the Valencia Street corridor in the Mission District like Slanted Door, Delfina or Limón. There's an intimate dining area, but the place to be is up front at the drop-in tables around the bar, where you can take in the scene over a glass of Domaine Schlumberger's 2004 Saering Riesling and seared dayboat scallops with black trumpet mushrooms. Moke Berg's wine list is small but deep with interesting selections from across Europe in addition to California, Washington and Oregon.
- Wolfgang M. Weber
Range, 842 Valencia St., San Francisco; 415-282-8283, rangesf.com
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S.P.Q.R.
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S.P.Q.R. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus, which translates roughly to the Senate and Roman people. It's also the name of the new Fillmore Street restaurant from the partners behind San Francisco's popular A16. Today the phrase appears all over Rome, from the city's coat of arms to its manhole covers. Like its name, S.P.Q.R.'s menu is 100 percent Roman, right down to the pungent pecorino romano used to make some of the best carbonara outside of Trastevere. Wine director Shelley Lindgren's tightly edited list is a snapshot of contemporary Italy, with an emphasis on the central regions of Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise. Many wines are available by the glass or carafe to encourage exploration. - Wolfgang M. Weber
1911 Fillmore St.; 415-771-7779; spqrsf.com (reviewed W&S 2/08)
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Terroir
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Terroir is a wine merchant and bar dedicated to "natural" wine, whether organic, biodynamic or made with minimal intervention.
Partners Luc Ertoran, Dagan Ministero and Guilhaume Gerard have converted a small warehouse space in San Francisco's SOMA district
into a minimalist loft, with case stacks at the front and a small bar off to the side. The short list of open wines rotates almost
nightly, with selections available by the glass, carafe or bottle. Alternatively, pick any bottle from the retail shop and add $12
to the price to drink it at the bar. If you're curious about any of the bottles, or Terroir's definition of natural wine, ask.
Gerard and company are passionate, serious and eager to share their knowledge. Food selections are spare-artisan salumi and cheeses.
But c'est la vie: At Terroir, it's all about the wine.
- Wolfgang M. Weber
116 Folsom St.; 415-558-9946; terroirsf.com (reviewed W&S 4/08)
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Terzo
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Terzo represents the third outpost for Laurie Thomas's Nice Ventures, which includes Rose's Café and Rose Pistola. Here, Chef Mark Gordon of Rose's Café has expanded his repertoire to embrace the entire Mediterranean, with small plates like fennel à la grecque, bessara (a spicy Moroccan pea soup) and what may well be the best boudin blanc in San Francisco. Gordon also compiled the taverna-friendly wine list, which features 25 by-the-glass pours including chasselas, Juranon sec, Vinho Verde and a tasty Fleurie from Trenel & Fils.- Patrick J. Comiskey
Terzo, 3011 Steiner St., San Francisco;415-441-3200; terzosf.com
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Zuppa
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Zuppa spills out onto San Francisco's Fourth Street, next to Fringale and Coco 500, and not far from bacar, making this Fourth-and-Brannan neck of the woods yet another Bay Area gourmet ghetto. It's the latest venture of Globe's Mary Klingbeil and Joseph Manzare. But where Globe is global, Zuppa is southern Italian. Chef Rudy Mihal's menu features brick-oven pizze, fresh pastas and oddly, only one zuppa, but it's a good one: pesce with cuscusi. If their authenticity is in doubt, you need only consult Klingbeil's all-Italian wine list, which spans the boot from Trentino to Basilicata.
- P.J.C.
Zuppa, 564 Fourth St., San Francisco, CA; 415-777-5900; zuppa.com
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