Surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night at 7.30pm - or maybe this is how SOMA hipsters spend their "school" nights?
Anyhow, we were impressed by the design, layout, ambience and general coolness of the place. Despite it's somewhat narrow, shed-like frontage, inside it's an interesting mix of indoors and out-of-doors dining and drinking spaces, with a main restaurant divided into attractive sections, with a great mix of lighting.
Surprisingly, even with the place being full last night, the noise level was low-ish, making it easy to converse with my hot date / wife.
That same date / wife didn't enjoy the food as much as I did, perhaps because she's trying to get over an annoying cough, and because she didn't order a freaking appetizer! She mostly had to watch me eat the excellent country pate, and 6 equally excellent oysters, before her Cod and my Beef Brisket arrived.
One negative from me ... that Beef Brisket came with Polenta, rather than proper, honest-to-goodness, God's-own-vegetable, Potato. I hate Polenta. It's worse than tasteless - it has an annoying half-taste that does nothing more than remind you you're not eating potato. I hate turnips, and parsnips even more, for the same reason. I'll have to refer to them collectively, as Polentic ingredients.
The cocktail list is very different from the usual Basil- or Cumin-infused stuff that's now served up everywhere in San Francisco, and we enjoyed the Presidente and the Sleepyhead.
Having said that, the "mixologist" on duty last night worked stoner-slow, which didn't bode well for a Friday-night-with-Gareth type of session.
Needless to say, we'll try it again to see if the duffer behind the bar has another gear besides (S)low.
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