As plainly evidenced from the bottle, which displays a 1923 photo of Cimino’s grandfather in Prohibition-era Potrero Hill, he hails from a long line of distillers. His unaged but surprisingly balanced Barbershop Rye - of which he makes only 350 bottles per month - makes it clear that this man knows spirits as well as he does scissors. Meet Salvatore Cimino: barber by day, 1512 Spirits whiskey distiller by night. In such an enchanted setting, it could be easy for the food to slip, but not here from the hushpuppies to the po’boys to (yes!) the pecan pie, the kitchen consistently delivers.Ģ295 Market, SF. It’s like the second coming of Zuni Cafe. The wedge-shaped space is window-intensive, looks westward, and is splashed with sunlight in its many shades and tempers. But even if you don’t like pecan pie - or you’re forswearing all desserts for some reason - you can still help yourself to a big slice of the glass pie at Criolla Kitchen, because the New Orleans-influenced restaurant is itself a big slice of glass pie. (415) 431-3663, BEST SOUTHERN SLICE OF GLASS PIEĪficionados of Southern cooking will agree that a slice of pecan pie is a nice way to end a meal.
Until then, you can treat yourself to a little taste.Ģ03 Octavia, SF. Candied bacon! When Homer Simpson finally dies and goes to heaven, this is what he will feast on. But in the spirit of fun, the kitchen does lay some bits of candied bacon atop each slice. The pie filling is a luxurious mousse and the crust is chocolate, so you could make a good case that such a confection wouldn’t need pork - or anything else. And they do: the peanut butter pie at Straw, a nifty little carnival-themed restaurant that opened recently on Octavia Boulevard in Hayes Valley. If they shoot horses (don’t they?) and make garlic ice cream, they might as well whip up a dessert with pork in it.
Best of all, oodles of mac ‘n’ cheese, made with everything from tangy chevre to hot chorizo, Gilroy garlic to vegan-version walnut. Oakland’s cute Homeroom makes us want to check that we have both of our mittens clipped to our sleeves as we dive into updated youth classics: grilled cheese with Inna jalapeño jam, Blue Lake string beans, and Three Twins root beer floats.
BEST RETURN OF THE MACĪ one-room schoolhouse feel, minus the ‘marm but plus the mac? That seems right for a light-hearted, full-flavored spot that zaps you back - maybe not to Little House on the Prairie days (although the ingredients are Ingalls-fresh), but at least to second grade, when a grilled cheese and tomato soup were all the haute cuisine one needed. Followed by a stroll down Ocean Beach? Yes please, Mr. While you’re there, score a batch of spice-chunked ginger cookies or a gooey-sweet pie.
(The bakery’s name is actually a tribute to a sobriquet for the Farallone Islands.) The diabolically good bakers here have even set aside a day for beignet worship: zip down to beignet Sundays and fill those idle hands with made-to-order clouds of perfection - and cups of Blue Bottle coffee to boot. A beignet craze has swept the Bay, and really, who could withstand the fiendish temptation of these deep-fried, sugar-sprinkled, French-by-way-of-New-Orleans brunch delights? Our current favorites come courtesy of the new Devil’s Teeth Baking Company in the Sunset which, despite its intimidating name, traffics in heavenly pastries.