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The big super foodie news of the day is that James' Syhabout's new restaurant, Commis opened last night, not "next month" as today's Chronicle Inside Scoop had it.

Commis has been one of the most anticipated restaurants of 2009, as executive chef Syhabout had been named one of the Chronicle's Rising Chefs in 2007, was Chef de Cuisine at the Michelin two-starred Manresa Restaurant, and earned an astounding three and one-half stars from the Chron's Michael Bauer for his executive chef stint at Plumpjack Cafe.

The East Bay seems to be exploding with new places, but many of them are just the most recent incarnation of the Chez Panisse ethos (for instance, Camino). Commis, however, has the potential to bring some real creativity and some of that despised "cooking" close to the borders of the People's Republic of Berkeley. I'm cheering for success here, and will be visiting very soon to see what is on the menu ($49 three-course prix fixe, plus $29 for paired wines!!).

The photo of Chef Syhabout in the kitchen last night at Commis is by the lovely and talented Pim, from Chez Pim.

Commis
3859 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA 94611
510.653.3902

This restaurant is another proverbial jewel hidden in plain sight on a really yucky street (5th about 1/4 block from Folsom towards Harrison). Le Charm is notable for having a charming trellised patio, solid French Bistro food, and a continual Prix Fixe $25 dinner menu that has to be one of the great bargains in San Francisco. The menu has exactly what you would expect: French Onion Soup, Seamed Mussels, Duck Confit, Cassoulet, Grilled Steak with Pommes Frites, & etc. Recommended
Le Charm Website Original post 2005-01-18

Update: The Prix Fixe menu is now $30 and they feature live jazz every Thursday evening on the patio. A recent visit found the food adequate, not as good as I remember from my last visit, but that was at least six years ago.

The papered-up storefront depicted in the image to the right will soon be the newest restaurant to open in SoMA's 4th Street restaurant ghetto. It will be an as-yet-unnamed Taqueria, a sister to the newest coffee shop in SoMA: The Creamery.

It is a sister restaurant, because it will be in the same building as The Creamery Coffee Shop, which not too long ago housed the "Gilt Edge Creamery" which, strangely enough, having passed from the business world, still lives in the virtual one at this website.

The coffee shop occupies the odd-shaped end of the building, with tables situated at the big and bright windows. In front of the building is a bright and open patio for sipping on those warm days we know will be here eventually. They serve coffee, espresso drinks, and some rudimentary food, including the de rigeuer pastries, salads, juices, and breakfast sandwiches. Rumor has it that crepes might be next!

I've visited twice. On the first visit, I ordered a double (medium) cappuccino and got a Latte. I thew it away. The second visit, I ordered a single (small) cappuccino and really got a cappuccino. The second visit was at 6 in the morning, and I think one of the owners made the drink. The espresso drinks are named and labeled appropriately (single, double, and triple shots for small, medium, and large) so someone there understands the correct proportions for espresso drinks. Since one poor experience, and one good experience is a tie, I'm going to give it another try and hope they have the staff trained before my next visit.

As for the Taqueria, what is "The Creamery," in Spanish? I'll bet we'll see a sign like that in no time.

Update:#2 The Creamery has now posted an application for a license to sell beer and wine. They clearly have ambitions that go beyond latte and scones. Watch this space.

Update: Eater SF reports that the working name for the Taqueria is "Iron Cactus."

The Creamery
685 4th Street (at Townsend)
San Francisco, CA 94017
(+1 415.896.1445)

This post is a cautionary example of the effects of procrastination. I have been planning a review of Sunday brunch places in San Francisco and environs, with weekly posts. I visited a few places and took some notes but didn't actually post anything. And when I finally had the time and incentive to launch the series, I find my initial target restaurant has shut down their brunch service! Well, no matter. I have these notes and it was such a good brunch. I'm going to write about it anyway.... but I'll be short.

South is the North American outpost of Sydney chef, Luke Mangan. It features the foods and wines of Australia and New Zealand. Located across the street from the King Street Cal Train station, it is in a warehouse-like building and the decor is modern and SoMA loft-like.

I tried the south crab omelette, enoki mushrooms, miso broth—a clever Pacific Rim take on breakfast food. It was a delicious omelette generously stuffed with crab meat and enoki mushrooms, garnished with crunchy fried garlic and shallots, and served in a savory pool of miso broth. This was so good, I had it every time I went for brunch.

If crab or miso aren't your thing you could have had "eggs and soldiers," "crumpets with butter + marmalade," or "coconut bread with new zealand manuka honey." And if that didn't sound good, how about "sweet corn fritters, bacon spinach + maple syrup," or "truffled egg, citrus cured salmon, hollandaise"? Or a "venison burger with spiced beetroot chutney"?

I really liked the South[ern] Brunch, but alas, 'tis no more. Too bad. A little variety has leached out of the world to be replaced by yet another waffle or poached egg. You can still have lunch and dinner here. Give it a try. Maybe if you promise to come for brunch, they'll bring it back.

Next week I'll write about a place that will actually serve you food on Sunday morning.

South
330 Townsend St # 101
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 974-5599

"Fish." Take a close look, that isn't a sentence fragment, it is the name of one of the two best places to eat in Sausalito. Besides the desserts, one salad, a pun, and two dishes pandering to fishaphobes (ichthyophobes?), all you can get at this place is fish. Period.

Set out on a pier overlooking the marina, Fish. is a casual, California kind of place. Except for the Marin County prices, and the lack of surfer dudes, it reminds me of a Southern California fish shack. There are picnic tables to sit at outside, and inside you get the same thing: picnic tables. However, unless it is raining or colder than San Francisco in the summer, you'll want to sit outside and enjoy the California sun and the view of the marina and its inhabitants. (Watch out for the hungry and highly-practiced seagulls though).

The menu is casual, sporting items like clam chowder (both red and white) shucked oysters, and a grilled fish sandwich; but it is also creative. You can also get "The Fish. Parfait" which is a parfait glass layered with Dungeness crab, salsa, tomatillo, lime crema, and cocktail sauce.

WD-50 in New York City is the showcase for the cooking of Wylie Dufresne. Chef Dufrense is the Milton Babbitt (contemporary composer who wrote a famous article: "Who Cares if you Listen?") of the contemporary food scene. The food at WD-50 worships creativity and uniqueness to the exclusion of taste. Some dishes are inspired, some are edible, and some are bad jokes. If there ever was a place where one can see the relationship between the creative impulse and arrogance, this is the place. Recommended only for food journalists doing research.

Note: My meal here was two years ago. Although Frank Bruni in a recent New York Times review agreed somewhat with my opinion, saying that "many visitors to the restaurant understandably feel that what they've experienced isn't so much a meal as a prank," he now says that the food at WD-50 has moved towards emphasizing providing dining pleasure above simply showing off: The Shape of Eggs Benedict to Come. If true, this is certainly a welcome development.

As astute readers know "bacar," opened in late 2000 financed by dot com money and poised to sell a lot of food and high priced wine to all of those wealthy, eternally partying, black-attired dot-coministas. The timing was a bit off.

I liked the original bacar. They served food until 1:00 a.m., they had live jazz every night, a fantastic wine list, 100's of wines by the glass, and the staff was professional and attired in white tuxedo jackets. I spent many a night sitting at the bar eating cesar salad, and wok roasted mussels while sipping a glass of wine and listening to the live band. Unfortunately, the black-attired wealthy didn't show up in the expected numbers and things started going downhill. The tuxes went, the food preparation got sloppy, the wine list dumbed down, and the kitchen closing time kept creeping earlier (I went over there at 9:30 a few months before the shakeup and the kitchen was already closed that night).

Then, earlier in 2007, there was a shake up. Debbie Zachareas (wine) and Arnold Eric Wong (food) left. The restaurant got a new chef, and closed for remodeling to make it quieter (the kitchen was enclosed and the jazz moved downstairs). So now that it's been open for a few months, hows the new bacar?

Located in the northwest corner of the Ferry Building, The Slanted Door is an incredibly popular restaurant with a super fantastic view of San Francisco Bay and the Bay Bridge.  I think the space is more like an office park than a restaurant, but when you've got that great view outside, floor to ceiling windows and an open floor plan make a whole lot of sense.

The Slanted Door has been tremendously successful, and provides San Francisco with its own Horatio Alger story, as Charles Phan and his family left Vietnam as part of the exodus of boat-people in 1975. The original restaurant opened in the Mission in 1995, moved to larger quarters in SoMA in 2002, and moved into the Ferry Building when its restoration was completed in 2004. Slanted Door is now number 61 on the list of the Top 100 Independent Restaurants, serving over 275,000 meals per year and taking in more than $12 million.

Surprisingly, in San Francisco food circles, The Slanted Door is somewhat controversial (see below). I've never regarded Charlie Phan as the Vietnamese Thomas Keller, but I've always enjoyed my meals at his restaurant including visits to the Brannan and Embarcadero location as well as the current incarnation. I was there Saturday evening in a party of four and we tried:

Ame, the new restaurant in the St. Regis Hotel (at 3rd and Mission) is beautiful, elegant, and serves creative and delicious food. The space is very urban, with black columns, white accents and tan walls including elegant understated decoration (except for the art-glass light fixtures which are definitely over the top, though portraying exquisite taste). I believe this place is destined to become a San Francisco classic.

The bar in the St. Regis lobby also run by the Ame staff, oozes class and will quickly become one of the in spots for unwinding after work or other bar-related activities for the well-paid, well-groomed set.

For a starter, I ordered a crudo of fluke with Meyer lemon zest, fleur de sel, and extra virgin olive oil "from Lessino olives." This was a deceptively simple dish, but it was refreshing, and delicious in the best tradition of clean unadorned flavors of both Japanese and Calfornia cuisines

The appetizer of fricassee of Miyugi oysters, leeks and forest mushrooms in sauce beurre blanc was full-flavored, incredibly rich and begged to be consumed to the last drop through discreet swabbing of the plate with the bread.

For an entrée, I had a red wine braised "Wagyu" beef cheek served with sweetbread cutlets and cauliflower puree all finished with a cabernet sauvignon sauce. Though it was excellent, it didn't have the clarity of flavors, nor the freshness of the seafood dishes. When I come back (which will be soon), I think I'll stick to seafood and skip the meat dishes.

The wine list is of moderate length with an eclectic selection, including some excellent offerings of sake. Corkage is a very reasonable $20 per bottle. Highly Recommended. Ame at the St. Regis

Some place has to be the best place for raw oysters in the city. To my tastes, the oyster bar in the Ferry Building run by the Hog Island Oyster Co. is it.

I wouldn't call the space beautiful, but since one of the walls is twenty feet high, made out of glass, and looks out on the bay, it certainly is bright and cheery! There is a wrap-around marble bar with about 15 seats, some inside tables seating perhaps 12 more, and a good collection of tables outside which are really nice on a sunny day.

Everyone has heard of the Mark Twain quip about "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," so perhaps it is appropriate a place once named The Cold Day Restaurant is now as much a part of the city as the fog. The Tadich Grill —like the cable cars, the Ferry Building and the Golden Gate Bridge— is a part of the landscape. Certainly it doesn't hurt that it predates all of the other landmarks, dating from 1849. And, there is no doubt that it is a good place for a meal on a cold, foggy day. It exudes proper and upright stolidity like a paneled library, which it somewhat resembles.

When I first moved to San Francisco, I used eat lunch here every Saturday, perched on a stool at the long wooden bar with my hat and coat hung up behind me on the polished wood panels. The waiters, dressed in white linen jackets, are professionals and they are efficient without being familiar. Rumor has it that this was one of the last places you could find leather cups full of dice on the bar. A throw of the dice was used to determine who would pay for the meal. But even though I haven't seen them myself, it doesn't take much imagination to pretend that they are there in front of every other seat. I even met a Republican here once. I am not certain who was more surprised, me to find myself seated next to a Republican, or him to also find himself seated next to a Republican.

As far as I can tell people stand in a long line for a long time for one of two reasons: 1) they are at a government facility and they are told to stand there, or 2) they know there is something really good waiting when then finally get to the front. The line at Mama's for weekend brunch is obviously a type #2 line. It looks incredibly long and it is undoubtedly worse than the line at Dottie's True Blue Cafe. But, once you get inside, you will be greeted by a bright sunny room with jazz playing in the background and an impressive list of breakfast items to choose from.

Small, elegant, and approaching perfection like a Faberge Egg or a tiny intricately carved wooden box, Maki serves authentic and delicious Japanese cuisine - no California Rolls here! The official menu is limited, but the list of daily specials is always large, so be certain to ask. They have a good selection of high quality cold sake (served in a small 175mm decanter with an ice-filled insert and decorated with an orchid blossom) and the luxurious lacquer-ware and other implements will make you feel like a Japanese Emperor. Try the Wappa-meshi dishes (like a simple steamed Chirashi) and the savory custard (chawan mushi) - even the miso soup is special (white miso, high quality ingredients, and unlike any miso soup youve had before). Not cheap, but absolutely worth every penny. Highly recommended

Located across from the Holiday Inn, and just down the street from Portsmouth Square, Louies is off the beaten path in a building that used to house a Japanese restaurant. A Louies experience takes a little getting used to. Althoughthe standard Cantonese restaurant fish tanks greet you, the space is broken up like a split-level ranch house, with a balcony and basement next to the center section on street level.

My handy Internet "Language Tool" translates this as "The Tavern of the Furnace." I suspect a better translation might be the Café with the Oven. If they cook it here, they do it in the oven. There is no stove, and because this tiny neighborhood place only has 28 seats, no stove means more tables; and, more tables means less wait, but you will probably have to waitn standing on the sidewalk for 20 to 40 minutes anyway.

"Hold on," you say. "How can this be a neighborhood place? It’s on COLUMBUS AVENUE!"