DICKEY'S BARBECUE PIT SORT OF BETTER THAN IT LOOKS

Ah....my eternal search for some decent barbecue in San Francisco took a little break when me and the SO were down San Bruno way and rolled past Dickey's Barbecue Pit in a strip mall across from Tanforan Mall and thought why not. Dickey's is actually a semi-chain (not many locations yet) that started out of Dallas Texas. When you first walk in it doesn't look like much and it was a bit confusing about who and where we were supposed to order from.

                       

BACON BACON WHY WHY WASN'T IT BETTER BETTER?

What started out as a food truck (that eventually caught fire) and morphed into an actual brick and mortar location, Bacon Bacon has developed quite the following. I had been meaning to get by there but their hours have been a bit inconvenient for a day jobber. On a recent hooky day I decided to finally take the N-Judah over to the edge of Haight neighborhood and check them out.

B. PATISSERIE TIME TO GET YOUR SWEET ON

I think I've made it clear through past posts that I like sweets. Not just any sweets, but the good, hearty, baked kind with icing and stuff. Thus when new bakeries pop up in town that can offer versions of baked goods, I wait until the rush dies down and then head out to give them a try. That's the case with B. Patisserie (no website yet) in Laurel Heights. It opened with a lot of fanfare due to the proprietress Belinda Leong, who garnered many fans working as a pastry chef at Manresa and Gary Danko. (It's co-owned with Michel Suas of the San Francisco Baking Institute) I ventured over to its unassuming store front near the corner of Divisadero and California and upon first look it has the air of one of those French bakery kind of places with marble counter tops and tables and tiny chairs, a very ladies who lunch kind of place.

I have to say I'm not always a fan of the French bakery thing, I mean that stuff looks good and is okay but usually it's more about baking the bread in different ways than it is about the sweets. But the things I perused in the along the counter looked good and I was hungry so I kept my dessert mind open.

Sometimes at upscale bakeries like this I can usually count on there being at least an eclair if I can't decide on anything else, but there was not a one in site here and a lot of the things are very bread oriented. They do have a few, what I will call petit four type things with chocolate ganache toppings and what not but I decided to go with some of their specialties since that is usually ones best bet when you are not sure what to get. 

Here I got the sugar brioche tort and the kouign-amann. The tort was both light and airy and cake-like, I didn't feel like I was eating a puff of air with powdered sugar on it, and that's a good thing. The little extra of custard in the middle added a little creaminess to it that didn't make me miss icing at all. There was a small sprinkling of sugar baked on top with added a touch of crunch and texture which was nice. Yes it's sweet but not too sweet that you will get some big sugar rush and then need a nap, I found it just right. 

The kouign-amann is a specialty of Chef Leong's (they sell a lot here) and the lady behind the counter described it as a sweetened version of a croissant, which I heartily agreed with. At first I was dubious and unprepared to really like this as it's really just bread with melted sugar inside but after eating (a whole one) I did like it. It was crispy, flaky, buttery and sugary--all the things one likes in a sweet. It felt both light to eat and filling at the same time, the crunchy baked-ness of the bread helps with this. It is basically a light croissant pastry with sugar filling that you can happily delude yourself into thinking you're not overdoing it on a sweet snack. A sugary delusion yes, but hey, those are the best kind. 

More than just your average bakery the place does live up to its hype. If you want to impress your friends stop in, pick up some treats and share the sweets, they will be happy you did. 

IRON CACTUS IN SOMA....LAST TAQUERIA STOP BEFORE CALTRAIN

Taquerias in San Francisco are a dime a dozen in this town, to coin a phrase, and they do run the gamut from fancy, how much for a burrito!? To, I'd only eat there if I was really drunk and hungry. Most fall into the middle ground of, "we can't decide where to eat so let's just go to the taqueria on the corner near the house", kind of variety. So it was one Sunday when the SO and I wanted a quick bite and the first choice we went was closed, leading us to walk 2 blocks over to the next choice, Iron Cactus.

GARAJE...DROP IN AND PARK IT FOR SOME CHEAP EATS

Ahh....3rd Street at Bryant just past the overpass, not exactly known as a destination for food, though only a block further sits the estimable HRD, a now hole in the wall hotspot for hipster techies on their lunch breaks. But if the line their gets you down, fear not, there is now a new place just opened at 475 3rd Street that can fulfill your quick cheap eats for lunch and possibly give HRD a little run for their money. Called Garaje (they have no website yet, though it's sure to come) it's a taqueria-ish place that also serves burgers and vegetarian options in addition to all sorts of beer and wine on tap. Working a few blocks over myself, I passed this place on the way home from work one night and they were open for dinner so I decided to drop in and give it a try.

            

DIXIE HIGH FALUTIN' SOUTHERN FOOD IN SAN FRANCISCO

***UPDATE: SADLY LOOKS LIKE THIS PLACE HAS CLOSED***

Over the past year Southern cuisine has made a itself a presence in San Francisco with the opening of any number of barbecue and rib joints and homestyle cooking spots that aren't so much Southern cooking as they are California interpretations of home grown dishes. Dixie down in the Presidio is one of those such places that purports to do the local organic thing with Southern food by way of New Orleans and North Florida. Me and the SO were gallivanting around the Marina in an urban sea foraging class and though since we were in the neighborhood why not try it out.

                       

The place is huge. You are greeted with a large bar and bar area for seating when you walk in and they have a wine room that is probably the size of a studio in town. We didn't have reservations and they were booked for the night but luckily you can get the full menu at the bar so we grabbed a stool and started perusing the menu. While we were still deciding they brought out a free snack, in lieu of bread.

It was a cold black-eyed pea salsa relish and a side of whole grain crackers. We liked this snack a lot. It was bright and crisp with purple onion, cilantro, a hint of lime, some red pepper pieces--literally a pea salsa. We went through two bowls before stopping so we wouldn't fill up before the appetizers even came. 

Smoked cod beignets with remoulade dipping sauce and cheddar scallion hush puppies. The cod beignets were an interesting idea that I just did not like. They were hot and crispy out of the fryer but they were like little puffs of mush and my taste buds were totally turned off. It was part texture and taste for me on these though the SO really liked them and was happy I didn't eat more than one. The hushpuppies were sadly, on the dense and dry side. I couldn't taste the cheddar or scallion and it didn't help that in addition to the grated parmesan on top they also drizzled honey over them. Neither of us liked this particularly much and didn't finish them. I don't think butter could even have saved them.  Though it does amaze me that at home you get an endless basket of hushpuppies with many meals and they are hot, crispy and soft on the inside yet out here they treat them as some kind of delicacy yet no one has done anywhere near a decent job of making it worth a $7 appetizer. For my main dish I decided to go with somewhat of a house specialty, the chicken and dumplings. 

Yeah, I know what you are thinking, where are the dumplings and what's that brown stuff? I thought the same thing when I saw the dish but figured it's the chef's twist on traditional and why not just dig in. The chicken was done nicely, tender, moist and with a little bit of crisp skin still on the outside. (It reminded me of that chicken dish I had at Rich Table) The carrots were also done well somewhere between crisp and soft. The dumpling, well, that was another story. It looked like a dim sum ball but was in fact a boiled ball of flour and ricotta. It was very dense and sticky and not so much a dumpling but more of a matzo ball. Fortunately there was plenty of brown chicken gravy to help get these down but I was not a fan. Considering this was a $25 dish I'm gonna flat out say skip it. The value, cost, flavor, taste ratio on this just doesn't make it worth it. Fortunately there's always dessert. 

                          

Here's where Dixie became a winner for me. Salted caramel pecan pie with malted vanilla ice cream and humming bird cake with black walnuts, slow roasted pineapple, caramelized bananas, cream cheese icing and served with ginger ice cream. Wow, both of these were delicious. The small pecan pie with (more) salty and sweet which when well with the creaminess of the homemade vanilla ice cream. Sometimes pecan pies can be too rich with all the brown sugar but this was not over flowing with the filling that can give folks a sweet-toothache and adding the salted caramel is a great touch. The cake was also very tasty. I think you can't go wrong with bananas, pineapple and cream cheese icing. The cake was moist, dense and light all at the same time. I didn't care so much for the ginger ice cream though which again was fine with the SO as he really liked it. Both of these desserts were a good example of Southern cuisine that given a California twist without totally turning it into a completely different dish (yes I'm looking at you chicken and dumplings!). 

I'd say skip the entrees and just go belly up to the bar for drinks, appetizers (if you can find one you like) and dessert and you'll be glad you made the trip out to the Presidio. The bartenders are also cute and that always a plus. 

SERPENTINE IN DOGPATCH...(WAITING ON) BRUNCH IN DOGPATCH

Sunday brunch in San Francisco has become a tradition here for some reason. I think it's because folks like to go out and drink the night before and just get up late on Sundays thus becoming a default kind of breakfast for everyone. Either way, it seems no matter where you go there is always some kind of wait regardless of either how good or bad a place seems to be. So it is on this Sunday when me and the SO head out to meet his cousin and girlfriend in Dogpatch at Serpentine.