A La Carte

Street food has taken on a whole new meaning in local dining scene options. Spinning off from the many carts and booths at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, fresh food renegades the likes of the Crème Brûlée Cart, Magic Curry Kart, Liba Falafel Truck, Mobile Pho Truck, and Spencer on the Go have taken their show on the road to various locations throughout SoMa and the Mission. Capitalizing on the popularity of social websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, such vendors post their whereabouts and within short order can be swarmed with eager patrons indulging in fresh-made creations. While most of these portable dining options are entities unto their own, one local restaurateur, Laurent Katgely of Chez Spencer, also got into the action with Spencer on the Go, serving up French bistro fare.

“For an estimated cost of $20,000,” explains Laurent, “it is a much less expensive alternative than opening a restaurant, which could run as much as $200,000 and more to get open, not to mention all of the city building and permitting regulations.” Spencer on the Go can be found parked in a lot on the corner of Folsom and Seventh Streets across from Terroir, a SoMa wine bar. The bonus here: diners who purchase the likes of braised skate cheeks, grilled sweetbreads, or frog legs and curry from Katgely’s truck are welcome to enjoy their evening fare at Terroir while sampling varied French wine selections. Street food dining gone refined and civilized!

Over in the Dogpatch at 958 Illinois Street you will find Kitchenette, another organic, fresh, take-away option housed behind a warehouse roll-up door. It operates weekdays for lunch only between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. You may also want to heed the recommendation: “supplies can be limited, so the earlier the better.” The creative team of culinary masters behind this project have worked in some of the best kitchens in the area: Bix, Fog City Diner, Betelnut, Incanto, and Chez Panisse. Kitchenette also communicates via Twitter, so loyal fans can get daily menu listings; alternatively, you can visit the web page directly: kitchenettesf.com. Some sample offerings include Sun Pork Farms–sourced porchetta sandwich, spring garlic aioli, and arugula on grilled green onion bread; and fried cod roll, chayote, kumquat, jalapeno, and cilantro. The daily line-up consists of a sandwich of sorts, a salad, a sweet item, and a fresh fruit refresher. Organic, local, spontaneous, affordable, and delicious; what is there not to like coming out of these lunch boxes?

Meanwhile, across town in the Marina, Let’s Be Frank, which has been operating from a cart over at the Warming Hut at Crissy Field, has come in from the cold and opened its first retail store front at 3318 Steiner (at Chestnut). In addition to their regular Frank Dog, Brat Dog, “Hot” Dog, and vegetarian “Not” Dog, Let’s Be Frank is offering exciting toppings and sides including a spicy grass-fed-beef chili and Bi-Rite Creamery ice-cream sandwiches. “We are excited to share with our Frank-loving families,” notes owner Larry Bain, “that have grown to love our 100 percent grass-fed-beef hot dogs and family-farmed-pork sausages with a wider variety of products and operating hours.” Since opening, the eatery has extended its hours on Friday and Saturday evenings until 2 a.m.; additionally, delivery is now available to any of your favorite bars in the neighborhood.

Beautifull, which just opened its first “fresh foodspace” in Laurel Village Shopping Center, is a new retail store concept in prepared fresh food. Customers can dine in, take out, stock up, or have food delivered to their home or office. Entrepreneur Eric Greenberg, who believes that our food supply is filled with a lot of fake and bad food, founded Beautifull. Greenberg brought Ron Boyd (SF Chronicle Rising Star Chef 2005) on staff as director of food research and development. The menu offers selections of breakfast and snacks, soup, side and entrée salads, sandwiches and wraps, seafood, meat, and poultry, which covers all of your food needs.

“We source premium ingredients from responsible farmers, ranchers, and other purveyors to ensure that our food not only tastes great,” says Boyd, “but you can also feel good about eating it.” Architect Cass Calder Smith designed the shop using modern metal chairs and wood-topped tables that complement the stainless steel and glass food cases. The company mantra: “At Beautifull, we are inspired to make the best food you can eat, leading with taste to deliver health and happiness.” These sound like good words to live by.

Is it BBQ or is it not? This is the question that is being answered by executive chef Charlie Kleinman. Kleinman (Fish & Farm, Fifth Floor) is taking a modern adaptation to food typically associated with BBQ, which he is calling new American BBQ. Proprietor Matt Wexler, along with chef Kleinman, is happy to show off the menu at Wexler’s, located in the heart of the Financial District at 568 Sacramento Street. The duo has launched a dining destination that will specialize in a tasty new spin on an American tradition of barbecue styles from different regions of the country. On the lunch menu ($9–$14) you will find appetizers such as a Bowl of Red, Texas-style chili with house-smoked short ribs, pickled Fresno chilies, and crème fraîche; and Monterey Bay squid salad, fried green tomatoes, sour orange, and soubise. Entrées include a pulled lamb sandwich, watermelon vinegar, and green peach slaw; and sloppy joes, burnt ends smothered in house BBQ sauce, and bread-and-butter pickles. The dinner menu ($14–$22) offers Tomales Bay oyster chowder, liquid hush puppies, and pastis; and smoky chicken liver mousse, green tomato chutney, and candied corn for starters. Then move on to a whole smoked Maine lobster, cornbread stuffing with Old Bay drawn butter; or smoked short rib, Macomber turnips, fingerling potatoes, and BBQ au jus.

General Manager Ed Puccio has assembled an all-American wine program with over sixty selections to choose from. In the bar you’ll find Carlos Yturria mixing up inspired cocktails that complement BBQ flavors of smoke and spice, such as the signature Wexler’s Five-Minute Julep, which is served in a traditional iced silver cup. Or, try Yturria’s favorite, the Blue Blazer, which originates from the early days of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast.

The design showpiece of the restaurant is a laser-cut wood canopy, which runs the length of the room, from back to front, and actually becomes the awning over the entrance doors. The sculpture emulates rolling smoke wisps, a nod to the BBQ inspiration behind Wexler’s. This stands in stark contrast to the white walls and clean lines that Aidlin Darling Design, working in conjunction with Wexler, employed to create a comfortable, intimate, chic space.

Once again Meals on Wheels of San Francisco pulled off a stellar evening of socializing with food, wine, and fund-raising. More than 850 guests attended this year’s gala, dining on creations from eighty of the Bay Area’s top chefs, including Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys), Daniel Patterson (Coi), Steffan Terje (Perbacco), as well as gala chairwoman Nancy Oakes (Boulevard). The wines for the evening’s pre-dinner bites and seated dinner were donated by seventy-six California vintners, including Duckhorn, Etude, Goldeneye, Lancaster Estate, and Ridge. This year’s event raised over $1.1 million, which can provide 220,000 meals to aid homebound seniors. Some of the top auction items included a pizza-party for twenty guests at the Healdsburg home of Nancy Oakes with pizza being prepared by chef Dino Bugica of Diavola and wines selected by Shelly Lindgren of A16 ($23,000); a fabulous French meal prepared in your home by Roland Passot of La Folie and Xavier Solomon of Navio at the Ritz Carlton HMB ($14,000); and a traditional Japanese dinner for six guests in the Napa Valley home of Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone of Terra and Ame, respectively ($11,000).        

San Franciscan Steven Oliver is a restaurant manager and wine buyer.