2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

Return to regular view

Print This Article

2005's Top Ten

An eclectic group of newcomers offers
everything from pizza to pumpkin curry
- Michael Bauer
Sunday, January 1, 2006

In 2005, restaurants opened with a vengeance at the beginning of the year, grew soft in the
middle and then heated up in the fall.

While it was a good year for openings, the numbers still can't compete with the frenzy a few
years back. Still, there have been several interesting twists, such as Sean O'Brien leaving Gary
Danko and opening the nationally acclaimed Myth, and veteran chef Loretta Keller reinventing
herself by closing Bizou and introducing a new concept called Coco500 in the same space.

Last year also marked the debut of an elegant Sonoma County restaurant that competes with the
best of Napa, when Nick Peyton and Douglas Keane opened Cyrus in Healdsburg.

Since October, so many restaurants opened that by the time I waited a month to begin the
review and visit each place three times, the year had run out.

Scott Howard, who made a splash at Fork in San Anselmo, opened his eponymous restaurant in
the grand space near Jackson Square that originally housed Cypress Club. Lissa Doumani and
Hiro Sone of Terra in St. Helena were lured to Ame in the St. Regis Hotel.

Joseph Manzare of Globe and Zuppa has joined with Sammy Hagar and other investors to
introduce a Mexican restaurant, Tres Agaves, on Townsend at Second Street. Elisabeth Prueitt
and Chad Robertson, who own Tartine in San Francisco's Mission District, debuted a full-
service restaurant called Bar Tartine on Valencia and 16th.

In Yountville, Richard Reddington who most recently cooked at L'Auberge du Soleil, has
opened Redd in the space that used to house Piatti.

Because they haven't been reviewed yet, I couldn't consider them for the Top 10. Look for
reviews of all these places in future weeks.

Several restaurants that seemed like sure bets for my Top 10 list fell by the wayside when the

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 1 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

chefs dropped out. Bounty Hunter in Napa, known for its excellent wine and down-home fare
such as beer-can chicken, lost Jake Southworth. In Healdsburg, Barndiva is readjusting after the
departure of Marisa Johnston.

The week after I visited Jack Falstaff in mid-December and found the food had hit its stride,
chef James Ormsby left, which meant that the restaurant had to be axed from my top 10.

Here are those that made the cut.

MYTH
Myth debunked the idea that location is everything. It took over a seemingly jinxed space in San
Francisco that had housed several high-profile concepts, including MC2. Under Tom Duffy and
chef Sean O'Brien, it's now one of the most coveted reservations in town.

Duffy is great at orchestrating the service, and O'Brien creates food that successfully walks the
line between haute and humble.

The current menu, for example, includes an exceptional warm sweetbread salad with bacon,
shiitake mushrooms with sherry vinegar and mustard ($12); the signature garganelli pasta with
foie gras cream, smoothed with Marsala ($8/$14); and a clever grilled prawn cocktail pizza with
pancetta, fennel, pesto and a mere glaze of fontina ($15). While most dishes are designed as
small plates, O'Brien offers a few main courses such as brined and grilled pork tenderloin with
pork belly, chestnut spaetzle and a soy sherry sauce ($24).

The warehouse-style interior has a sexy, almost Japanese ambience, with dramatic open spaces
and handsome brick walls. High-backed booths and dropped ceilings add intimacy. The design
is so well thought out that there's nary a bad seat in the house; each table seems private, yet
offers views of what's going on.

Myth, 470 Pacific Ave (near Montgomery), San Francisco; (415) 677-8986. Dinner Tuesday-
Saturday. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

BUDO
James McDevitt is producing some of the most exciting cross-cultural foods in the Bay Area,
culled from his Asian heritage. His mother is Japanese and he's lived all over Asia, including
Korea and the Philippines.

With the California bounty outside Budo's door in Napa and his own ingenuity, he's created
some breathtaking dishes: charred octopus on a bed of papaya, hearts of palm and floral-tasting
lychee nuts in a mildly spicy lemongrass sauce ($12); a thick mahogany-tinged square of pork
belly with cippolini onions and a pomegranate reduction ($12); and miso-crusted foie gras
($26) with seared tuna and truffle ponzu. He also shines on his sashimi sampler ($28), where the
raw fish gets strikingly delicious embellishments.

For main courses, he creates a trio of rabbit ($28) in which the loin is crusted in pistachio nuts,
the rack in bacon and the legs are confit and served over creamy polenta drizzled with Thai

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 2 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

basil oil. His signature is a tasting of Maine lobster ($42) with four preparations. In addition,
there's a nine- course tasting menu for $95, and a 16-course extravaganza for $125.

McDevitt's exciting food is served in gorgeous surroundings. The dining room has a serene
Japanese California ambience, with an open beamed ceiling and a long table down the middle
with artistic flower arrangements and a collection of decanters. Large windows overlook a
beautiful courtyard formed by the bar on one side and the gleaming white kitchen on the other.

Unfortunately, the restaurant is in an out-of-the-way location on Soscol, part of the River

Terrace Inn complex, and for unexplained reasons, it hasn't attracted the crowds that it should
given the stunning food, decor and well-orchestrated service.

Budo, 1650 Soscol Ave. (at Randeen Way), Napa; (707) 224-2330. Closed Jan. 1-March for
winter break. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

CYRUS
Front-of-the-house guru Nick Peyton and chef Douglas Keane are blazing a new culinary trail
in downtown Healdsburg, resulting in diners from around the country making their way to
Cyrus' door.

The elegant dining room, in shimmering gold and ebony, is capped by a glazed Venetian
plastered cloister ceiling. Gleaming carts in the back of the restaurant are filled with caviar,
Champagne and a stellar selection of cheese.

When the host leads diners to the table, she discreetly gives the silver vase on the table a half
turn so that the flowers that once faced the room now point to the diners. Everything about the
experience is orchestrated, but the service comes off as gracious rather than stiff and formal.

Keane's fixed price menu -- $58 for three course, $69 for four and $80 for five -- always
includes several bite-size appetizers to launch the evening. They could be a silver spoon of
marinated fish with candied kumquats and tapenade or a warm gougere with a steamy gush of
Gruyere.

His combinations and presentations are creative: a tower of Thai marinated lobster with
avocado, mango and fresh hearts of palm; striped bass with braised cabbage, bacon and mustard
spaetzle with a red wine fumet; hoisin-glazed squab with Fuyu persimmons and black bean rice
cake.

For dessert, pastry chef Annie Clemmons creates a caramel soup. The waiter brings a scoop of
kettle corn sorbet in a bowl that's covered with a screen of chocolate and a mound of popcorn.
He pours on the hot caramel broth, and the chocolate melts into a bowl.

Cyrus, 29 North St. (at Healdsburg Ave.), Healdsburg; (707) 433-3311. Dinner nightly. Full bar.
Reservations and credit cards accepted.

CANTEEN

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 3 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

Dennis Leary, who was a Chronicle Rising Star and the high-profile chef at Rubicon, is
practically a one-man show at this tiny spot in the Commodore Hotel in San Francisco.

With only 20 seats -- and more than half of those are at the old-fashioned soda-fountain counter
-- he creates food that belies its humble location. One time Leary made beautiful ice bowls for
an oyster floating in its own juices and mignonette sauce. He molds crab ($9) with a touch of
lemon, mustard and mayonnaise into a cylinder with chunks of avocado and chopped green
tomatoes, and tops it with hot, crispy onion rings.

The menu changes often and generally includes four or five appetizers, main courses and
desserts.

At this time of year, Keane broils haddock and serves it with kale and an artichoke glaze
($22.50), and pairs veal tenderloin with a porcini mushroom sauce and glazed parsnips
($23.50).

He even produces a souffle for dessert ($7) in various flavors including vanilla and chocolate
mint. He pairs grapefruit sorbet with candied zest and sweet yogurt ($6.50) and tops pear
clafoutis with spiced whipped cream ($6.50).

It feels like a find, and just about everyone I know is clamoring for a seat at breakfast, lunch or
dinner.

Canteen, 817 Sutter St. (near Jones), San Francisco; (415) 928-8870. Breakfast daily; lunch
Wednesday-Friday; dinner Wednesday-Saturday. Beer and wine. Reservations accepted for
dinner. Credit cards accepted.

CITIZEN THAI AND THE MONKEY

In the 1980s, Thai restaurants were like sushi places today -- represented on just about every
block. In fact, in the past couple of years, few places of distinction have opened, and the food is
strikingly similar.

Citizen Thai and the Monkey is different. Aom Foley went to her native Thailand to find much
of the restaurant's decor, and blended it with Western accents to create a visually stunning and
comfortable place in the heart of North Beach.

The two-story restaurant is actually two concepts in one, with a bar on one side serving noodle
and rice dishes and small plates based on Asian street food, and a full-service restaurant on the
other.

While diners will find all the standards, many dishes have a twist, and some are as visually
stunning as the interior. The pumpkin curry ($15) has thin slices of chicken breast floating in a
yellow sauce punctuated with chunks of zucchini, squash and chunks of bell peppers, served in
a carved pumpkin.

Other dishes include garlic-crusted soft shell crab ($15), duck curry mounded in a pineapple
half ($13), and dancing prawns ($12) with four lobster-size grilled shrimp suspended on

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 4 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

skewers above half a lemon. Before you finish, the waiter brings over finger bowls of cool tea
so you can clean up before moving on to the next dish.

Citizen Thai and the Monkey, 1268 Grant Ave. (at Vallejo), San Francisco; (415) 364-0007.
Dinner daily; lunch Monday-Friday. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

PIZZAIOLO
Chez Panisse alum Charlie Hallowell has brought Alice Waters' meticulous approach to food to
his Oakland pizza parlor. He not only crafts exceptional thin-crusted pizza ($10-$15), blistered
around the edges from the wood oven, but features a selection of starters, such as a stellar Little
Gem Caesar ($8), several pastas and one to three large plates that may include a bollito misto
with autumn vegetables ($22) or pork shoulder braised in wine with fresh shelling beans and
tomato vinaigrette ($20).

For dessert, there's an excellent affogato ($5), vanilla ice cream with hot espresso poured over
the top; and creamy panna cotta ($8) with a pomegranate sauce.

No reservations are taken, and even as early as 6 p.m. people begin to wait outside for one of
the 66 seats in the dining room. The restaurant includes an open kitchen, distressed walls with
the thick plaster chipped away in spots to reveal the 136-year-old brick, and a marred wood
floor that dates back to when the building housed a hardware store.

The somewhat quirky waiters look as if they're moonlighting from their day jobs at Amoeba
Records; they wear just about anything they want and are generally keen on decorative
piercings and tattoos. In the end, it all adds to the allure of Pizzaiolo.

Pizzaiolo, 5008 Telegraph Ave. (near 51st Ave.), Oakland; (510) 652-4888. Dinner Tuesday-
Saturday. Beer and wine. No reservations. Credit cards accepted.

COCO500

Few chef-restaurateurs can pull off the feat as difficult as what Loretta Keller did in converting
Bizou to Coco500. The popularity of her South of Market bistro was waning, the clientele was
growing older, and she realized that the younger crowd living in lofts and high-rises nearby
wasn't interested in her restaurant.

So she closed for two months and totally transformed the interior by moving the bar and making
it a focal point. Splashes of blue and sleek teak accents replaced the glazed mustard walls. Long
filament lights dangle from black cords down the two rows of teak tables. Cork tile floors and
blue upholstered Thonet chairs give the place a timeless, midcentury feel.

She also reformatted the menu, leaning heavily to small plates. In doing so, she's captured both
the drop-in and the reserve-ahead crowd. You'll find favorites such as beef cheeks with
horseradish cream ($14) and fried green beans ($6), because there's no reason to tinker with
perfection.

New items include taco chips heaped with a stewy mound of beef cheeks in chile and chocolate

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 5 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

sauce ($4), a stellar duck liver terrine with pickles and mustard ($6), and local calamari with
stewed chickpeas and preserved lemons ($12). For dessert, she retained the vacherin ($8.50), a
Swiss meringue with coffee ice cream, candied almond, creme anglaise and bittersweet
chocolate sauce.

Coco500, 500 Brannan (at Fourth), San Francisco; (415) 543-2222. Lunch weekdays; dinner
Monday-Saturday. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

RANGE
Range is the most exciting moderately priced restaurant to open in the Mission District since
Delfina in 1998. Chef Phil West and his wife, Cameron West, who handles the front of the
house, did much of the design work to create a stylish space with subtle industrial elements.

The long, narrow dining room features a bar in front, a hall with tables on one side and a
glassed-in window looking into the kitchen on the other. The main dining room is outfitted with
an open-beam ceiling and brown leather-like banquettes.

West offers a contemporary take on California/American cuisine on his concise one-page menu.
Hope he's prepared the smooth creamy chicken liver mousse ($8); it's as rich and luxurious as
foie gras. His soups and salads are always fresh and interesting, such as a puree of parsnip and
almond soup ($8).

For main courses the coffee-rubbed braised pork shoulder ($17) on coarse-ground hominy
offers a new take on what has become a trendy cut of meat. West also has a way with fish --
one of his most recent menus highlighted slow-cooked pollack with cabbage, runner beans and
fingerling potatoes flavored with pancetta ($18).

Desserts ($7) are also highlights and include a souffle; at this time of year, it's egg nog with a
hot chocolate shot.

Range, 842 Valencia St. (near 20th Street), San Francisco; (415) 282-8283. Dinner nightly. Full
bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

PICCO
Bruce Hill is hot. He's not only maintaining the quality of Bix restaurant, where he's been the
chef for the last couple of years, but has also opened two restaurants side by side in Larkspur.

Picco brings together the diverse elements of his career: fusion from Oritalia, all-American hits
at Fog City Diner, supper club food at Bix and Asian cuisine at Betelnut. That's why you'll find
some of the best mini hamburgers ($9.95 for three) with caramelized onions, mushrooms and
blue cheese; excellent sashimi ($11.95), risotto made fresh on the half hour ($9.50); and
Moroccan spiced lamb kebabs ($8.95) residing on the same menu.

Taking over the space that once housed Roxanne's, Hill and his Real Restaurant partners created
an open 85-seat dining room with large windows overlooking the tree-lined street, an airy open-
beam ceiling and rustic brick walls. It has both a sleek and organic atmosphere that matches his

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 6 of 7
2005's Top Ten / An eclectic group of newcomers offers everything from pizza to pumpkin curry 01/01/2006 10:21 AM

food.

Picco, 320 Magnolia Ave. (at King Street), Larkspur; (415) 924-0300. Dinner nightly. Full bar.
Reservations and credit cards accepted.

PIZZERIA PICCO
To my taste, Bruce Hill and his crew produce the best wood-fired, thin-crusted pizza ($9-
$13.50) in the Bay Area. He uses the traditional low-gluten flour that gives the Neapolitan
pizzas its character, slathering on uncooked canned tomato sauce and a handful of top-quality
toppings. The wood oven is fired by almond wood and stoked by chips to make the fire burn
hotter, producing a blistered, sometimes charred crust.

In addition to the pizza, the restaurant offers exceptional Caesar ($8.25), arugula with butter
pears, almonds and golden balsamic vinaigrette ($7.25) and Straus Dairy soft-serve ice cream
($2.75-$3.50). The item not to miss: the vanilla soft-serve drizzled with olive oil and sea salt.

While the restaurant has a stylish look, with cherry wood counters and shelves in back filled
with wine (also available for off-premises consumption), there are only 10 seats at the counter
and a row of bistro tables on the sidewalk in front.

Pizzeria Picco, 320 Magnolia Ave. (at King Street) Larkspur; (415) 945-8900. Dinner Monday-
Friday. Lunch and dinner Saturday-Sunday. Beer and wine. No reservations. Credit cards
accepted.

Michael Bauer is The Chronicle's restaurant critic. E-mail him at mbauer@sfchronicle.com.

Page CM - 14
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/01/CMGQIF5VJ71.DTL&type=printable Page 7 of 7