April 11, 2017 - This week's tablehopper: eggsactly.

This week's tablehopper: eggsactly.                    

Spring frittata and thick slices of peppered bacon served on the old world dining table at Cafe Klaus. Photo: © tablehopper.com.

It’s an eggy week, with Passover already under way, and Easter coming up this Sunday (for some places to go and tasty things to eat, see last week’s post). I should mention a couple of additions, like Easter brunch is also happening at 15 Romolo (Punch Drunk Brunch, uh-huh), and there’s an all-day Italian Easter menu at 54 Mint.

I feel like I got to celebrate Easter a week early with a beautiful brunch at my dear friend Veronica Klaus’s antique-filled bohemian apartment before she leaves us at the end of the month for upstate New York. The table was set with such gorgeous china and silver and linens (I’ll be posting some pics on social this week!). She even played some Satie for us on her piano while we enjoyed a spring frittata and a thick slice of layered chocolate and caramel cake, with fresh air and sunlight streaming into the colorful room. It all felt like quite the San Francisco dream, a rare bird these days.

I have such sadness over her departure, many do—San Francisco will not be the same without my favorite chanteuse. But she’s leaving us for an exciting adventure: she is going to be opening Cafe Klaus in a historic 1860s Greek Revival Lutheran Church on the edge of Sharon Springs, New York, complete with stained glass and frescoes. It’s a huge undertaking and requires a lot of construction and restoration, so I want to point you to her fundraiser if you can help this talented woman manifest her dream. It’s going to be quite the place to visit, I can’t wait to see what she does. New York, you are so lucky to have her!

Whatcha doing tonight? I’m showing up hungry for dinner at Nopa tonight, which will be celebrating the launch of the brand-new Nopalito: A Mexican Kitchen cookbook by chef Gonzalo Guzman and Stacy Adimando. Gonzo is back in the Nopa kitchen for a night, adding some à la carte dishes from the cookbook to the menu, like a queso flameado with chorizo out of the wood oven, huarache de cabeza, and a couple of ceviches. Walk-ins are welcome. Adelante…

I’m glad the news decided to slow the eff up a bit this week so I could write today’s review for you about The Morris. It required a bit more time (and word count) to be able to do all the details justice. Just wait until you see the off-the-menu burger I’m spilling the beans on.

Thanks to everyone who keeps sending me Thailand tips for Bangkok and Ko Tao, Ko Samui, and Ko Pha Ngan! Keep ‘em coming! I’ll be there in a month.

Thank you Easter Bunny, bwok bwok! Marcia Gagliardi

the chatterbox

Gossip & News (the word on the street)

Salt & Straw Opens Friday on Fillmore, Plus Kagawa-Ya Udon Noodle Co., Anton's Pizza, and Tekka House in Glen Park

Ice cream fanatics, your time to enjoy Portland’s SALT & STRAW ice cream is now. Well, almost: Friday is go time for their Fillmore shop, the first in San Francisco. The shop is founded by Kim Malek with her cousin, Tyler, and their ice cream is known for its artisanal and handmade approach—they will also be working with local makers and purveyors for flavor inspiration. Their flavors will fall into three categories: SF classics (only available in SF); SF seasonals (only in SF, but for a limited time); and Crossover classics (available at all S&S locations, which are also in Los Angeles).

You can look at the initial menu here and start pining for flavors like cinnamon ancho and cajeta, or olive oil and lemon custard (yum). Trust me, the roasted strawberry and tres leches is soooo good. Hours will be 11am-11pm. Open Friday April 14th. They will also be at Off the Grid Fort Mason on Fridays. Their second location, in Hayes Valley (580 Hayes St.), will be opening in the summer. 2201 Fillmore St. at Sacramento.

Now open in Mid-Market is KAGAWA-YA UDON NOODLE CO., a quick-service, 40-seat spot serving Sanuki-style udon (it has a square shape and flat edges, famous in the udon-crazy Kagawa Prefecture in the Shikoku region of Japan, hence the restaurant’s name). I mentioned this spot last month, but here’s the menu—there are many options, including some accompaniments to the udon, and it’s meant to be fast. Open Mon-Fri 11am-7pm. 1455 Market St. at 10th St., 415-703-0995.

Late-night denizens and SoMa partiers, you should know there’s a new pizza place open called ANTON’S PIZZA AND DELI in the former Citizen’s Band (RIP, sigh), and it has some handy hours for pizza (no slices just yet) and sandwiches (peep the menu here). Open Mon-Wed 10am-12am, Thu-Sun 10am-3am. 1196 Folsom St. at 8th St.

One more little neighborhood opening: TEKKA HOUSE has opened in the former Tataki in Glen Park and is serving some pretty straight-ahead/give the people what we think they want sushi (i.e., there are wacky rolls). They also have ramen on the menu. Open Mon-Thu 4pm-9pm, Fri-Sat 4pm-10pm, Sun 5pm-9pm. 678 Chenery St. at Diamond.

Nourish Café Expanding to Nob Hill

ABC license activity points to a sequel for the 100 percent plant-based and organic/non-GMO NOURISH CAFE: the Inner Richmond café is moving into the former Flour & Co. on Hyde Street in Nob Hill. Eater followed up with chef Brighton Miller and partner Sarah Bacon (she has thought about a name change, I am sure), who will be offering all kinds of vegan items, from salads and sandwiches (and wraps, of course) to vegan baked goods, grain bowls, acai bowls, and smoothies to start your day. They will also be adding Stumptown Coffee espresso drinks and kombucha on tap. They are targeting an early May opening. Hours will be Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat-Sun 9am-3pm. 1030 Hyde St. at California.

Updates: Aina Gets Outdoor Seating, Yuzuki Additions

Just in time for spring and more sun, the charming AINA in Dogpatch has added outdoor seating. It should help cut down on wait times, especially for their popular brunch, and you can bring your furry Fido to sit on the sidewalk with you while you enjoy your malasadas. 900 22nd St. at Minnesota, 415-814-3815.

If you’re looking for a place to perch and enjoy bar bites like spicy yam cake and shio koji beef tongue, YUZUKI JAPANESE EATERY is offering their version of a bar food/small plates menu (“otsumami”) meant to pair with sake. It’s available Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, and to coax you to come in, they’re offering a 20 percent discount on the restaurant’s fab selection of 720ml bottles of sake. 598 Guerrero St. at 18th St., 415-556-9898.

Izakaya Yuzuki            - 598 Guerrero St. San Francisco - 415-556-9898

Closures Include Mosu and Ristorante Umbria

The spendy (I’ll just say it, crazily overpriced at $195 for the odd experience) MOSU is closing this month. Eater writes that it’s not for financial reasons, but because chef-owner Sung Anh is moving back to Korea to be with his wife and children and to open Mosu Seoul in the fall. However, it sounds like he does hope to return to SF at some point. 1552 Fillmore St. at Geary, 415-735-7303.

Longtime RISTORANTE UMBRIA, which has been holding down the corner of 2nd Street and Howard for 20-plus years (since 1995!) with its trademark awnings, is closing May 1st. Scoop reports they are losing their lease. 198 2nd St. at Howard, 415-546-6985.

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fresh meat

New Restaurant Reviews (I'm looking for somewhere new to eat)

The Morris

There are some moments that really make me happy as a restaurant columnist, and seeing someone open their lifelong dream place is pretty high on the list. As a somm, Paul Einbund has poured me countless glasses of wine at many restaurants over the years, and I’ve been tracking his hopes and plans to have a place of his own for a long time. He even knew who his chef was going to be for the past five years: chef-partner Gavin Schmidt, whom Einbund met when they were both working at Coi (Schmidt was chef de cuisine).

It has been some time. You could say THE MORRIS is the victory story of the tortoise instead of the hare. And it’s that much better for it. Einbund has had years of plotting and studying what works (or doesn’t) in restaurants to apply those findings to his own. He’s a details guy, obsessed with the many minutiae in this world.

As someone who spends more time sitting at restaurant tables than her own dining table (and to be honest, eating at my desk is usually what’s happening when I am home), I enjoy all the thoughtful touches and nuances throughout the experience. The menus that tell you if it’s a root, leaf, flower, or fruit day. The downright spa-like bathroom, with the dreamy projection of country roads onto the wall and romantic Satie playing and nice soap and hand towels. (It’s like three minutes of therapy in there, I’m not kidding.) The coasters under your cocktail made by Einbund’s wife, Vanessa Yap Einbund. The custom-made pottery (even the dumpling has its own special bowl). The music playlist that was painstakingly curated—Tame Impala is not a Pandora pick, it’s a Paul pick (plus some tracks from his staff), always with the guest in mind. The place is dense with detail, it’s own version of a Seurat packed full of many dots that create a larger picture.

This restaurant had big, nostalgic shoes to fill, a pair of well-loved Stan Smiths that belonged to the ultimate neighborhood restaurant: the Slow Club, a beacon in this Media Gulch/Potrero Flats location for 24 years and an indelible part of so many memories. Einbund and Schmidt want to continue the neighborhood lineage and offer the next iteration of the neighborhood restaurant. As I jokingly said when we first talked, “It’s a neighborhood restaurant by people who know their shit.”

The Morris is about a casual-yet-assiduously studied balance between high and low, which is personified by the gorgeous and deep and highly personal wine list, one that can be as low profile or as baller as you want to go—and you’ll still be in your jeans—whether it’s a $900 bottle of Selosse, or you’re drinking Einbund’s house white or red by the centimeter ($1.50 per cm), a fun carafe method Einbund created at Frances. While the denim-wrapped wine list is engrossing to read, and you know Einbund burned the midnight oil to geek so hard on it (take me right to “crazy bright, crisp, mineral-driven Burgundy”), but be sure to engage him so you can enjoy his animated and insightful chatter as you both figure out what the hell you should be drinking. He has some ideas.

I almost need to apologize to the other cocktails on the list because I’m so smitten with the Chartreuse slushy ($10), the perfect start to a meal (and end to a hangover). It’s what I want every time, now served in its classic glass with a metal straw/spoon combo I first encountered at Little Branch in New York many years ago.

I appreciate how they keep the drinks at $12 and under, and that they’re not too tricky, although they are having some fun with the ultimate off-the-menu burger with an off-the-menu cocktail pairing: a smoked duck Manhattan (they steep Four Roses bourbon with the carved neck and back from the roast duck, filter it, mix it with Carpano Antica and Fee Brothers whisky barrel bitters, and serve it with Dudognon Cognac-soaked Luxardo cherries and yes you want this).

You can perch at the lively bar in the back, order a mouth-filling foie gras-and-chicken dumpling ($3 a pop) and finger lickin’ fried pork cracklins ($6) drizzled with a gastrique of Aleppo honey with cayenne and sherry vinegar, and die a very happy person.

But good thing, you’re still alive and with us to enjoy Schmidt’s tour de force of a charcuterie board. Don’t mess around with trying to choose ($8 each), go for five for $20. Full house! There’s bright fennel salami, and the almost brisket-y spicy headcheese, and a rabbit terrine made extra-brill with pork fat and Chartreuse. Duck liver mousse, always. The too-rich duck rillette (yes, it can happen, even the baby bites of pickled cauliflower couldn’t uncoat my mouth) has been swapped out for other meaty treasures, like chorizo with a touch of dried anchovy powder for extra umami. It’s like a charcuterie lab over there, so keep checking in. (Schmidt is butchering whole pigs each week, and on the menu, you can see how the kitchen smartly uses everything.)

The menu has 10 dishes to navigate, with seasonal vegetables holding court next to sure-to-be classics like Little Gems anointed with a creamy dressing of Banyuls vinegar, Dijon mustard, hazelnut oil, and egg, plus burnished bacon lardons, Parmesan, and hazelnuts ($9). It’s the kind of salad I want every night, but one detail missing for me was fresh cracked pepper—and the dressing needed to steal a little salt from my otherwise-incredible side of smashed and fried fingerlings that came with my burger.

I like the interplay of Asian touches on the menu, like the can’t-miss (trust me) crab porridge ($16) with notes of lemongrass and ribbons of carrot and tempura crab and rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) on top—although the porridge has just been swapped for a more springy salad, FYI. One night the kitchen was wafting with fish sauce every time an order of blistered pole beans ($12) was fired (now subbed with charred broccoli), with tender and curling tentacles of grilled squid tangled up in the assertive dish with a chile-lime vinaigrette—it has a strong and likable handshake.

You want fish? Sausage? Mushroom stew? Okay. And I still need to return for the Berkshire pork chop ($28). But come on, you are here to try this six-day duck, a smoky and juicy and fatty and crispy feat of kitchen engineering (it’s brined, air-dried, smoked, and roasted to a deep mahogany), and it’s going to demand some wine. (Paul’s got you.) The duck is built to share with your table ($48 for half) but then again, it’s the kind of thing that makes you hope for leftovers so can gnaw on it the next day over the sink when no one’s watching.

There’s also this off-the-menu burger that I really shouldn’t be talking about, because it’s extremely limited (like 12 a night), but you want this thing. Twenty-nine-day aged Five Dot Ranch beef (with some more aged beef in the mix as well), a truly monster half-pound patty (yes!) that is so sturdy and hefty and juicy and satisfying to chomp into, with a housemade potato and rosemary bun they even got a special oven to bake it in. Pickled onion is a nice touch, and even though it’s fired on a gas grill, it makes you think of your favorite outdoor grilled burger. It’s a beast for $16, and you can add some three-year Grafton cheddar ($1) or Comté ($2). Don’t cry if it’s out. And it you’re too stuffed to finish the side of fingerlings, bring them home and call me and I’ll make you one hell of a tortilla the next day.

Are you too full? Order a digestif and buck up, because you still have some exquisitely fluffy and tender buckwheat doughnuts ($8), the size of your favorite Hostess doughnut, that you’re gonna dunk into some whisky crème anglaise. Lightest touch of salt. Goddamn what a perfect dessert.

The team here has created such a welcoming neighborhood bistro, based on really good breeding. They are having fun, but they all watch the room like a hawk, and even servers in their locally made aprons who didn’t wait on you personally will note you, smile, say hello. The room smells like food and is busy, often with people hungrily waiting for a coveted table around the sidelines. It still has some Slow Club Deco-industrial touches, but was greatly improved with sound dampening materials (it’s still lively but no longer deafening), plus mother-in-law’s tongue plants to separate the room from the bar, new tables and lighting, and there’s quite a shimmering wine room. It still feels like the San Francisco spot I knew, but is also very now. In a way, it parallels how I have changed here these past 22 years too.

When you name your restaurant after your father, you want to do him proud, and I can see how Einbund and crew are going to keep pushing and doing right by his pop, and their guests. Which is what makes it exactly the kind of place that will keep me coming back. (And the future brunch and lunch service can’t get here fast enough.)

This review was based on two visits.

The Morris            -  2501 Mariposa St., San Francisco - 415-612-8480