Postcards from San Fran

18 June


You find out early and often that walking all the various pockets of San Francisco is easier that driving or getting a ride.  At the Embarcadero, most of the city lays back behind you in all of its complexity – directly behind, the Financial district, which melts into China town (watch out for the Tenderloin east), Nob Hill, Union Square, North Beach to the west as that rolls smoothly into the Wharf and back onto the Embarcadero again.  We started our first search at the Wayfare Tavern in the Financial district under a mile away and got acclimated as soon as we cross Drumm street to the very hectic yet beautiful San Francisco streets.

The Wayfare is an interesting yet trendy throwback to time, a style that suits its owner Tyler Florence very well – watching his shows and reading his cookbooks, he serves traditional on the cutting edge, always with an eye on detail and flavor but hearty and unpretentious (my own favorite cook in America…Tyler is the one who has written "what can't bacon make better?").

Julia ordered a smoke salmon platter and I got the Sonoma style stuffed filet mignon.  Although these were both wonderful -- my own included in-season sautéed morels that stole the show – it was the pre-meal popovers that we both had to re-examine to make sure we understood what they were made out of.  Inside the popover was an airy and eggy texture similar to light scrambled eggs, warm and moist, a meal onto themselves.

The Wayfare might very well be the epitome of a culinary pub but for that reason we didn't stay lone, instead choosing to walk north beach back to the waterfront

where the local trawlers just barely bounce secured to the docks tethered in San Fran Bay.