2 posts tagged “chow”

This month's Out Traveler includes a short-but-sweet 2-page interview with Armistead Maupin.  Relevant to this blog is a section of the interview called "Maupin's San Francisco Treats" where he gives his favorite attractions and restaurants.  Unfortunately this side-bar is not included in the online version, but two out of the four restaurants he lists are Castro eateries.

Burgermeister (138 Church Street)  "They have these incredible burgers made with beef from the organic farms north of the city.  You can really taste the difference."

Firewood (4248 18th Street)  "Serves really excellent Italian-style thin crust pizza, which allows you to get the pizza sensation without gorging yourself.  You can get seats at the window where you can see the parade go by.  You can cruise and eat at the same time."

I found this interesting because neither of the Castro restaurants he lists is what you would call high-end, or even mid-range.  Neither of them even has table service! 

I mean, they are both nice enough places to eat, but this underlines that the Castro has a big hole in the market when it comes to gourmet restaurants.  Maupin had to head all the way to the Embarcadero (Slanted Door) and over the hill to Cole Valley (Zazie) to find restaurants where you don't fish your own silverware out of a bin!  Not good.

Last year I noted that the Chronicle's top 100 Bay Area restaurants only included two Castro shops (Mecca and Chow), and things don't look good for a better showing this year.  Is it that the market won't support really good, high-end restaurants?  Or are the rents too high to allow anything other than the tried-and-true, high-volume place to survive?  Or are we (hopefully) just at the beginning of nurturing a gourmet market in the neighborhood?

On a tangentially related note, Maupin is a Castro resident who described the 'hood in a 2006 Advocate interview this way:

Advocate:  You've lived in the Castro for more than three decades. What is different about the neighborhood to you today?

Maupin:  That's so hard to answer. But it's remarkably the same. . . . There are still cute young guys in jeans walking around. There are plenty of older guys like me. (Laughs.)

But it's still pretty much "Gayberry RFD." That's maybe a simple answer. But I will say that the drugs are much more ferocious then they used to be. There are people wrecking their lives with addiction, which seems much more severe. I've always had a love-hate relationship with the Castro. But I am in there every other day because I like the sense of community it provides. But once a place like that liberates you, you need to take it to the rest of the world. You need to be an ambassador.

This quote isn't about businesses, per se, but I think it sums up well the mixed feelings that many people (including myself) have about our little Gayberry.  In some ways it's like we're caught in an eternal adolescence, obsessed with sex, alcohol, and pizza.  But at the same time, we're an aging neighborhood with an aging population, and we seem a little contented, and we prefer it when things stay the same and undisturbed.

At some point the neighborhood has to decide whether it wants to remain a relevant destination with a thriving business district which draws people from around the globe, as well as from around the city.  Or are we content to atrophy away until only the porn and nail salons are left?

The San Francisco Chronicle today published their annual list of the top 100 restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, and 2 Castro eateries made the cut:  Mecca and Chow.  San Francisco has always had a reputation for having some of the top restaurants in the country, and the fact that this list covers a wide swath of land from Healdsburg in the north to Los Gatos down south out to Walnut Creek in the east bay makes the top 100 an even more exclusive club to join.

Mecca, a posh bar/restaurant on Market, conveniently located a couple of doors down from Eros, is an understandable candidate for the top 100 list.  The couple of times we have been there the food has been thoughtfully presented, varied and interesting, and most importantly, tasty.  And the space itself is modern and stylish, attracting a young, attractive crowd to the bar which takes up the center of the room.  The biggest drawback is that because of the barful of young, attractive gays and straights dominating the center of the space, the restaurant is possibly one of the loudest spots on the face of the earth.

Chow is more of a head-scratcher.  It's a fine enough restaurant, and for me it is a go-to spot for meeting people for lunch.  It's right next to the Church MUNI stop, across the street from the huge Safeway parking lot, reasonably priced, and has a menu filled with fairly standard items.  But is it really one of the top 100 in the Bar Area?  In the Castro alone, I would rank it next to Luna and Nirvana among mid-priced restaurants, and I would put it behind the more high-end Catch and 2223.  Any big Chow fans out there who can explain to me why it makes this list every year?  What am I missing?

Overall, it's disappointing that the Castro doesn't have more restaurants on the list.  For the long term health of the neighborhood, I think it would be good to bolster our reputation for something other than the whole gay thing, and good restaurants and bars are an area where we would have a good shot.  I don't know what the city or the MUMC could do to encourage quality dining per se, but it is something to think about.