A trip across the bridge

We always think, 'we live so close to San Francisco, why don't we go there?' So, last night after being shut out by our favorite sushi restaurant (they ran out of rice prior to 8pm -they'll be featured later), we decided to head over the bridge and check out someplace new to us in SF. We've been hearing a lot of great things about Flour + Water in the Mission so we started off there. Minimal parking stress, always a good sign, we wander into the restaurant where the hostess promptly tells us it will be an hour and 30 minutes for a table. Thanks. And we're off. We called Nopa and were told and hour and 40 minute wait. Seriously, people, who waits that long for dinner (except said Sushi restaurant, later post)? Quick search on the open table IPhone app and we're off to Bar Tartine (http://www.bartartine.com/) , also in the Mission. Score on parking yet again, we had a lots of good parking karma and a little car and we were sitting down in no time.

We check out the menu while sipping on their complementary house filtered sparkling water and dig in to some awesome rustic bread. The menu looks great. We decided on the gougers, because who doesn't like bread and cheese, to start. They are served warm from the oven with lots of black pepper and cheesy goodness. For our appetizers I got the house pickled sardines with white bean puree and chervil. Delish. The sardines were spicy and fishy and briny, the white bean was like hummus, but it worked. Brian got the endive salad with crab, egg and radish. This was a very funny looking plate, all white with loads of endive. It was a nice salad, but we're not actually sure if there was any crab on it, if there was it was minimal. Nobody asked us if we liked it and we finished, so it's fine -just not a crab salad (as it was listed on the bill).

For our mains we shared the semolina gnocchi with black chanterelles and a roast chicken with fried onions and giblet gravy. Like the salad, the gnocchi was not exactly heavy in chanterelle goodness, we actually weren't sure they were even there until the waitress said that the black shreds on top were the mushrooms, just sliced very thinly and cooked in a way that masked the awesome mushroominess of them. The dish was OK, a bit heavy, but fine. The roast chicken was excellent. It had been cooked sous vide so the meat was really moist and then the skin was crisped up in a cast iron skillet prior to serving. Nice and juicy, a huge serving and rich giblet gravy, my favorite thing of the night.

Since Brian was driving and not drinking, I had a glass of the the 08 Domaine Fonsainte Rose. It was nice and matched well with the food.