A Cold Summer Evening at Town Hall in San Francisco
Sometimes it's nice to get out of Napa and head to San Francisco for a little urban experience. That’s one of the great things about the Napa Valley is that we have an amazing city at our fingertips with great food.
The restaurant Town Hall, on the corner of Fremont and Howard Streets in San Francisco has been around since 2003. When it opened, it was nearly impossible to get into. But things change, and other restaurants open and so last Saturday night when we were looking for a place to eat, we easily got a table.
The restaurant is a big hall with two story windows facing the street. There is a long rectangular bar just beyond the entrance where a bartender in a white shirt was busy crafting cocktails.
We were seated at a table for two, just under the window at the far side of the restaurant. I could see the sign from First Republic Bank just outside.
The restaurant is meant to evoke the country South in the 1920’s. The menus are printed on faded brown paper in a font reminiscent of the bill of sale in an old timey general store. And that is what the food is like too, with a few additions to remind you that you’re still in California in 2018.
We started out with a plate of country ham. You have three options - Newsom from Kentucky; Benton’s Smoky Mountain from Tennessee; and Father’s County, also from Kentucky. We asked our waitress for the one that was the driest and she recommended the Father’s County.
The ham was served on wooden cutting board with four buttermilk biscuits, a tub of butter and another of their house made red pepper jelly. The ham came in a haphazard pile, looking like it was shaved off in strips.
I am a sucker for soft butter, and this butter was soft. I split one of the biscuits, slathered the soft butter on it, and topped it with a fold ham and bit into it. The effect was immediately comforting. The saltiness of the ham combined with the starch of the biscuit made me feel like I was in a tavern in the backwoods of the Cumberland Mountains. The biscuit was soft, flaky and perfect foil for the ham and butter.
I then tried the red pepper jelly. The jelly had a good amount of heat, but wasn’t overpowering. It’s sweet spiciness contrasted with the saltiness of the ham, creating a balance of opposites that is so often the hallmark of simple, dependable combinations.
For our second course, I ordered the Early Girl tomato soup. It came in a large bowl filled half way up. Little crispy parmesan croutons were sprinkled in a mound in the middle, topped with microgreens, a little flare reminding you that you’re in California. The soup was chunky, not smooth, almost like a chowder. It was a deep maroon color, tasted like it was roasted, and was a little sweet. The parmesan croutons were small, and added a perfect crunch to the whole composition.
For my main course I ordered the halibut. I was expecting the halibut to be lightly sauteed in butter, and was surprised when pavè came, roasted, a burnished gold and garnished with a fiddlehead, which added a nice bit of green to the presentation. It was topped with a chanterelle mushroom daube, which is where the mushrooms are sauteed in wine, creating a kind of sauce. The fish was set atop a mound of cranberry beans, which are a relative to the pinto bean. I sliced into the fish with my fork, and speared a mushroom and some beans. The combination was transcendent. The crust on the fish was caramelized, and it gave the composition a deep earthy tone.
When we got the bill, it came in weathered book called Trozos Modernos. The green cover was time worn, having been published in 1922, and had clearly been through many, many hands. The forward, in English, said it was a selection of famous Spanish texts - plays and stories - put together to give the English speaker a good sense of what Spanish literature has to offer. Inside the front cover, were comments from previous diners, all raving about the food. It was such a creative touch, a really clever way to deliver the check, consistent with the old-timey feel of the restaurant they were going for.
We left the restaurant and went out into the frigid - San Francisco in July - night. The tall buildings of the Financial District towered above us, channelling the wind down the street. We bundled up in our windbreakers and walked back to our hotel.
