Agree about cocktails at LE and novella. They are 'themed' but don't really feel targeted at people who enjoy those themes. Minor nittery but that bothers me. LE has a jazz band on monday nights (?) if you enjoy that. Can also go to Tropisueno for happy hour margaritas.

SpiN is nearby, great spot although I think its stupidly expensive.

Some spots I've been meaning to try in that area are Wine Down, The Hive, and Thirsty Bear.

If you time a 3 day trial to the nearby Equinox right, you can play pickup with nba coaches/trainers, I got to play with some retired nba players on the staff.

Coin Op is great, there's a Tron themed speakeasy in the back that was closed when I was there - you have to swing open the tron machine on the second floor. Overall good noise levels and a great spot to finally beat Time Crisis. A good chunk of the games were broken when I was there so don't get your hopes up.

The Grove is a surprisingly good greasy spoon type spot in the area. Super Duper if you just want a burger.

Smugglers Cove is the best cocktail bar I've been to in the city. Make sure to time your visit well, Line gets gnarly on Thurs-Sat after 9ish. Funny story, my dog has peed on the bouncers shoes there (multiple times!). He's never peed on anyone else.

Ibav,

Not sure if we’re still on the dates theme or just places in general, so I’ll address both:

Tropisueno has awesome margs, but not a great date place imo.

I go to spin a lot because a friend has a membership ($100/mo for free off-peak and half-price peak hours play), but it seems like a weird place for a date. Like you said, crazy expensive to go play normally! Usually have decent beers and food is decent bar food.

Wine Down is great. Fun casual beer/wine bar that doesn’t get too crowded. Def recommend. The Hive I assume you’re talking about the daytime coffee shop inside Temple nightclub. No reason to go there. Thirsty Bear is pretty terrible. Food is mediocre tapas, and beer is terrible.

If you want to check out The Grid you can make reservations here: https://www.yelp.com/reservations/th...-san-francisco
It didn’t sound very exciting to me.

Grove is not a greasy spoon at all, it’s standard sf cafe food, not diner food. I don’t think their food is very good at all, though it’s a solid place in general. Super duper is great. The bird is from same people and does fried chicken sandwiches, also great. The good greasy spoon diners are all on the other side of market. But for some tasty greasy late night food in this area, check out The Box at Tempest bar.

They make very good drinks there, but **** that place unless you’re going some really off-peak time and get seats at the bar. It’s always too crowded and drinks take ****ing forever. If you like that place, definitely check out the lists I posted above, so many great cocktail places in the city. PCH and pagan idol are two you’ll definitely enjoy. I bet you’d prob really like Trick Dog too.

Feel like I can save you some time and advise you to skip Thirsty Bear, the beer, food, and service have all been subpar there IME.

3rd Street Tap Room, which just opened on the same block, is pretty cool-- divey atmosphere, good if not great tap list.

Joe, bav:

Garaje is also pretty close to there on 3rd street with an amazing beer list and great food.

I wasn't talking about dates, agree spin or trop would be odd. Thanks for the suggestions ElD and Joe, will be sure to check them out.

Realized I walk by the bird every day after work and have never tried it. Got one today, food was served before I finished swiping my card. Excellent sandwich, will be back for sure on my next bulk. The spicy was not all that hot, so I'm guessing there's no reason to try the mild sauce.



If you go a bit further south there is Coletta gelato. It's always been almost empty when I've been there but they make gelato in house, owner went to gelato university in bologna.

Further north in Fidi the food all sucks, with the exception of Señor Sisig, burrito food truck. Strongly recommend if you run into it.

Anyone have a good bagel spot? Ive gone to wise sons a couple times which is passable, but just doesn't seem to be much demand in this city.

Ibav,

No great bagels or New York pizza here.

Wise sons sandwiches are great tho. Also great sandwiches at millers east coast deli.

The bird breakfast sandwiches also great.

Man I moved here just over a year ago and can't believe I just discovered this thread. Good stuff.

I have been to coin-op 2 times and I have never known there was a speak-easy in the back. My co-worker told me about it and I thought he was just bsing me. Great date spot for sure.

Wine Down isn't great for early dates imo, lighting is sometimes really bright and there are few/no tables for 2.

Never knew about the speakeasy in Coin-Op.

LeBron has been spotted at The Grove, so try to go at an optimal time if they make the Finals. Tim Schafer the "famous" game designer has been spotted at Garaje eating lunch.

I'm a sucker for marketing when it comes to cocktails - call a cocktail the "Carson Wells" and I'll be all over it. I also like ordering the Lieutenant Governor and telling my date a story about how the name makes you think it's a cool masculine good-ole'-boy drink, but then it's pink and fruity in a stemmed glass. The punchline is that the Lieutenant Governor is so confident and truly "masculine" or w/e that he doesn't gaf. (This yarn gets told in chunks after ordering and then after receiving the drink.)

I know this is sacrilege yada yada but I like Beauty's Bagels in Oakland more than any NYC place.

Ha I’m saying I can see WHY she’s not in it! I’ll go again.

Uma and Cockscomb are now on the list! Just looked them up -

Uma - actually going to Portugal for the first time this year (have only heard good things)...haven’t eaten much of the cuisine. Looking forward to it.

Cockscomb - I’m mostly Scottish and have the biggest appreciation for weird or historically ignored foods, and the fact that Cosentino has laid claim to being the expert in offal is of great appeal to me. Their menu sounds quirky and fun. But, people like him are what I hate about my industry these days. I look at what he’s done and it’s like, jumping from one place to the next, none of them with any really great reviews, and more popularity on screen than in the kitchen. I know it sounds snooty but i’d like to see if he can actually back up his claims. An out of shape guy who claims he’s like this “1-speed mountain bike climber”, the constant name dropping he does during interviews, acting as if he actually worked at these places he just staged at....idk he just seems full of **** to me.

/rant

Regardless, I will be checking it out. Thanks as always!!

*went to Mexico and haven’t eaten out much lately. Find myself going to Villon too often (have been there 5x now). It’s around the block from me and I love it.

Want to soecify that when I say “people like him” I mean chefs who seem more concerned with popularity and building their brand rather than cooking.

And he might be getting great reviews, I don’t read a lot about that stuff, just obv have a lot of friends in the industry who I listen to

Either way I want everything on the menu and I hope he proves me wrong

O,

You are prob already aware of this: https://sf.eater.com/2018/5/7/173279...arted-new-chef

Also: https://sf.eater.com/2018/5/7/173298...-san-francisco

Re: Cosentino:

Cockscomb makes really tasty food, though! Leans very rich/heavy, so not the kind of place I go to often. But I def like it a lot. Some things I especially like there:

Hot Mess: a daily special starter that’ll be some combo like offal, foie, trotter, etc. So good!

Roasted pig’s head: pretty intense dish, def good to share with a few. I’ve tackled it with just two of us tho.

Hamachi collar: another special they often have.

Bacon chop: thick pork chop with bacon/belly slab on there.

Here’s a review I found pretty amusing:
No, cockscomb would not be my top choice for a vegetarian!

chase had a local writer put together the "sapphire six" for SF and I think it's actually pretty good:



https://www.chase.com/news/080717-san-francisco

JL: Solid list, but Souvla sucks. I do love that they include old-school Bob's Donuts (awesome) along with all the fancy new hipster bakeries.

O: Maybe I asked you this before, but have you been to In Situ?

El D/other Souvla haters: do you actually think it sucks, or do you just think it's overrated?

(I think it's fine, not great, but totally serviceable)

Potato,

It’s certainly way overrated, but I didn’t even think it was good, period. I just thought all the food was really bland.

When looking for a quick healthy option, I do Souvla salads often. Where do you go in that spot? Preferably in the mission!

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...t.html?ana=twt

I found this pretty interesting. As YIMBYism picks up I bet we will see a lot more microhousing projects here in the Bay Area. Anyone know of others going on? I may be in the market to buy in the next 24 months and I don't really need a lot of space.

Per the article, the cost to build the smallest unit is $220k. I wonder what the sticker price will be? I'd probably be interested in this particular project if I could snag a place for $300k or so, any more than that and I'd probably hold out for a non-Tenderloin unit.

Joe,

Based on what I recall soma micro-units going for a while back, I’d guess 400-450k.

Ouch! That's steep.

I'll be curious to see what this goes for: https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Franci...m_content=link

It's been on the market a while so I'm hoping it doesn't go for, like, 40% over asking like many places in the city.

IMO if this one goes for like $450k I'd way rather buy that than spend $400k in the TL.

I'm sure this has been covered before but Rich Table is absolutely one of the best dinners I've had out here so far. Sardine chips, butter lettuce, cavatelli w/Merguez, ribeye all amazing. Pork chop was average. The place is also sick value, the ribeye was huge and $37.

Went to Biergarten (which was on the Chase list recently posted) and thought it was very skippable. Huge lines to get a beer. A group of ex-coworkers of mine do happy hour there every Friday, I'm gonna try to convince them to start going to Zeitgeist instead.

Joe,

You are absolutely correct re: both RT and Biergarten!

Trestle - 82/100

Tried to last minute call in to cockscomb, to find out it was closed on Sundays, so I found a table at Trestle.

The concept is a chef’s dream: Two apps, two entrees, two desserts, and an add-on pasta option (for a little extra $).

This food is good, or at least it was tonight. The food jumps around from cuisine to cuisine, basic-sounding menu items (beets, goat cheese, arugula salad), but extremely well done. I would have given it a little higher rating but the entrees were dull. We had both apps, both pasta options, and both entrees, and skipped the desserts.

We had:

Apps:

1. the aforementioned salad (perfect). 2 types of cheese, one creamy, and a light vinaigrette.
2. Red Pepper Soup - creamy and full of flavor

Pastas:

1. Pea Risotto - very good (the addition of pickled onions was really interesting)
2. Bucatini Bolognese w/ buratta - very good

Entrees:

1. Mt Lassen Trout - (is this the only kind of trout ppl sell in SF?) with cabbage and chiles. Good but not great.
2. Leg of Lamb - meh. Flavor was lackluster and carrots were undercooked.

I love restaurants with “small” concepts that are unpretentious, ambitious, and have constant menu change, and this has all 3. I liked the space too, intimate and woodsy. This was actually my first trip (in my year of living in SF) to this quaint little neighborhood, and maybe it was the 5 months of living in the TL talking, but I mentioned to my gf how nice of a neighborhood it seemed (quiet, nice aesthetic) and that it seems a nice place to live....dunno if that’s actually true though. Lots of low-lying brick buildings, cafes, shops, restos, and bars.

Anyways I’d recommend it to anyone. The food is undeniably solid (again it won’t blow your socks off, but it’s good), and the $38 price tag for a 3-course prix fixe is what we need more of.

Basically, if you’ve spent time in small-town France or Italy, you know this is how every restaurant is, and there are so many reasons why it’s better than the American-style huge menu.

Small place, small seasonal menu, cooked well. I’d eat like this every day if I could.

Anyone know of a fun place to hop over to after first date drinks at Coin-Op? I was thinking about ice-skating but I do not like the idea of playing with sharp objects after drinking.

Walk up to Yerba Buena gardens? The water fountain thing and quotes on the wall are a good conversation starter.