Serpentine?
Any word on this new place opened up by the folks from Slow Club? I gather from yelp that they opened about a couple months ago down in dogpatch, and that they serve Prather Ranch beef, in burger or braised cheeks format.
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Serpentine
2495 3rd St, San Francisco, CA
SteveG
Feb 04, 2008 11:04PM
This is the only thing I have seen about it.
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_i...
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Had a very average meal there last week. Went on a Thursday at about 9 pm and it was suprisingly crowded. The space is authentic wherehouse with a really nice atmosphere. Bar was crowded with diners. We ordered the fried oysters and hush puppies for appetizer. It was basically all that you would expect with fried oysters--doughy and deep fried. I had the half roasted chicken and it was very mediocre. Kind of a slimy skin (not truly crispy or roasted), though it was definitiely brined. My dining partner had a the Burger which was designated with a ranch raised beef (who knows these days if that means free range or grain fed but w/o hormones). Burger pattie was very small and with very average taste. The burger was not garnished with a tomato. The "local" slow movement has hit a level of absurdity when you can't get a burger with a non-local tomato because of an obsession with a food ideology. Imported tomatoes, while certianly not as good as out of the garden August tomatoes locally, work just fine. We made do with a leaf of lettuce and some ketchup.
All and all, I would go back only because the bar scene seems nice, the atmosphere was a genuine old building (unlike the faux and recreated feel at many restaurants) and the service friendly. I would have to adventure around the menu a little bit before I give it a full thumbs up.
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Thanks for the comments. Personally, i'm all for restaurants that highlight seasonal ingredients, even if it means leaving out tomatoes in the winter, for example. I would rather have a burger without a pasty, mealy imported tomato than with it (not to mention the avoided carbon footprint of transporting it)... and it's a good opportunity to try different twists on old standbys... i presume they made an attempt at a substitution at least?
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Carbon footprint? Ha ha, that's a good one. I am sure the 'local' lettuce they served with the burger (with nothing really else) was hand delivered by a farmer and a mule from the local farms and had a zero carbon footprint, not. Come on, the bottom line is when we get to point where it's not politically correct to serve a "hot house" or "vine ripened tomato" (neither local nor admittedly as good as grandma's homegrown in Brentwood--but not bad) with a burger, then we have all lost it. Furthermore it's really silly to calcuate carbon footprints for a tomato, meanwhile the Port of Oakland accept 10 million tons of goods annually from carbon spewing India and China.
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The burger at Slow Club is one of the best in San Francisco, in my opinion. The Prather Ranch meat is tender and flavorful. I think it's generally served with a tomato (and house made pickles), but in the winter I usually ask for it without a tomato--winter tomato lover or no, I'd be interested in trying the burger at Serpentine to see how it stacks up to Slow Club.
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Overall, it's about a 3.5/5, but the bread pudding is truly something to behold. I'm generally not a bread pudding fan, but Serpentine's version with its brilliantly green nettle pesto retains the perfect amount of texture that it deserves top billing on the menu. They just started taking reservations a few weeks ago.
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I would give it a 4.9/5. Pretty amazing, and excellent service. Savory bread pudding is 10/10 and the steak hash was excellent. Ice tea w/simple syrup (standard, I didn't have to ask) was a nice touch. Weird neighborhood, excellent food. Would be packed to the gills if it was anywhere in Manhattan.
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I had an excellent brisket sandwich at Serpentine for lunch about a month ago. Came with a salad of pristine greens with a good vinaigrette.
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