Magnolia brewmaster Dave McLean — a Jerry Garcia look-alike and Grateful Dead fan — steadily and idealistically has been raising the bar on food and drink in the Haight for the last 12 years.
Inspired by the British gastropub movement — which brought good, simple preparations of local farm-raised ingredients to the beloved national pastime of beer drinking — McLean recently changed the concept of his popular corner pub and brewery. He wanted food that would match his meticulously crafted artisan beers and ales.
Brandon Jew was just the guy to help him. Much to the distress of his San Francisco Chinese family, Jew forsook medicine after college to work in kitchens. He spent a year cooking in Bologna, then worked at Zuni, spent two years at Quince — maxed out on Italian — left for Shanghai for eight months and, at 29, became the chef at Magnolia.
Along the way he learned how to butcher and use whole animals, a British gastropub signature. He understood the importance of provenance and developed dishes that are enhanced by beer.
At lunch, a stunning end of summer salad of ripe cantaloupe ($11), fresh figs, tiny goat-cheese fritters, smoky ham and a few wisps of wild arugula, all drizzled with port, offered a sensual collage of strong, pure flavors unified by a sip of beer. Tiny, lacy, buttermilk-battered, deep-fried okra ($6) achieved perfection itself with a few grains of sea salt. Jew uses an English and American palate — sweet, sour and salty — for his pub menu.
At night, regulars nibble on Scotch quail eggs ($5), little deep fried balls of spicy, moist pork sausage with a creamy quail egg center. Accompany them with an aperitif-sized glass ($2) of one of McClean’s flagship English beers, such as Prescription Pale. I also love a similarly crisp slab of wild boar headcheese ($7), a soft-centered terrine made with succulent head and trotter bits.
Sweetly glazed duck wings ($7), tender and garlicky, get creamy celery root remoulade with a hint of blue cheese, an unexpected twist set right with a sip of beer. Traditional fish — local black cod — deep fried in puffy, crunchy batter and meaty hand cut chips ($15) always reassure unadventurous beer quaffers.
But Jew’s sausages ($12) are something else entirely, their recipes devised to be both beer-friendly and cutting-edge clean. His summer sausage — made with lean buffalo — is a little smoky, vinegary and subtley perfumed with coriander. The pork sausage, also used for the Scotch eggs, is punched up with wine and sage. Chicken habanero sausages deliver radiant heat — and a lot of it. You get to choose two sides — from horseradish potatoes, grilled escarole, French lentils and more — but housemade sauerkraut has to be a favorite. It is sharply vinegary, too much so, I thought, until I drank some beer, which completely smoothed out the acid.
McLean also redid the dining room. I thought the water-stained walls and peeling ceiling were real. No, the distressed look was produced with a gold leaf wall treatment. Very expensive. I particularly enjoyed the new padded booths and handsome dark tables and bar built with salvaged fir from the the original Levi Strauss building in the Mission. The only part of the operation that needs some attention is the inconsistent, overly casual service — though everyone can and does enthusiastically talk beer.
Patricia Unterman is author of the “San Francisco Food Lovers’ Pocket Guide” and a newsletter, “Unterman on Food.” Contact her at [email protected].
Magnolia Pub and Brewery
Location: 1398 Haight St. (at Masonic), San Francisco
Contact: (415) 864-7468; magnoliapub.com
Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m.; brunch and lunch Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner nightly 5 p.m. to midnight, except 5 to 11 p.m. on Sunday
Price range: $4 to $23
Recommended dishes: Scotch quail eggs, wild boar headcheese, buttermilk fried okra, sausages, fish and chips
Credit cards: All major
Reservations: No
Hot Spots
The Joy of Sake
Once a year, the ultimate sake tasting rolls into town with all the gold, silver and bronze winners, plus hundreds of other sakes from the Honolulu international sake competition. This year’s event promises to be the most interesting yet. Dishes prepared by 16 of the Bay Area’s top Japanese restaurants will be organized into a kaiseki progression that will explore sake cuisine in greater depth. Chefs will use seasonal ingredients for both traditional and inventive preparations. Among them, Ame’s hagashi somen, a “flowing noodles” station where the noodles will circulate through a stream to be scooped up and served with a cold savory broth and colorful condiments. Chris Pearce, organizer of the competition and the Joy of Sake events in Honolulu, New York and San Francisco, said, “Only in San Francisco did the chefs come up with the idea to collaborate and create, instead of cooking something off their menus.” The Joy of Sake starts Oct. 30, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Galleria Design Center. Advance tickets are $75. Call (888) 799-7242 or visit www.joyofsake.com.
La Taqueria Guadalajara: 3146 24th Street, S.F.; (415) 641-4892
The other day, I had a scrumptious Mission district super burrito at this taqueria: crisp, rich pork carnitas with red beans, Spanish rice, cheese, sour cream, avocado and salsa. Every bite was moist, interesting and integrated. A bright green tomatillo salsa from the salsa bar added further delight. For $5.40, the burrito sustained me all day.
— Patricia Unterman
