A lifetime of restaurants, pt. 2
nos 6-10
This is a continuation of a gathering again of some of my most memorable restaurants over the last few decades. In this set, I think all but JiRaffe still exist, and I recommend seeking them out if you happen to be in the neighbourhood. As before, you should ascribe no value to the order in which they are presented.
R&G Lounge (San Francisco CA, US). Salt and pepper crab. The best I’ve had anywhere in the world. There are, of course, lots and lots of places with very decent food in San Francisco’s China Town. R&G stands out for, yes, the crab—which really, holy god is good, but also for the vibe of the place. I first discovered it while in town slinging money in an earlier life, and the concierge at my hotel waggled her eyebrows at me when I asked what would be the best and nearest place to eat from the hotel. It was late and I was desperately hungry. I probably would have eaten—and enjoyed—almost anything that late Thursday night. But she hit it on the head. The place was packed, with lots of people enjoying gorgeous lichee martinis (of which I might have had one or two), but when that crab hit the table, I forgot the rest of the world existed. I still think about it, and have never been able to find its equal—and I don’t know why. It’s not a hard dish to make, but something about this one was special.
The Dining Room (Tbilisi, GE). Squid ink spaghetti in a champagne sauce with shrimp, burrata and cherry tomato salad, a steak Rossini, these were only a few things that made this restaurant in the Vake neighborhood of Tbilisi work so well. But mostly it was Tbilisi’s most opinionated waiter, a wunderkind of wine and food pairing, an always-on critic of what’s good on that day and what wasn’t. If he suggested that ‘perhaps you might like’ this over that, you went with it. The menu was largely classic European, with perhaps a preference for France. Worth noting: the best steak tartar I had in Georgia, and in the top ten of anywhere.
JiRaffe (Santa Monica CA, US). JiRaffe was Josiah Citrin’s first foray into restaurant ownership in California (see Melisse from the last instalment of these raves), and it was my first of many, many excellent meals in and around Los Angeles. I was in LA for a job interview. The headhunter who’d started his pitch by calling me on a bitterly nasty, icy, snowy day in Boston and asking how sunny southern California sounded to me, had picked me up at LAX and opted for JiRaffe as the ideal lunch place. It was. I had the fois gras, and it was excellent, and remained so for the next three years.
Pass By Bar (Dongcheng, Beijing, CN). With the very cheeky slogan of “Better Travel Than Dead,” the Pass By is one of those storied places that amost all travellers of a certain sort make their way to when visiting Beijing. I don’t remember how I discovered its existence, but probably it was entirely coincidental since we’d been spending a good deal of time in the Dongcheng neighborhood, and it did exert a certain gravity. This had as much to do with the welcoming entrance as it did the sounds coming from the superb rooftop bar. Which, to my mind, makes it one of Those Places. Looking down on the street and then over the low rooftops around you, it represents a moment of utter and complete satisfaction in an otherwise chaotic and confusing city. The food is largely Italy-inspired with decent pizzas (including a kung pao chicken version) and pastas. But the drinks (particularly for some reason the G&T) and the terrace make it. Plus an incredible library of left-behind travel guides and various emphemera.
Venta “El Buscon” (Madrid, ES). In the constellation of delicious European cities, Madrid is if not the north star, at least one of the brightest. And although this list has two Madrileños restaurants on it, El Buscon is the primus inter pares. I first went in the early hours of my tapas quest, and then we returned at least two or three other times. The oreja a la plancha (pig’s ears) are outstanding, but so too were the squid, the olives, the bocadillos, and dear god, the wine. The cast iron pillars, the lighting, and the hum of a popular and regular spot imbued the place with a feeling of belonging and comfort.
Next up, a sandwich place from the misty past of university days, the best manhattan in the world, another barn burner from Tbilisi, a jalapeño dish from Cambridge, and a pig’s foot from Washington DC.