At Public House, Kauffman finds a whiff of cynicism in the offerings at the former Acme Chophouse, as if Des Jardins had decided that, if San Francisco didn't want an earnestly sustainable steakhouse, she'd sling jalapeño poppers and mini corn dogs instead. And across town at Social Kitchen, chef Rob Lam's clunky gray-brown starches are no match for brewmaster Rich Higgins' lithe, sophisticated beers.
Drink in the details at SFWeekly.com; meantime, enjoy a tasting in our extended excerpt (after the jump).
My first encounter with Des Jardins' newly downscaled bar and restaurant was tinged with that misdirected gloating particular to America, where we believe we are committing an anarchist act by using three Bed Bath & Beyond coupons on the same visit. I had scored tickets for what turned out to be a humiliating Giants-Nationals game. Instead of filing into the stadium along with the hoi polloi, though, a friend and I pushed through a crowd of panda hats to Public House's bar, where we ordered plastic cups of Port Hot Rocks Lager, a toasty brown lager from San Marcos; and the pub's woodsy, mellow cask-conditioned Billy Sunday Bitter. Then we threaded our way to the back of the restaurant, entering directly into the ballpark with beers in hand. Every time I passed a stall selling $9 Buds, I took another swig at my craft brew, drinking it slowly to savor the schadenfreude. Oh, I felt baaaad.I had a less thrilling experience on an offgame night, when a few co-workers and I wandered one block over from our office, claimed a table, and tried not to go Clockwork Orange from staring into a bank of TVs while we waited for our jalapeño poppers and IPAs to arrive. If you can look away, it's a handsome room for a handsome ballpark, with high rafters and bricks; wood tables sturdy enough to withstand a World Series championship riot; and, behind the main bar, a grid of silver kegs spanning floor to ceiling. Even though the house was half full, the stereo was pumped up enough to require outside voices, and most of the crowd had clustered around the strips of televisions, each upturned head a data aggregator simultaneously scanning game scores off multiple screens.
