Now that we've entered the post-rainbow, post-fireworks, post-peak-stone-fruit stretch of summer, there's really only one thing on everybody's mind: Where can I get more dessert?
If you're too scared to open up a watermelon by exploding it with rubber bands, and you're too tech-incompetent to turn it into a keg, you're going to have to turn somewhere for sugary morsels, and we've got recommendations.
Bluestem Brasserie has always changed its menu in keeping with the seasons, but pastry chef Curtis McDonald has really done it with the newest set of slightly downhome-sounding desserts, each of them a steal at $10.50. There's a blue ribbon pie (buttermilk-apricot pie, flaky brisée crust, lavender almonds, and honey caviar), cookie "fun dips," and a butterscotch ripple (butterscotch pudding, malted whiskey ice cream, housemade cracker jacks, and sesame brittle), but the craziest one has the simplest name of all: "Chocolate." It's a devil's food cake, coca nib tuile, salted chocolate ice cream, black cherry coulis, chocolate butter cream, and coffee foam. You will never find that at a church picnic.Bluestem Brasserie, 1 Yerba Buena Lane, 415-547-1111 or bluestembrasserie.com.Meanwhile, for the entire month of July, Embarcadero-adjacent Mexican restaurant Rosa Mexicano has a "Flavors of Mexico" ice cream series, crowned by none other than a guacamole sundae. The avocado ice cream comes served in a frozen molcajete (that is, a mortar and pestle) with raspberries, chocolate shavings, and mint, plus pilconcillo-chocolate sauce and cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips. If that's a little adventurous, stick with warm apple empanadas with spiced Mexican chocolate sauce, or a very-nearly-nutritious Abuelita Banana Split made with Mexican chocolate ice cream, caramelized bananas, strawberries, and cinnamon whipped cream.Rosa Mexicano, 30 Mission St., 415-874-4300 or rosamexicano.com.Chef Yigit Pura's Tout Sweet Pâtisserie has new sweet and savory items, from organic cherry-apricot clafoutis tart made with coral cherries and blush apricots, hazelnut clafoutis and lavender-honey crème fraîche ($5.50 a slice, or $32 for a nine-inch tart) to a Dirty Butterscotch Trifle made with dark chocolate cremeux, chocolate crumbles, and a chocolate-coffee "caviar" ($4.75). If your stomach insists upon something without as much sugar to balance it out, why not a smoky pimento and urfa grilled tri-tip sandwich on a ciabatta bun? (Urfa is a dried Turkish pepper. Now that you know that, you can move onto the panna cotta!).Tout Sweet Pâtisserie, inside Macy's Union Square, 170 O'Farrell St., 415-385-1679 or toutsweetsf.com.
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