Editor’s note: This article originally posted on the San Francisco Examiner. Click here for more culture reporting at sfexaminer.com
San Francisco’s fall Restaurant Week is set to return Saturday, with more than 200 restaurants participating in the nine-day event offering local diners an expansive snapshot of The City’s culinary scene.
Concluding Nov. 9, the latest edition of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association’s biannual citywide event offers patrons the opportunity to purchase prix-fixe meals at select San Francisco restaurants at prices ranging from $10 to $90. November’s iteration — the 10th fall Restaurant Week — follows April’s springtime version and offers guests lunches and dinners at more than 200 participating restaurants citywide.
Greg Lutes, the chef and owner of 3rd Cousin, said Restaurant Week is “one of the busiest times of the year” for his Bernal Heights restaurant, an eatery that uses its ingredients to pay homage to the Bay Area’s agricultural roots and fishing history.
Lutes’ restaurant, which has participated since 2018, will offer a four-course dinner for $75. It features dishes such as a squash soup paired with peppers and prosciutto, a creme brulee topped with sea urchin and caviar, and a Wagyu flatiron steak that comes with vegetables and polenta, an Italian dish made from coarsely ground cornmeal. A wine-pairing option is available for an additional $55.
The restaurant’s goal is for guests to “leave feeling well taken care of and that their expectations were exceeded by our food and service,” said Lutes, whose Bernal Heights establishment was added to the Michelin Guide in 2021. As a “top San Francisco restaurant,” Lutes said, he hopes “to continue to grow our audience and build on our reputation.”
The first San Francisco Restaurant Week took place in 2009, and the participating establishments have sought to get new diners through their doors by introducing them to special dishes at affordable prices — and, ideally, turning them into repeat customers in the process.
Khalid Mushasha, the director of operations at The Tailor’s Son on Fillmore Street, said it’s coming at the right time for the commercial corridor the eatery calls home.
“There’s so much exciting growth happening in the Fillmore right now,” he said, pointing to an influx of recent business openings like Marine Layer’s custom-clothing pop-up. “We’re proud to be part of that energy.
The Tailor’s Son will offer a $35 lunch, with options including a burrata served with mushrooms and olive oil, a choice of grilled chicken breast or Mediterranean sea bass, and a seasonal gelato or sorbet. As for the $60, four-course dinner, Mushasha said he encourages diners to try the cioppino or the risotto made with porcini mushrooms.
Those are “two dishes that celebrate The City’s seafood heritage and our passion for seasonal Italian cooking,” he said.
Amanda Michael, the owner of Jane, said her $15 lunch that features a kale salad and hummus is “a pretty healthy plate” that can help “offset all the fun dinners out.”
Courtesy Tamara Tonozzi
Jane on Fillmore, located a block away from The Tailor’s Son, is also participating. So, too, are its sibling outposts on Larkin and 3rd streets, with each Amanda Michael-owned cafe offering a $15 lunch that includes a small dragonfruit smoothie, a roasted-carrot hummus with multigrain crostini, and a kale salad. Michael said the latter is being introduced as part of Restaurant Week.
The occasion is “a great way to recognize and celebrate the great dining in San Francisco,” Michael said, as well as a “way to share what we do with a wider audience.”
Plus, the deals are hard to beat: She said the combo at Jane is “a pretty healthy plate” that can help “offset all the fun dinners out.”