SFist welcomes you to the first edition of SFist's Food Face-Off, a new alliterated feature of SFist Gastronomique. Yep, nothing beats a good food fight, where winners get bragging rights, shiny trophies, loose groupies, and losers are kicked to the curb in disgust. We are inspired by the Iron Chef America series, the first season of which will conclude in two weeks on the Food Network. All the chefs in that TV show are east coast people, leaving us with scant nothing in terms of culinary battles.
That was, until now. Let the First SFist Food Face-Off begin. While we are building a giant kitchen set to host the battles at the SFist compound, as soon as the funding comes through, we will in the meantime take our virtual thunderdome into each of the competing restaurants' locations. Without any further ado: Battle Oxtail.
On the right corner, we have Powell's Place. If you clicked through the link, you'll find out it is not very informative. But hey, it's hosted by City Hall, which means you paid for it, so you might as well use it. Powell's Place used to be in Hayes Valley, until the Nasty Gentrifiers came in and gentrified in bed with greedy landlords, and Emmitt Powell could not afford the new rent, and had to shut the shop down.
But, with the help of the Redevelopment Agency, it phoenixed back up from its ashes in a new and improved space at the corner of Eddy and Fillmore a month ago. It does not have the been-there, worn-out patina of its previous incarnation, and the dining room looks a little too new and Dennis-ish for now. But it has kept some of the other things which made its charm: its timeless menu, insensitive to nouvelle cuisine trends, and its staff attitude.
The menu: you'll find liver and onion, fried chicken, ribs, and pork chops. You'll pick two sides on a list which includes black eye peas, beans, okra, corn, mashed potatoes, mac'n'cheese. And it is served with corn muffins. What is on offer changes every day, but there's always something good.
The staff: well, they believe the menu is like the Holy Bible, so they do a lot of exegesis. For instance, it says at the bottom the place is open till midnight on Fridays. But you should not take it literally, you gotta interpret. When SFist came and visited shortly before 10pm, the kitchen closed behind us and we were lucky we got away with food. Similarly, ordering is relative. We asked for the oxtail ($12, Mondays and Fridays), a fried chicken breast ($2), sides of mac-n-cheese and green beans and a banana cream pie ($3.50). We left with everything minus the muffins and the green beans, but with an extra 2 chicken breasts, a side of corn and one of rice/black beans.
The oxtail was outstanding: braised in a rich and flavorful sauce, the meat was falling off the bone, which could then be gnawed on for that extra layer of fat clinging to it. The helping was generous. Our total bill of $20 for two actually brought us dangerously close to SFist gets stuffed territory, especially since we had left overs. We were pennies away from a diplomatic incident.
On the opposite corner, we have Lucky Time restaurant. Lucky Time just opened 3 month ago right next to Amber, the hipper-than-thou lounge next to the Transfer. It calls itself Chinese-Vietnamese. If the drawing of the Transfer was up to date, you would see Lucky Time's awning right around the corner.
Lucky Time has a dinner formula which includes a chicken salad, a bowl of rice, an entree which changes every night, and a glass of wine or a beer. It costs $13, a safe $3 away from GetsStuffLandia calling their ambassador back from Gastronomiquestan. The Monday night special is a red wine braised oxtail. The setting is nice and pretty: you would not feel particularly guilty bringing a date there. The service was particularly warm and made us feel really special. Also, we were the only one in the restaurant, what with Monday nights being slow everywhere, the special being oxtail -- which we love, but some unreasonable people shy away from -- and our dinner happening past 9pm.
Lucky Time's oxtail is simmered in a red wine reduction with mushrooms and carrots, which reminded us of a beef bourguignon. There were many more chunks, but they were smaller in size. The meat was a bit less tender, as the oxtail obviously had not cooked as long as at Powell's. Nonetheless, it was very satisfying, SFist left replete, and was send off with a quartered orange and a piece of candy.
Battle Oxtail was tenaciously fought. Powell's faced a valiant opponent which can come out of the SFunderdome with its head up. For an extra buck at Lucky Time, you get an appetizer and a glass of wine, and your order does not morph unexpectedly at the fringe. But we are not judging on risk-adverse strategies, or extra booze, we are judging on oxtail, and so the title goes to Powell. Congrats!
Powell's Place
1521 Eddy St @ Fillmore
(415) 863-1404
Lucky Time Restaurant.
708 14th St. @ Church
(415) 861-2682
SFist Cedric, contributing.
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neat idea ced. please do more.
cheese crepe?
croissant?
...?
of course croissant is in the works. thanks for the ideas though.
good post, i like the battle concept :-) lookin forward to the next one hehe