Gastronomique: Fishing on Craigslist
Did you see a Craigslist post titled "How to Rescue a Cursed Restaurant Location?" Because that is the one that Dylan MacNiven replied to when he opened Woodhouse Fish Company, across Market from the Safeway. The corner of Church and Market puzzles us: is it a big shopping and public transportation hub, with a Muni station underneath and the north-south 22 Fillmore and J lines meeting with the east-west N line. It is a gateway to the Castro, the Dolores side of the Mission, the lower Haight. It is a busy corner, even for foodies, with Home and Chow doing brisk business, and the best burrito in the city --flame away in comments, we can take it-- at El Castillito.
Walk around the corner, and you'll be at Market and 14th. You'd imagine the hustle and bustle to propagate half a block away. But it's almost like the video rental place with the pink "adult movie" neon light and the ACE hardware store act as a buffer to prevent the urban vibe on Church from reaching 14th. By the way, if you are looking for some cool art with no high fallutin' pretense, the hardware store exhibits Polaroid pictures of its shoplifters behind the cashier. Go and see if you can recognize your friends.
The relative quiet on that side of the block explains the game of musical chairs played by the restaurants there. There was Café Cuvée, a place we miss dearly for its lavender chicken and its hazelnut phyllo tower. Those who've been there know what we're talking about, and we apologize for being cryptic to the others, but we've been looking for these dishes everywhere ever since. We might have found the lavender chicken in a take-out place in Hayes Valley, we'll keep you posted. After Cuvée, it was World Sausage, who came onto Rosamunde's turf, four blocks away, and ended up for sale on Craigslist shortly thereafter.
Which is where MacNiven steps in, taking over the space, refreshing in it in a clinical white, with tiles on the walls and on the floor, red chairs, in the quirky wedge shaped dining room. A flat TV screen loops old sailor movies, while black and white posters adorn the wall. It is clean, fresh, and the details make it inviting: some orange crab logo is repeatedly mosaique'd into the white floor, and embroided on the waitstaff shirt.
The concept is that of a New England clam shack: simple food and no fussiness from the friendly staff. The menu is short, so we sampled almost everything over our two visits. We opened with a clam chowder ($6 for a large bowl), which found the essence of clam chowder: Clams, a few cubes of potato, still with some firmness, heavy cream, a few thinly sliced green onions, and that's about it. The clam flavor comes out unimpeded and deliciously pure. A big quarter loaf of sourdough and butter come with it, which turn the dish into a whole meal.
Of course, the frier is the main tool in a clam shack, and it is used to nice results for the fried Ipswich clams ($18.50 for a platter), the fried oysters ($18.50), the French fries which come as a side for both, or the fish 'n' chips ($13). The moist and flaky cod of the fish 'n' chips, perfectly cooked, breaks nicely under the fork, and the serving is generous, with half a dozen filets and a side of cole slaw. The batter has a nice consistency, not too thin, and fits the cod as well as the Ipswich clams or the oysters. The Ipswich clams have a nice briny flavor, but our dining companion found this particular variety to be not meaty enough, with too small a belly and too much of the stringy part which rounds the shell. We on the other hand enjoyed them, as much as the Tomales Bay oysters, the big fat kind which takes well to frying.
Here we would like to make a suggestion: we ordered in one seating the fish 'n' chips and the clams, and ended up French Fried out. It would be nice if Woodhouse offered a combo plate, with two fish filets, a handful of clams, another of oysters and a few fried artichokes. We would order that in a heartbeat, instead of having to choose one or the other. The tartar sauce and the horseradish ketchup tasted as if made on premise.
If you don't want your food fried, then Woodhouse offers some cold selections: salads, cracked crab and lobster. Also, some sides (we liked the bite of the broccoli, $3) are more health conscious. We tried another great dish, the stuffed artichoke ($16), a steamed artichoke, cooked yet still firm, cut length wise into two halves, one filled with shrimp, the other with dungeness crab meat, served with greens, watermelon and cucumbers. The artichoke was covered in a lick-your-finger garlicky and lemony dressing. The crab meat tasted fresh and of good quality. They do an avocado version of it as well.
The Woodhouse salad offers some crisp lettuce with a hard boiled egg, tomatoe, avocado and either crab (which we ordered) or shrimp ($18 for a whole salad with crab, $10 for a half). This time, we found the crab meat a bit watery, probably because it is not in season locally right now. We tried both the louie and the blue cheese dressing, and would recommend the former: the blue cheese overpowered this particular crab. It is not the season either for oysters, nonetheless we had a half-dozen ($12) on the half shell, two bluepoint and four Tomales bay. We liked the smaller bluepoint better in general, and both here were fresh tasting and cleanly shucked.
There is no dessert, and the wine list is, to put things nicely, designed so as to be replenished conveniently at the Safeway across the street should they run out. The proper euphemism: the wine list is as an authentic clam shack would have it. We had a vendange chardonnay ($5) and it hydrated us all right. The service is friendly, with the lots of testosterone required for the neighborhood. One waiter was wearing some dark shade with a blue frame that was a bit over the top, but he was wearing a pink version on our second visit: either he is a rock star hiding as a waiter, or he really needs the glasses. Either way, everyone there was friendly and efficient.
Another success story for Craigslist? We sure hope so, as we live nearby. One of the crab logos on the floor is a bronze plaque with WFC#1 on it, and we wish them good luck to get to #2 and more.
Woodhouse Fish Company
2073 Market St @ 14th
437-CRAB (437-2722, how cute is that?)
Open 11:30am through 9:30pm Monday-Friday
and 5pm-9:30pm Sat-Sun