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SFist Julie, contributing.
You may know by now that we prefer our meat grass-fed, pedigreed, pasture raised, and without ooky hormones, antibiotics or other additives.
So when we had a craving for a burger the other night, we decided to take our East Bay selves down to 4th Street in Berkeley. A decidedly dead nighttime destination, save for one or three stalwart and stellar restaurants, including Eccolo -- where we almost took a hosting job, just to be closer to the food; Tacubaya -- satiating sibling of Oakland's Doña Tomás; and purveyors of fresh organic heritage meats and house-made charcuterie Café Rouge.
While Eccolo's lunch menu boasts a tempting list of burger preparations we have yet to try, (we'll go there next, we promise!) -- we know that, day or night, we can always get our grilled ground beef groove on at Café Rouge, even if the burger is not listed on the dinner menu (usually the case). Nothing makes you feel so in the know as when you order a dish out of thin air.
We made our reservation, fully intending to order that lovely juicy 1/2-lb. burger and crispy fries ($11). (Yes, yes, many good burgers exist in the Bay Area at other restaurants for under $10; our specific snooty foodie type of craving is a sickness.)
Did SFist Julie get that 1/2-lb. burger? Jump on through to find out! (Hint: Answer involves grilled sardines.).
Picture of burger from Cafe Rouge website; picture of Cafe Rouge by SFist Julie.
That is, until we arrived and saw the dinner menu. Sigh.
How could we not resist the local sardines, mesquite grilled and served with asparagus and sauce gribiche ($10). The sardines were perfectly flaky, the asparagus crisp, the sauce, an egg-y, herb-y, creamy yet tart revelation. Our partner chose the simple garden lettuces (grown just around the corner, according to our waitress) with Point Reyes blue cheese sprinkled on top ($8.50) -- lettuces so sweet and flavorful that the next day we were inspired to purchase seedlings from the farmer's market ourselves and install them in our own backyard.
For the main course we ordered the Red Wattle pork porterhouse, a thick, heritage breed chop, rare in the center, and swathed in a light cream and whole-grain mustard sauce, accompanied by a clump of green garlic mashed potatoes wrapped in cabbage ($21). Our second main dish was the Nettle Spaetzle ($16), a warm, salty, comforting confetti of bits of the greenest pasta, chunks of crisp pancetta, a smattering of vibrant broccoli rabe, and grated pecorino melted on top. The layers of strong flavors built to crescendo in our mouths with each bite.
Frankly, it was hard to settle on these two entrees. We were also tempted by the descriptions of the braised duck leg with duck sausage, kumquats, olives, cippolini onions and sunchokes ($20), and the mesquite grilled dry aged steak with red wine shallot butter and French fries ($32). If we ever did order chicken in a fine dining establishment -- we usually don't, as we tend to agree with what we've heard Anthony Bourdain paraphrased as saying, "Chicken is on the menu for people who can't decide" -- and if we had two or three stomachs, we might have also tried the half spit-roasted chicken with spring onion and Carmody cheese gratin ($18).
While we may lose our job for saying this, and possibly your respect as well (if we haven't already) we feel obligated to confess at this juncture that, due to dietary restrictions, we and our partner are not dessert people. And yet, we usually enjoy a coffee, a cheese plate, some fruit, after a meal. But the fact was on this night, after the main dishes, we were stuffed silly. Good thing, since our budget had already taken a beating. Next time, we'll order the burger. Really.
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All I know about Cafe Rouge is that the have the RUDEST front desk person ever. Maybe they are gone by now, but when i called a few years ago, i was sooo shocked by the rudeness, i vowed to never return. There are plenty of great restaurants around.