This blog post was written by Jason -- it's an excerpt from an email that he wrote to a friend last night about our great dinner at A16:
Jen and I just got back from A16, one of the best restaurants in the City. And by “best restaurant” I don’t necessarily mean the fanciest (although it was kinda fancy) or the most expensive. I mean that it has the best food, and the most amazing staff — everyone from the Sommelier (a really cool chick who is more knowledgeable about wine than anyone I’ve met, but who makes you feel completely at ease and makes choosing the wine a highlight of your meal, not a dreaded test of one’s knowledge of the best Italian grapes from four years ago), to the waiter (who had done his own makeup and looked liked one of the dancers out of Moulin Rogue – it’s Halloween!) was totally on the ball, and were totally stoked that we were really into the food.
I had a starter of a fava been puree with really good canned Italian tuna and olive oil to die for. Then I had the roast suckling pig with the crackling on the side (crackling = the skin from roasting, a total foodie thing). And to help all that go down, a bottle that Jen chose, some kind of Sangiovese – a little bitter at the start, but it mellowed nicely throughout the meal. Jen had a salad with capers escarole and warm potatoes that was really good, and these lamb riblets which were phenomenal. We sat at the bar, which is a nice marble sort of bar, with plenty of room, so we got to watch the two guys tending the big ovens – one for the pizzas, which looked amazing, and one oven for the meats and other stuff.
Dessert was a ricotta mousse, with grapefruit and some kind of clear liqueur sauce. Good stuff. The wine for that was a Spanish Muscat, which although on the sweet side, went well when you had a sip right after a bite of the grapefruit.
A16
2355 Chestnut Street (at Scott)
San Francisco
(415) 771-2216
Reservations highly recommended and can be made through Open Table
