Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [253]
There are five Roscoe’s in Southern California. The one we know and love is on West Pico in Los Angeles—a location movie buffs know from its appearance in Pulp Fiction. A soulful eatery that looks a little scary from the outside but takes good care of customers, Roscoe’s dishes out thin, crisp, butter-dripping waffles with a bit of cinnamon in the batter as a companion to pieces of crisp-skinned fried chicken. Whatever pieces you like are available: breasts, thighs, legs, wings, livers and giblets, even chicken sausage, and the menu offers all sorts of ready-made combos of chicken parts and side dishes. The latter include candied yams, red beans, mac and cheese, corn bread, and biscuits. We think collard greens provide ideal soulful harmony to the chicken and waffle combo. Of course, gravy is available; but butter and syrup are the preferred condiments at a Roscoe’s meal.
Sam’s Grill
374 Bush St.
415–421–0594
San Francisco, CA
LD Mon–Fri | $$$
With time for only one meal in San Francisco, we were asked by Sacramento Bee writer Dixie Reed where we most wanted to go. The answer was easy: Sam’s. While food trends come and go and hot restaurants pop up and fizzle, Sam’s remains our echt San Francisco eating experience. Open since 1867, it is at once deluxe and informal, featuring high-priced, top-quality ingredients prepared simply. It looks the way you want a great old California restaurant to look: outfitted with yards of thick white linen, brass hooks for coats, and private wooden dining booths for intimate meals.
The daily-printed menu is divided into such enticing categories as “Fish (Wild Only)” and “From the Charcoal Broiler,” and the big rounds of sourdough bread brought to table at the beginning of the meal are among the best we’ve ever had. It’s a frustrating place to eat because the menu lists so many things that are intriguing, from the unknown (what is chicken Elizabeth? what are prawns Dore?) to such bygone classics as hangtown fry (oysters and scrambled eggs) and mock turtle soup to ultra-exotic (fresh abalone meuniere at $50 per plate). It is possible to order charcoal-grilled steaks and chops, sweetbreads done three ways, or short-ribs of beef with horseradish sauce, or just bacon and eggs, but nearly everybody comes to Sam’s for the seafood.
During our visit with Dixie, we feasted on a plate of Rex sole fillets glistening with butter—perhaps the tenderest seafood we’ve ever slid onto the tines of a fork; we hefted hunks of clean and meaty charcoal-broiled petrale sole, and enjoyed delicately fried fillet of sole.
Sam’s is quirky, the way venerable oldsters are entitled to be. Open only on weekdays, only until nine at night, it caters to a clientele of people who work downtown and come every day for lunch or for an early dinner before heading home. At noon, it is mobbed with successful-looking types jockeying for a table, or crowding three deep against the bar. Once you are seated, it is an immensely comfortable place to eat. The staff of impeccably dressed waiters are consummate professionals, treating us out-of-towners in jeans with as much respect as the important guys in business suits.
Sears Fine Food
439 Powell St.
415–986–0700
San Francisco, CA
BLD | $$
It was worrisome late in 2003 when it looked like Sears was about to vanish from the San Francisco landscape. While not the most exciting or innovative restaurant in town, nor an undiscovered gem, this comfortable storefront facing the cable cars on Powell Street has been Old Reliable since it opened in 1938, especially for breakfast. In fact, three meals a day are served and the lunch and dinner menus are extensive; but like most other tourists