San Francisco - Alison Bing [117]
Tuesday and Thursday: the Ferry Plaza ( 10am-2pm Tue, 4-8pm Thu) offers seasonal produce.
Wednesday: Castro farmers market (Market St at Noe St; 4-8pm) has local produce and artisan foods, some organics and moderate prices.
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MIJITA Map Mexican $
415-399-0814; www.mijitasf.com; 1 Ferry Bldg; 10am-7pm Mon-Wed, to 8pm Thu-Sat, to 4pm Sun; 2, 7, 21, 71, F, J, K, L, M, N; & Embarcadero;
Owner/chef Traci Des Jardins puts her signature twist on her Mexican grandmother’s standbys, using fresh local produce for tangy-savory jicama and grapefruit salad with pumpkin seeds, and sustainably harvested fish cooked with the minimum of oil in seriously addictive Baja fish tacos. Wash it all down with melon agua frescas (fruit-flavored drinks) bayside, with envious seagulls circling overhead.
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DOWNTOWN
Whether you’re in an economic boom or slump on any given day, there’s a place for you to dine Downtown. From chef-operated lunch take-out to upscale destination dining at Aqua, Fleur de Lys and Restaurant Michael Mina, Downtown eateries aim to please your palate. The Financial District can seem desolate at night and Union Square can get rough around the peripheries west of Powell St and south of Sutter St, but as always in San Francisco, superior dining rewards the adventurous.
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FINANCIAL DISTRICT
AQUA Map Californian $$$
415-956-9662; www.aqua-sf.com; 252 California St; 11:30am-2:30pm Mon-Fri, dinner nightly; F, J, K, L, M, N; & Montgomery St; California
Prix-fixe dinners here are major FiDi investments, but the $36 three-course business lunch delivers tiny, jewel-like dishes so fresh and delicately handled, you can almost taste the sun in a cherry-tomato sorbet and stormy seas in the geoduck clam ceviche. Trust your savvy server to recommend wine pairings and provide spot-on assessments of a dish, including where that tomato or clam comes from (most ingredients are sustainably sourced) and how it was prepared. Aqua has been justly famed as one of the city’s finest for years now – this is where star chefs Traci Des Jardins and Michael Mina got their starts, among others – so be sure to book well ahead if you’re planning a very special dinner here. Swinging singles, be warned that marriage proposals happen here at an alarming rate – could be something in the water, or more likely on the extensive California and French wine list.
GITANE Map Basque, Mediterranean $$
415-788-6686; www.gitanerestaurant.com; 6 Claude Lane; 5:30pm-midnight Tue-Sat, bar to 1am; 1, 15; California;
Slip out of the Financial District and into something more comfortable at this opulent new bistro with a wandering eye and a gypsy spirit. The decor and menu wink at Basque, Spanish and Moroccan traditions, but pure decadence is the real draw, with flirting co-workers in the bar feeding one another bacon bon-bons (goat-cheese-stuffed prunes wrapped in bacon and doused in cinnamon-port sauce). Serious canoodlers should get a room in the restaurant upstairs to share fragrant free-range chicken tagines (stews) on low divans.
MIXT GREENS Map Salads $
415-433-6498; www.mixtgreens.com; 120 Sansome St; 10:30am-3pm Mon-Fri; F, J, K, L, M, N; & Montgomery St;
No, they’re not getting the Grateful Dead back together – those ponytailed stockbrokers lined up out the door are here for generous organic salads with humanely raised, herb-marinated chicken and chipotle dressing or mango, jicama and roasted peanuts with tangy Thai vinaigrette. Grab a stool or get yours to go in a compostable corn container to enjoy bayside at the Ferry Building.
BOXED FOODS Map Sandwiches, Salads $
415-981-9376; www.boxedfoodscompany.com; 245 Kearny St; 8am-3pm Mon-Fri; 1, 15; California;
Organic, local, seasonal ingredients make outrageously flavorful lunches, whether you choose the zesty strawberry salad with mixed greens, walnuts and tart goat cheese, or the Boxed BLT with crunchy applewood smoked bacon. Get yours to