Fortunately, there are places in this town that still deliver this kind of attentive and elegant hospitality. Bix certainly does. So does Boulevard, the 1994-born restaurant on the Embarcadero where I let a staff member graciously guide me from my seat through the dining room, all the way to the stairwell leading to the bathroom — even though I already knew the way. Another prime example: At a recent birthday dinner at Foreign Cinema, which opened in 1999 in the Mission, a handwritten card from owner Gayle Pirie greeted us at the table.
As a professional restaurant-goer, I acknowledge that dining at these peak-’90s places does nothing for your street cred. TikToks and Reels reward shots of tattooed chefs and unnecessarily oversize food, not attentive service and leather-bound menus. But I can promise there’s real joy to be found in a restaurant that goes out of its way to make customers feel valued.
And, for the record, dining at restaurants of this genre and vintage does not mean compromising on quality. From now through the end of the season, Bix will roll out a cart for tableside heirloom-tomato service. The pomp and circumstance behind something as humble (yet precious) as a ripe tomato had me giddy. A server wearing a vest and tie presented a plate of burrata and sliced, peak-season tomatoes with a level of care usually reserved for bottles of vintage Champagne.
At Boulevard, a recent meal included a miniature souffle blanketed by summer truffles and surrounded by a pool of buttery Brillat-Savarin cheese sauce. It was upstaged only by the escargot Rochambeau, which saw a bunch of garlic-and-leek-scented snails served inside a crusty bread bowl, a playful San Francisco riff on the French classic.
Foreign Cinema’s summer menu also captured the spirit of the season, in the form of a brothy bowl of cavatelli tangled with peas, corn and tender morels.
This article was originally published by a sfstandard.com . Read the Original article here. .