VinDivine - Living it Up John & Janine Style

Luna Park - The Mission

So post-CrushPad meeting where about 10 of us discussed the creation of our next KILLER ZIN (we just scored some '07 fruit from the Turley Vineyards), the lot of us was hungry. Hey winemaking (well, discussing winemaking while noshing on crackers & cheese) takes it out of you!

We're in the Dogpatch area, where I wish I would have done some real estate speculating 5 years ago, and the first place I think of, being sooo in-the-know ;) is Piccino, the new Italian spot off of 22nd and 3rd. But I think 10 people at 9PM on a Thursday is prolly a no-go in a place that seats...about 10. So we frantically call around. Slow Club? Nope. Luna Park? Yessirreebob. We are IN.

Bonus, since J&J were carpooling with our buds Jonathan and Brian in their fancy new Caddie SUV (hey, way to go green, guys!), we didn't even have to sweat parking! Got drop-off service right at the door.

So the thing is, ever since this place opened 6-7 years ago I had heard plenty about it. Not necessarily good or bad or actually any detail. Just the name. So we stroll in there with zero preconceptions.

Cool, kitschy vibe. I think the folks at Luna call it 'Flea Market Chic'. Whatever, you get the idea. Dark, blood-red walls, lots of  wood, semi-Eugene like (if you've been there, you'll know) laid-back, definitely not the oh-so-popular and cool stainless steel and glass decor.

First impression: Well I guess second impression since I already said it seemed cool and kitchy...not so good. I ordered a couple 'ritas when we walked in. Took literally over 5 minutes for the person to figure out how to make a margarita, so I quickly said - "hey, you may as well make it a double". I left out "because as inept of a bartender you are I may die of thirst waiting for you to make a second round" part. Anyhoo, so when we finally get them, the tab is $22. Per drink. WTF?!

But hey, we get seated quickly which was great, I really did expect a wait.

B-I-G menu. Lotsa stuff, 8-10 Appys, 1/2 dozen salads, 8 pastas, 8-10 entrees (basically every type of meat imaginable) and about 6-7 sides. Dang. All pretty reasonably priced too, appys sub $10 and most entrees around 16-18 bones. Leans toward comfort food (corn dogs, fries, mac ' cheese, pot roast...did I say Corn Dogs?!) with some nice non-comfort stuff thrown in too, like Curry Pork Satay with Mint-Cucumber Sla, Nicoise Salad, and Grilled Alaskan Salmon with Beluga Lentils, Frisée, Orange, Olives, Tomatoes and Basil. Think the strategy is to have something for everyone? Well it works. Hell, like I said we had 10 people at our table and I don't think anyone had the same dish!

Well, I wish I could report back to y'all with a review of something more exciting, but J&J ordered mighty boring...Nicoise Salad and a Burger. Yep, you guessed it...Rare, Cheddar, no bun. That's us. But of course with a side of fries. I'm not gonna  yammer on about a Salad Nicoise, it was solid. The seared tuna was muy tasty. The burger? Showed up rare.  Is this chef from France?! Whoa. He or she certainly took our order seriously. Polished it off. Don't kill me, but I can't remember much about the fries.

Next time around I'd try the Pork Cutlet stuffed with Gruyere and Shrooms. Breaded, just in case you were wondering.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, and of course we had a blast. Service was good enough.

So bottom line: I give this place a 7 outta 10. You get what you pay for, the food is solid. Nothing hugely memorable here to make me rush back, but if I'm in the Mission and hungry for comfort food I'd give it a go. Oh, no valet and parking blows, good luck with that.

Luna Park
694 Valencia Street (nr 18th)
San Francisco, CA, 94110

Delfina - The Mission

I don't know why I've waited so long to go to this place. John's been but alas, I have not. So when our friend Aarti said, hey let's do Delfina for "D" (she's wading through restaurants in our great city by the alphabet) I said Heyohhh, I'm in. Secretly I was "dying" to try out the pizza, boy was I surprised that you can only get it next door at the Pizzeria Delfina.

I'm sure there's some crackhead crazy zoning rule in SF that says you can't bring Pizza into the restaurant and you can't bring alcohol into the Pizzeria, cuz alcohol and pizza don't go together. Tell that to the drunkards at Golden Boy at 3am.

Anhoo, about 4 of us went, thank goodness we took cabs a) cuz we were gonna get our swerve on and drinkin' and drivin' don't go well together and b) cuz parking ssuuuuucccckkkkssss. Tiny place, buzzing like a mofo, reminds me of when the Slanted Door usta be cool.

The food: The Fresh-stretched mozzarella with padron peppers and a tomato toast looked good but no one got it. Next time. I went kinda boring but since I was in the mood for Pizza I stuck with Italian: Spaghetti with plum tomatoes, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and peperoncini. They did it up right. Aarti had the Meyer Ranch flatiron steak and French fries and wooohoooo, those yelpers are right, the fries rock! I'm a sucker for Pansotti anywhere, so the Pansotti with walnut sauce was rocking too.

The wine list? Fantabulous but Italian only here folks. And for some reason...everyone always gives me the wine list. Huh? Wtf do I know about Italian Reds? They do have some great wines that are reasonably priced: Rosso di Montalcino came in right around $50.

Would I go again? Yes, but only after I get the pizza. :^)

Delfina
3621 18th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.552.4055

Range - Mission

Well, we probably won’t be calling this Range ‘home’ anytime soon…this fairly new place in the Mission, is up against a lotta local contenders – Delfina, Luna Park, Limon, etc.

Hey, don’t get me wrong – it’s a cute, cozy, cool spot w/ a decent wine list. Plus, we got rock-star front row parking (in THE MISSION no less). Thank god 4 of us squeezed our asses into the Mini Cooper. Bob and Jane were with us. Plus the place has been well reviewed by 'the pros' like Mike Bauer, etc...whatever. So we were off to a pretty happy little beginning. But that whole pesky menu/food thing…it needs a bit of work. Why, you ask? Well, it bugs us when the appetizer menu at a place is the only part of the menu you might want to order from. Whatdya think about THAT, Michael Bauer!? Hmm? And no, I'm not jealous 'cuz you actually get paid to review;)

For starters – decent selection of appys, Poached Pears w/ Feta Cheese and mâche (what the hell is mâche, anyway?) was puny, but OK. Hey, it's pears + feta. Good. The Escarole Salad was flat-out b-o-r-i-n-g (maybe blame that on us for ordering a basic salad anyway). The Venison was the best of the appys we had, Bambi was pretty tasty. Tender with just the right amount of ‘game’. Plus the portion was great.   Next time we’d try the Quail or the Goat Cheese & Sorrell Pasta.

The entrees just kinda fell flat. Our server recommended that we stay away from the Steelhead, which looked like the best bet. Jane and Janine know how to take a hint;) So we had the Bevade (flank cut) Steak, which was highly recommended, and the Roast Chicken. The steak tasted like wood. The little gratin/broccoli rabe cake accompanying it was tasty though. Woo hoo! The chicken was...fine. Big piece of bird, if that’s what you’re into. But it was 'safe' chicken. Like your mom (if your mom had the culinary proficiency of mine) would make. Nothing against the fowl, but we don’t travel across town and risk having to park a mile away from a restaurant for safe chicken. Hell, we can cook chicken! Oh yeah, and the other dishes all just had that something that turned us off: Spaetzle, Kale, Mushrooms with Citrus Cream just didn’t sound like the perfect complement to Short Ribs, for instance.

We did enjoy the wine, and the conversation. We found out the Bob has now become FASCINATED with robots. You name it too. Guess who is gettin' a Roomba for his birthday? Hey Bob, watch iRobot, they always turn on ya in the end!

So there ya go, people. Maybe we hit an off week, night, whatever and they may change their menu often. Let us know your thoughts!

Range
842 Valencia St.
San Francisco, 94110
415-282-8283