Feeling fancy
Feeling fancy
Hed 11, best French restaurants, Parkside listings, Merkado, Bernal Cutlery, run time, The Madrona, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Thai fire
One-time Thai television star and beauty pageant queen Billie Wannajaro had ambitions to open a Michelin-star-worthy Thai restaurant in San Francisco, and she has done just that with Hed 11 in Japantown. Opened in the recently remodeled Kimpton Enso Hotel, Hed 11 offers a seasonal tasting menu of (yes) 11 dishes for $185 per, spread across six courses. In its current iteration, the menu’s focus is on seafood and the cuisines of southern Thailand.
The restaurant is sparsely decorated in modernist in dark wood tones, with an entrance separate from the hotel on Buchanan Street, and a small bar where the full menu is also served.
Bringing experience from the Michelin-starred kitchens of Saawaan and Bo.lan in Bangkok, chef Piriya “Saint” Boonprasarn explores the full spectrum of Thai flavors, delivered via an array of thoughtful dishes — like a seared scallop with pineapple and coconut curry, a fried egg roll stuffed with rich and tender beef khao soi, and a dish of funky-sweet fermented cabbage with dried shrimp.
Several composed starters are followed by a khao gaeng course — literally "curry over rice" — that includes six wildly flavorful dishes, not all curries. Among them is an excellent lingcod soup with taro and mushroom, and perhaps the spiciest (but most delicious) crab curry in recent memory, with layers of kaffir lime, chili heat, and ocean-floor umami.
Meanwhile, a wine pairing yielded unique selections like a natural, Alsatian-style orange from Paso Robles-based Union Sacré. Cocktails include a gin and tonic variation with pandan and lemongrass — like everything else Hed 11 has on offer, another brilliant reach into the great, wide vocabulary of Thai flavors. –Jay Barmann
→ Hed 11 (Japantown) • 1800 Sutter St (enter on Buchanan) • Tues-Sun 5-10p • Reserve.
SF RESTAURANT LINKS: Japantown’s Nari launches mezzanine lunch service • Union Square Hilton reopens panoramic Cityscape bar • San Rafael’s first rooftop bar warmly reviewed.
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Parkside life
Often lumped in with the Sunset, the west side of San Francisco’s Parkside neighborhood has its own thing going on. The zone between Quintara Street, Sloat Boulevard, and the Pacific is raggedly bordered by 12th Ave. and 19th Ave. to the east, a reflection of the line drawn by 1845’s Rancho San Miguel land grant. Geography aside, it’s just as easily detected by the area’s uptick in sprawling, single-family homes. Those houses are attracting new interest as companies down the Peninsula encourage workers to return to the office — with its proximity to 280, commuting from the Parkside is a less daunting proposition.
Fifty houses have changed hands in the Parkside in the past year, at a median price of $1.55M. Here, three current listings to consider:
→ 2418 21st Ave (Parkside, above) • 4BR/3.1BA, 3122 SF home • Ask: $2.595M • Remodeled 1912 Craftsman • Days on market: 27 • Agent: Brandon Chen, Compass.
→ 2478 27th Ave (Parkside) • 4BR/4.1BA, 2417 SF home • Ask: $2.188M • 1935-built home with wine cellar and new back deck • Days on market: 51 • Agent: Ellen H. Wu, Pathway.
→ 2035 35th Ave (Parkside) • 5BR/3BA, 3071 SF home • Ask: $1.995M • Updated three-floor residence with huge backyard • Days on market: 6 • Agent: Partick Lam, Century 21.
SF WORK AND PLAY LINKS: Stalled Market and Van Ness skyscraper construction could resume • SF remote work numbers fall • Ken Fulk’s live/work Magic Factory up for grabs • Sonoma’s Sbragia Family Vineyards on the market.
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Flour power
MOLLY DECOUDREAUX • food photographer • Molly DeCoudreaux Photography
Neighborhood you live in: The Mission
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Wednesday morning could find me anywhere really, loading up my car full of photo gear and props for an on-location photoshoot at an SF restaurant or Sonoma winery, or photo editing projects in my home office in the apartment above Different Fur Studios that I share with my partner, Patrick Brown, and our kid. I will be drinking some chaga coffee with oat milk at home — because San Francisco — or else having a coffee meeting over the best cappuccinos in SF at Ritual Coffee on Valencia.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I'll be driving out to Full Belly Farm at dawn for an exciting project that I can’t share quite yet, but that I’m super excited about!
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
My favorite local spot for a great drink and easy bite to eat is Casements Bar, a dog-friendly queer neighborhood Irish bar in the Mission. Merkado, which is by Oracle Park in SoMa, has the best tequila and fantastic tacos, made with house-made tortillas and salsas.
If I'm feeling fancy and have a mom’s night out or a babysitter, I’ll slap on some lipstick and head to Frances or Octavia. I have so much respect and admiration for their chef/owner Melissa Perello, her relationships with farmers, and how beautiful both spaces are. My last rec is Osito, a fully live fire restaurant in the Mission owned and run by my pal Seth.
Any weekend getaways that have been memorable lately?
We just returned from a weekend in Lake Tahoe. It was gorgeous. My only suggestion is to get in the lake. I feel cleansed!
What was your last great vacation?
We recently spent a week in Waikiki, swimming everyday, eating udon and papayas, taking in the luxury brand window designs (conceptual art my word, I’m into it!), and dining at The Pig and The Lady in Honolulu for a thoughtful and surprising blend of Vietnamese, Hawaiian, and farm-to-table style cooking; every meal there is terrific.
What store or service do you always recommend to people?
I always send people over to Bernal Cutlery on Valencia St. — for knives, amazing pantry ingredients like olive oil and spices, teas and masa, cookbooks and culinary anthropology, culinary tools, and of course an amazing selection of Japanese-, European-, and American-made knives. I have been working with Bernal Cutlery for well over a decade and even shot their book SHARP.
WORK • Routines
Running commentary
In yesterday’s FOUND NY Routine, writer Mary Morris shares her workout regimen, which is also a work regimen: “In the afternoon, I’m headed to the pool. I try to go three or four times a week. When I swim, I’m working in my head. I’ve resolved a lot of plot points during a swim.”
It's a relatable sentiment, and a reminder that often, the best work products originate outside of the workplace. Since I started working primarily from my home office in 2017, I’ve regularly snuck a midday run into my workday. It’s a luxury, for sure. But it works!
In pre-pandemic days, the runs were a bit of a stolen escape during free blocks on the calendar. But shifting attitudes toward workplace flexibility made it easier to step away, and running a start-up cemented it as Routine.
For best results: no headphones, no agenda. Freed from the tethers of laptops and desktops, the most pressing issues rise to the surface, like high-beat-per-minute dreams.
I’ve recently increased my mileage, which pushed some of my longer runs to the edges of the day. What I’ve gained in race-readiness, I’ve lost in subconscious strategy and grievance-burying sessions.
Also, Mondays are rest days, which means this morning I had to step out to walk the dog in order to extract this piece from stone. Time to start cross-training. –Josh Albertson
P.S. We’ve got a little survey withdrawal, so let’s keep it going.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Cheap Seats
Bleachers • Greek Theater (Berkeley) • Thurs @ 7p • GA, $79 per
Sky Ferreira • Regency Ballroom (Van Ness) • Fri @ 9p • Balcony, $72 per
SF Cheese Fest • Ferry Building (Embarcadero) • Sat @ 6p • GA, $98 per
GETAWAYS • Healdsburg
Mansion society
The Madrona, a boutique hotel in an 1881 Victorian manse, is a standout among wine country stays, with a vibe like if your cool, art collector uncle inherited a great-grandmother’s estate. Eclectic details fill every corner of the recently restored, maximally-decorated building, like porcupine-quill sconce shades in the front bar and a crimson marble and bronze clock in the dining room that’s original to the estate.
Choose between a classic room or top-floor studio in the main house, where third-floor rooms offer the best vineyard views, or a more spacious, luxury-appointed bungalow suite elsewhere on the property. The Owner’s Loft, designed by co-owner Jay Jeffers, is available for a truly special stay (open bar included). And no matter which room you’re in, the luxuries don’t stop, from heated tile floors in the bathrooms to exclusive Flamingo Estate bath products.
To soak up the surroundings, take a day trip, by bicycle or included car service, to one of the wineries down the road. Or dip in the pool and have a poolside cocktail after lunch — the bar program, like the onsite restaurant, draws on fresh herbs and fruit from the five-acre, terraced garden, and orchard at the rear of the property. On colder days, huddle with drinks in one of the mansion’s parlors and take in the art collaged on the walls.
The half-outdoor restaurant is its own oasis, with day and night menus that would stand on their merits outside the hotel’s boundaries. Opt for one of the garden pizzas in the afternoon, with a big tray of oysters. And at night, start with the onion and salmon roe dip (the upsell osetra caviar isn’t really necessary) and one of the the excellent local, by-the-glass wines, followed by one of the seasonally changing entrees, perhaps a stellar, meat-rich duck confit gnocchi, or a perfect wagyu hanger steak served simply with spinach puree and a duck-fat fried hash brown. If you’re going to indulge in a place like this, might as well on all fronts. –Jay Barmann
→ The Madrona (Healdsburg, CA) • 1001 Westside Rd • Rooms from $558/night.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Anticipated new hotel Thompson Palm Springs taking reservations starting Sept 30 • Wine country turns to Valdiguié production • Yosemite’s Wawona Hotel shuttered indefinitely as of Dec 2 • United plans to add free Starlink wifi across entire fleet • Comparing this season’s ski pass offerings from Epic, Ikon, et al • This year’s World’s 50 Best Hotels list.
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RESTAURANTS • The Nines
French restaurants
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the Bay Area’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com.
O' by Claude LeTohic (Union Square), Michelin-starred French fine dining atop One65 for menu based on water, fire, earth