Top 10 new restaurants of 2014

Several trends reached critical mass on the Bay Area dining scene in 2014, as Jonathan Kauffman reports in this week’s cover story. From the tiny exhibition kitchen, which can be seen from everywhere in the stylish 42-seat dining room, two elements stand out: the wood-fired oven that’s the only source of heat and stacks of LP albums. Chef-owner Todd Shoberg chooses from the likes Bob Marley, Steely Dan and the Cure, and places the albums on a turntable. Other clues: the powder-smooth walnut bar, and the hand-painted floor tiles in the bathroom and the kitchen. Cooks who move like yoga instructors place pans of clams with peas, cream and house bacon in the oven, and pull out fillets of halibut to baste in their juices. The restaurant shows how a chef can follow his passion, cook what he loves and still bring in the crowds. With white walls and polished concrete floors, the interior telescopes Kamio’s creative sensibility inspired by his native Tohoku, a rural area in northeastern Japan. No one in San Francisco does salumi and charcuterie better than Salvatore Cracco at this 100-seat restaurant in the refurbished Art Deco Pacific Telephone Building on New Montgomery. [...] the restaurant doesn’t stop there. Since it specializes in whole-animal butchery, the menu features huge cuts of grilled pork chops, a roasted or grilled chicken and hardy pastas, including one with pork Bolognese and another with braised pork shank. Nicolas Delaroque, who was born in France and has cooked at both high-end and casual places in the Bay Area, brings a refreshing modern French sensibility to the dining scene at his restaurant on outer Sacramento. Yet it’s a great deal — adding the wine pairings ($35/$45) is money well spent — and it’s better than some places that charge twice as much. Last year chef Mitsunori Kusakabe struck out on his own and opened a refined omakase restaurant where the best seats are at the 17-person sushi counter made from a single tree. There’s only a single menu each night — $95 for 11 dishes — made up mostly of sushi but with a soup course and another hot dish. The meal begins with a glass of kelp tea to relax diners and set them right with the world before the parade of raw fish begins. The chef may lightly score a just-sliced piece of halibut and drape it over rice, adding a dollop of the liver and a drizzle of special soy sauce and confetti of shiso leaves. Everything tastes pure, whether it’s miso soup with two delicate duck meatballs or an ethereal broth infused with truffles. At the Dock, in a warehouse district near Jack London Square, he’s crafted a near-perfect menu to go with the beer from the adjacent Linden Street Brewery. The chic space feels more intimate because of the rough ceiling beams, massive support columns and wood floor, but it retains its warehouse vibe. Syhabout tosses crisp-fried cranberry beans with grilled squid, lemon Calabrian chiles and purslane. The jerk chicken wings have an explosive coating fueled by habanero and balanced by pineapple vinegar. For dessert, the West Oakland Tan — ice cream, graham crackers, brownies and salted Scotch caramel — carries out the boozy theme. [...] along came the cavernous space at 101 California, and the two struck a partnership to create what is probably the largest sushi restaurant in the Bay Area, with 220 seats. Diners can eat in the lounge, in the main dining room, at the sushi bar, or they can book one of several private rooms. More than 15 fish dishes lead to a shabu shabu presentation with Wagyu beef, concluding with cherry sorbet with sparkling sake. Located in a former Presidio mess hall built in 1895, this Traci Des Jardins restaurant offers her take on Spanish food. The kitchen in a room at the rear features a counter on two sides, which is the place to watch the cooks ladle brick-colored tomato sauce onto the pork meatballs, sear ham-wrapped trout plated with chanterelle mushrooms and sherry sauce, and dust paprika on crisp potatoes, served with a smoky tomato-based salsa brava. Later in the year, Des Jardins and her chef, Robbie Lewis, also opened Arguello, a Mexican restaurant in the former Presidio officers’ club. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Thomas Keller, Corey Lee of Benu chose to open a French restaurant as the casual offshoot of his four-star flagship. Located in a new apartment building in Hayes Valley, the interior has an open, contemporary vibe, with windows on two sides, and a bar and open kitchen in the middle. Lee’s menu includes some reimagined classics such as an exceptional pate de campagne, a butter lettuce studded with radish shavings and tarragon leaves to create a salad that looks like a flower, and deviled eggs with a piping of fluffy yolks covering a layer of pureed chervil. The poached shrimp, ordered individually or as part of a seafood platter, are also superb, as is the blanquette de veau. The chefs come out and explain each course, which might include a soup of matsutake mushrooms with a hit of Douglas fir, and squab with salsify, pomegranates and hazelnuts. Each dish has familiar element, but there’s always something that make diners sit up and take notice.