Rosamunde Sausage Grill Hanabi Indian Oven
My grand sentiments about Dinner with Vida took an ironic turn this week. Tonight, on the eve of Rosh Hashonah, Vida and I went out for hot dogs. Work ran late and making a pick up dinner seemed to me just as un-celebratory as going out so Vida and I head to the Lower Haight to Rosamunde Sausage Grill.
As I drove around the block looking for parking I passed by my first San Francisco home—the garage at 390 Herman. I only lived on Herman St. for a few months before my roommate fell apart and had to leave town but those few months are still a bittersweet reminder of the risk I needed to take in moving to San Francisco. I remember the first night I stayed in the garage after my parents helped me move in. I really wanted them to leave so I could cook my own dinner and settle into my new home. I walked to the nearest corner store and bought ingredients to make the most comforting dinner I knew—macaroni loaf. I retrospect that decision seems pointless. Where did my parents go for dinner that night without me? I hope Vida never does that to me—but of course she will.
The neighborhood still has some of the same features it had almost 20 years ago but a lot has changed—the natural foods store is still there but my corner store is now an upscale gourmet grocery. The salon where I got my first San Francisco haircut, Transformer, still exists but has moved across the street. Parking was difficult so I kept driving by favorite restaurants, Hanabi, Indian Oven and Thep Phanom. The new restaurants and shops make the Lower Haight I knew so long ago seem like a wasteland.
Rosamunde Sausage Grill wasn’t really what I expected. As we walked in I considered turning around except for the welcoming greeting of the guy behind the counter. Seating consisted of a few stools in the window and the menu offered only various kinds of sausages, packaged German potato salad and bags of chips. This seemed like somewhere to get a snack rather than dinner. Toronado, the bar next door, seemed like it provided a lot of their clientele. There was a sign saying that you could bring your beer with you. I imagined that after a couple of beers this was exactly the kind of place you wanted next door. It reminded me of the satisfaction of having a beer at Dalva on 16th St. and then going down the street to Truly Mediteranean for a falafel.
I ordered an all beef bratwurst for Vida but as I pointed to it behind the glass Vida took exception and wanted the “salami hotdog” which turned out to be a Hungarian sausage. I thought for sure she would reject it in favor of the bratwurst as soon as she took a bite but she didn’t. She enjoyed her Hungarian with mustard and ketchup thoroughly even though it was a bit spicy. The bratwurst was great too. They offered special condiments such as spicy or sweet peppers and grilled onions but we kept it simple. It took about 20 minutes for us to eat our hot dogs and a bag of chips. Oh well, at least we saved room for dessert, if not an actual meal.
Restaurant Total: 47
Warakubune We Be Sushi
Dinner with Vida has been on hiatus from San Francisco for a few weeks. Taking our restaurant experiences out of town has forged new dining frontiers of--nakedness. While in Seattle a couple of weeks ago we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Café Lago. Their antipasto surpasses any of the cold cut platters most restaurants call antipasto and serve before ruining the rest of the meal as well. It’s been a few weeks now so I can’t even remember quite what I love about it—maybe the goat cheese ball rolled in parsley, the salami that keeps Vida busy for at least 45 seconds, the caponata. Their thin crust pizzas from the wood fired oven and homemade ravioli were so incredible that I forgot to supervise Vida and her glass of water. I look over to see her splash water on her pants and watch as her expression very slowly changes from busy and content to borderline hysterical. It’s like when little kids fall or other wise get small injuries and you think that because there is no immediate reaction that everything is o.k. Just as you decide to ignore the incident in the hopes of not exaggerating its significance their little nervous system kicks in and the screaming begins. Vida has long been sensitive about getting her pants wet. At Valencia Pizza and Pasta a couple of months ago I determinedly kept Vida from taking her pants off after a similar event. This time I wasn’t so lucky. She was off her chair and stripping down before I could stop her. Suddenly Vida is sitting in her Spongebob briefs eating pizza. Since we probably wouldn’t be visiting this restaurant until Vida had reached a new developmental stage I let it go and decided that the bemused expressions on the faces of the other restaurant patrons weren’t too judgmental.
This week we took a work related afternoon trip to Sebastopol with C and E. Vida took a short nap during the drive North before we went swimming and visited Animalitos Farm. As we got out of our car at the farm, Pasha the sheep got in. Tilly the dog also jumped in and grabbed Vida’s rubber Devil Duck. Vida tried vainly to get the duck from Tilly until S stepped in and calmed all the animals. Vida had just discovered that afternoon that dogs will play catch with her so Tilly was able to redeem herself in Vida’s eyes. As we walked around the farm examining the drying vines of shelling beans, ripening tomatoes and spent raspberry vines it was apparent that summer was over. S suggested that we pick a small watermelon for a snack and before we could stop her Vida had run over to the small melon plot and snapped one off it’s vine. Luckily she picked a good one. Vida visited the donkeys and supervised the feeding of the chickens and goat. S had retrieved three eggs from the hen house and Vida wouldn’t rest until they were in her possession. S put the eggs in a small, flat berry container and Vida kept them on her lap as we drove to dinner—periodically removing them from the box into her lap and shaking out rice cracker crumbs. We ate at Lucy’s with A and C, L, and her son C.
Lucy’s is located near a small square with a fountain popular with kids. A assured me that the fountain would keep the kids happy while we enjoyed our dinner. It wasn’t quite that relaxed since I couldn’t actually eat dinner at the fountain—L and I kept running off to supervise our kids. Arriving at the fountain, C being a Sebastopol native quickly got in with his shorts and shirt. I knew that if Vida got her shorts even slightly wet they would be off immediately so she stripped down to her underwear and went in the water. After a while I got her dressed again and we went back to eat a few bites. The food was fantastic. A delicate baked lemon goat cheese was like a soufflé in texture. I also had baked halibut with fresh tomatoes (I’m going to have to take more notes on the food instead of Vida but this restaurant is not to be missed). On the next run to the fountain there was no underwear to put back on her so she went naked. C got into the groove too and was also going buff. After that I had one naked baby for the rest of the evening—running back and forth to the table at the restaurant, eating pizza and then determinedly going back to play. A third naked child soon joined the melee. As the children and the evening wore down I gathered Vida but forgot every article of clothing that we came with including her shoes.
It’s good to be home and thinking about where to go for a relaxed dinner with Vida. This week I was in the mood for sushi but not interested in spending much money. I’ve already visited some of the more obvious options, Miyabi, No Name on Church Street and the various locations of We Be Sushi so I solicited a recommendation from a co-worker, C. He said that the sushi boat restaurant. Warakubune across the street from No Name was pretty good. I remembered when Warakubune opened years ago and people gossiped that it was a yuppie incursion taking advantage of the popularity of No Name. But years later it’s still there so I thought it must be decent. Restaurants that don’t seem popular or even appear doomed but manage to thrive always fascinate me. This phenomenon occurs to me often as I drive down Divisidero toward Haight and see that Phuket (known for it’s name freak if nothing else) is still around. I went there only once about 18 years ago and still it stands.
I have long thought that sushi boat restaurants were too gimmicky to actually have good food but with Vida in tow the novelty suddenly seemed more important. Sitting down in front of the wooden boats as they eternally carried sushi I realized that the water could prove too tempting to Vida. She tried to poke her chopsticks into the boat and water and I suddenly had a vision of capsizing sushi boats. Once I pulled an avocado roll from the boat deck and she discovered her dish of pickled ginger she calmed down. The ability to grab whatever variety of sushi I wanted without the ritual of ordering and waiting was intoxicating. Nobody would notice or care if all I wanted to eat was mayonnaise filled California rolls. I was feeling a little guilty as I also ate octopus salad nigiri, a spicy tuna roll, inari and cucumber rolls while Vida could only manage avocado rolls. I thought to myself that she would probably say she wanted to go home and have dinner. For under 20 bucks Vida was entertained and I ate as much sushi as I wanted.
Restaurant Total: 42
