FSC take 1

Fantasy Supper Club was an idea long in the making but an great idea as a way to further explore some of SF's great restaurants. Full disclosure, I'm the late poster who has to try to fill in the gaps of our much discussed and analyzed first dinner. Rather than do that, as much as already been shared in detail, I'm going to share a few of my 1st impressions to the dining experience...

As a creature of habit and a bit of a local homer in terms of my dining, getting out of my neighborhood and exploring a restaurant that I hadn't even heard of immediately peaked my interest. I value the culinary diversity and sheer number of restaurants in SF so hitting up a new place every month will be a great adventure....the second of which is taking place tomorrow hence my desire to get this post up today!

Upon first entering the restaurant it wasn't what I expected. I was expecting Castro-trendy and got something that looked like it had been hoisted from downtown Napa but with a kick of urban schick thrown in. It was even more surprising to learn that the restaurant had been around for 16 years, shows you how truly little I do venture to new neighborhoods but clearly need to.

The service was excellent! First, the waitor was knowledgable about the wine menu and shockingly didn't recommend expensive wine. Was actually quite helpful in picking moderatlely priced bottles that in my opinion were excellent choices. As we moved to food, he absolutely nailed it with the apps! The tomato tower was awesome. It looked awesome in how how high it was stacked but even more impressive was how good it was. No doubt, order it!

The one thing you need to know is that portions are large. Not a bad thing, just something to be aware of as you can probably get by with sharing an app and doing individual entrees or share a bunch of apps and split an entree. And the portions don't get any smaller as you move to the dessert portion of the meal.

As a first pass at Fantasy Supper Club (FSC), 2223 was a great choice both in regards to the meal and to us hashing out some exciting guidelines for FSC moving forward. Can't wait to see where Liz and John pick next and who they bring!.....

2223 in The Castro

Being the crazy planner that I am, I had made three reservations for our first month's supper club in the Castro.  I read reviews, yelp, urban spoon, urban daddy, etc. to see what was new and yummy in the Castro district.  Everything I read had high reviews for 2223 and it was the only option who didn't have table availability.  So when the hostess called and said they have an opening I thought this must be it!  The Culinary experience at its finest.  Now it wasn’t bad but  I was slightly disappointed after getting all hyped up from the reviews.  Question...Can we really trust these reviews???  Don't know but what I can say is that you can trust our blog.

As I arrived at 2223 the outside appearance was subtle and quaint.  A nice neighborhoody type spot.  As we sat down I noticed a few groups of elderly people.  I don't mean canes and walkers but an older type crowd enjoying their fruity martini looking cocktails.  I thought to myself "How do these people already know about this new hip place?" To my surprise this so called “New” place had been opened for 16 years.  Shocker!  “New” meant newly revamped. Now that was an unfair review.

The food was decent by San Francisco standards probably fabulous in a mid-country state. No offense!  They had very large portions, where you could practically feed a horse.  The Tomato tower appetizer was by far the best thing on the menu and could have been sufficient as my main course.  The Calamari and spring rolls were just ok and I don’t recommend them.  Stick with the Tomatoes as you’ll be surprised when your plate comes.  Food Galore!  

My main dish was the Steak:
 
Grilled All Natural Montana Range Flat Iron Steak

queso fresco papusa, pickled corn & cabbage slaw
black bean & jalapeno jus  

Now I love papusa’s!  Those were Mark and I’s staple food when traveling through Belize and Guatemala.  The Steak was nothing to gloat about, good, slight burn of the tongue after taste from the jalapeno jus (I did liked that) but the cheesy Papusa and Black beans brought me back to my Latin travels.  I say it was comfort food for the belly.  I was stuffed!!!


I can’t believe we actually order desert after all this.  The Sour Cherry Bread Pudding was very good and I would definitely recommend it, but beware you must share it!

I guess the theme of my review is the portion size.  I'm more for quality than quantity.  We live in San Francisco a California city where portion control is almost a religion and appreciation for food is on top of our list of things to do.  I say this is a good place to go to if you are a local of the Castro district, have a parent/friend in town who wants to step out of his/her comfort zone of steak and potatoes (but not really) and if you’re hungry. 2223 you didn't live up to your reviews.

Here are my ratings:     

My score: 17


Cost: 4                It's a good price for all the food you get.  The wine is reasonable
Ambiance: 3      Nothing Special.  Good place for conversation

Taste: 3              Tastes Good but does not compare to a lot of other city restaurants

Originality: 3       Nothing special, they tried with the food parings  
Service: 4           Service was great

2223- Castro

It's so easy to get stuck in the same routine, eating at the same places, ordering the same dish, surrounded by the same people. Most of the time it's spawned by either pure laziness or a convenience factor. Some nights you just want to walk down the street to your local spot and know exactly what you are going to order without taking one peek at the menu. The purpose of our fantasy club is push us out of our comfort zone, explore unknown territory, cuisine, and people. Taste buds get ready...

First stop: 2223.

There are a lot of restaurants on my list of places to go, but 2223 had never made it onto my radar. I'll be honest though, I have never given the Castro a fair chance, even though it's a mecca full of amazing restaurants. The restaurant itself has been around for 16 years, according to our waiter. I think 16 years too long...

The food was decent, nothing spectacular. I have two knocks on the food, and then I will move on. Portions could have served a small army, and the sauce on the dishes could have drowned them. Now, I'm all for big portions, a good bang for your buck, but not when you are so stuffed after the first course that you kind of want to tell your waiter to put a hold on your main course. I do partially blame this on the waiter, seeing that they work there everyday, knowing the size of the portions, and not steering the patrons away from one less appetizer when the table is being gluttonous!

The Heirloom tomato tower, was something that I would recommend for a starter. The tomatoes were ripe, the eggplant was perfectly roasted, and the goat cheese was a nice twist instead mozzarella. But what made this dish genius was the toasted sourdough bread on top of the tower, layered with cheese and doused in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The bread soaked up all of the juicy goodness from the tomatoes and roasted eggplant. It evaporated in your mouth leaving you with just a little bit of lingering goat cheese. Yum.

I choose the gnocchi for my entree. I'm not usually one for starchy items for my entree, but nothing else jumped out at me, and I figured it would be hard to mess up a pesto-cream based gnocchi. The actual pieces of gnocchi were very succulent, and the pesto-cream sauce was oh so sinful. The fresh vegetables were a nice touch, but overall the pesto-cream sauce overwhelmed the dish, making it hard for the other ingredients to shine through.

Lastly, the Sour Cherry Bread Pudding sent my food coma to another level... It was a wonderful desert, but like everything else it was just to much. To much ice cream, to much Carmel, and to much red wine syrup. But if you can make the room, and not feel to guilty, you should go for it.

Overall, I would not say that if you are not paying for the dinner, go and eat up. Otherwise I would pass on this one.

My score: 17

• Cost: 4 You do get a lot of food for the price.
• Ambiance: 2.5 Whoever designed the place needs to quit their day job.
• Taste: 3.5 If you like sauce, you'll be in heaven.
• Originality: 3 Nothing original, just overdone.
• Service: 4 Service was good and attentive.

Mission #1: 2223 Market

Liz and I met, Mark and Brittanie for the first dinner of newly formed Fantasy Supper Club. The idea was born from the creative brainstorming between Brittanie and Liz, who thought it would be fun for the four of us, plus a rotating couple of choice, to grab dinner once a month in a neighborhood and at a restaurant of our choosing. The plan, one couple chooses the neighborhood, the other the restaurant and the new couple to invite. The mission, to choose a new restaurant that none of us has ever been to. This isn't the easiest challenge since most of us have spent nearly a decade in the Bay area and we all like to dine finely. Anyhow, our first stab was 2223 Market St, selected by Mark & Brittanie.

My first impression when we arrived was that the place had a homey low-key atmosphere. There are two rooms of tables, some booths along the walls and some art showcasing local nature scenes. The walls were earth tones so everything felt pretty natural. The four of us thought the place was new, but our waiter soon informed us that it had been there for 16 years...wow! That's a long time by SF restaurant standards. We expected a good meal.

We started off with the tomato tower, fried calamari and the crispy thai rolls. Portions were large and I think we over ordered this course. The tomato tower was the most impressive one I've seen. Slices from the tomatoes revealed that these tomatoes must've been on steroids (think softball sized). Fortunately, these tasted amazing and were well structured, but fresh and delicious. The calamari was lightly fried, but slightly chewy so we wouldn't recommend it and the crispy thai rolls were very tasty. The sprouts on top made for a nice organic twist, which I personally liked.

The rolls also were lightly covered with a thai spice, but not too saucy. While I love just about every sauce on the planet, I really hate when food is layered in it. You mask too much taste when there is too much sauce.

As the Pinot flowed, so did the conversation. We identified a few core categories for our Supper Club and they include: cost, ambiance/decor, taste, originality, and service. Each category has a possible score of 6 points. We thought each of us could create our own scoring and then we could assess the total score as a function of the overall quality of the restaurant. Fun, right? In our club we are all restaurant reviewers.

I ordered the steak for dinner. It was server with some beans, a corn flour tortilla thingy and some corn. I thought the dish was creative and tasty, but to be honest the meat wasn't that special. Everything on the plate, but the steak, was delicious. I love my steak so I can tell the difference between good, great and amazing. This steak was just good. There was a slight jalapeno taste on the tail which was good, but it didn't carry the dish.

For dessert we all shared the cherry bread pudding. The pudding wasn't too heavy and the cherry not too overwhelming. I thought the dessert (which I normally don't order), was the second best part of the meal. First was the tomato tower which won points for both taste, texture and plating.

All in all, 2223 Market St, was a great meal. I'm looking forward to our next stop, which will be somewhere in the Portrero. Stay tuned for Mission #2.

My score: 21

• Cost: 4
• Ambience: 3.5
• Taste: 4.5
• Originality: 4
• Service: 5

Meet the Tasters

Brittanie (The Planner)
Mark (The Whit)
Liz (The Expert)
John (The Chatter Box)