Thursday, July 2, 2009
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Urban Tavern’s new Executive Chef Mary O’Neill has been around the butcher block a few times including stints at Aqua, Jardiniere and Woodwards Garden but her new Hilton Hotel location:

 

... poses a challenge that these venues did not - feeding finicky San Franciscans without alienating the tastes of the tourists. Her menu bridges this gap by combining comfort foods with locally sourced ingredients and a sense of humor.

A pretzel with a cast iron pot of sliced Caggiano beer sausage, whole grain mustard and house made sauerkraut ($11.00):

 

... was a nice twist to our dinner. This fresh baked knot of soft centered dough was worth casing out with Petaluma’s wurst.

The chopped farmers market salad ($11.00):

 

... cut to the chase with asparagus, yellow and orange carrots, peas, beans, corn, with frisée and radicchio dressed in a garlic vinaigrette to show off the domestic vegetation. We tempered the virtuousness of this fresh and tasty combo with some Cheese Jimmys ($5.00):

 

... which were warm, buttery, flakey buns filled with melted Gruyere washed down with a floral, summery, 2007 Navarro Vineyard Edelzwicker.

We dug into crispy-skinned Petaluma chicken ($18.00):

 

... in a nest of fingerling potatoes, leek puree and artichoke hearts and a “Tavern cut” steak:

 

...(from the back/shoulder area) which was cooked to a perfect medium rare and served with house made bbq sauce and a sweetly oniony, shallot and green garlic butter. A row of fries had a counterpoint of peppery watercress in this cast iron pan of meaty matter augmented with the spice from a 2002 La Jota Cabernet.

The “cookie jar” ($9.00):

 

... of little, warm, toll cottages (speckled with both dark and milk chocolate chips) was served with ice cold milk was stripped of its G rating with a shot of Baileys ($7.00 supplement) while the rhubarb-strawberry crisp ($9.00):

 

... had a nice barby tang tempered by the berries and wedded with a big scoop of creme fraiche gelato.

We sipped on a heavenly, honeyed, 2007 Bonny Doon Le Vol des Angles before we took flight from this friendly downtown dining depot (with the major bonus of having validated parking included with the meal.)

 


Urban Tavern

333 O’Farrell St.
San Francisco, CA
415.923.4400