February is all about Valentine’s Day, and you’ll find everything you need here in our neighborhood and those nearby to make your celebration a perfect one.
SWEETS FOR YOUR SWEET
If candy is on your list for Valentine’s Day (or Chinese New Year), the place to go is the appropriately named Sugarfina (1837 Union Street, 855-784-2734, sugarfina.com), which opened about a year ago and bills itself as A Luxury Candy Boutique. The store’s gimmick, for lack of a better word, is in its packaging: The candies are contained in clever Lucite cubes, which can be purchased separately, or gathered together to create a bento box of several varieties, often with a theme (like Valentine’s Day). But the candies and their ingredients are special, too: for example, the gummy bears come from Bavaria (those made with Dom Pérignon are a best seller, no surprise), hazelnuts from Piedmont, and fruit from the Greek Isles. These folks are serious about
their candy.
UNION STREET VALENTINE WINE WALK
Start your Valentine’s Day celebration early with the Union Street Has a Crush on You Valentine Wine Walk on Thursday, Feb. 11 from 4 to 8 p.m. Stroll with your sweetie as you shop and sip at participating locations from Gough to Steiner Streets and on Fillmore Street between Union and Lombard streets where merchants will offer wine samplings along with special treats. $25 advance tickets at sresproductions.com
and $30 day of (cash only) onsite at 2040 Union Street.
VALENTINE’S DAY MENU SPECIALS
These restaurants are offering Valentine’s Day menus and other specials (all prices are per person and are exclusive of tax and gratuity).
Here in the Marina, the crew at Spaghetti Bros. (3213 Scott Street, 415-400-8500, spaghettibrossf.com) plans to offer a prix-fixe menu featuring an amuse of Kumamoto oysters, arugula salad with pomegranates and goat cheese fritters, lobster mac ’n’ cheese, New York steak with truffled mushroom tart and bordelaise, and chocolate bread pudding with vanilla bean gelato ($75).
Around the corner at Causwell’s (2346 Chestnut Street, 415-447-6081, causwells.com), in addition to its regular menu, the restaurant also plans to offer a few special dishes — whatever looks fresh to the chef that morning — to celebrate with your favorite person.
What could be better than a meal with the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge? In Fort Mason, Greens (Building A, 2 Marina Boulevard, 415-771-6222, greensrestaurant.com), recently reopened from a remodeling of several areas of the dining room, is planning a three- to four-course prix-fixe menu with three to five options that include an appetizer, entrée, and dessert, plus entertainment, in addition to their regular Sunday brunch service. A menu will be available by phone beginning Feb. 1 ($130, $45 wine pairing).
You can’t beat the cozy, intimate interior of neighborhood favorite, the Brazen Head (3166 Buchanan Street, 415-921-7600, brazenheadsf.com), which also has late-night dining (until 1 a.m.). The regular menu will be available, which includes favorites like escargot, French onion soup, steaks (including their signature angus beef New York pepper steak), chops, prime rib, and more.
Up the hill in Russian Hill …
Cocotte (1521 Hyde Street, 415-292-4415, cocottesf.com) plans a menu including beef Wellington, scallops, macarons, and more with a French-California flair ($75).
La Folie (2316 Polk Street, 415-776-5577, lafoliesf.com) is offering a scrumptious menu of French favorites, including Russian caviar, oysters, asparagus soup with crab royale, poached John Dorey with Champagne-fines herbs sauce, Snake River Farm beef tenderloin with lacinato kale and black trumpet mushroom ragout, and truffle Madeira sauce or lobster and mushroom risotto, and a special dessert, Rouge Emblazed, with yogurt mousse, pomegranate coulis, burnt rose ice cream, black pepper hibiscus-raspberry coulis, and red wine meringue ($200).
Down the street at Lord Stanley (2065 Polk Street, 415-872-5512, lordstanleysf.com), enjoy an eight-course tasting menu featuring foie gras, caviar, vegetables, fish, beef, scallops, a vegetarian option, a pre-dessert, followed by the real dessert plus — yes, there’s more — a gift for the morning ($100 tasting menu, $60 wine pairing featuring 100 percent organic biodynamic wines from the Loire Valley, Burgundy, and other quality French wine appellations, plus sherry).
Over the hill in North Beach …
Rose Pistola (532 Columbus Avenue, 415-399-0499, rosepistolasf.com) will be offering a five-course tasting menu in addition to their regular menu along with live jazz starting at 8 p.m. ($60).
Park Tavern (1652 Stockton Street, 415-989-7300, parktavernsf.com), whose New Year’s Eve menu included such decadent dishes as Kobe beef tartare and roasted bone marrow, lobster-stuffed petrale sole, and maple crème brûlée, plans another similar prix-fixe menu available Feb. 1 ($85 tasting menu, $55 wine pairing).
Celebrate all weekend at Calzone’s (430 Columbus Avenue, 415-397-3600, calzonesf.com) and The Stinking Rose (325 Columbus Avenue, 415-781-7673, thestinkingrose.com), both of which will serve their full menu continuously throughout the day and evening. The restaurants never charge a corkage fee, so BYOB, and enjoy!
