Crackers at the Ritz

I am falling so behind. Oh my goodness! I can't keep up! All this celebrating, and no time to write about it!

Okay, so I have 3 blogs I am dying to write, and time to only write one. So, we'll start with the first one, regarding Tuesday, and then stay tuned for the Wed. stories.

Tues. May 9th was my official day-after-your-birthday celebration. That's what Dave calls it because the place we wanted to go to for my birthday wasn't open on Monday. Guess where we had our official day-after-your-birthday celebration? At the Ritz Carlton San Francisco. Okay, now before any of you out there start to get the impression that we are hoity toity types, let me just state that "WE ARE NOT HOITY TOITY TYPES!" We just really love amazing food, and we do something incredibly indulgent about twice a year. And what better time to indulge than for a birthday, don't you think?

Let me start by demonstrating that we are not Hoity Toity. When we walked into The Dining Room at the Ritz, it was exceedingly evident that we did not belong there. All the men in the restaurant were dressed in tuxedos or Armani suits. Dave actually fit in very well with his very classy custom made suit (from Hong Kong). The women were all dressed in black evening gown with spaghetti straps and deep necklines, wearing diamond strings to accentuate their collar bones. It's like they were all in a predetermined uniform.....which I didn't get the memo about. I walked in wearing a peach floral summer dress! Oh my! Thank goodness they seated us at the very first table they came to. People must have been staring agast!

From my point of view, we got the best table in the house. We got seated right by the entry hall, which meant that we could see the whole restaurant and watch everyone who came in and out. People-watching heaven!!!! It's like we were hosting a party :-) Many of the guests said hello and good-bye to us as they arrived and left. They do this in Europe everywhere actually. Whenever you enter or leave a restaurant in Germany in particular, everyone in the restaurant says hello (Gutten Tag or Gutten Abend) and good-bye (Wiedesehn). It is very, very nice, but we don't normally do that here at home. So, it felt very European to have this happening at the Ritz.

We had been to the Ritz San Francisco once about 9 years ago, and hadn't really been very impressed. Our favorite French restaurant at the time was Masa's, which is a small boutique restaurant with a very creative menu. The Ritz menu was more traditional and was very good, but didn't leave us wanting more. I know we should have given them a try again, but we just didn't feel motivated. So each year for many years, we continued one of our semi-annual adventures each year at Masa's, until about 2 years ago. We went there for my Birthday that year and were fairly disappointed with the menu. They had just changed chefs so we figured the chef hadn't really settled in yet. So, we tried them again later in the year. Again, it just wasn't the same, and worse, our favorite waiter Michael was gone. Okay, so here is my aside about waiters.

Dave and I have been very fortunate to have been able to dine in some really exquisite places. Most of them have spectacular food and we leave feeling like our bodies just went to heaven. Certainly the cuisine and skill of the chef makes a huge difference, but the thing that really sets one restaurant apart from the others as far as making people want to come back is the service. The food can be amazing, but if the service isn't good the whole experience suffers. The one thing I have discovered is that when you get to a certain level of dining, the wait staff really gets that they are there to host you. To make you feel at home and give you the best dining experiece ever. This requires the same skills that hosting a dinner party at your home does. You want each guest to feel comfortable, in the way that works best for them.

So, for instance, many guests at these restaurants want a sophisticated, formal atmosphere, which is actually pretty easy for a waiter in this environment to affect. These guys have worked their ways up to these places, so they have had work with a lot of "hoity toity" types, and it becomes par for the course. Not easy, but easy for them. But if you have guests like Dave and me walk in, it pushes your hosting talent. We look for "passionate about food," friendly, and with a sense of humor. Fortunately, the fine dining crowd has become younger and more relaxed in the past 10 years, but still many waiters seem to have a hard time dealing with them. This new crowd just isn't "proper" enough. Right? In the movie "Titanic" they made the distinction between Old Money (the right and proper rich), and New Money (us kids who have no right rubbing elbows with the rich. We're the ones that have to work for everything we get...the working class). You can tell how well trained a wait staff is by how they deal with the newer crowd. The "hoity toity" waiter expects you to act properly. From my point of view that means that he percieves that you are there to make HIM happy. The world-class waiter expects of himself to make you comfortable. He is there to make YOU happy.

Okay, why the big aside? Because at a nice restaurant service means everything to me. Especially since I hate doing the whole "hoity toity" thing. It's sooooooo boring, and I can't pull it off anyways. And losing Michael at Masa's dramatically changed our experience there. We ended up with a very efficient, very proper, hoity toity waiter, and I couldn't wait to leave. Dave would say something really funny to me and I would start to laugh (and I always laugh a bit too loudly), and I would get looked at disapprovingly by this waiter. So I had to sit there quietly all evening. In the past, Michael would laugh with us. The tables around us wanted to know what was going on because we were having such a good time. Many of them joined in the conversation and it was like a big party through the evening. I'm not knocking Masa's, we'll try them again soon I'm sure, I'm just saying that our experience the last 2 times we were there was very similar to the experience we had at the Ritz about 9 years ago. So, it was time for us to search for a new favorite.

Anyways, Dave found out that our favorite Masa's chef had moved to the Ritz in SF, so it seemed like a good time for us to give the Ritz a try again. And OMG are we glad we did! The food was absolutely amazing. I was talking to the waiter about Ron Siegel, the chef, and how he seemed to be having so much fun at the Ritz. His dishes were so creative and had such surprising flavors. Benjamin, our waiter, told us that Ron has complete freedom here. He goes to the farmer's market twice a week and buys whatever he fancies that day. No budget limits, no menu limits. He creates his menu, and at the Ritz they have the clientele to pay for whatever he decides to whip up. So, he gets to "play" every day. And you can really tell how much he loves it.

After we sat down and ordered, little taster plates came out one at a time. None of this stuff was on the menu, but Mr. Siegel was trying out some new items, and wanted to see how the guests liked them. So the waiter kept coming out with something unexpected. At one point he told us he didn't know when our real menu items would start arriving, because the chef kept wanting to send out more new stuff. How fun!!!! One of the tasters was a sea urchin mouse, garnished with peppercorns, and served in a martini glass. It was absolutely delectable. Who'd have thought? No one makes sea urchin, because it can be poisonous and is incredibly difficult to cook.

Finally our menu items started to arrive. I had ordered Mr. Siegel's famed 9 course Salt and Pepper Menu, and Dave ordered the 6 course tasting menu. The reason my menu is famous is because they use all sorts of salt and pepper from all over the world in the dishes. My first course was a dungeness crab claw, wrapped with spot prawn shashimi, flavored with Kauai sea salt, topped with pink peppercorns, resting in a small protion of rice vinegar. It was melt-in-your-mouth incredible. My favorite dish of the evening was my Foie Gras. My menu came with it, and Dave added a house foie gras to his menu, so we got to try both. My foie gras was flavored with long pepper and served with huckleberries, apple reduction, and tonka bean essence. It was light and savory. It was also huge. They gave me twice as much foie gras as I've ever been served before. And it was absolutely amazing. Each bite just melted on my tongue. It was truly the best foie gras I've ever had. Dave's foie gras was served with spicy pickled huckleberries and a crouton. It was delightful, but sweeter than mine, so I preferred mine to his.

Oh yes, I also had the TAHITIAN VANILLA SEA SALT & MUNTOCK WHITE PEPPER
seared toro with beech mushrooms and mirin reduction. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? But what was most surprising about this dish was that they served it with fresh wasabi. Benjamin brought out a little grater and a stick of wasabi and grated it right there at the table. It was so smooth, almost creamy. Nothing like the stuff we are used to getting at sushi places. Dave tried it straight up and loved it. It still had that wasabi "heat" but it was really delicate. Incredible!

I won't go through all the menu items, but let's just say that the meal kept us in awe the whole evening. For me, even the sorbet taster before desert sat in a delicate champaigne and was topped with a sprinkling of green peppercorns. Again, who'd have thought? It was a very refreshing mix of sweet and spicy.

And then after all of that, my favorite part of the meal came. The chocolate cart. This is something that Masa's does, and I've never seen it anywhere else.....until now. They come out with a cart of freshly made candy concoctions. Chocolate, tarts, bites of pound cake flavored in special ways, mocha marshmellows, pistachio taffy, and of course lollipops. Once at Masa's a woman at the table next to me suggested that Michael leave the cart between her and me so we could graze. We all laughed at the joke, but Michael winked and suddenly had to grab someone a glass of wine. She and I took in the smells of all the chocolate and then he served us each one piece of everything. I'd been craving that same experience ever since, and here it was.

As the chocolate cart arrived at other tables the waiters would explain each treat to the guest and they would pick whatever few pieces they want. Benjamin brought the cart over and proceeded to serve me one of each little treat. He didn't even ask, he just knew. I felt like I had gotten permission to be really bad, and I didn't even have to ask. Woohoooo!!!!

Benjamin was like that all evening. He was so much fun. Early in the evening Dave gave me my birthday present. I went speachless when I openned a beautiful pair of earrings. Benjamin saw the look on my face and came over to admire the earrings. I promptly ran (well mossied quickly) to the restroom to put them on. When I came back Benjamin did his oo-ing and ah-ing...he was so good at this :-) Then Dave leaned over to him and said "good thing I didn't bring the lingerie she's getting later. She might have put that on and modeled it too!" Benjamin got a big grin on his face, then blushed. He said politely "thanks for sharing that thought." Then he ran away. Dave is sooooooo bad.

Later, after we ate our foie gras and I had that blissful post-foie gras look on my face, Benjamin asked how it was. Dave said politely, it was very good. I sprung to life and exclaimed that "it was insane!!!!!!" Benjamin laughed. Turning to Dave he said "she certainly has a way with words doesn't she?" We all had a good laugh.

Our Sommelier was also a very delightful person. He was French and as soon as he found out we were moving to France, he wanted to talk all about it. It turns out he lived right outside of Lyon, which is actually where we might end up living, so he had all sorts of great advice for us. It was wonderful. Plus he recommended some amazing wines. We started with a light Riesling to go with the beginning lighter portion of the meal. Then when the meat started arriving he served us a very different Pinot Noir. It came from a winery in Newburg, OR just outside of Portland, so the grapes have a very different flavor. It didn't really taste like a Pinot Noir, but I'd never tasted anything like it. It was really yummy (technical term)!

And at the end of the evening, when they brought me out a little birthday treat with a candle Benjamin shared that his birthday was on May 8th. When I told him that the 8th was my real birthday too (not Tuesday which was the 9th) he exclaimed "No wonder we get along so well!" So, another May 8ther to add to the club. I love those May 8th types!

As we waited for the bill, one of the couples who had become louder and louder through the evening as they drank their wine, got ready to leave. They were two very, very striking men dressed up in tuxedos. Dave called one of them "the rock star" because his blonde hair was moussed straight up in the air. As he left the restaurant he grinned broadly at as, tilted his head back, waggled his fingers and said "au revoir." We smiled and returned the au revoir. As his boyfriend started to walk by us Dave asked him how he liked his dinner. He had had the same thing I had had, so Dave was curious to see how he liked it. Through him we found out that the "rock star" was actually a travel writer and was reviewing the restaurant. He was up from LA for the weekend and "expected" his boyfriend to go to all these rich meals with him! I said gently "it must be rough." He exclaimed "it is! It is!" He explained that he couldn't control his diet this way, and the hotel was insisting that they stay there for the night. But he just wanted to go home!!! (He had a posh flat in San Francisco.) "You have no idea how rough this is!" he exclaimed in frustration. But then he calmed down and bid us adieux and was off to meet the rock star.

Oh my, what an evening that was! I'll never forget it. Dave did sooooooo good. And now we have a new favorite restaurant in SF. So when we are in the mood of an indulgence, and we want to know that it will be "so worth it," now we know where to go. Wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!


Here is the link to the menu for Tuesday night, just in-case you're curious:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/hotels/san_francisco/dining/venues/dining_room/menu.html


If you're interested, here is a little info about Chef Ron Siegel:

http://www.ritzcarlton.com/hotels/san_francisco/overview/pressreleases/ron+siegel+named+chef+of+the+dining+room+at+the+ritz-carlton,+san+francisco.html