Rotisserie ready to roll in Hayes Valley
On a dust-covered bench in a half-finished restaurant dining room, with power drills whirring in the kitchen nearby and hammers echoing downstairs, Sarah Rich and her husband, Evan, reflected on the road that brought them to RT Rotisserie (101 Oak St.), their second San Francisco restaurant, due to open Tuesday, May 30.
In 2012, the couple opened Rich Table (199 Gough St.). The Hayes Valley restaurant was a hit from day one, with an eclectic menu and panache for mixing fine dining elements with a casual atmosphere.
“We’ve kind of just established ourselves as Rich Table,” Evan Rich said. “That’s part of the downfall of not having a concept or whatever. It’s just damn good food.”
The new project is only a block or so from their flagship, and in a very similar capacity, it could serve as a barometer of the couple’s evolving lives. Rich Table was a physical embodiment of the tastes they had as young adults, but as their family grew, so did their love for simple, shareable meals.
“When we built Rich Table, we built the place where we’d want to dine,” Sarah Rich said. “We wanted to create exactly where we’d want to go. The same is true for RT Rotisserie. This is what we want to be eating now. This is what we would eat every night, every day for lunch or take home to the kids.”
Over the last few weeks leading up to the opening, the Riches admit they’ve spent more time at the 46-seat, 800-square-foot restaurant than at home. Equipment needed to be checked and rechecked. Aesthetics required a meticulous eye, and passing inspections was of the utmost importance.
As taxing as all that sounds, the hectic schedule is what the duo has grown accustomed to as young restaurateurs.
“I don’t want this to come out the wrong way, like our lives are only work, but Rich Table and RT Rotisserie have become interwoven into the daily routines of our lives. It’s an extension of our home,” Evan Rich said.
RT Rotisserie features a menu of chicken, porchetta and cauliflower, with all three offered as sandwiches served on house-baked Dutch crunch bread ($10-$12), or salads ($9-$12). Other small dishes include oysters ($3.50 each) and sides like “umami fries,” roasted herb potatoes and charred cabbage with almonds ($4-$6). Overall, the restaurant will have the same vibe as its nearby sibling, but with a more casual environment and a focus on counter service.
Open throughout the day for lunch and dinner, the price point will be lower, too. Rich Table has entrees up to $38 and a multicourse tasting menu that runs $95 per person, while nothing on the RT Rotisserie menu is over $21.
Changes at Chez: Cal Peternell will hang up his chef’s jacket on July 5 after 22 years at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse (1517 Shattuck Ave).
Peternell said he still has a passion to cook and that coming to work every day at Alice Waters’ landmark kitchen still had its luster.
“I felt like partly I wanted to go while I was still loving it,” Peternell said. “It’s just more I wanted to do my own thing a little bit. And, really,
just find out what that thing is.”
Though Peternell said future career options outside of a traditional kitchen post “are deliciously open,” he does have a few concrete plans. He will publish his third cookbook in the near future, and also launch his “Cooking by Ear” podcast.
Peternell’s curtain call over the next month or so will feature menus inspired by former staffers at the restaurant, like Wednesday’s homage to the cuisine of Jean-Pierre Moulle. Moulle retired from Chez Panisse in 2012 after joining the restaurant in 1975. Other menu inspirations will include Gilbert Pilgrim (Zuni Cafe), Peggy Smith (Cowgirl Creamery), David Tanis, Christopher Lee and Jerome Waag.
Vegas, baby: A Las Vegas outpost of San Francisco’s modern Vietnamese restaurant, the Slanted Door (1 Ferry Building), will open in 2018, marking chef-owner Charles Phan’s first foray outside of California.
The move isn't a surprise, especially when considering how vocal Phan has been over the years about finding new locations for restaurants. A few years ago, when he started laying out plans to open in Los Angeles, a project inundated with delays ever since, Phan mentioned to The Chronicle that he was also eyeing a move to New York.
Sin City's version of the Slanted Door is taking shape in an 8,200-square-foot space at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, a massive shopping center often recognized as one of the top-performing in the world.