Rotisserie enriches Hayes Valley
When it comes to restaurants, San Francisco’s Hayes Valley is the new Mission. Properties are opening there like we saw a few years ago on Valencia Street.
In the last year alone I’ve reviewed Nightbird, Corridor and A Mano. The latest, RT Rotisserie, adds another great option to the expanding neighborhood and for those visiting one of the nearby performance centers.
RT Rotisserie reflects several other trends — including the most obvious, rotisserie chicken. In addition the restaurant offers counter service and food with an impeccable pedigree from a well-known chef. At RT, on the corner of Oak and Franklin streets, Evan and Sarah Rich follow up their fully realized Rich Table that’s a block away from the new concept.
They take a similar path as other top fine-dining chefs who have opened quick-serve restaurants around the Bay Area: Dave Cruz, who made his name at Bouchon, opened Little Gem; Scott Clark, formerly of Saison, launched Dad’s Luncheonette; Camino’s Russell Moore opened Kebabery in Oakland; and Manresa’s Michael Gaines has his Mexican concept, Glena’s.
The quick-serve place is the wave of the future. And it makes a lot of sense in the Hayes Valley neighborhood, increasingly filled with young workers who want something fast and good. There’s also a built-in audience during performance season at the nearby opera, symphony, ballet and jazz venues, for people who want a bite before or after the event.
While RT Rotisserie may be quick-serve, there is no compromise in the quality, and the price is enticing. Rotisserie chicken is at the center of the menu, but this is no ordinary rotisserie chicken. The birds are brined for 24 hours in seasoned buttermilk then hung for two days to firm the flesh and concentrate the flavor. They are threaded on the rotisserie to cook, and right before serving they are passed under the broiler to further crispen the skin.
After all that preparation, Rich charges only $10 for a half chicken and $19 for the whole bird.
This labor-intensive technique produces one of the best rotisserie chickens I’ve had. It’s so good that I kept forgetting to use one of the four sauces provided: chimichurri, Douglas fir sour cream, chipotle yogurt and Nanny’s barbecue.
The other rotisserie item is a whole head of cauliflower ($9) that’s as golden as the chicken. It’s served on a bed of beet hummus and seasoned with smoked garlic, fried garlic and a scattering of fresh herbs. It’s outstanding. It comes with two sauces; my favorite is the Douglas fir sour cream where its lemon-meets-pine nuances accentuate the slightly smoky flavor.
This core menu is augmented with a couple of other options: a chicken sandwich ($12) stuffed into a ciabatta roll with mixed greens, pickled onions and garlicky aioli; and an equally enticing pork sandwich ($12) with at least eight layers of the thinly sliced, robust meat complemented with chipotle, charred cabbage and crunchy fried onions.
These sandwiches are so generous that they can easily serve two normal appetites when accompanied by one of the excellent salads or vegetables.
One staple is charred cabbage and almonds ($5) — a perfect treatment for this vegetable because the smokiness brings out the natural sweetness. There’s also a “market vegetable” or two that, on my most recent visit, was corn and tomatoes sprinkled with cotija cheese.
The RT salad ($10) is a bright, bountiful mix of greens with cucumbers, radishes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit and herbs. Diners can also have it topped with chicken or cauliflower for $3 more. Umami fries ($6) are thick spears of potatoes dusted in rice and porcini powder. They are really good, but I’m not sure why everyone is trying to embellish what is a near perfect food when properly fried and salted.
About the only other item on the menu is the chicken soup ($7); the bronze broth is accented with barley, greens, pickled onions and fresh lime. Again, the chef’s talent is evident in the rich, layered broth.
Dessert is a choice of one large chocolate mint cookie ($3) and soft-serve milk ice and sorbet ($5). I like the clean, lingering freshness of what they call milk ice even better than regular soft serve. The sorbets are memorable. On one visit, Sarah Rich offered a melon flavor, which seemed to capture the sweetness of the season in its frozen swirls.
From start to finish at RT, you see the influence of a fine dining sensibility. The staff is extremely friendly, and even though you order at the counter and take a number to the table, they circulate to remove plates and bring water, and are readily available if customers need anything. The interior features a mix of wood, tile and metal — a fresh, organic look that is like a more contemporary version of Rich Table.
RT Rotisserie is a modern concept that combines the best of two worlds — fast service and slow food — in a winning way.