Tiny space, big flavors
Newcomer Huxley shows a sure hand with thoughtful fare and service that’s worth the trip
As The Chronicle Food staff brainstormed at a recent meeting, one topic of discussion — and angst — was the realization that smaller restaurants are getting squeezed out of San Francisco, much like the middle class.
In many cases, these sorts of spots are ones that might start with modest ambitions, and in marginal areas, but wind up transforming their neighborhoods and capturing the soul of the city. I’m talking about places like Frances, State Bird Provisions and Delfina. They set San Francisco’s dining scene apart and enrich the entire Bay Area.
Long-term residents will remember when opening a restaurant in the Mission or Hayes Valley was considered a pioneering effort. Now another area is emerging — the Tenderloin.
One of the places leading the charge on the northern edge of the area is Huxley, located on Geary between Larkin and Hyde; it’s not an awful neighborhood, but many of the apartments seem to be way stations that people rent when they first arrive in the city before moving to other parts of town.
Like the Mission before it, the Tenderloin may become the place for young entrepreneurs who want to be released from larger kitchens to follow their own paths.
Huxley is the vision of Kristopher Esqueda, who was instrumental in the launch of Saison and Sons & Daughters. The kitchen is the domain of Sara Hauman from Bar Agricole and consulting chef Brett Cooper, who made a sensation at Outerlands and now is working on his own restaurant.
The intimate space has only 25 seats, and 10 are at counters squeezed around the bar and storefront windows. The space seems almost too small to sustain the stylish food being prepared, yet diners can see when they walk in that care was taken at every step.
Heath-like green ceramic tile covers the counter between the dining room and open kitchen. Slatted park-style benches line one wall, and the black metal tables are stenciled with a design that resembles a very good tattoo. It goes well with the inked arms of Esqueda and other staff members, including veteran waiters who know the right moves.
The place has a youthful vibe, but Hauman’s food has a studied maturity. The compact menu consists of a half-dozen small plates, four appetizers and four main courses ranging from $17 to $35.
One night I ordered the rabbit special, a rustic preparation where the half carcass was smothered in a mustard sauce with mushrooms. It was excellent, but I was surprised when I got the check and saw it was $42. Even though the cost may be justified, it makes me wonder how it will play to the neighborhood crowd.
Yet much of the food is worth a trip and, like the interior, has a natural, organic feel.
The menu includes such things as avocado toast ($8) where thin slices are fanned over toasted Jane bread slathered with uni aioli and topped with a seaweed and sesame
mixture. Smoked trout ($10) is enhanced with two crisp sheets of skin, a mound of fromage blanc, golden beets and very thin whole wheat crackers.
Other times the trout may be replaced with such items as corned beef tongue ($6) where paper-thin slices drape like silk around a pile of whole grain mustard. It’s excellent but wasn't accompanied by bread, which is an extra $4 on the menu. However, the meat seemed made for the complimentary pickled vegetables — beets, carrots, cauliflower and cucumbers — which are brought to the table in a small glass soon after diners settle in.
Cauliflower soup ($10) tastes of the vegetable, which is cara- melized to intensify the flavor; it’s garnished with fenugreek oil and yogurt. The kitchen’s deft hand is also apparent on the baby kale salad ($10); the dressing has the right amount of sherry vinegar to soften the oxalic acid of the greens, and the entire composition is smoothed with Pecorino Ginepro cheese.
The menu changes often. On several visits, the chef prepared a generous appetizer of butter beans and leeks ($15) augmented with the richness of a fried egg, the crunch of frisee and the umami of bottarga. Manila clams ($13), another recommended starter, rest in a pool of tomato broth with garbanzo beans, fennel and a subtle hit of mint.
Main courses include farro porridge ($13), with a texture that’s a cross between oatmeal and risotto, flavored with wild mushrooms, hazelnuts and medjool dates that add occasional sweet bursts. Unfortunately, it was a bit oversalted.
So was the otherwise wellprepared beef short rib pot pie ($21) with earthy rutabagas and too crunchy celery root. A little more gravy would have been welcomed to help moisten the crumbly crust.
The Mt. Lassen trout ($35), a fish that seems to be having its day in the spotlight, was on the menu on each visit, served whole with the head and tail hanging over the large plate. It’s a chore to bone, but the flesh is moist and carries the mild flavor of preserved lemons, set off nicely by the accompanying olives and roasted fingerling potatoes.
For dessert, the cornmeal jam tart ( $7) is the only baked offering; it’s serviceable, but the housemade ice creams (one scoop, $4; two scoops, $6; three, $8) are more satisfying.
The fine-dining credentials of the staff are on display at every turn. Wine glasses are what you’d find at the best restaurants, and the 10 by-the-glass selections ($11-$25) are mostly French. Service, while casual, is efficient — servers anticipate guests’ needs, pour the wine and relay a sense of helpfulness.
It all adds up to a restaurant that we may look back on in a few years as one that helped launch a neighborhood revival as well as the careers of a new generation of talent.