Stylish, must-visit spot near Monterey
In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Wine section.
The restaurant scene on the Monterey Peninsula can be a little sleepy. There are lots of good choices, but few could compete in a one-on-one matchup of what you’d find in San Francisco. Many are, charmingly, frozen in time.
Yet on a recent trip to Carmel, I was impressed with a new restaurant called Salt Wood Kitchen and Oysterette that opened at the end of September in the Sanctuary resort in Marina, a town about 10 miles north of Monterey.
The restaurant has made an impressive entry into the dining scene in terms of both the food and the interior. This is a destination worth the 25-minute drive from Carmel.
The chef is David Baron, whom I first became acquainted with when he modernized the menu at Casanova, which has been one of the most popular restaurants in Carmel since it opened 40 years ago. At Salt Wood, Baron has created an approachable menu that concentrates on seafood but has excellent fried chicken and other offerings that will appeal to a broad range of diners.
The stylish restaurant has an almost East Coast look, with white walls, recycled-wood floors and impressive box-beam ceiling. The restaurant also incorporates an open kitchen, an oyster bar, a two-sided cocktail bar and a grouping of furniture in front of an impressive floor-to-ceiling steel-fronted fireplace that turns the area into a comfortable lounge.
Careful attention is paid to details — from the green, knobby water glasses to the gunmetalgray utensils to the individual lights over the table.
There’s also a room and terrace that can be rented out for corporate events and weddings. It’s bound to be a popular destination.
What will really lure me back, however, is Baron’s food. The menu features five kinds of oysters ($3 raw or $4 dressed) that can be wood-grilled and served with kimchi butter; béarnaise and tarragon pesto; and spicy sausage and bread crumbs. The three accompaniments for the chilled oysters include the “bloody Mary” with freshly grated horseradish; apple gelee with finger lime; and melon cucumber.
We enjoyed the firstof-the season crab remoulade ($16) with big chunks of seafood in a light sauce accompanied by pink peppercorn potato chips. Whole crab was also on the menu, but I went for the Monterey squid ($13) stuffed with chorizo, kale and preserved lemons in Romesco sauce, and wild California halibut with corn, sweet peppers and tomatoes — a dish that seemed to be pushing the boundaries of summer a little too much.
The menu offers many non-seafood options such as almond-wood roasted carrots ($8) and ember-roasted squash. Baron also prepares excellent fried chicken ($26) served on a round slice of wood with a cheddar biscuit and a cast iron pot filled with braising greens. The board also contains stainless steel containers for house-made hot sauce and pickled peppers.
Other main courses include a cheeseburger ($18); pork chop ($31); and braised lamb shank ($31).
Cocktails are well made; the wine list offers some reasonably priced selections.
Salt Wood is a restaurant I’ll be sure to return to on my next trip to the Monterey Peninsula.
3295 Dunes Road, Marina; (831) 883-5535 or www.saltwoodkitchenandoysterette.com Lounge opens at 3 p.m. nightly; dinner 5-10 p.m. nightly. Reservations accepted.
Foxsister, the Salzburg: Bar or restaurant?
I’ve written about how the cultures of bars and restaurants are merging, but the difference and/or similarity of the two is aptly illustrated at two recently opened businesses: Foxsister in the Mission and The Salzburg in North Beach.
Both offer a more casual vibe than you’ll find at a traditional restaurant, but the menus go far beyond typical bar food. It’s the type of atmosphere that speaks to the current generation of young diners.
Foxsister is downright fun. Its psychedelic exterior walls are striped with hot pink, blue, gold, aqua, purple and orange (now I’m aging myself ); inside, strings of clear and jalapeño lights crisscross the ceiling above bright red banquettes. The menu offers a playful approach to both Korean food and cocktails.
Diners can order kimchi nachos cheese dip ($12), pork and beef dumplings ($12), and fried oysters and crispy mung bean pancake with spicy ground beef ($12). All these seemed designed to go with the signature soju slushies ($12), an adult version of what you’ll find in the machines at 7-Eleven. The slushies come in three flavors: pina colada; peach daiquiri; and watermelon, ginger and lime (the best).
There’s also more substantial fare such as Dungeness crab noodles with bok choy ($19); slowcooked ribs ($14/$26); and fried chicken ($19 for half ) with a choice of three sauces: a dry seasoning of seaweed salt; one that’s gooey sweet from red chile paste and honey; or garlic and soy.
The hot pink menu and bold graphics telescope the whimsical aspect of the restaurant; clearly this isn’t serious food, but it’s seriously fun. The Salzburg: The look and feel of the Salzburg, designed to be a wine bar, is a little more understated. The long, narrow restaurant is saved from seeming claustrophobic by high-peaked ceilings, white walls and inlaid wood floors. There’s also a patio in back with seating around a fire pit.
The food looks to Austria, and the wine list offers about 50 wines by the glass.
Most people will no doubt order the big puffy pretzel with a beercheese spread ($11), and there’s also a flammkuchen ($13), a flatbread with smoked bacon, caramelized onions and crème fraiche. Meatballs made of Wagyu beef are paired with spätzle ($16), which they call a stroganoff, and there’s a schnitzel sandwich ($14) made with breaded fried pork and topped with fennel slaw.
However, the stars are the sausages ($14), including some of the juiciest bratwurst I’ve encountered.
Salzburg may be a wine bar, but going for the food can’t be far behind the desire for a glass or two of wine.
Foxsister, the Salzburg and other spirit-centric establishments such as the Saratoga now offer more extensive food than you’d find in a bar a few years ago. But the success of these places is also influencing restaurants, where service has become more casual and the menus more eclectic, moving away from the traditional appetizer, main course and dessert offerings. With each new restaurant or bar opening, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the two apart.