San Francisco Treat-- RN 74

We took a couple of days off to visit the DeYoung Museum's Birth of Impressionism display which are works from the Musee D Orsay in Paris and the opening of the SFMOMA Fisher collection of Modern Art. As everyone knows you cannot go to San Francisco without taking in a few great restaurants. On our first night we went to Michael Mina's restaurant RN 74. http://michaelmina.net/restaurant.php?restaurant_id=3 The Chef Jason Berthold hails from the French Laundry and has deep roots in wine making.

The name comes from the designation of Road National 74 which is in the Burgundy region of France. The look and feel of the restaurant takes you back to a Train Station in 1940s. There are blackboards with lists of wines and prices rather than destinations and times, there are old train lanterns and the ceiling gives you that black and white movie underground train station feeling. RN74 is extremely active and busy lots of people in the bar and every dining table is filled.

Enough with the ambiance and to the important part the food and service. Our server Kenneth made us feel like we were the only customer by being attentive and informative. At one point their Sommelier came over and gave us an overview of the types of wines that they were featuring. We both started with their Endive and Strawberry Salad. The salad had the bitterness of the Endive, the sweetness of the strawberries and the saltiness of the Serrano Ham and Hidden in one of the strawberries there was almond yogurt. I had the Kurbota Pork which consisted of a tender medallion, a juicy sausage and a slow roasted short rib combined with farro and a pan roasted piece of peach. The sausage was awesome and I ate it as slowly as possible to enjoy all the tastes. My only complaint was that there was not enough, but I always have that complaint when the food is so good. My wife had the Sauteed Halibut with roasted corn asparagus and cipollini onion. Both dishes were excellent. To send us off the gave us an assortment of handmade confections that made the evening perfect.