How do you dress up casual, home-spun food? Keep the menu simple ~ 5 appetizers, 5 entrees, 2 desserts ~ post it only on the chalkboard (bring your readers), serve on white plates over naturally worn, butcher-paper covered tables, and make each plate pushed out of the kitchen taste like you could have cooked it yourself if only you had the time and a staff of 6. This is Bar Jules.
On a crisp autumn evening, I ordered the beet salad with goat cheese and the pork tenderloin with creamed cannelloni and roasted carrots. The chioggia beets were not too hard, not too soft, but just right atop mixed greens with the goat cheese crostini astride. Thankfully, the tenderloin was served with the bone and a piece of the shoulder ~ the loin was a bit stiff from all that slow-cooking but the shoulder was meltingly tender. Carrots were roasted whole with a bit of the greens and the creamed beans lay underneath it all with a bit of orange and cinnamon-infused gravy for good measure. A good-sized portion, I still are every bite.
The meal was hearty and satisfying without the heaviness that often accompanies autumnal cooking and, by not weighing me down, gave me an opportunity to watch the entire performance by the Berlin Philharmonic shortly after its completion. Of course, walking the 4 blocks to the concert hall helped, too.
I am delighted to have an alternative to the old stand-by Absinthe, in Hayes Valley and another solid choice for a pre-symphony meal.
http://barjules.com/Labels: casual dining, hayes valley, san francisco