FlavorMonkey

During my recent trip to California I spent an evening in San Francisco with my workmates sampling the fare of some excellent establishments. One of the things that I thought was cool about SF was how everything is zoned together…you’ve got restaurants and businesses crammed together with residential homes plopped down on top of them. It all felt very temporal and communal…grass-roots and word-of-mouth.

The Monk’s Kettle

We started the evening off at the Monk’s Kettle which, at the time, had only been open for a month. Here’s what Yelp thinks about the place. They bill themselves as a “craft beer focused beer and wine tavern“. I would describe the feel as “modern cozy”…the bar was a huge, antique fireplace mantle and the decor was bathed in earth tones and natural textures.

Although they were serving up some pretty tasty looking food I focused my efforts on the liquid bread. My first pull was a beer that is no longer on their menu and I can’t remember what it was called although it included the terms, “one year” and “toast”. My efforts to google it have proved fruitless. It was a pretty tasty, crisp, hoppy beer. My second pull was the Fuller’s London Porter. Damn…that’s good beer. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I actually like it better than Guinness. Even though it’s a porter, it’s like an even better version of Guinness.

Walzwerk

After the Monk’s Kettle we headed over to Walzwerk for dinner. This is home-cooked food, Eastern German style. I was a bit skeptical at first because I come from a German family and my grandmother knew how to make German egg noodles like no other. But my workmate Knut Graff ensured me that it would be authentic food. He was so right. Yelp generally agrees as well.

I really appreciated the design of the restaurant…it was a blend of old German country decor, industrial materials & textures, and propaganda posters.One wall even sported the portraits of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. The bathroom was filled with German kitsch…lunch boxes, old consumer products, and vinyl from 60’s pop stars.

Here’s their dinner menu so you can reference the dishes I’m describing. We started off with the small potato pancakes - tasty - and the matjes herring - freaking INSANELY good. I didn’t know what to expect from the matjes, it’s served cold and the ingredients are a bit suspect but they all come together in an absolutely perfect combination of flavor. I ordered the “Vegetarian Cabbage Roulade.” Delicious. The two giant…err, “roulades” (I guess) were cabbage leaves filled with couscous-like rice, cauliflower, carrots, and some other veggies. It was topped with a slightly tangy tomato sauce similar to a marinara. The waitress accidentally ordered the “Cheese Spätzle” for us and brought it out for free. Oh, hells yeah. It was good. The egg noodles were as good as my grandmother’s. For desert we had the “Cold Dog” which was also very good.

After a couple of Spaten Optimators and all that heavy food, I was feeling pretty logy. And then a waiter brought us this magical elixir that goes by the name of Underberg.

I was told it aids in digestion. It tasted pretty awful. No, it tasted really awful. I’m not a fan of the black liquorice flavor, but combine that with bitter herbs and alcohol…yikes. Nevertheless, I downed it and it was quite refreshing despite the harsh taste. Sure enough, I quickly felt quite a bit better…far less sluggish; I think my eyes even popped open on their own accord. I’m looking for the stuff here in Austin. If you know of any place that sells it, let me know please.

So, if you find yourself in SF anytime soon do yourself a solid and check these places out!