| Slanted success is no fluke.
Michael Bauer, Chronicle Restaurant Critic
Sunday, June 30, 2002
One Door closes, another opens to the delight
of diners in South Beach
In the real estate business -- and to some
extent the food business -- experts claim the keys to success are location,
location location. However, the Slanted Door proves it's something else. A prime
corner can help, of course, but twice this Vietnamese restaurant has taken over
a "bad" site and come up a winner.
When the innovative restaurant opened
on Valencia Street seven years ago, diners sometimes discovered they had to
weave around drug dealers and addicts to get to the door, but the restaurant
ended up instigating a revitalization of the area.
That location is now
closed for a yearlong expansion, and in the meantime the restaurant has
relocated to a seemingly cursed space in South Beach that has brought two
otherwise very successful operators to their knees. Yet, practically from the
day the new Slanted Door opened, customers have been standing three deep at the
bar, waiting for one of the 125 seats in the brasserie-style dining
room.
At the Embarcadero and Brannan Street, the building used to house
Embarko and most recently Live Fire, which was owned by well-known chef Fred
Halpert of Brava Terra in St. Helena and Brazio in Danville.
In
retrospect, Slanted Door's move was smart, but at the time the Phan family, with
13 members working in the business, wasn't quite sure. They wanted to keep
everyone employed during the Valencia Street expansion, so they packed up the
kitchen and moved across town. They sank $100,000 into adding a wok station to
the open kitchen and making a few cosmetic changes to the interior, such as
adding Art Deco-inspired sconces to go with the white tile walls, dark-wood
accents and stylish dark and light wood striped floor. The place looks a bit
corporate, but it is more spacious than the Valencia location and has 25 more
seats. With brown leatherlike booths and large windows overlooking the bay, the
interior has an open, airy atmosphere.
Chef Charles Phan's food and
presentation have always had a Western sensibility, which dovetails with the
brasserie here. Many dishes are based on Phan's mother's cooking and on ideas
he's gathered on trips to Vietnam, but he's taken the same liberties taken by
many American and European chefs. Most ingredients are organic, and the 34
dishes on the menu do not include the items found on most menus. Sure, there are
a few familiar specialties, but they're done better than just about anyone else:
spring rolls with shrimp, pork, mint and peanut sauce ($6.50); crispy imperial
rolls that you roll up in lettuce with fish sauce ($7.25); a stellar version of
green papaya salad ($7). But otherwise the menu takes a different
course.
The only soup, for example, is organic white corn and crab ($9),
a clean, intense chicken broth that marries the flavor of both ingredients
without adding much else to muck it up -- a little egg white for texture, green
onions and ginger for flavor.
Corn plays a major role in several dishes:
It's stir-fried with chunks of minced pork and green onions ($11.50), and
blended with morels ($10.50). Both combinations bring out the sweetness of the
kernel; I can't resist ordering one of them every time I go to Slanted
Door.
Like a really good Chinese stir-fry, Phan's dishes on the daily
changing menu are simply conceived with rarely more than an ingredient or two to
complement the star: organic baby bok choy paired with shiitake mushrooms ($8.
50); green beans with honshimeji, a meaty white mushroom ($9.50); or caramelized
shrimp with onions and chile sauce ($14.75).
TOP-QUALITY
INGREDIENTS
This technique brings out the best in each component, so Phan
naturally uses top-quality ingredients. The shrimp he favors are fresh Florida
wild Gulf prawns -- they're extremely sweet and have a delicate crunch and
tenderness. One night he paired them with baby bok choy and mushrooms, another
time with Mediterranean cucumbers ($21). Both vegetables are mild flavored and
helped support the delicacy of the seafood.
The grilled pork loin
($16.50) always has a more European presentation. First marinated in lemongrass,
shallots and fish sauce, it's charred on the outside, sliced from the bone and
simply arranged on the platter with a ginger- shallot-soy sauce. Once it was
accompanied by baby turnips, another time with crispy sweet
potatoes.
Phan is just beginning to add new dishes created in the wood
oven -- something he didn't have at the Valencia Street location -- such as
roasted oysters with quail eggs ($9.50), beets with crispy shallots ($8.25) and
halibut in a spicy ginger sauce ($18.50).
Many signature dishes have made
the move to Brannan Street with no dip in quality: the grilled rack of lamb,
crispy but succulent with tamarind sauce ($26.50); shaking beef, browned cubes
of tenderloin with garlic and organic spring onions ($18.50); and chicken clay
pot with a sweet caramel sauce balanced with chiles and fresh ginger
($12.75).
Many Asian restaurants skimp with desserts (all $6), but at the
Slanted Door you'll find at least eight, and the selections change daily. You'll
always get a very good example of the classic creme brulee and flourless
chocolate cake with fresh cream. Many of the offerings are fruit based, and, as
with many Asian desserts, they tend to be less sweet than Western versions. You
might try a creamy frozen yogurt souffle with a rhubarb compote in a strawberry
soup, or warm apricots wrapped in a phyllo crisp topped with hazelnut ice cream
and surrounded by a drizzle of caramel and Thai basil sauce.
Dessert
sales have doubled in the new location, Phan reports, which also means that
people linger at the table. When you consider the new cocktail service as well,
you begin to understand why there is often a wait for a table,
even with
reservations. That was also a problem at the old location, but at least now
there's a pleasant bar in which to pass the time.
In addition, the
kitchen still gets backed up, so there can be additional waits between courses.
The service, while generally efficient, can be a little scattered. Not every
waiter knows the dining room or is comfortable with the menu. On one visit ours
was at a loss to describe various dishes.
REWARDS ARE
GREAT
Relatively speaking, the annoyances are minor and the rewards are
great. Even customers who loved the Valencia Street location are trying to
persuade the Phans to stay on the Embarcadero, but the family is being cautious.
Restaurants, after all, are a risky business, especially in this economic
climate. The dining public can be fickle. Yet while other businesses are
suffering, theirs is booming, largely because they are all so involved in
running the operation.
The Phans seem to remember something others have
forgotten: It's called the hospitality industry for a reason. They take care of
family and customers, giving them good value, great food and an overall good
experience. Maybe the Phans have discovered the true keys to success in the
restaurant business.
Wine focus is food
Mark Ellenbogen has created a
wine list at the Slanted Door that turns its back on convention and focuses
exclusively on the food. That's why you won't find an American Chardonnay or
Cabernet Sauvignon in the wine rack.
It's a gutsy gesture, but it allows
diners to find wines that perfectly match Charles Phan's full-flavored,
sometimes spicy Vietnamese food.
Ellenbogen has included more than a
dozen Rieslings and softer reds, such as Pinot Noir (there are nine from France,
Oregon, California and Germany), Syrah and Cabernet Franc. If there's a problem,
it's that many of the wines aren't familiar. Not every staff member has
extensive knowledge either, so selecting a wine can be somewhat
challenging.
Fortunately, the list gives a few clues. In the white and
dry section, diners are advised to "avoid with spicy dishes." There's a section
for "floral and delightfully dry" and "truly softer -- best choice with spicy
dishes." Also the wines are so well selected that you can choose anything and be
assured of a good wine.
The markups are on a sliding scale, so a $100
bottle will be a relatively good deal. Wines in the lower price ranges have
higher markups, and there are few bottles for less than $26. The 10 wines on the
by-the-glass list also tend to be high-priced, with half of them costing $10 or
more.
Corkage is $15.
Slanted Door
Address: 100 Brannan St. (at
the Embarcadero)
Phone:(415) 861-8032
Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-3
p.m. daily. Dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Sunday-
Thursday and 5:30-10:30 p.m.
Friday-Saturday. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted. Street
parking, generally easy.
------------
RATING KEY
FOUR
STARS........Extraordinary
THREE STARS.......Excellent
TWO
STARS.........Good
ONE STAR..........Fair
Wines listed above are
generally available but may not be in all stores. To locate them, start with
your local wine merchant, but also try larger stores and
supermarkets.
Michael Bauer's reviews are online at sfgate.com. He is the
author of "The Secrets of Success Cookbook." E-mail him at
mbauer@sfchronicle.com.
OVERALL: THREE AND
A HALF STARS
Food: THREE AND A HALF
STARS
Service: TWO AND A HALF
STARS
Atmosphere: THREE STARS
PRICES: $$
NOISE
RATING: FOUR BELLS
PLUSES: Extraordinary
Vietnamese-inspired food. Pleasant brasserie
surroundings. Excellent wine
list.
MINUSES: Sometimes the kitchen can get backed up. Even with
reservations,
there's often a wait.
RATINGS KEY
FOUR
STARS: Extraordinary
THREE
STARS: Excellent
TWO
STARS: Good
ONE
STAR:
Fair
(box):
Poor
$ Inexpensive:
entrees under $10
$$
Moderate: $10-$17
$$$ Expensive: $18-$24
$$$$ Very Expensive: more than $25
Prices
based on main courses. When entrees fall between these categories, the prices of
appetizers help determine the dollar ratings.
ONE
BELL: Pleasantly quiet (under 65
decibels)
TWO BELLS: Can talk
easily (65-70)
THREE BELLS: Talking normally
gets difficult (70-75)
FOUR BELLS: Can
only talk in raised voices (75-80)
BOMB: Too noisy for
normal conversation (80+)
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