Quick Bite - Craftsman & Wolves (San Francisco)

So, a little while back, my husband and I went to San Francisco for a weekend getaway.  True to form, I did some research beforehand in regards to places to eat while we were in town.  After reading a ton of restaurant reviews, food blogs, etc., the name of one place in particular kept popping up, Craftsman & Wolves.  According to their website, Craftsman & Wolves is a "contemporary pâtisserie located in San Francisco’s vibrant Mission district" on Valencia St.   It is an industrial looking, but very sophisticated bakery, helmed by a James Beard-nominated pastry chef, William Werner.  We decided to make it a "must try" while we were in San Francisco.

Now, Craftsman & Wolves offers an ever changing menu of breakfast pastries, cakes, confections, desserts, lunch, and other savory items. When you walk in, you are greeted by a huge counter with mountains of beautiful looking muffins, pastries, sandwiches, and other mouth-watering treats.  Everything behind the glass looked utterly delicious.

However, after all of my research, I was there for one thing, and one thing only....the myth, the "foodie" legend, a special muffin called "The Rebel Within."  Now, "The Rebel Within" not only sounds cool, it is an actual food celebrity.  I have seen it featured on a number of shows on the Food Network, and it has had a number of articles written about it in several magazines.  Apparently, it has quite a following. 

Now, "The Rebel Within" is basically a savory muffin, made with asiago cheese, sausage, and green onion.  What makes this muffin so unique is that it has a whole, soft-cooked egg buried in the middle of it!  You order the muffin and it just looks like a normal muffin, but then you cut it in half and you discover the magic buried within...

The muffin itself is dense and chewy, and then you get a perfectly cooked egg inside with the still runny yolk oozing out of the middle.  It was egg, bread, cheese, sausage all rolled into one very complex muffin. 

Along with my very tasty muffin, I had one of Craftsman & Wolves' artful coffee drinks, which was expertly poured by one of their super talented barristas.  The coffee was fantastic, and with my egg-filled muffin, I have to say it was a pretty perfect way to start the day. 

I have chosen now to write about this delicious treat because I recently learned that Craftsman & Wolves in going to be opening a Southern California location in the Culver City area.  The anticipated opening date is Summer 2015.  I believe it will be a huge success in the So Cal area and I highly recommend checking it out.

Dinner at The Factory Kitchen (Downtown L.A.)

After reading some positive reviews, and getting a personal recommendation from a friend, we recently decided to try out an Italian eatery, in the thriving Arts District of Downtown L.A., called The Factory Kitchen.  Now, I thought this was a strange name for an Italian trattoria, but apparently it takes its name from the street it is located on, Factory Pl.   The restaurant occupies a tightly packed space, in what was probably on old loading dock, in a former factory building whose upper floors have been converted into residential lofts. Like many of the newer restaurants we’ve been to lately, especially in Downtown L.A., the interior design is “industrial-chic”, with concrete floors, large concrete pillars with peeling paint, exposed pipes, and a mixture of tile, wood, and metal.  It is basically one large room, and with all the concrete, is definitely loud.

The Factory Kitchen is the first solo effort from chef, Angelo Auriana, who formerly held an 18-year stint as the chef at Valentino in Santa Monica, which for much of the time, was considered the best Italian restaurant in L.A.  The specialties of the house at The Factory Kitchen are definitely the fresh, home-made pastas.

For my starter, I tried a salad called cremosella.  The salad contained an abundance of mozzarella cheese, chopped green beans, pea shoots, and was seasoned with ligurian oil and black pepper.  The salad was simple and elegant.  It was not drowning in dressing as a lot of restaurants tend to do.  However, the biggest problem I had with it was that there was way too much cheese!  I know, I never thought I'd find myself complaining about “too much cheese,” but the portions of cheese that came with the salad were huge.  The salad could have come with only one or two of the pieces of cheese, and it still would have been a monsterous portion of cheese for a "starter" salad.

For his starter, my husband ordered the Pancotto (literally, “cooked bread”), which was a semolina bread crostini topped with a duck egg, red potato velluta, sautéed greens, and speck.  The bread was nice and crusty, and eaten with the perfectly runny egg and the salty speck, made for a really great bite.  This dish was also quite large to be considered a "starter."

Our next course was the "pasta course" and we split the chef's signature pasta dish, which has been named on may L.A. foodie lists as one of the “best dishes of the year."  This is a dish of fresh, house-made pasta called mandilli de seta  (name translates into “silk handkerchiefs”).    The thick pasta noodles are then coated in an almond basil pesto.  This dish was definitely the highlight of our meal.  The pesto was creamy and nutty and coated the silky layers of pasta perfectly. 

For his main dish, my husband chose a dish called Mamiche.  The dish was a generous helping of fresh, tubular pasta with various types of seafood including, octopus, langoustine, and spicy mussels.  The dish was topped with a spicy, tomato broth.  We both felt that the pasta in this dish was too         al dente, because it was very chewy.  Again, we felt that the proportions were a bit off as there was a ton of pasta, and a limited amount of seafood and broth.

For my main dish, I tried the Anatra, which was a seared duck breast and leg confit, topped with a barbera sauce and some ranier cherries. The duck breast was well-cooked with nice, crispy skin, but I actually preferred the leg confit more as the meat was so tender and juicy that it just fell off the bone.  The wine sauce and cherries paired nicely with the duck.

Finally, for dessert we couldn't pass up the Bigne di cioccolato, which were basically profiteroles, which are cream puffs filled with custard, and drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauces.  The puffs were light and airy and the filling was good.

Overall, I felt that our meal at The Factory Kitchen certainly had its highs and lows.  The signature pasta dish, mandilli de seta, is a must try.  In fact, a table of guests who were seated nearby saw us examining our menus and advised us that we simply had to order it.  We were not disappointed.

While we enjoyed our meal well enough, if I had the choice, I would probably choose to dine at another Italian restaurant in the same general vicinity, Bestia, which is in a similar price range.  However, if you are having a difficult time securing a reservation at the always packed Bestia, The Factory Kitchen is certainly a satisfying runner-up.