Spruce

Description:

• If you haven't heard of San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood, it's where most of the city's old money lives, and now the ladies-who-lunch have a new place to hang their cloches: Spruce. Housed in a beautifully restored 1930s-era auto barn, Spruce consists of a restaurant, cafe, bar, and lounge under a single roof, making it both a destination restaurant and neighborhood hangout. As you enter there's a library nook on one side filled with newspapers, cookbooks, and so on, and a cafe on the other side offering gourmet takeaway items. Further inside is an elegant bar to the right and 70-seat restaurant to left, both topped with a vast cathedral ceiling highlighted by a glass-and-steel skylight. With mohair couches, faux-ostrich chairs, and a black-and-chocolate decor it's all quite visually appealing, but, alas, the cuisine isn't quite as impressive. The organic, locally sourced produce is wonderfully fresh, but many of the dishes we tried -- spearmint and nettle ravioli, leek and fennel soup with salt cod dumplings, honey lacquered duck breast -- were lacking in flavor, and the service suffered from mysteriously long spells of absence. Spruce is still one of the exciting new restaurants in San Francisco, but it's best enjoyed from a seat at the bar while tucking into their fantastic all-natural burger and fries while pondering which wine to choose from their 70 by-the-glass selections.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

San Francisco Chronicle

•  Top 100 Restaurant 2009

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2009
•  Recommended 2010