It’s easy to mistake the San Francisco Richart store for yet another shoe store in Union Square – a generic window filled with a slew of white and gray boxes evokes the necessary minimalism to sell high heels. I walked by many times without a moment’s glance before someone told me it was a chocolate store. Intrigued, I bought boxes of the Citrus and Floral chocolates. One bite and I was instantly hooked – never had I had such clean, intense flavor in a chocolate before.

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Restaurant L has made some noise about being on the cutting edge ala Moto and Alinea. My lunch last year was more akin Slanted Door (some might say that’s a compliment, I wouldn’t) than anything cutting edge. Well, I am not one to give up – and sometimes it pays off. I was visiting friends in Boston and decided they could entertain me even if the restaurant could not. This time, I got a meal that more resembles the articles about Pino Maffeo.

What I find interesting is that the cuisine is not WD-50, Moto, or Alinea; instead, as you’ll see below, the dishes are far more organic in nature with just a few experimental tweaks. The dishes looked largely Asian-influenced (particularly SE Asia) but everything contained some hints of gas-mol. Oddly, I read in an article that he considers his food a refinement of Italian flavors w/ Japanese flavors. Maybe, if you’re strictly talking flavors, but I don’t quite get that one.

1. The Fancy Bread Structure
This was served w/ some very delicious miso cream cheese.

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had a meal here last night w/ 2 old friends.

Beginnings
1. they sat us at a table instead of the bar – ugh

2. my friends aren’t used to dining out; we had a ‘budget’ of $75/person.

3. my friends are husband/wife rowing partners and they had an event the next morning. we only had 1.5 hours to eat and no wine.

4. they didn’t want red meat or any derivative (like foie gras.)

5. i told the waitress – “let the chef pick, $75/person, no red meat/foie gras” and i warned her i was taking notes in hopes of not repeating my 2nd-rate yasuda meal (especially since we couldn’t watch them at the bar.)

that’s what i had to work with – sounds like a fun, huh?

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