The Alembic

1725 Haight Street (between Cole & Shrader)
(415) 666-0822
www.alembicbar.com

As it always is when I dine with J, this outing was again the gluttonous affair of the century. The Alembic is tiny, so despite getting there on the relatively early side, we waited a bit before snagging a seat at the bar.

While I don't usually delve into the drink portion of the meal, the drink menu at the Alembic is worth nothing. I'm usually a simple beer or vodka soda kind of gal, but when in Rome, I fell in love with The Bee's Knees - a light and sweet cocktail of plymouth gin, lavender honey, and a splash of lemon juice. The creative and lovingly-made drinks here - made mostly of what I'll call brown liquors (whiskey, tequila, brandy, etc.) - are the real draw and the food happens to be awesome too.

J and I started slow and upon the recommendation of the bartender, had the Shishito Peppers with House-Smoked Salt and the Goat Cheese Croquettes with Romesco off the "Nibbles" menu. Both were delicious and we could very well have stopped there, but a few drinks deep, we decided to just go for it.

We then ordered several items off the dinner menu including the Kabocha Squash Tempura, the Kobe Beef Tongue Sliders, the Miso Glazed Escolar, the Bone Marrow, and the Little Fried Fish. The Kabocha Squash Tempura is served with pine nuts, arugula, saba (which is a grape juice,) and ricotta salata - so it's really a scrumptious salad full of interesting flavors and was probably my favorite dish of the night. A close second was the Little Fried Fish which sounds a little scary, but are anchovy-like Japanese fish that you eat whole and served with wasabi-ikura aioli and lemon for dipping. The others were good dishes - so I'd order them again if I needed supplementation (likely not,) but didn't LOVE them for the following reasons: Sliders (texture and mental image of beef tongue is not super palatable,) Miso Glazed Fish (I've had better,) and Bone Marrow (always good but not the best despite the capers.) I'd also skip dessert which was good but unremarkable.

Three lessons learned here. 1. Don't eat like a heffer no matter how good it tastes. It hurts. 2. We need to explore the Haight more often. 3. Order selectively.

The Verdict: Worth It