New place from the Quince & Cotogna folks. Menu is mostly French and the French dishes are very French indeed. Great food.
pâté en croute - looks like fruitcake, tastes like pâté
pig’s head croquettes - in the background you can see the rillettes and chicken liver mousse
sweetbread
I neglected to photograph the tortilla, blood sausage, Manchego cheese sausage, and sunchokes
slice of a giant “macaron”
pain perdu
eclair
My intention tonight was to try the pate en croute and just one other thing, whatever caught my eye, as a little solo treat. I ordered a lot, most of it very good. When i first saw that Verjus was opening, it was the photos i saw of the pate en croute that caught my eye. I was recently in Paris and was impressed with the one at Arnaud Nicolas i had for lunch. “They don’t have this in SF!” I thought to myself. Or maybe we did and i didn’t know where to look, but now here it is, at Verjus. It was delicate and mosaic-like and i wasn’t disappointed. There were two other kinds in front of me where I was sitting at the pass, but i didn’t ask about them. I also didn’t ask about the large copper bowl with a roast nesting on quite a nest of greens and foliage on the counter that didn’t seem to correspond to anything i read on the menu marquee above me!
My favorite dish was the ris de veau. I feel i rarely see sweetbreads and that’s a shame, because i love them. These were rich and just a little rosy and classic, capers and all. That’s where i was going to leave it but i didn’t, so i ordered the croquettes. They were out of the scallop with bordier butter and also the clams, so i impulsively ordered the manchego sausage and the pain perdu for dessert.
The croquettes were full of shredded smoky ham. Or something hammy. There isn’t much in the way of explanation about the menu items. I did ask what was in the pate, but i can’t remember everything. A lot. The croquettes were quite salty and i wanted them to have more of a binding element within the fried crust. There were finely minced carrots and onion or shallots and maybe it was bound with cheese, but it primarily was salty meat. Maybe a bechamel or even potato, something to even it out, would’ve been nice.
It was tasty, just a bit one note salty for me, and i didn’t care for the accompanying sauce, which i thought tasted oily.I forgot i ordered the manchego sausage, and i wasn’t sure what i was expecting, but it was a nice snappy sausage, maybe like a knackwurst? It was studded with messy, drippy, gooey bits of cheese, i suppose the manchego but with that almost obscene textural quality i wonder what else was in there. I’m sorry it’s hard to talk about this with a straight face! See pic. It was yummy and fun to eat, and came with a crock of Edmond fallot mustard, and some tangy if a bit oily cabbage.
The pain perdu came with a salted caramel sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. It was nice.
I don’t drink anymore, and this is definitely a wine bar with food. I do wish there was a little bit more for people who don’t drink alcohol. I understand what the place is, and the bartender found a non-alcoholic not terribly sweet…something for me, which was nice, but otherwise i guess there were just large bottles of mineral water. Or maybe i should just get over feeling self conscious about not drinking in establishments that are primarily, or ostensibly, for drinking alcohol. I was there for the food and my lord, I ATE.
It may seem i wasn’t that thrilled with a few of the things i ordered but i did enjoy myself and am planning on going back soon enough with a friend or two to sample other things. I wanna know how their frites are, for example. And those other pates!
