Coi

Restaurant Review GASTRONOMIC TRANQUILITY COMES TO BROADWAY By Carol Peterson As Telegraph Hill/North Beach people, we are used to the casual and raucous dining environments that characterize favorite eateries as diverse as Tommaso’s and Moose’s. It comes as something of a surprise, then, that an elegant and upscale-- if unpretentious-- restaurant has slipped in under our noses. The lower Broadway establishment is named COI , French for tranquil. The chef and owner, Daniel Patterson comes to this new venture after the much lamented demise of his former restaurant, Elizabeth-David which had been one of my personal favorites. Still an under-the-radar gem, COI, lives up to its name from the moment you walk through the door. The walls are painted milk chocolate and papered with earthy grass cloth, almost emitting an aroma of its own. The subtle art work, flowers, upholstered chairs, dropped faux ceiling of hand-made paper all flow together exquisitely. The menu is prefixed, with a $75 Dinner and a $105 Tasting Choice. If you think the meal pricey, consider the cost of a good seat at a major theatre for three hours of entertainment. On both our visits to COI, the presentation and meal took three hours, and the experience was as dramatic as a fine play. The courses come quickly and time flies by. You are never bored. I wondered about the 18% gratuity, shared by the entire wait staff, but the friendly crew seamlessly glided from table to table, taking orders, explaining the menu, replacing silver and tending to every detail it takes to make a great meal ebb and flow. The nine course Tasting Menu at first seemed intimidating, but the portions are very small, focusing on original combinations of foods, oils, herbs and other ingredients. The California Osetra Caviar portion was no bigger than two fifty-cent pieces but the flavor was a million dollars. Imagine sautéed bone marrow, topped with a dollop of caviar and beet gelee. I looked around to see if anyone was looking, as I wanted to run my finger across the plate for the last taste of beet. Unbelievable! Then the Sea Scallop Sashimi arrived, with minutely shaved avocado, radishes, and baby nasturtiums topping it. The scallop melted on my tongue and when I started to chew, a tiny piece of sea salt exploded in my mouth. Sitting back, I let the flavors meld before I took another bite. The first spoonful of the Chilled English Pea Soup, which was poured around a cluster of raw, fresh peas with ricotta yogurt, led me to close my eyes in sensual appreciation. The fresh mint in the puree transported me back to my childhood in my mother’s garden. Each of the following dishes was a joy to look at and more of a pleasure to eat. The deserts are seasonal, with a few favorites left on the menu. There is a great variety for everyone’s taste from creations of fresh fruit, with sweet and tart flavors, to creamy chocolate that tastes like velvet on your tongue. On my first visit to COI, I sampled the lemon, three layered, pie in a tall tubular shape. It was beyond outstanding. I felt like crying when it wasn’t offered on the second visit. For those disinclined to rob Fort Knox or take out a second mortgage on their home, there is another way to visit COI. One can enjoy the lounge menu without confronting the dining room prices. I have yet to have this experience, but some say the food is even better. Chefs of San Francisco, stand at attention. Daniel Patterson has a winner here, and in my opinion, it is the best restaurant in San Francisco. And it is right here in our neighborhood! COI, 353 Broadway, 393-9000 * * * * more

When we called Coi last month just to see if they were open yet, we found out that the first night they were open to the public was that Saturday (April 14), so we decided to go on a whim (even though first nights can sometimes be iffy). You'd never believe that this place used to be Great Water Thai. The space has been completely transformed into an elegant dining room, with a lounge in front. The dining room itself is only 30 seats, so it's not that large, but it's comfortable and spacious enough that you aren't sitting right on top of the people next to you. That night they were only serving a four course prix fixe menu ($75), with a choice of one of three dishes (four for dessert) for each course, and the food was excellent. For an idea of the food, I started with the scallops marinated In delicate rosemary oil, which was really delicious, and then the asparagus soup with mint and blood orange scented Bellwether Farm ricotta, which was also excellent. I chose the poached and seared lamb rack for the main course, again excellent, and a surprisingly large portion as well. My dessert was a warm bittersweet chocolate tart with tamarind gelee and smoked yogurt, which was a really interesting and unique combination of tastes. They use local, organic and sustainable ingredients whenever possible, so every dish was fresh and full of flavor, in addition to being creative. The chef, Daniel Patterson, personally thanked each diner for coming in. They plan to serve a nine course tasting menu along with a four course tasting menu each night, which will accommodate both real food lovers and people who want a shorter, more traditional meal. A couple of interesting things to note: if you order sparkling water (they serve Gerolsteiner), they won't leave the bottle on the table, but instead will personally pour it for you and always make sure that you have a full glass. Also, unlike most restaurants, the charge for sparkling water isn't added to the bill. Nor is there a charge for the coffee (which is served in your own personal French Press). They do, however, add an automatic 18% service charge to the bill, which I have mixed feelings about. It says that they strive to give excellent service, but what about the times when they don't? As the night went on and people started to leave, the staff did get a little distracted and were a little less attentive than they were in the beginning of the meal, but I'm chalking that up to the fact that it was their first night. All in all, an excellent dinner. more

When I first saw mention of Coi in the Gayot SF News section, I was intrigued. Daniel Patterson (of Frisson and Elisabeth Daniel) had thrown down the gauntlet that California Cuisine hadn't fully evolved past what Alice Waters was doing decades ago at Chez Panisse - and to a large part, I agree. The Chez Panisse era of "California Cuisine" took its inspiration from Southern Europe - playing with French and Italian flavors and combining them with the abundant fresh food products available in the Bay Area to create something unique. Since then, this style of cooking has become rote... and boring. In the Bay Area today, flavors are bold and heavily influenced more by Latin and Asian sensibilities than Italian, and you're more likely to find North African infused Spanish than French. When you do find French, chances are it leans more towards Basque than classic Gallic Parisian. As Bob said, "The times, they are a-changin'" and it's time to challenge everybody who thinks that Chez Panisse sits in the center of the Northern Californian solar system. Enter Coi. Tonight was the soft launch of Coi - and I think that my wife and I might have been the only non-industry folks in the restaurant. So, as you read this review, take into consideration that it was their first night of real operation. I spent many an afternoon in Coi back when it was Great Water, but honestly, as I was sitting in the tiny dining room (and I mean tiny - 30 people maximum could fit back there, and it would be really cramped), I couldn't even imagine how that bar (which was unchanged from the older Bierhaus days) could be transformed into something like this. With soft ambient music, rich chocolate walls and an abundance of texture ranging from the horizontal weave of the wall coverings to the beautiful diamond embossed tablecloths, it woke the senses up. Tonight, the choice was simple - the four course tasting menu, which was the only thing available. The meal started with an amuse bouche (whose contents escape me) followed by an exceptional pre-appetizer avocado panna cotta - delicate citrusy avocado served next to creme fraiche and topped with black caviar. The balance of flavor was perfect, and the caviar, which is typically not a favorite of mine, was fantastic. The first of my ordered courses was the Crisp Pig's Feet - which was a cross between southern trotters and a Japanese korokke, or croquette. The flavor was rich and gelatiny, and the accompanying frisee with bacon vinaigrette was just superb, but I am a big fan of bacon vinaigrettes. If you're not into trotters, which can really be an acquired taste, there were two other options. One small detail point, trotters are very hard to make, as they require so much attention to convert all of the connective tissue into tasty gelatin, and occasionally, you'll get a small piece of gristle. In this large appeitzer, I only got one small piece the size of a pin head, which shows the kitchen's skill in preparing the trotters, but if you hate getting any gristle like this in your food, skip this and pick something else. The trotters were followed by the monkfish, served in a beautiful black pepper and yuzu (a Japanese citrus) broth with a little chinese broccoli (like rapini or broccoli rabe). Monkfish can have a funky texture if prepared improperly, but in this case, it was quite exceptional. The third ordered course was quail, deboned, flattened, covered with a "crepinette" and sliced into three long strips. It's hard to imagine it, but you can see that this was certainly a nod of the head towards the great fried poultry dishes of the world ranging from southern fried chicken to Japanese chicken kara-age... and the accompanying roasted endive and olive tapenade were perfect accompanyments. One small point, during the deboning, a small piece of a socket joint was left in the meat, so there was a moment of casual dabbing of the lips and expelling the offending piece into my napkin. Not what I expected, but I'm willing to let slide this once. This was followed by a palate cleanser of ginger sorbet with a rhubarb-mint sauce, topped with cilantro. The experience was just perfect, ranging from the texture of the sorbet, the flavor of the sauce all the way down to the fact that the bowls were chilled to ensure that the sorbet would remain solid while you finished the dish. The dessert I chose was my biggest risk - a date terrine with Vietnamese iced coffee gelato. The risk paid off - a warm spicy cake with a gelato that could stand up to the best in Italy (don't lose that pastry chef)! As we concluded the meal with a press-pot of Cafe Trieste, Daniel himself came out to thank us, as he did with every table. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, the meal was great and the 5th star is certainly within reach. more