“Spontanious, organic, covert nourishment” is their motto at Kitchenette SF, and it pretty much says it all about this slightly secretive lunch spot. But don’t let the hole in the wall appearance fool you.
In the Dogpatch neighborhood of SF, all you see are warehouses and industrial buildings mixed with shiny trendy new lofts. In one of those warehouse entrances is Kitchenette SF. No signage, only the blackboard out front advertising the specials of the day. The food is made by a collection of rotating chefs from some of the best restaurants in the city (Betelnut, Incanto, Foreign Cinema, etc.). The result is super fresh, local, organic, homemade food.
It goes something like this: they offer up a sandwich (or something of the sort), a vegetarian option, a dessert and a beverage, all of which change daily. (You have to check their website the night before to see what they’ll be serving the next day.) Today, it was the Housemade Pastrami Sandwich with roasted apple butter, braised cabbage, and grainy mustard. I also shared a bag of homemade spicy chicharrones (spanish for pork rinds, basically).
While driving there I tried not to get my hopes up. This was my first venture into the “street food” or “covert food” movement that has been sweeping the Bay Area lately, helped by chefs using Twitter as their main marketing source. This was, after all, just a sandwich.
What I was greeted with when I unwrapped my sandwich was a wonderful serving of homemade, juicy, fatty, meaty goodness. My lunch partner called the fat pieces in the pastrami, “pieces of goodness.” I agreed. The meat was nothing short of perfection and you could definitely taste the love. Moist, juicy, and with flavorful fat marbled throughout. The braised cabbage, roasted apple, and mustard created not only a great counterpart to the meat, but also texture and contrast to the flavors. They all melded nicely without any one thing overpowering the other.
Oh, and those pork rines were worth their fat content as well :).
It wasn’t a substantially large sandwich, but it was definitely enough food, though it looked small to me at first. The meal was delicious enough for us to consider another visit on another day. Hopefully, what they’ll offer will be just as good.
Kitchenette SF – 958 Illinois St., S.F. – http://www.kitchenettesf.com
Virgo in Wonderland 