Couleur Café
OUT OF BUSINESS
(Space currently occupied by Pizza Nostra which is excellent but pricey. Review to come.)
There are lots of reasons to eat at Couleur Café, a small French-North African joint at the foot of Potrero Hill. Unfortunately, the food isn’t one of them.
Not that the food sucks. It just isn’t anything special.
Take, for example, the frisee salad ($8.50). The bacon looks like it could have come from Safeway. It’s not the thick, meaty lardons I’ve come to expect with frisee. If you want the real deal, spend the extra buck-and-a-half and go to Fringale.
Ditto the pasta Bolognese ($13.00). A better rendition with a more generous portion can be found at the nearby Flower Market Café for just a dollar more.
One food item that shines is the merguez.
I adore merguez. Unfortunately, it’s too often buried in cous-cous – not a favorite – or part of a mixed grill. (I've also found stand-alone merguez at Tajine. I much prefer Couleur's.)
At Couleur, it’s its own dish, Assiette de Merguez ($7.00), two generous (for merguez) links with harissa and mustard for dipping plus a tiny green salad garnish. Despite the occasional chunk of gristle in the sausage (something I can easily forgive becasue the stuff is SO good), the merguez has been uniformly excellent on the numerous occasions I’ve ordered it.
Another plate I recommend is the salmon with spinach and black rice ($19.00). The secret ingredient is honey. It pervades the dish with an unexpected and pleasant, though not cloying, sweetness. It's a nice change from the salmon preparations more usually found at restaurants.
Oh, yeah, the reasons to eat at Couleur (besides the merguez and salmon)…
Parking. Aside from terrible food, nothing sours me on an eatery more than parking difficulties. So much so that, when I lived on Russian Hill, I stopped going to my favorite restaurant in the city, Isa, because parking was such a bitch. I get especially offended when parking costs so much that I feel like I paid for an extra dinner.
The Quonset hut that houses Couleur has its own, free parking lot. If that’s full, there are almost always free street spaces to be had.
Plentiful outdoor seating. For a city as beautiful as San Francisco, it never ceases to amaze me how few restaurants have outdoor seating. Many that do either cover them so that you don’t feel like you’re outside or have a couple of tables and that’s it.
Couleur, and I’m guessing here because I haven’t actually counted, has maybe 15 or 20 outdoor tables. Real outdoor tables, not ones in a climate-controlled tent so you can’t see the sun or stars. What a great place to have lunch on a sunny day, particularly at this time of year.
Parking and plentiful outdoor seating. Each is difficult to find on its own. Together is near impossible.
Good iced tea. A personal quirk but this is high on my list of evaluating restaurants. Crappy iced tea will keep me away. Couleur’s is good and they serve it in a carafe so you don’t have to chase down your server every time your glass runs dry.
Pleasant, if not always efficient, service. In this regard, Couleur is more Italian than Gaelic. The servers are unfailingly nice but it may take them some time to get to you if they’re enjoying la dolce vita. Many customers seem to know staff members so this happens frequently.
The view down De Haro Street. Peering between the World Gym and the Jessica McClintock outlet, offers a great, if somewhat obstructed, window on downtown San Francisco.
If you’re looking for a place with can’t miss food to take a first date, it ain’t here. But, if you’re looking for a no hassle spot for a relaxed lunch or dinner on a nice day, Couleur Café is your place.
Couleur Café
300 De Haro Street
at 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
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