THE PUB @ Ghirardelli Square: Aces, Baby!
UPDATED: July 20, 2009
When Mackie and I lived on Russian Hill, I ate way too many meals and drank way too many margaritas at the Bell Tower. Rarely have I seen a business so succinctly and accurately summarized by its tagline, “A Neighborhood Bar Serving Great Food from Noon to Midnight.” I love the place and named it one of my Ten Most Underrated Restaurants. in San Francisco.
As much as I love San Francisco restaurants, there is one glaring hole. The state of barbeque in the City, to put it mildly, sucks. Memphis Minnie's, upon which some palate-challenged individuals have heaped enormous praise, sucks. Ditto Big Nate's, as much as I feel badly about scorning a Bay Area hoops legend. Ditto Ironwood although I should cut them a some slack because when Mackie and I ate there, they’d just been inundated by a bunch of Yelpers after a good review and were out of about everything. Q was a major disappointment because, despite the name, it wasn't a barbeque joint. I tried their ribs and they sucked. I love just about everything at and about Brickhouse but don’t recommend their ribs. Hard Knox Café ribs are good but they're the only BBQ item on what is really a (very good) soul food menu.
The BBQ I liked the best in the City was the Arkansas style ‘que at Johnson's. But while the ribs and sauce were truly good, even Johnson's left me wanting. The country-style cut they use for their ribs isn't my favorite, the sides were a mess and they didn't serve iced tea or peach cobbler, two mortal BBQ sins in my book.
So, imagine my delight when I learned that my favorite San Francisco restaurant owner, Barbara Tice (sorry, Mark Bechelli, she's so much better lookin'!) of the Bell Tower, her partner in Nob Hill watering hole, Aces, Scotty Broccoli, and Tom Whalen (sorry, dude, I have no idea how you fit into the picture but if you're in business with Barb, I'm sure you're a swell guy) were teaming to open a barbeque joint, THE PUB @ Ghirardelli Square.
Mackie and I rolled into THE PUB about 10 days after it opened. The first thing that struck me after Barb greeted us was the bar. Beautiful. Dark wood. Mirrors. Totally stocked with Fernet Branca resting in a place of special honor. Massive. If you've been to the Bell, think its bar on steroids. Massive steroids. I expect the DEA will stop by to test it for BGH (bar growth hormone). Dominated the room and I mean that in a very good way.
Sitting at the bar were San Francisco's best criminal defense attorney and one of the Bell Tower's denizens. The Bell Tower habitué pulled me aside and said softly, as if he were cluing me in on the secret of life, "Bacon and corn side. Genius." Little Meg was behind the bar. At least one server from the Bell was in attendance. The joint immediately felt like home.
I selected the St. Louis ribs with the bacon corn and mac and cheese as my sides.
Hands down, best ribs in San Francisco. Lest you think this damning with faint praise, the ribs compared favorably to the ones I ate at the Country Tavern and Texas Monthly named that joint one of the 50 top BBQ spots in Texas. Fall off the bone tender, appropriate tooth resistance. Both the meat and sauce possessed good flavors, the sauce a little hot but not too much, good balance between the sauce and meat so you tasted both without one overpowering the other. The Pub installed a Southern Pride smoker and they know how to use it.
My Bell Tower connection was right. The bacon corn was genius, pure genius! The crisp, salty crumbled bacon complemented the firm, sweet kernels of corn. I pained me to share with Mackie but, being a dutiful boyfriend, I did.
The mac and cheese was good but not spectacular. I suspect that a bit of salt would have made the flavor pop more but I eschewed the shaker as I knew the rest of the meal was sodium-heavy.
The cornbread that accompanied my meal reminded me of what my grandmother made when I was a kid, dense and tasting of cornmeal.
Mackie opted for the shrimp, chicken and sausage jambalaya. Excellent! Firm, fresh-tasting shrimp, perhaps a hint of marinade. Generous amount of andouille. For me, the chicken is usually the weak link in jambalaya but in this rendition, the fowl soaked in enough flavor from the rest of the stew to be tasty, not bland. Tomato forward flavor, as is typical for a Creole style jambalaya.
Between her food and sampling mine, Mackie filled up quickly. It took all of my willpower to not finish her jambalaya. But, I was saving room for dessert.
In addition to serving great que, there are two cardinal rules for BBQ joints: serve good, fresh-brewed iced tea and serve peach cobbler with ice cream. The Pub scored on both points.
The cobbler was laden with peach chunks and came with a glob of vanilla ice cream plopped smack in the middle. A tasty end to a tasty meal.
On a follow-up visit, I tried the brisket. What a relief! Maybe I do like brisket after all!. The difference was that THE PUB's brisket was fattier that most I've had recently. This is a good thing as it translated to moister, more flavorful meat. As required for good brisket, the outside possessed some crunch.
As expected with Barb running the front of the house, service was excellent. Our waiter was friendly, served us promptly and checked back often to make sure everything was to our liking. When it was evident that we wanted to chit-chat for a minute about the restaurant, he obliged but disengaged quickly enough so that his other customers were not ignored.
The room is gorgeous, with the huge, dark wood bar, dark red paint and wrought iron lighting fixtures.
As one would expect from Barbi Tice restaurant, food is served late: full menu to 10:00, limited menu until 1:30, daily.
The parking garage at Ghirardelli Square charges $2.25 per 20 minutes but you can get a hour free with validation at THE PUB. There's also a garage on Beach between Hyde and Columbus that charges $3.00 per hour. I'll do the break-even for you. For one hour and fourty minutes of less, Ghirardelli is cheaper. If you're staying longer, walk the two blocks to the other garage.
My only grumps were about what THE PUB didn't have: no Sweet'N Low and no baby backs. I dealt with the former by accessing the emergency stash I always carry with me but could do nothing about the latter. Carrying a rack of ribs around in my pocket just doesn't work!
Go to THE PUB. Go soon. Go often. Mackie and I plan to!
[NOTE: The street address originally posted was incorrect. Correct street below.]
THE PUB @ Ghirardelli Square
851 Beach Street
between Larkin Street and Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415-351-0500
Map
Web site
Food inspection score: Inspection score not currently available
Symbol of Excellence: Unknown
-Friendly: Fun Date
When Mackie and I lived on Russian Hill, I ate way too many meals and drank way too many margaritas at the Bell Tower. Rarely have I seen a business so succinctly and accurately summarized by its tagline, “A Neighborhood Bar Serving Great Food from Noon to Midnight.” I love the place and named it one of my Ten Most Underrated Restaurants. in San Francisco.
As much as I love San Francisco restaurants, there is one glaring hole. The state of barbeque in the City, to put it mildly, sucks. Memphis Minnie's, upon which some palate-challenged individuals have heaped enormous praise, sucks. Ditto Big Nate's, as much as I feel badly about scorning a Bay Area hoops legend. Ditto Ironwood although I should cut them a some slack because when Mackie and I ate there, they’d just been inundated by a bunch of Yelpers after a good review and were out of about everything. Q was a major disappointment because, despite the name, it wasn't a barbeque joint. I tried their ribs and they sucked. I love just about everything at and about Brickhouse but don’t recommend their ribs. Hard Knox Café ribs are good but they're the only BBQ item on what is really a (very good) soul food menu.
The BBQ I liked the best in the City was the Arkansas style ‘que at Johnson's. But while the ribs and sauce were truly good, even Johnson's left me wanting. The country-style cut they use for their ribs isn't my favorite, the sides were a mess and they didn't serve iced tea or peach cobbler, two mortal BBQ sins in my book.
So, imagine my delight when I learned that my favorite San Francisco restaurant owner, Barbara Tice (sorry, Mark Bechelli, she's so much better lookin'!) of the Bell Tower, her partner in Nob Hill watering hole, Aces, Scotty Broccoli, and Tom Whalen (sorry, dude, I have no idea how you fit into the picture but if you're in business with Barb, I'm sure you're a swell guy) were teaming to open a barbeque joint, THE PUB @ Ghirardelli Square.
Mackie and I rolled into THE PUB about 10 days after it opened. The first thing that struck me after Barb greeted us was the bar. Beautiful. Dark wood. Mirrors. Totally stocked with Fernet Branca resting in a place of special honor. Massive. If you've been to the Bell, think its bar on steroids. Massive steroids. I expect the DEA will stop by to test it for BGH (bar growth hormone). Dominated the room and I mean that in a very good way.
Sitting at the bar were San Francisco's best criminal defense attorney and one of the Bell Tower's denizens. The Bell Tower habitué pulled me aside and said softly, as if he were cluing me in on the secret of life, "Bacon and corn side. Genius." Little Meg was behind the bar. At least one server from the Bell was in attendance. The joint immediately felt like home.
I selected the St. Louis ribs with the bacon corn and mac and cheese as my sides.
Hands down, best ribs in San Francisco. Lest you think this damning with faint praise, the ribs compared favorably to the ones I ate at the Country Tavern and Texas Monthly named that joint one of the 50 top BBQ spots in Texas. Fall off the bone tender, appropriate tooth resistance. Both the meat and sauce possessed good flavors, the sauce a little hot but not too much, good balance between the sauce and meat so you tasted both without one overpowering the other. The Pub installed a Southern Pride smoker and they know how to use it.
My Bell Tower connection was right. The bacon corn was genius, pure genius! The crisp, salty crumbled bacon complemented the firm, sweet kernels of corn. I pained me to share with Mackie but, being a dutiful boyfriend, I did.
The mac and cheese was good but not spectacular. I suspect that a bit of salt would have made the flavor pop more but I eschewed the shaker as I knew the rest of the meal was sodium-heavy.
The cornbread that accompanied my meal reminded me of what my grandmother made when I was a kid, dense and tasting of cornmeal.
Mackie opted for the shrimp, chicken and sausage jambalaya. Excellent! Firm, fresh-tasting shrimp, perhaps a hint of marinade. Generous amount of andouille. For me, the chicken is usually the weak link in jambalaya but in this rendition, the fowl soaked in enough flavor from the rest of the stew to be tasty, not bland. Tomato forward flavor, as is typical for a Creole style jambalaya.
Between her food and sampling mine, Mackie filled up quickly. It took all of my willpower to not finish her jambalaya. But, I was saving room for dessert.
In addition to serving great que, there are two cardinal rules for BBQ joints: serve good, fresh-brewed iced tea and serve peach cobbler with ice cream. The Pub scored on both points.
The cobbler was laden with peach chunks and came with a glob of vanilla ice cream plopped smack in the middle. A tasty end to a tasty meal.
On a follow-up visit, I tried the brisket. What a relief! Maybe I do like brisket after all!. The difference was that THE PUB's brisket was fattier that most I've had recently. This is a good thing as it translated to moister, more flavorful meat. As required for good brisket, the outside possessed some crunch.
As expected with Barb running the front of the house, service was excellent. Our waiter was friendly, served us promptly and checked back often to make sure everything was to our liking. When it was evident that we wanted to chit-chat for a minute about the restaurant, he obliged but disengaged quickly enough so that his other customers were not ignored.
The room is gorgeous, with the huge, dark wood bar, dark red paint and wrought iron lighting fixtures.
As one would expect from Barbi Tice restaurant, food is served late: full menu to 10:00, limited menu until 1:30, daily.
The parking garage at Ghirardelli Square charges $2.25 per 20 minutes but you can get a hour free with validation at THE PUB. There's also a garage on Beach between Hyde and Columbus that charges $3.00 per hour. I'll do the break-even for you. For one hour and fourty minutes of less, Ghirardelli is cheaper. If you're staying longer, walk the two blocks to the other garage.
My only grumps were about what THE PUB didn't have: no Sweet'N Low and no baby backs. I dealt with the former by accessing the emergency stash I always carry with me but could do nothing about the latter. Carrying a rack of ribs around in my pocket just doesn't work!
Go to THE PUB. Go soon. Go often. Mackie and I plan to!
[NOTE: The street address originally posted was incorrect. Correct street below.]
THE PUB @ Ghirardelli Square
851 Beach Street
between Larkin Street and Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415-351-0500
Map
Web site
Food inspection score: Inspection score not currently available
Symbol of Excellence: Unknown
-Friendly: Fun Date
Hey, that restaurant sounds so awesome, and I'm always a fan of out of the limelight places. The link to the restaurant doesn't work, though - and the URL search is to pizza nostra, not the PUB. Thought I'd let you know!
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Oops. Sorry. Copy and paste error. Now corrected. Thanks for alerting me.
Their web site is, shall we say, under construction.
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This is great--thank you! A few minor corrections-- the full menu is served until 10pm. Also, the address is 851 Beach Street. Thanks!
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Ouch! My mistake in the address was not exactly minor!
Corrected street address in post. Sorry and thanks for catching that one!
I double-checked and, you're right, full menu served until 10 P.M., not 11 P.M. Corrected as well.
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