The Dining Scene
The Dining Scene
584 Pacific (near Columbus)
(415)
433-3811
Want
to take a trip to a charming little cafe' in Europe and never leave San Francisco?
Then head on over to North Beach and Czech staffed-and-run Cafe' Prague. Owned
by Mirek Kucera, who runs around in Bermuda shorts, a long ponytail and a
twinkle in his eye. Mirek has created a restaurant that mixes a California
Cuisine menu of pastas, organic entrees, soups, salads, and sandwiches with
some traditional Hungarian/Czech fare and the
combination really works. The vibe is warm, relaxing and cozy, with colorful
European artifacts, outdoor and indoor tables, and an American/European clientele.
We started with a bottle of Rutherford Merlot, very smooth, at $25 a bottle/$5.50
a glass. Two soups arrived next, a tomato bisque with gnocchi and a potato
leek with the same.
The gnocchi actually tasted like the lumps in Cream of Wheat, which was my
favorite part of that meal as a kid.
Our charming waitress, Iva, loves the tomato soup and said it reminds
her of her "Basic School" back home and something her mother could never get
right.(??) Gene and I both found it a tad sweet, but still tasty, if a little
bland. We liked the potato leek better, and couldn't get enough of the yummy
foccacia bread to sop it up with. Soups run around $4.50 and there are about
seven different kinds. Next was a Caesar salad, with Romaine lettuce, tomato,
red pepper, croutons and creamy Caesar dressing made with Parmesan cheese
and anchovies. Traditional, pretty basic, but good and good-sized. Gene ate
his and most of mine. Jirka, the manager, brought us two angel hair pasta
dishes, huge portions each; one with saut'ed strips of chicken, artichoke
hearts, sundried tomato, in a light garlic tomato cream sauce. Tasty, but
the other one, which had porcini mushrooms, asparagus tips, calamata olives
and artichoke hearts in light pesto cream sauce, was to-die-for delicious.
Pastas and entrees run about $11.00. We were so stuffed, but Iva insisted
we try dessert --a strawberry/banana crepe with brandy flambe', chocolate,
and whipped cream, most of which I somehow managed to get all over Gene's
sleeve (don't ask) $8.75. It
was delicious, but very rich (unlike us, that's why we do this!) and we were
very full so we opted to quit after a couple bites and finish our wine. Gene
chatted up Jirka about Prague (he's been there and he's half-Czech himself)
while I digested the delicious food and sipped the wonderful wine. Take a
mini-European vacation for lunch, dinner or happy hour and head over to Cafe
Prague.
Fuse,
493 Broadway, (415) 788-2706.
This
trendy bar opened about 2-1/2 years ago and has been a favorite hangout and
meat market ever since, even surviving the dot-com meltdown, as crowds continue
to pour in as if this town was still full of imaginary money). Owner Ray Morrone
and his ex-partner Christian (I forgot his last name and it's deadline so
I haven't got time to look it up) used to be DJ's (or bartenders, I forgot
which; it's deadline so I haven't got time to look it up) at Liquid in the
Mission until they decided to go into business for themselves. Ray tells me
his place won "Best Lemon Drop in SF" by the New York Times in their thing
to do in SF edition last year (it's deadline so I haven't got time to look
it up). They also called Fuse "hip", even though Ray dislikes that word. Hey,
Ray, you've got a hip place. Check it out.