Move Over Hyatt, Hilton Launches its San Francisco Street Food Presence Today

"The Coffee Shack" at The Hilton Financial District Hotel

Lately I've been noticing the installation of a garish prefab "Coffee Shack" on the corner of the parking area in front of the Hilton Financial District hotel at Kearny and Washington Streets in San Francisco. My first reaction was that it was probably from someone who was leasing space to sell snacks to to student at SF City College's new high-rise campus across the street. The mystery took a bizarre twist with the appearance on the site of a "Hi-Striker,"  that carnival gizmo which lets you test your strength by swinging a hammer hard enough to ring a bell.  At this point, my curiosity was piqued enough to send out Inspector Google, who brought back this report from The Barbary Coast News.

According the the article (which appears to be straight from a Hilton Hotel PR release), "The Coffee Shack" is the creation of none other than the Hilton itself.

The "Hi-Striker"

The Hilton San Francisco Financial District is pleased to announce the opening of The Coffee Shack. Parked permanently in Hilton San Francisco Financial District’s front drive and one block away from the Pyramid, The Coffee Shack features much more than coffee. Patrons can start their day with coffee for a buck. Food selections feature a savory breakfast burrito and a build-your-own bratwurst or hot dog for lunch.

In addition, the Shack will offer salads and sandwich wraps, and a "house-made spiced pork" served in a rice bowl or on a corn tortilla. The menu and prices, the mighty Hilton assures us, are "designed with tasty enjoyment and frugality in mind." Nothing on this "great menu" will cost more than $6.

As for the Hi-Striker, that's part of today's (September 13) Grand Opening, which will also feature a DJ and a free small coffee.

The "Little Green Cyclo" at the Hyatt

In recent weeks, the Grand Hyatt on Union Square has been featuring street food by periodically hosting one or two food trucks curated by Off the Grid on its plaza area on Stockton Street and religiously tweeting about them; in that light, The Hilton's move seems logical. Has street food become a de rigeur part of the San Francisco experience that hotels must offer? 

 Your move, Holiday Inn.

La Cocina Brings Ya Ka Mein to the Streets of San Francisco -- For a Day

[ Cross-posted from my Full Noodle Frontity blog] 

Thanks to La Cocina's San Francisco Street Food Festival, I recently got to sample ya ka mein, a New Orleans street favorite from its most celebrated purveyor, Miss Linda Green, who was imported from NOLA for just that purpose. Though the distant origins of this dish are obscure, we know from restaurant menu archaeologists that it emanated from Chinese-American restaurants and still exists in such restaurants on the eastern seaboard (particularly in Baltimore) as "yat gaw mein."

Perhaps the best resource for understanding ya ka mein's travels and signifcance is an article by noted food writer-folklorist John T. Edge, "Seventh Ward Ramen" in David Chang's Lucky Peach, Issue 1 - Ramen.  According to Edge's description, ya ka mein

usually arrives in a white foam cup, brimming with limp spaghetti noodles, soy-and-ketchup-colored and -flavored broth, chunks of roasted pork or beef, boiled egg halves and a thatch of ragged-cut green-onion rounds....slurped from a bowl while standing on a street corner, [ya ka mein] is also known as Old Sober.

 Linda Green, proprietor of Miss Linda Green's Catering, sells ya ka mein from a booth at the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival and from the tailgate of a pickup truck at other events in New Orleans.  Miss Linda is no mere ramen hacker, however. Though she has no formal training, she has the cooking chops to have kicked serious butt on the Food Network's Chopped: Pride of New Orleans episode, coming away with the big prize.

As for my ya ka mein experience?  I found the salty, peppery, bouillon-y cup of noodles comforting, if not  exactly life-changing; to be fair, it must be noted I was cold sober when I downed them.

Tracking Down the Indies: The Vietnamese Sandwiches Stand at Main & Market Streets

Though it suffers from being premade, it's still a solid FiDi bargain

While San Francisco street food purveyors in institutional settings (e.g. Off the Grid or SoMa StrEatFood Park venues) have vied to keep my attention, I've been overlooking independent enterprises that streamlined San Francisco permitting procedures have encouraged. To be sure, some of the food trucks that appear at OtG and SSFP also have their own spots on City streets, but what about those vendors, particularly non-motorized, that choose to fly solo?

Thanks to a chowhound.com thread and some Yelp reviews, I was alerted to the presence of the Vietnamese Sandwiches Stand, which operates on the west side of Main Street, just south of Market St. in downtown San Francisco, and set out yesterday to check it out.  The stand features both Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) and spring rolls (ban cuon) but by 1:00 when I arrived had sold out of the latter, so I contented myself with a BBQ Pork Sandwich from the menu. My sandwich was generously filled and nicely balanced though somewhat lacking sharpness in flavor. (I would have liked the option of throwing in some jalapeno slices, but this option was not available.) The sandwiches are pre-made and kept warm and, as Chowhounds and Yelpers have pointed out, thereby suffer from muddled flavors and textures.  Mine was no exception, especially given the lateness of my arrival, and toasting the sandwich for me did little to help. Overall, though, it was a solid and tasty sandwich experience and at $3.50 a true bargain for the Financial District. (Any comparison with the haute $8.00 food truck banh mis at Off the Grid would be out of line!) I plan to return to vet the spring rolls, perhaps a comparative tasting again on a Thursday when the Soup Junkie down the street on Market Street offers the same item. 

Incidentally, although the sign captured in my photograph specifies Tuesday and Wednesday, the stand is reportedly there every work day.  According to the Chowhound.com thread, the operator has a second stand two days a week at California and Sansome Streets, and it's likely the stall (or just the sign) was pressed into service on Main Street on the Thursday I was there. Also according to one of the Chowhound posters, an Indian wraps cart may soon be joining the banh mi stand on Main Street. It's certainly heartening to see the streets of downtown San Francisco populated by street vendors offering other than cellophane-wrapped white bread sandwiches or overpriced hipster junk food. 

300 Block of Kearny Street: The Most Culinarily Diverse Block in San Francisco?

The re-opening of Lee's brought Chinese food back to the 300 block of Kearny St.

When Onigilly brings its rice balls to its new brick-and-mortar location at 343 Kearny St., it won't exactly stick out like a sore thumb.  It'll be the new kid on what may be the most culinarily diverse block in San Francisco.

If you include the restaurant tenants in the partially re-opened International Food Court (which officially  has a Bush Street address but a has co-equal entrance at 316 Kearny Street), there are currently 20 operating eateries you can stroll into at lunchtime in the short 300 Block of Kearny St. These can be grouped into at least 12 national cuisines, and if you parse them into sub-categories, perhaps 15 or 16 distinct cuisines to choose from.

For starters, Onigilly will have company from four other purveyors of Japanese food including a ramen-ya, a Japanese curry house and not one but two sushi-cum-bento outlets.  Your other choices in that block include Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Cuban, Hawaiian, Mexican, Greek/Mediterranean, Italian, and what I'll call "New American/Continental" (gringo food).

Here's the full lineup for the 300 block of Kearny St. :

International Food Court (316 Kearny St).- separate Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese (sushi/bento)  and Filipino vendors. (Previous Burmese and Mexican tenants may or may not return.)

Ayola (327 Kearny St.) - Greek/Mediterranean
Baladie (337 Kearny St.) - Greek/Mediterranean
Banana House (321 Kearny St.) - Thai
Bangkok Best (301 Kearny St.) - Thai
Darn Good Food (322 Kearny St.) - New American/Continental
Ebisu (336 Kearny St.) - Japanese sushi and bento
El Faro (346 Kearny St.) - Mexican taqueria
Fleur de Sel (308 Kearny St.) - New American/Continental
Harrow (357 Kearny St.) - New American/Continental
Have a Rice Day (356 Kearny St.) - Korean and Japanese Rice Bowls
L & L Hawaiian Barbecue (312 Kearny St.) - Hawaiian plate lunches
Muracci's Japanese Curry (307 Kearny St.) - Japanese curry
Pachino Trattoria and Pizzeria (318 Kearny St.) - Italian
Paladar Cafe Cubano (329 Kearny St.) - Cuban
Pasilla Mexican Grill (359 Kearny St.) - Mexican Grill
Underground Ramen (355 Kearny St.) - Japanese ramen

The 300 block of Kearny Street is prone to turnover, though the crop of restaurants listed above (except for the New American venues) have shown some staying power. An Indian/Pakistani restaurant recently failed, as did another New American restaurant, leaving vacancies that have yet to be filled.  And Onigilly's spot? It will replace a recently closed Indonesian restaurant.

Smoking out those Notorious P.I.G.S.

Brass*Knuckle's Notorious P.I.G.

I not only follow San Francisco's Off the Grid, but also -- vicariously -- London's equivalent, Eat Street.  I was somewhat startled to find that one of Eat Street's vendors, Anna Mae's Southern Street Food stall offered a creation called the "Notorious P.I.G." That, of course, is also the name of a signature creation of a popular San Francisco food truck, Shellie Kitchen's Brass*Knuckle.  The two are very different creations, the former being conventional BBQ and Brass*Knuckle's being basically a Cubano on a rosemary waffle, but my suspicious mind wondered if coincidence or copycat-ism were at play here.

Photo Flickr/Indiana Public Media

Upon further reflection, I reminded myself that "great minds think alike" and wondered how many hand-held eats were graced with this fairly obvious pun for a name.  I decided to do a little research, using a Flickr search on "Notorious P.I.G." (hey, if it's worthy of a foodie's attention, it's been photographed in situ). It turns out that there at least nine creations out there dubbed "Notorious P.I.G." ranging from panini to to pizza and wraps. Here are the highlights of my research, and if it makes you hungry, head out to the nearest BBQ or street food event.


Notorious P.I.G.S. of the World


- Brass Knuckle, the San Francisco food truck, serves a basic Cubano with house-roasted pork, ham and Swiss on a rosemary waffle as its "Notorious P.I.G."

- Anna Mae's, the London food stall, describes its "Notorious P.I.G." as pulled pork topped with a proprietary BBQ saiuce on a roll.

- Frank, a restaurant in Austin, Texas gets creative with a house-made pork, bacon, jalapeno and sage sausage topped with macaroni and cheese and Texas BBQ sauce on a baguette.

- Sugar Shack, a barbecue trailer also in Austin, offers 12-hour smoked pulled pork in a sandwich or in a "wrap" (photos suggest tortillas).

- Il Bambino, a restaurant in Astoria, New York, goes haute with a panini containing scrambled eggs, smoked bacon, "artisan" cheddar and truffle spread.

- The Happy Pig, a food truck in Bloomington, Indiana's "Notorious P.I.G" features cured and braised pork topped with maple syrup and a sunnyside up egg on house made sliced bread

- The Notorious P.I.G., an eponymously named BBQ restaurant chain in Phoenix, Arizona, offers a conventional smoked pulled pork topped with blue cheese slaw on a bun

- We the Pizza, a pizzeria in Washington, DC apparently offers a "Notorious P.I.G. Pizza." No description of the toppings can be found on the restaurant's web side , but a Flickr photo caption describes it as a "BBQ" topping.

- Pork Belly Grub Shack in Sacramento, California, offers a "Notorious P.I.G. Burger" which is not pork at all (despite the restaurant's name) but a conventional beef cheeseburger topped with pork rinds and "belly sauce" on a ciabatta roll.

It's not clear who put the name "Notorious P.I.G." in play first, though photo dating suggests it was either the Austin sausage restaurant of the Phoenix chain (both were documented in late January, 2010).

There's a Charlie Mingus recording called "Gunslinging Bird." Mingus used to explain at his live performances that the full title of the song was "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats."  I don't know if the originator of the "Notorious P.I.G." menu moniker is a gunslinger (though its probable Phoenix or Texas origin gives one pause), but let's hope he or she is more intent on slinging porky goodness than bullets or trademark lawsuits.


Now, on to my favorite rock band, Notorious MSG.