My quest to dine at one of Lazy Bear's highly regarded pop-up dinners started over a year ago. I cannot even remember how I came across their dinners...the best I could come up with was Yelp-ing unique dinner experiences. And I tried multiple times, but never gotten chosen. Their usual process is for people to submit a form online with their preferred date for that weeks upcoming dinner, which of the other dates can they make, how many in their party, diet restrictions (which they may or may not take heed), and if they have "a lot" over the past few months (greater than 6 times or so in the last few months). The lucky winners are chosen at random to fill the spots with some extra consideration if you had "tried a lot".
However, this time they were doing something different: a ticketed event. At noon on Thursday Jan 16th, tickets would go on sale for Friday, Saturday, and Monday night dinners at $125 for dinner (see menu to the right & linked
HERE) which included gratuity and tax. Add an extra $5 fee for Eventbrite. At noon, or about 15 seconds after noon, I clicked on the link (damn work email haha) and the tickets for each day were "Pending". Both Lazy Bear and the ticketing site said to keep trying as long as each day did not show Sold Out. I kept hitting refresh every minute or two in hopes that a ticket or two would become available. After 45min, I finally scored 1 ticket. Great...solo dining. Not familiar how the seating worked, I thought well at least I can bring some good beer and try to make friends. So I picked 6 beers that I thought would be well paired with the meal. Then all I could do was wait until Friday!
After taking BART to the 24th Street and Mission station, I made my way to the address provided...near the intersection of Mission and Cesar Chavez. I followed a couple into the building and was warmly greeted by a hostess (who would later be one of the waiters) and asked to pick any seat along one of two long tables, seated social style. I was informed that there was another solo diner, who would be sitting across from me. A waiter came to ask if I had any bottles to be refrigerated and to let him know when I wanted it brought to me. I'll take the time here to say that service was impeccable...not only friendly and well informed but were taught well on the serve from the left and cleared from the right. I learned they were all volunteers, so I offered the couple of waiters who served me some beer...they could not during service but one shared a glass afterwards.
Now for the fun stuff!
Chef David Barzelay (rearranges into Lazy Bear don't you know) came out and told us that he was glad to have everyone there, that we were all welcome back in the kitchen and could ask questions as well. He then surprised everyone that the 6 stated items on menu was only about half of what we were going to be served. Our faces lit up and smiled, and then it began! What follows is what I could remember from Chef Barzelay's intros to every course, my tasting notes, and pictures. Enjoy!
SNACKS
Whipped Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, Maple Syrup, and Hot Sauce
This was served in a tall/thin shot glass and it was delicious. The bacon, syrup, and and hot sauce were at the bottom. The eggs were whipped to an almost pudding texture that was very good. You could just taste the maple and bacon (which was a small amount) and the hot sauce added just the right amount of tang. Most of the diners were scrapping their glasses with the little metal spoons provided. Sorry for the partially eaten picture haha.
Toro Largo Style with Fried Parsley, Pomegranate Seed and Fresh Olive Oil
Served in a spoon, the toro was tasty, but the real star was the fresh olive oil...you could taste olives actually, which for me is a different experience from the store bought, base olive oil I use to cook.
**Beer Note - Alesmith Decadence
Dobbelbock Lager - 10% - This was an amazing dark amber beer. A slight sweetness to it, which matched well with all the SNACKS! I highly recommend it.
Thai Style Beef Jerky with Obo and Chilis
The Thai flavoring was really good matched well with the heat of the chili peppers. It was freshly dried that week or day (cant remember what he had said). It was chewy like good beef jerky, but I took it in one bite. Would have been better to gnaw at, but being at a proper dinner I tried to remain proper.
Bone Marrow and Cheddar Sauce with Carrot, Radish, and Sugar Plant
The sauce tasted like a good mac and cheese sauce, but I couldn't taste the marrow really. The veggies were fresh and I never had sugar plant before, and it was good...and looked cool too! Good overall, but I would have liked to taste more of the actual marrow flavor.
Dungeness Crab Schezuan Style with Ponzu Sauce
Lightly fried crab leg meat which was good. The sauce was tasty if not a little subdued. Good, light fry on the crab.
Black Bread with Buttermilk Salted Butter
Muli-grain style bread, which was freshly baked and really good. The butter was make taking buttermilk and making into curds and adding salt. Then they added warm buttermilk and poured it over the top. It was soft and tasty, with a slight tang taste like an almost gorgonzola.
MAIN COURSES
Rock Cod with Salsify, Sunchokes, Scallions, and Grapefruit
Fish was cooked well and definitely the star here. The other ingredients were ok, and the cream sauce was pretty tasty. You could definitely taste the grapefruit which added a nice acidity to the dish.
Poached Sturgeon with Potatoes, Caviar, Black Truffles, and Black Olives
Very decadent dish with the caviar and black truffles. First time tasting caviar, and it tasted good in the small amount on here. Again fish was very tasty and cooked well. The only thing lacking was that some of the potatoes were a little under cooked...just the round balls, the chips and wedges were done just fine and would have sufficed. This was the only "negative" critique I had all night.
Quail with Ham, Cabbage, Sherry, and Raisins
Quail delicious with nice addition from the ham and sherry and raisins. The cabbage was kind of just there for color and texture.
**Beer Note - Mikkeller Crooked Moon DIPA
Double IPA
Switched to a very nice double IPA from Mikkeller, a Danish brewery. This is an amazing beer and paired well with the Quail and the following dishes. Good hoppy flavor but also well balanced.
Lamb - Rib and Sausage, Mustard Greens, Cumin, Schezuan Peppercorns
First the mustard greens were lightly flash fried and added a good crunch. The lamb...the lamb was utterly amazing. First the rib was cooked perfectly and a good pink in the middle. The sauce with the cumin and peppercorns went really well with the lamb and the seasoning on it But even better was the sausage...probably hands down the best sausage I have had...and all I had was one slice just bigger than a half-dollar coin. My only complain is that there was not more.
Rice Crisps with Saffron, Honey, Oranges, Burgamot
This was the first of the dessert courses. Very fresh and tasty. Great pairing of the honey and orange. There were three crisps with the other ingredients layered below them. Good and mellow sweetness from the honey. Saffron was nice addition as well.
Giant Carrot with Chocolate and Chicory
Basically they got the biggest carrots they could find and lightly candied them. Then there was a mixture of chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate mouse. I kind of dug in before taking a picture...sorry. The cake was really moist and the sweetness of the carrot mixed with the chocolate was nicely done. Another problem of that I wanted more :)
TREATS
Quatro of Truffles - Caramelized Cookie Dough, Candied Fruit, White Chocolate with Sake and Green Tea Matcha, Bear Papa
After taking the picture and digging into the caramelized cookie dough truffle (as good as it sounds!) that I missed the 2nd one. It was pretty tasty, but no idea. I really enjoyed the white chocolate with green tea matcha...though I couldn't taste the sake. The bear papa was a nice custard inside a pastry...their take of the Beard Papa puff.
After dinner was completed, Chef Barzelay came out and talked to everyone in small groups and told us about how he got started...he was a lawyer who got tired of it and wanted to do something he was passionate about. Really nice guy, was glad we had an awesome dinner.
Overall, it was an amazing dinner. I felt that I had gotten my money's worth which is saying something at a $130 dinner. I highly recommend you try to attend one of these at some point. It is well worth the time and money to do so!
Notes: Starting as a solo project of Dan Smith, Bastille was eventually formed once he added Chris Wood, William Farquarson and Kyle Simmons. The name of the band derives from Bastille Day...which is on Smith's birthday. This UK group caught early attention mid 2010 with songs "Flaws" and "Icarus", followed up with the Laura Palmer EP, and after releasing songs/videos on YouTube and MySpace, the finally garnered an internet following before securing a deal with the Young and Lost Club record label.
