The dining mash-upBy Paula Connelly
One Monday night a month from 5p.m.-10:30p.m., Tommy Halvorson (executive chef of the Phoenix Supper Club) and 111 Minna team up to offer enthusiastic adventure diners a mash-up cultural experience called EAT. The idea? Order from a menu consisting of small plates (all at $10 or under), then enjoy your food and drinks at cocktail tables while surrounded by art and listening to a DJ’s digestivo tunes.
As an art gallery and lounge in SoMa, 111 Minna is no stranger to the nightlife mashup that has been gaining popularity in San Francisco. These days, most SF museums even host weekly nightlife events that cater to the 21+ crowd by combining later hours, DJs, live music, lectures, and makeshift bars to help the culture go down all the more smoothly. Maybe it’s the bad economy that’s given us a hunger (and thirst) for an inexpensive, DIY cultural experience; it has certainly prompted us to host more dinner and cocktail parties at home. Or maybe it’s because the Internet’s social networking overload has rewired our brains so that we need real life aggregators too. (Stay tuned for Google Wave. ) Whatever the reason, when San Franciscans go out to see and be seen, we want a destination that appeals to our many facets, and we want to get the most bang for our buck .
Satisfying your sense of adventure, thrift, and quality all at once, Mission Street Food has been a pioneer in this category. MSF takes over a hole- in-the-wall restaurant in the Mission on Thursdays and Saturdays and has rotating local chefs design inexpensive, gourmet weekly menus to benefit charity. The brief cocktail menu even has an ode to the musical mash-up genre called the Grey Album, a 32-ounce mix of Old English and Boddington’s, whose name nods to Danger Mouse’s combination of the Beatles’ White album with Jay-Z’s Black album. Yum.
EAT, then, is MSF with a FiDi twist. The cocktail menu is certainly more upscale and pricey, due to the full bar provided by 111 Minna. Last week’s EAT cocktails were a martini with vodka, lime, mint, and cucumber ($9) along with a special EAT Sangria ($6). The bar tab is separate from the food tab and the bar accepts cards, while the food is cash only. With an RSVP, admission is free, rather than $3, and you get an appetizer coupon of the chef’s choosing. We got the triple fried chips with horseradish-shallot crème fraiche (normally $3). The menu has all the foodie buzz words: pork belly taco ($3), chanterelle gnocchi ($9), ceviche ($9), duck and fig flat bread ($4), and a few more items. Remember to tell your waitperson not to bring everything out at once, as we regretted not doing so.
The highlights were the martinis, the gnocchi, and the crème fraiche dip. The rest of the food was unmemorable, though considering the prices and that it was only their second week in operation, we couldn’t complain too much. Our bar tab wound up being the same as our food tab, and my companion and I both walked out feeling full and buzzed for $30 a person -- not bad, considering the neighborhood. And we got to sit next to some really cool and interesting artwork by Adam Flores: grafitti caricatures of man-made structures and natural shapes fighting with each other on the canvas, all installed across three dimensional wooden planks. Overall, EAT was a low maintenance way to be out on a Monday. Plus, wearing your finest artsy, ‘80s inspired attire is merely optional.
EAT at 111 Minna
Monday, 10/26, and 11/16
5 p.m.- 10:30 p.m., free with RSVP to EATat111Minna@gmail.com
http://eatat111minna.blogspot.com
Mission Street Food
Thursdays and Saturdays, 6pm
Lung Shan Restaurant
2234 Mission Street
http://blog.missionstreetfood.com/
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