The Brunch Club

Two excellent brunches became three when I took my parents and Lee to Absinthe on a Sunday morning when culture beckoned: the last day of a modernism photography show plus Vivienne Westwood at the de Young for Lee, and a chamber-music concert devoted to Bay Area composer Elly Armer at the Old First Church for us. To our amazement, there was ample parking on Hayes: We suddenly realized that the street had just reopened after Bay to Breakers.

Our luck held. Well, almost: My mother's Dungeness crab, sautéed with parsley and garlic, was sweet and silky and rather luscious. Lee's omelet, stuffed with big woodsy morels, English peas, a whiff of sage, and the genius touch of fresh white corn, was cooked just the way she liked it. My father enjoyed his smoked salmon, squiggled with pernod-dill cream, though he thought that its capers, rather than being fried, "should come straight from the pickling jar as nature intended." I was the only loser: My eggs, scrambled with an inexplicably dull combination of boiled navy beans, mushy artichoke ragout, and too-wispy, too-infrequent strands of Toscano salame, paled, especially since I'd chosen them over an Absinthe burger, corned beef hash with poached eggs, or grilled flat iron steak.

Paolo Vescia

At Foreign Cinema brunch is treated with the respect it deserves.

Location Info

Map

Maverick

3316 17th St.
San Francisco, CA 94110

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Mission/ Bernal Heights

Menu Photos

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Details

Maverick, open for dinner Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.; brunch Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m.; Sunday supper from 5 to 9 p.m. Reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Parking: street, difficult. Muni: 14, 22, 26, 33, 49, 53. Noise level: moderate to high.

Foreign Cinema, open for dinner Monday through Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m., Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday brunch from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (limited menu from 3 to 6 p.m.) and Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (limited menu from 3 to 5 p.m.). Reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Parking: valet parking at dinner, $10; otherwise, street, difficult. Muni: 14, 49. Noise level: low to moderate.

Absinthe, open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight; brunch Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., cafe menu from 3 to 5 p.m., dinner Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight, Sunday until 10 p.m. Reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Parking: valet $10 Tuesday through Sunday dinner, otherwise street, difficult. Muni: 16, 21, 47, 49. Noise level: low to moderate.

Maverick:

Biscuits and gravy $9

Duck confit hash $14

Foreign Cinema:

Mini mer seafood platter $28

Smoked salmon plate $13

Absinthe: Crab sautéed with parsley and garlic $17 half, $30 whole

Morel, pea, and corn omelet $14

Maverick, 3316 17th (at Mission), 863-3061, www.sfmaverick.com.

Foreign Cinema, 2534 Mission (at 21st Street), 648-7600, www.foreigncinema.com

Absinthe, 398 Hayes (at Gough), 551-1590, www.absinthe.com

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More About

• Holly Brubach
• John Clark
• Gayle Pirie
• Main Dish Recipes
• Eating Out

But Absinthe rallied with a superb trio of tarts (chocolate-banana, cheesecake, and almond-raspberry), and a seductive assortment of cookies and confections, notably a bonbon filled with basil ganache and tiny pistachio-cherry muffins. We all wished we'd seen the cheese menu earlier: One of us would have certainly had the lavish cheese plate, five carefully garnished cheeses for $25, as our main dish. Next time, we agreed. Because brunch is, even at otherwise pricy places, an affordable luxury.