Meredith Brody in the Palm of Palmetto on Union

Comments (0) By Meredith Brody Wednesday, Nov 28 2007

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We exit, more than content with our dinner, big winners this evening at restaurant roulette. I'm looking forward to my next meal here, especially after taking a look at the enticing brunch menu (avocado and basil omelet with bacon and Brie; chicken hash; and crispy polenta with poached eggs, piperade, and chorizo are just a few of its many temptations). But that meal turns out to be lunch with my hungry friends Mel and Skip, up from Los Angeles for their annual orgy at the Pinot Fest held at Farallon. Among us we manage to try much of the rather brief lunch menu, mostly soups, salads, and sandwiches (especially since Palmetto has dropped the house-made pastas and daily fish special still promised on its Web site). The boys start well with dishes that could easily be light lunches on their own: a lovely salade niçoise featuring tuna cured in-house in good oil, and house-cured salmon atop a potato cake more mashed than crispy, adorned with watercress, frisée, fennel, pickled beets, and crème fraîche. We're all beguiled by my minestrone, filled with lightly cooked vegetables, a bit of pasta, and fat, creamy borlotti beans.

We go on to quite good if not amazing sandwiches: a rather less robust than anticipated roasted garlic chicken sausage with kale and mustard on country bread, and an open-face grilled flatiron steak sandwich somewhat undone by its bed of strong-flavored mushroom duxelles and red wine jus. My grilled Niman Ranch hamburger is perfectly fine, on a sweet, soft brioche bun, with very good house-pickled cucumber chips, carrots, fennel, and cauliflower. My friends, who followed Pinot Fest by drinking their way through the Anderson Valley, are very pleased with the three wines they sample here, especially the Hope & Grace Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands. I enjoy a glass of fruity French Chidaine Clos Habert Chenin Blanc.

Jen Siska

Club med:The culinary journey starts with this remodeled dining room.

Details

Palmetto, 2032 Union (at Webster), 931-5006, www.palmetto-sf.com. Open for lunch Monday-Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner Sunday-Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m.; brunch Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Parking: street, difficult. Muni: 22, 41, 45. Noise level: moderate.

Wild mushroom soup $8

Zucchini blossoms w/ crab $12

Roasted whole blue-foot chicken for two $58

Hanger steak $24

Salade niçoise $15

Galaktoboureko $8

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I'm surprised that the lunch dessert offerings are limited to a sorbet assortment (today passionfruit, lemon, and a gelato-like coconut-mint) and a mousselike chocolate pot de crème. It's true that we won bigger on dinner, but we're willing to place bets on all future meals.