On Valentine’s Day Thom and I had an excellent dinner at Fringale, a cozy, and as far as I could tell, very authentic, French restaurant on the corner of Fourth and Freelon Streets (near Brannan) in San Francisco. I had made the reservation on OpenTable only the day before, and was a little flummoxed as availability for different restaurants was fading to a flicker, but luckily I was able to snap up a 7:30 p.m. reservation. (I was a bit reminded of that scene in Waiting for Guffman where Corky St. Claire plays with his My Dinner with Andre action figures and makes up the dialogue. “Oh you, you can always get a reservation.”)
That night Fringale was serving a prix-fixe four-course menu: I chose prawns in pastis with sun-dried tomatoes; steak with red wine sauce, which we both picked; and pear tarte tatin spiced with star anise and served with vanilla ice cream. (Thom had spinach and Roquefort ravioli in walnut sauce to begin, and pine nut chocolate cake with caramel ice cream for dessert.) There was also a cheese course in between the latter two courses. We shared a half bottle of Clos du Val Cabernet, and later had coffee with our desserts. It was all so delicious.
The restaurant was decorated with red and white balloons, and our table, while not quite at the window, was set apart enough that we didn’t feel too crowded. I’m usually such a shutterbug, but I guess I was so taken with the romantic evening that I totally forgot to take any photos!