This is why I’ve loved Absinthe for two decades
Absinthe in Hayes Valley turns 25, retaining old school French spirit with refreshed lightness.
French food hasn’t exactly been trending nationally, but thank goodness for stalwarts like San Francisco’s Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, a craft cocktail pioneer way back in the late 1990s also faithfully serving upscale French bistro fare and beloved brunches.
It still draws Hayes Valley crowds as it hits 25 years old this summer; an impressive feat for any restaurant. Though I’ve been dining here over 20 years, post-pandemic I’ve only been in for a couple weekday lunches and brunch — with absinthe cocktails, of course. It has been years since I returned for dinner.
So it was time to go back to “Green Fairy” central on a recent mild Saturday night. Absinthe is many things: an afternoon happy hour, a place for proper absinthe service, brunch feasts, weekday lunch meetings, pre- or post-show drinks and bites in the middle of our arts mecca of San Francisco Symphony, SF Opera, SF Ballet, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and SF Jazz. But I must admit, given our endless wealth of superb dinners in town — and classic French stalwarts like Chapeau and L’Ardoise Bistro — I’ve visited Absinthe more for all those moments than I have for dinner.
Executive chef Ian Begg is a James Beard semi-finalist and prestigious CIA grad with over 26 years of Bay Area chef experience since he started in restaurants at age 14, from his time at destination restaurants like Hawthorne Lane and Cafe Majestic, to opening his own SF restaurants, Txoko and Naked Lunch. He came on board at Absinthe in 2021 and just launched a new menu that drew me in.
I regularly hit brunch in years past and, yes, boozy weekday lunches with industry friends. In addition to Absinthe’s extensive wine cellar, I was a well-versed bar regular during Absinthe’s pioneering days in the cocktail renaissance when it was one of a couple places in the entire nation to push classic cocktails and honed technique back to the forefront in bars. Jonny Raglin and Jeff Hollinger ushered Absinthe’s bar into its glory days, as they eventually opened Comstock Saloon together in North Beach in 2010 and Hollinger wrote one of the earliest cocktail renaissance books, The Art of the Bar, in 2006 with Rob Schwartz.
Absinthe was home to renowned bar managers like Marco Dionysos, another local pioneer in the cocktail world since the 1990s who created one of the best modern-day cocktail classics, the Chartreuse Swizzle. So you can bet I’ve spent many a day or night at Absinthe’s Belle Epoque-influenced bar drinking absinthe and flaming Spanish Coffees the past 22 years, even attending a cocktail club that would meet there nearly two decades ago when we had few such places to meet.
Under current bar manager Eric Stashak, the cocktails aren’t the most memorable I’ve had there over the years, but there are welcome aperitifs, low proof sippers like Tonal Harmony, which goes light on Mulholland Gin with dry nuttiness from manzanilla sherry, Lillet Blanc and herbaceous-minty hit of shiso leaf. It feels like a sister to classic Bamboo cocktail, which was purportedly created in SF in the mid-1800s. I could have used more absinthe and Green Chartreuse with watermelon in the Bent Third cocktail, and gone lighter on the Remy-Martin Cognac/Brandy and Elijah Craig Rye Whiskey. But the combo of watermelon and anise-herbaceous notes is ever a happy one.
Back to the food: as previously stated, classic French fare has gone a bit out of vogue in the States as the mainstream American knowledge of foods from Korea, Laos, Peru, Thailand and beyond lead some of our most celebrated restaurants the past decade or so. Many other countries are just starting to get interested, too, while the larger food world is finally waking up to the fact that there are regional Mexican cuisines Californians have been weaned on. Classic French cuisine’s heavy butters and sauces have not boldly weathered the food renaissance of the last decades, despite all Julia Child did to mature the American palate back in the 1960s through French standards like beef bourguignon.
So digging into chef Begg’s new menu, it’s reassuring to taste his respect for traditional French fare and hearty dishes like beef bourguignon, while also peppering the menu with light, airy seafood tartares and seasonal vegetable and fruit dishes. Consider it classic French with a light, modern hand. It’s comforting to find dishes like that foggy night must-have, French onion soup, here and as comforting as ever. But there is much more.
Begg’s bourguignon is braised, fall-apart tender over vivid orange carrot puree, lightened up with shaved celery, much needed given its decadent partner of fried veal sweetbreads, with a restrained drizzle of red wine sauce to add more acid and berry depth. It’s filling, to be sure, but was the richest dish we had. An earthy, berry-forward wine pairing of 2010 Giuseppe Quintarelli ‘Rosso Ca’ Del Merlo’ Italian red blend is blessedly offered by the glass, thanks to their Coravin section preserving gorgeous aged wines.
Starting with oysters, clams and mussels individually or as a trio on ice is the recipe for a good meal — or just make a night of the trio alone at the bar with a glass of J. Lassalle Brut Champagne (absinthe also works fabulously with all of the above). Begg’s chilled espelette pepper-graced mussels gain substance over a bit of fried potatoes and mirepoix, also referred to as “the holy trinity” in Cajun and Creole cooking of onion, carrots, celery or green bell peppers. Even better are lemon-doused chilled clams, nuanced with layers of creme fraiche, celery, smoked ham and a cute little puff pastry crown. You could dub it, “when chilled clams go meaty.” This bite reminded me more than a bit of my beloved New Orleans. Likewise escargots de Bourgogne, aka Burgundy snails, feel classic but lighter than the usual butter-drenched versions accented with cordyceps mushrooms, parsley, garlic and Pernod (for that anise-y absinthe hit).
It felt like SF summer with a towering heirloom tomato and watermelon salad. Other elements like French feta cheese, Persian cucumbers and radishes may be common partners with tomato and watermelon, but green grape vinaigrette and the tower presentation topped with a “hat” of mizuna lettuce leaves is not. Seafood tartares and crudos are also ubiquitous on local menus for years, but Begg’s sea scallop tartare is silky, diced-up scallops (instead of served whole) with Summer melon, lemon, shiso and toybox radishes swimming in a cool cucumber nage (aka stock or broth). This dish transported me back to a heat wave harvest in Bordeaux, France, in September 2011 when I’d kill for light French-style seafood tartares in that heat as I was served heavy foie gras and steak daily.
Unexpectedly, the dish that wowed most was sweet corn ricotta agnolotti. Yes, it’s an Italian pasta, but with French spirit, down to wild mushrooms and mushroom cream. Think of it as a sister to Parisian gnocchi and French pastas like coquillettes or crozets. Stuffed with fluffy ricotta in that mushroom cream with fresh corn, toy box tomatoes and Pecorino Romano, this dissolve-in-your-mouth pasta gains French nuance from a shaving of black truffles. I left dreaming of this dish — and we have a lot of Italy-worthy agnolotti pasta in town.
Not sure if you can still get those beloved Spanish Coffees that lit up Absinthe with the smell of cinnamon for so many years. Wishing for more absinthe cocktails on the menu, like classic Absinthe Frappés or Absinthe Suissesse, I asked for and got a decent version of the latter. You can also opt for the restaurant’s namesake on the rocks with a bit of water: a “Green Fairy” pour of pastis, Herbsaint or absinthe. The former two are made without wormwood and came about when absinthe was illegal, but all three taste like absinthe. Any are ideal with a dessert like their gateau Basque, a rectangular, long cream-filled cake flanked by cherries jubilee and sage ice cream. They also have a changing “featured absinthe” on the menu, a good place to start for Green Fairy virgins.
Stepping out into Hayes Street post-dinner, the weekend street closure — which just got extended due to local outcry — feels like a street party. One that has been part of Hayes Valley’s continued renaissance and vibrant life in and since pandemic. Hayes continues to remain a favorite SF nightlife neighborhood, not as late night as North Beach, but lively and contained within a few blocks. Here Absinthe sits, as it has for a quarter of a century, a central meeting place with blessed all-day hours making it right for any eat and/or drink meetup, morning till night. And it’s still blessedly classic French, but with a refreshed touch.
// 398 Hayes Street, www.absinthe.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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