Give Me Some Food

This post is pinnacle: I think I may be reviewing Felix’s favorite restaurant.

Interestingly enough, the reason that Poggio is Felix’s favorite restaurant is not the food. Don’t get me wrong- the food is wonderful and authentic and the bread is, in my humble opinion, the best in the Bay Area, but the reason it’s Felix’s favorite is this: Poggio is not in San Francisco. 

It’s in Sausalito.

Why does that matter? Well, Kristen the psychologist has thought about the matter. Felix associates San Francisco with work and working. Even the gorgeous views he sees from his building of the bay and San Francisco remind him of work. Yet whenever we go over to Sausalito for a meal, we see families on vacation and bridesmaids and groomsmen getting into limos ready for celebration. Basically Felix feels vicariously on vacation when he’s in Sausalito-it’s like a mini getaway for him- which is nice because we get a whole different surrounding by just driving half an hour. I would even be willing to predict that the minute we cross the Golden Gate Bridge his blood pressure and cholesterol go down.

Though this time, while crossing the Golden Gate, Felix are I were in a deep discussion about ice. ( I actually wrote out the transcript of what Felix and I had to say about ice- but then I realized…it wasn’t that interesting. Just know that Felix was on the side of being perturbed he has to buy ice, and I thought it wasn’t that big of a deal…) Then our attention was caught by the views of the city and the bay:

Poggio is on the main drag of Sausalito's little downtown area (Bridgeway ) and situated so that you can sit outside on the sidewalk, inside -but looking outside, or inside. It’s a nice choice, but since it was around 8pm when we arrived, and a little chilly- we chose to sit inside. They immediately brought out bread and asked us whether we would like still or sparkling water. Don't be afraid of the choice here because both are complimentary- Poggio is not trying to profit off your water choice as many restaurants do and as Michael Bauer has recently commented on in his blog.

 

Did I mention the bread? Because I should. If you are on some kind of South Beach or Atkins diet- don’t even think about coming here. The bread is warm and aromatic and herbed and heavenly. I think my favorite is the sesame roll with the rosemary roll as a close second.

Cut to the chase, Kristen. We want to see food. Real food. None of this ice and bread stuff.

Ok.

So I had the salmon:

 

It was over golden fingerling mashed potatoes and had spinach and peas on top. It was delicious and the salmon was nicely seared to give it a crispness, but the middle wasn’t overdone.

Felix got (you guessed it!) the steak. I tried to talk him out of it because Poggio is an Italian joint and they really do fish and pasta well. But he was not to be persuaded:

And he got his steak extra rare:

We took the leftovers home and the next night I served it sliced thinly (carpaccio style) and made a nice Herbed Brown Rice Salad with Corn, Fava Beans and Peas from the July 2006 Food and Wine.

So tonight, if you hadn’t noticed, we decided to not have appetizers- and have dessert instead! I’ve been noticing lately that I haven’t really been finishing any of my food- so I’m doing my best to make a concerned effort to be less wasteful. So how did Felix and I fare at being less wasteful?

Here are the panna cotta and rubarb strawberry torte before we ate them:

 

And here they are after we ate them:

We are unwasteful people!

Poggio
777 Bridgeway (at Bay)
Sausalito, CA
415-332-7771