Of all times to open a Russian restaurant… but, of course, Birch & Rye, debuting February 2022, has been in the works long before the current dire events in Russia and Ukraine. Chef/owner Anya El-Wattar dove in head-first to aid Ukraine by way of her upcoming “Dine for Ukraine” April 13 fundraiser dinner with none other than Dominique Crenn.
As you enter the intimate space that housed my beloved Contigo — a Spanish favorite I cherished one block from home the years I lived in Noe Valley — Birch & Rye’s hospitable glow confirms we’ve been needing a Russian restaurant like this for a long time.
SF Bay Area holds one of the largest Russian populations in the U.S. at an estimated 75,000, roughly 30,000 of that number living in tiny San Francisco alone, with another roughly 20,000 Ukrainian-Americans in the Bay Area. SF’s Richmond District has held a dense Russian community for over a century, marked by Russian Orthodox churches, Eastern European delis, and restaurant treasures like Red Tavern, which satiates my cravings for blintzes or vareniki dumplings I grew up on homemade by a close Russian friend’s family in SoCal.
They have far less of a Russian population, but Portland, Oregon’s, Kachka has been an example of the type of modern Russian restaurant I wish many cities had. Not to replace traditional Russian delis and restaurants, but to supplement and provide that yin-to-the-yang every cuisine deserves of traditional alongside experimental expressions.
El-Wattar’s Birch & Rye is very different from Kachka, but similarly, it’s a place where Russian classics are reinterpreted retaining their essential soul. Soul comes through just talking to Anya for a few minutes. Schooled at NYC’s Natural Gourmet Center and Albuquerque’s Ayurvedic Institute — plus cooking at SF vegetarian legend since 1979, Greens — nurture runs through her dishes and her presence.
Yes, there is seasonal California influence and lightness, sourcing local — and beyond — ingredients, yet also a deep-roots authenticity in dishes from the Moscow-raised chef, heavily influenced by summers spent at her grandparents’ cabin in Russia’s countryside, foraging for mushrooms and berries or gathering sap from birch trees.
Birch trees quietly loom over the space in their gentle splendor: as art backdrops in the dining room and birch mural in the charming patio. The flow of the space and open front kitchen feels like Contigo, gaining handblown glass light fixtures, a backlit photographic panorama of a rye field and velvety, silver-blue leaf banquettes. In addition to brunch, a curbside lounge is eventually coming for pre-dinner cocktails.
I’m always delighted when I see khachapuri on a menu, the fabulous Georgian cheese bread, shaped like a rowboat with cheese and egg yolk in the middle (Bevri in Palo Alto has long been a top source — for food from the country of Georgia in general). Anya has wisely made the typically huge bread “petite” and from spelt, baked in their wood-fired oven. Brilliant idea: mini-khachapuri with quail egg yolk and three kinds of cheese, including salty feta. I satisfy my craving but am not full and spent the rest of the meal.
Zakuski (“little bites”) go much lighter, into luxury territory, especially when it comes to their thoughtful caviar selection of three different styles of caviar: golden oscietra, kaluga and Siberian sturgeon. Go full service with fluffy little einkorn (oldest known wheat) blinis and instead of creme fraiche, housemade smetana (Russian soured heavy cream). Caviar service is the most elegant way to go, but a more affordable caviar trio allows you to taste all three caviars on different potatoes: briny-but-clean golden oscietra on red potato, Siberian sturgeon on purple potato and, my favorite, creamy-yet-briny kaluga.
With general manger/beverage director Maria Agostinelli, consultant Jennifer Colliau (Small Hand Cocktails) crafted a thoughtful vodka infusions menu of vodka infused with traditional ingredients like horseradish (an infusion I’ve long been crazy about, especially with Eastern European food) or sea buckthorn, alongside delightful combos like fig-anise, a nutty hazelnut-chocolate-honey or the other standout: carrot-cinnamon. The infusions make the base for cocktails like a Tchaikovsky Toddy (no, it’s not hot), the carrot-cinnamon vodka dry and bright with citrus and Benedictine.
Agostinelli compiled a wine list heavy on California and France plus wines from Russia’s neighboring Georgia, though some local wines are made in a similar ancient quevri-style (like Eristavi Qvevri Sauvignon Blanc). As a lover of Georgian wines for a good 15 years, I was happy with the beer-esque finish of 2019 Gotsa Mandrini Petillant Naturel and gorgeous, dry, skin-contact tannins of 2020 Baia’s Tsolikouri. A Georgian brandy, Kakhuri Gvinis Marani XO Brandy, is ideal with dessert.
But back to the food: a staple U.S.S.R.-era potato salad, the olivier, is artfully reimagined with Maine lobster as the protein. It’s a “fancier” potato salad but still nurturing with rich heirloom potatoes arranged in a circle centered with lobster, cured egg yolk and carrots, dotted with smoked trout roe, pea tendrils, smetana and dill oil. It’s cool, warm, soothing. Ditto cured salmon in sea buckthorn and cultured beet butter with petite rye bread, the buckthorn berries from an organic Vermont berry farm Anya sources from.
Ancient einkorn wheat pops up again in pelmeni, ubiquitous Russian dumplings (in their variation as vareniki dumplings, I love them most filled with sour cherries, topped with smetana and get my fix at aforementioned Red Tavern). Here, it’s a gourmet chicken soup I’d crave when sick: comforting potato-filled einkorn pelmeni are swimming with herbed chicken, Tokyo turnips, mustard flowers and carrots in bone broth. Nurture in a bowl.
Borscht is one of my favorite broth soups. Anya’s version is (again) blissfully reinterpreted with an upscale lens. She gives it creaminess from roasted cauliflower, pouring the vivid, purplish-red broth tableside over beet coulis, smetana root vegetables and herbs. It’s a refreshing variation, elevating the rustic soup.
I wanted to order wild mushroom stroganoff of einkorn noodles contrasted with fennel oil. But given the amount of starch I was already indulging in, opted for protein-forward golubtsi wagyu instead. It’s the most pricey entree at $52, though three large hunks of tender wagyu beef were hefty enough to share. Golubtsi is another Russian dish I’ve long loved — with many Eastern European variations — of cabbage leaves wrapped around ground meats and vegetables in rich tomato sauce. Once again, it’s deconstructed here with a gentle char on wood-fired cabbage leaves, spiced tomato sauce streaked through the middle of the plate and crispy contrast of buckwheat grains.
A vivid side of simple, comforting Russian-style sauerkraut combines cabbage, carrots and pink Himalayan salt with an approachable fermented sour note. It’s the right accompaniment to richer dishes. I’ve heard some friends complain about cost compared to portions. Costs do add up quickly here. But quality is high, dishes like golubtsi and pelmeni are filling and I appreciate smaller portions allowing me to try more. A tasting menu option could provide a helpful boundary of a set price around smaller portions.
With Tartine partner Coffee Manufactory’s coffee served in a French press, a dessert of rye honey cake in whipped smetana, tart with cherries on my visit, is a balanced finish. My dessert pick for something different is a bowl of birch sap jelly punctuated with gooseberries, Siberian pine nuts and flower petals in birch syrup. It’s a play in textural contrasts from jelly-soft to crispy, showcasing the restaurant’s namesake birch.
In a time of tremendous horror and devastation with the war on Ukraine, this Russian oasis in SF feels like a healing balm, bringing the modern Russian food I crave with heart. In these particular times, it feels like a source of peace and understanding as Anya and the team reach out to support Ukraine. Birch & Rye offers a nurturing haven, delicately playing with Russian food with a healthful, current sensibility.
// 1320 Castro Street; https://birchandryesf.com
