At the prime, heavily foot-trafficked location of Valencia between 16th and 17th Streets, Ancora (“anchor” in Latin) opened July 2, 2022, in the former Locanda space. It was opened by Andi and Joe Conte of Water2Table, the venerable sustainable seafood company that many Bay Area restaurants — and more recently, consumers, too — source from since 2011.
Partnering with chef Nick Anichini (who was chef de cuisine at none other than The World’s 50 Best/3 Michelin Atelier Crenn), the Contes worked with chef Nick during the five years he was at Crenn sourcing their fish. The Contes ran a meal delivery service out of the kitchen as pandemic kicked in. They considered turning the space into a restaurant, while Anichini had been dreaming of a seafood-centric restaurant. Synergies aligned and Ancora was born.
They kicked off opening week with a tasting menu ($125 per person; wine pairing $65), then rolled into adding a la carte opening month. On a warm early August night, husband Dan “The Renaissance Man” and I visited. We reminisced of delightful Italian brunches and cocktails at Locanda in the space before. But more so, we missed its years as Bar Tartine, which was one of our all-time “best” San Francisco restaurants for years, thanks to Nick Balla’s visionary Hungarian-meets-Japanese cooking, a one-of-a-kind chef’s point-of-view I still miss, thrilled he’s back at the newly reborn Bar Agricole (more on that soon post-visit).
While Ancora is completely different than Bar Tartine, it became clear briefly chatting with Andi Conte as she made her rounds and with chef Nick, as well as our thoughtful server, that this newcomer feels worthy of the lineage of the space. An ethos of craft and care with a comfortable glow of soothing neutral tones recalled two decades of great memories in this building, while the concept feels fresh and forward-looking.
As we tried the tasting menu with a couple dishes added on, we began with Baja CA Pacific kumamoto oysters. Exuding that fresh, briny pop, swimming in meyer lemon juice, little forks of smoked crème fraiche, preserved lemon, pickled red gypsy peppers and Calabrian chile oil offered a subtle hit of heat. Subtly intricate, this is no typical oyster serving with mignonette. This thoughtful preparation hinted at things to come.
But we actually started to get excited once a trio of starters arrived. Smoked salmon mousse-filled gougeres topped with cured salmon, trout roe and dill were a good time, indeed. But tiny little San Francisco anchovies stuffed with castelvetrano olives and garlic puree across pan con tomate upped the game. These mini-tomato-garlic toasts tasted traditional and heartwarming as they do in Spain… with a local twist of SF anchovies. It felt classic and playful, the tiny fishies propped as if swimming atop the toasts.
As we moved on to nasturtium dolmas wrapped around parsley garlic butter-soaked escargot (snails) with koji yeast-laced rice, chef Nick’s vision started to come into focus. East meets West touches peek out, but it’s more a modern European melange, like classic France paired with Greece, with Japanese koji to center it in California.
A silky, bright San Francisco halibut crudo with Monterey seaweeds in littleneck clam vinaigrette was upstaged by an add-on of Santa Barbara spot prawns (sometimes they source from Washington state when California prawns aren’t available/in season). Plump and perfect as these most heavenly of prawns are, they were decadent in sea urchin butter and lime. I couldn’t help but start to spoon up the butter once the prawns were devoured. It was rich but felt as nurturing as mother’s milk.
Rightly so, green tagliolini pasta infused with plankton has been getting the most buzz since they opened. The grassy chartreuse hue of the noodles is dotted with white sturgeon caviar the Contes/Water2Table source locally from the Sacramento Delta. Leek fondue and mussels stock add briny, savory luxuriousness, while their also house-sourced bottarga (mullet roe) is shaved over the noodle mound. It’s pasta meets the sea, tasting gloriously of Italy… California-style, our local seafood riches bringing the dish home.
They plan to eventually add cocktails to the mix, but it’s wine and beer and wine for now, heavy on California, Spain, Italy and France wine selections. Andi Conte is a certified sommelier and has focused on local coastal producers and globally on biodynamic vineyards. I love seeing longtime Cali favorites like Caraccioli’s Champagne-worthy sparkling wines, Chardonnay from the great Santa Lucia Highlands or Lieu Dit’s Melon de Bourgogne from Santa Maria Valley, alongside European treats like Tuscan Bianco Di Ampeleia’s natural Trebbiano or Costers del Priorat “Petit Pisarres” from Priorat, Spain.
If ordering a la carte, fish entrees are plenty for two. We ultimately tried both fish entrees, opting to skip the wagyu ribeye. Halibut fished just off San Francisco’s shores is rack grilled Santa Maria-style, nodding to California’s barbecue roots, looking like a white rack of lamb with thinner bones protruding from the meaty fish. A spread of accompanying bites and sauces brings delicious drama, particularly a seafood sausage of halibut, prawns and paprika over peperonata, superb house garlic bread drizzled in olive oil, wild morels and chanterelle mushroom conserva and a vivid, green chermoula sauce blessedly heavy with garlic. A North African touch of chermoula sauce feels akin to Argentinian/Uruguayan chimichurri, its finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil being the unifier. The Italian partner of peperonata (red bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic) under the seafood sausage makes this spread feel like a journey from N. Africa to the Mediterranean by way of South America.
A whole butterflied Mt. Lassen trout (this silky California trout remains the best I’ve ever had, on par with superb salmon, amazing raw and used by many of the best restaurants locally) is oh-so-lightly fried, covered in edible flowers and herbs, like mint and nasturtium. A mole-esque sauce of white sesame, guajillo and pasilla chiles is poured tableside over the flattened fish. Completely different from the other fish entree, this dish pulls on Southeast Asia and Mexico, very much at home with San Francisco’s population and roots (and California’s as a whole). Each dish brings a yin-yang play of international flavors.
After all this seafood glory, a dessert of Santa rosa plums (the best in the world at their peak) and peaches, pecan tuille, over buttermilk cream, coated with buttermilk granita, olive oil and a dash of black pepper, is NorCal purity in a bowl. It’s clean, bright, juicy, light-handed… ideal and in keeping with the luxurious but breezy meal.
557 Valencia Street is reborn, incorporating the world and deep cultures all around us with the sea. In this way, it feels oh-so-SF, very Bay Area, whose roots are deep in diversity since the inception of our city. Ancora’s owners have made their life in sustainable, local seafood, and have frequented the space’s former restaurants as long as Dan and I have. The respect for the space, the seafood, the experience, comes through immediately. I see a future for Ancora where a Michelin star and James Beard nom could be appropriate. And where it could take its place with the dozens-upon-dozens of world-class San Francisco restaurants that exhibit upscale excellence with relaxed, welcoming ease.
// 557 Valencia Street, www.ancorasf.com
