For my first three years in San Francisco, I held a Precita Avenue address. When I moved here way back in early 2001, I was just a couple blocks from idyllic Precita Park. But it wasn’t so idyllic back then. My humble little 1890 Victorian with a group of girls got broken into with literally only a boom box and a ring stolen as we had nothing else of any worth. Then the gracious man who ran the liquor store on our corner got shot in his store, but thankfully survived. Those were rough times, yet I adored my home, was falling more in love with SF every day and fell hard for the Mission, Outer Mission and Bernal Heights (the neighborhood and the park with its killer views), which I daily walked through all around me. I held a deep fondness for Precita Park, reveling in its little strip cradled at the base of Bernal Heights with views in the distance of Twin Peaks and downtown.
A couple decades have changed things considerably in the neighborhood. As opposed to endless complaints of things going “downhill,” many parts of SF have improved over the last couple decades, and this is one of them. Precita Park is now packed with families, couples, singles and dogs galore. It’s charming, peaceful, now lined with white lights — but I still felt its magic back then. There sure wasn’t anything like Marlena on the park, however, only humble cafes and chill restaurants.
Marlena bravely opened in September 2020 in the throes of pandemic (my initial review here), in the former Hillside Supper Club space, from husband-wife chef duo David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher (who cooked at venerable Jean-Georges and Eleven Madison Park in NYC, as well as Sorrel in SF and Bird Dog in Palo Alto). I named it one of the top 6 openings of 2020, a bleak year for restaurants globally. They went on to gain a Michelin star in 2021, hailed for “deftly marrying simplicity with sophistication.” Indeed.
The humble dining room and parklet in those initial days has changed considerably after their recent remodel. They temporarily closed, reopening at the end of September 2022, now sporting a sleek, curved new wall in the entrance with “marlena” emblazoned in cursive, backed by soothing midnight blues, shelving, plants. The rebirth certainly makes the space more elegant than it was but it’s still understated, a backdrop for the food, yet more in line with a Michelin star.
Still, it’s a neighborhood restaurant and their four-course steal of a $65 tasting menu is as good as it gets for the price. Though they still haven’t ushered into wine pairings for the menu, they’re about to, and are happy to recommend glasses from the short but robust wine list.
The ever-changing food menu remains seasonal, with supplements like warm milk bread rolls and cultured butter, best ordered with their “picnic” platter, tributing Precita Park outside their lofty windows, and the picnic baskets they turned out in pandemic. A fall spice-laden house version of a fig newton is topped with duck liver mousse next to a little jar of mushroom duxelle and Galilee Prime Osetra Caviar’s nutty, creamy, briny notes over a crème croustade. These are ideal picnic bites and the cute presentation over red-and-white checkered paper keeps it playful.
Per usual my husband, Dan “The Renaissance Man” and I ordered one of every course (two options per course) so we could try everything. The first two dishes post-add-on picnic course were light and breezy: strips of shaved celtuce swam cool and crisp in kombu kelp broth, cradling silky housemade tofu, shiso leaves, jalapeño and bits of fried onion for savory depth. Similarly, kampachi crudo was silky-cool, but contrasting the umami, earthy, soft, vegetal melange of the celtuce dish, the crudo goes acidic with apple vinegar and sour gherkins, peppery with green peppercorn, cold and tart under apple granita.
Mid-courses lean Italy or primi pasta course with NorCal flair. Ravioli enhanced by smoked eggplant and baby leeks were flanked by Early Girl tomato jam, enhancing the savory, soft ravioli with bright, late summer notes. Using the great Acquerello’s risotto rice, Marlena’s risotto was under a layer of paper-thin, shaved porcini mushrooms, marked by delicata squash (in prime season right now), enlivened with white wine and shaved Parmesan. It tasted of Autumn in Italy with NorCal purity of ingredients. Sheer comfort.
Moving onto the mains or second-style courses, Sakura pork loin gets a welcome hit of Vietnam from nước chấm fish sauce, the loin also calling to Fall with accompanying cranberry beans, honeynut squash and juicy pork sausage. The most visually striking dish of the night was roasted sturgeon topped with its roe, accompanied by soft summer squash and mussels, swimming in sungold tomato sauce, tasting like the Pacific ocean and late Bay Area summer/fall.
A $49 add-on per person of A5 wagyu ribeye sliced thin and beautifully rare wasn’t necessary in terms of hunger factor (we were already full), but we had to try it — and I had to continue my exceptional beef-heavy run (out of the norm) from my week in South Korea the week prior. Tender wagyu in top A5 form was dusted in just the right amount of flaked sea salt, with a confit of sunchokes (another of my favorite Fall seasonal ingredients) matsutake mushrooms in black garlic and pickled cauliflower.
As mentioned, the wine list is still growing as pairings with the ever-changing menus will soon roll out. But there are numerous by-the-glass options that glorified the dishes, including Kuentz-Bas sparkling Pinot Blanc from my long-beloved Germanic region of Alsace, France, or 2021 Idelwild Flora & Fauna, a white wine blend of roughly 40% Arneis, 30% Muscat Canelli, 10% each Cortese, Erbaluce and Favorita grapes from Fox Hill Vineyard and Lost Hills Ranch in Mendocino’s North Coast. With the A5 beef, a 2015 Hermanos de Pecino Crianza Tempranillo from Rioja, Spain, offers fruit, vanilla and soft acid, while a more robust yet restrained 2020 Luuma Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa provided deeper, richer layers.
No matter if we had room for dessert, it was coming. And we finished both. Pumpkin “cheesecake” had a sweet sour element under a shortbread crust sheet with the crunch of pumpkin seeds around the creamy play of dark chocolate cremeux and kabocha squash purée emphasizing fall glories. I particularly was drawn to a mound of pain de Gênes (“bread of Genoa,” Italy), little almond paste cakes surrounded by slices of Concord grapes and pistachio and grape Strauss yogurt, under cool pistachio ice. It was both rich and light, tasting like our warmer SF fall season with its cooling pistachio and almond cake nuttiness.
Like North Beach’s great steal of a prix fixe restaurant, longtimer Trestle, Marlena offers value at high quality, taste and creativity partnered with comfort; cozy, casual neighborhood vibes touched with worldly sophistication. We are blessed with an almost silly wealth of restaurants at this level and higher — so much so, that it’s easy to miss many of them or, if you’re like me, spend all your time getting to all of them, thus unable to be the regular you might wish to be. Marlena is one such restaurant that many cities would be lucky to have just one of. It’s also another of our many newer 2020 and 2021 openings maturing and evolving into an San Francisco staple with each passing season.
// 300 Precita Avenue; www.marlenarestaurant.com
