Eat Here Now is a first look at some of the newest, hottest restaurants around – the ones we think are worth visiting. We dine once, serve forth our thoughts, and let you take it from there.
As an idea, combining cult smashburger pop-up Maillards with beloved Oakland brewery Two Pitchers was good — very good. But the layout of the Inner Sunset space they share is horrible — very horrible.
Simply transporting your meal to your table on a busy Friday afternoon is a Homeric odyssey. Balancing a tray heavy with food, I stared down the narrow thoroughfare through the middle of the room. All around me was a gantlet of flailing toddlers, fidgety dogs, and blissfully oblivious people crushing burgers and sipping beers. At the far end, waiting like a smashburger final boss, a guy balanced a tray of his own, laden with plates, crumbs, and empty glasses.
We made eye contact, he gave me a nod, and I shot down the chute, emerging victorious to place the array of burgers, chicken bites, and beers in front of my table of friends. I felt a jolt of adrenaline, coupled with the exhilaration of victory.
Chef-owner Max Ponzurick, who launched Maillards in 2022 at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market, knows that making diners play a game of chicken while holding their food is less than ideal. “I did not anticipate the level of people that would come through these doors,” he says. “We thought the farmers market was busy, and it is. But this is a different animal.”
Here’s the truth: You will almost certainly have to wait in line if you visit Maillards on Noriega. And you will almost certainly have to hunt for a place to sit, since the taproom/restaurant offers seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Drinks will have to be fetched separately, from a small bar tucked in the back corner. It will be crowded. It will be loud.
But if you lean in and embrace the chaos, Maillards is worth the effort, because this is, hands down, the most fun you can have eating a burger in San Francisco right now. In fact, paired with Two Pitchers’ often-fruity, always-fun beers, this combo is one of the city’s best beer-plus-food match-ups.
That’s true even if you’ve had one of Ponzurick’s burgers at the Sunday market, since the menu at Two Pitchers is far more extensive. Ponzurick uses his Tuesday-night pop-ups at his brother’s restaurant, Heritage Restaurant & Bar (opens in new tab), to experiment with items such as the Bird’s Eye burger, topped with fried shallots, ginger-herb salad, and Thai chile aioli. The menu also includes breaded chicken or cauliflower bites — you can choose spicy or not — a garlicky Cesar salad, and an onion-lettuce-and-tomato-topped burger that feels like a spiritual successor to an In-N-Out Double Double.
On a first visit, however, you really ought to have either the classic Maillard or the Spicy version. Each can be ordered with one or two patties, though the latter is the correct choice to ensure what is, in my opinion, the ideal meat-to-bun ratio. Importantly, Ponzurick doesn’t play around when it comes to the “smash” in “smashburger,” pressing each grass-fed beef patty into the grill until it becomes a crackly-edged sheet of crispy meat. Though I wish they came seasoned with a pinch more salt, they’re incontestably some of the best in the city — perhaps because of Ponzurick’s commitment to one particular ingredient.
“I think the biggest fundamental difference is we add shallots to all of our burgers,” he says. “If I had to go through my food costs, you’d be like, ‘Oh my God, I cannot believe how much these guys spend on shallots.’ And I think it makes a world of difference.”
The classic — dressed with house-made pickles, American cheese, and the ketchup-and-mayo-based Maillards sauce — deftly balances the richness of the beef and cheese with brightness from the pickles and spread. But the Spicy truly shines: Charred jalapeño, Fresno chiles, and jalapeño aioli make each bite a thrill without overshadowing the meat.
Fries, which could also benefit from a hit of Diamond Kosher, should be ordered with at least one of five house-made sauces, including ranch and Moroccan-spiced honey. I suggest the comeback sauce, a tangy-creamy condiment Ponzurick first encountered in Nashville. “I fell in love with it years ago because it was peppery, it was spicy, it had umami,” he says. “So it was like, ‘How do we make this ours?’” Though most recipes for the Southern-born condiment start with Heinz Chili Sauce, Ponzurick opted to toast and grind whole peppercorns alongside cinnamon and nutmeg before adding locally grown heirloom tomatoes.
In fact, aside from the Martin’s Potato Rolls that bookend every burger, Ponzurick and his team make pretty much everything in-house. This has less to do with ego than with attention to detail. Take the pickles: Ponzurick makes two kinds, a vinegar-forward bread-and-butter version that adds acid to burgers, and a low-sugar dill, created specifically to cut through the heat of the spicy chicken sandwich and bites. Even the chocolate cream cookies that get blended into the Cookies ’n’ Cream Mix-It — think Oreo McFlurry, but less sweet — are baked by the Maillards team.
It’s especially impressive considering that nothing on the menu is priced higher than $13. Ponzurick doesn’t deny that this city may be in a smashburger bubble. But he’s optimistic that Maillards, with its adorable duck mascot and fleet of burger flippers in the crowded kitchen, has what it takes to survive for the long haul — both the food and the vibes.
In the meantime, he’s just trying to keep up with the chaos of smashing more than 1,000 pounds of beef a week.
When he orders meat from his supplier, he doesn’t even have to check the fridge. “I don’t even walk in the walk-in,” Ponzurick says. “I just put up a big number, because I know it’s going to be used.”
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。