Sponsored link
Friday, March 29, 2024

Sponsored link

CultureFood & DrinkGood Taste: Ancora hooks with halibut racks and plankton...

Good Taste: Ancora hooks with halibut racks and plankton pasta

The first restaurant from sustainable seafood company Water2Table is making a splash—without the middlemen

You’re reading Good Taste, a weekly dispatch from the Bay Area food world, and it shows! Today, a look at the menu at Ancora, the new San Francisco restaurant opened by Water2Table, an 11-year-old local sustainable seafood company.

Since Water2Table supplies fine Bay Area restaurants with sustainable seafood sourced from small fisheries, its new restaurant Ancora was high on my mental list of anticipated restaurants to open in San Francisco in 2022. Earlier this year, I checked out a new, honest to goodness farm to table restaurant in Oakland, and Ancora invited me in for dinner recently. After digesting each thoughtful meal, I have grown to hope that both of these debuts will serve as important role models on what types of middlemen-minimal restaurants may be possible here moving forward.

WA grilled oyster (with fork for scale) at Ancora

Ancora does offer one rarefied slab of red meat on the menu, but otherwise you’re celebrating what’s under the sea here. Instead of a ribeye, I tried a super meaty SF halibut rack for two and saw a glimpse of a future where sustainable proteins might compete with steakhouse lust. The oceanic depths mined by Nick Anichini, the executive chef, extend past the fish and shellfish to include a heavenly plankton tagliolini pasta with white sturgeon caviar, creamy leek fondue, and shreds of the dried salted fish roe known as bottarga, an early standout on the menu. The restaurant offers à la carte and prix fixe menus so that it can serve as both a special occasion or a more often-frequented casual spot.

Ancora’s plankton tagliolini

Water2Table offers seafood delivery and pickup for home cooks in every Bay Area county and has overnight shipping for the rest of the state, so you can have access to some of the same products as Ancora in your kitchen. I haven’t made an order yet, but I’ve been eyeing up the menu with interest for a while. Some of the more intriguing options currently on the website include live Monterey red abalone, SF black cod, and hot smoked Sierra trout, and it’s currently king salmon season. After a few weeks of devastating news with local fish and shellfish that succumbed to an algae bloom, it is of comfort to know about companies that support the future of healthy and sustainable life.

Tamara Palmer’s site California Eating has zero calories.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Sponsored link

Featured

Bilal Mahmood puffed up his resume—and the Chron doesn’t seem to care

Neuroscientists say he's not a 'neuroscientist' (he's not an 'economist,' either)—but the dailies still let his claims stand without challenge.

102-year-old heroine Betty Reid Soskin’s journey premieres on Bay Area stage

Writings and songs by the nation's oldest park ranger and longtime activist form base of 'Sign My Name To Freedom.'

With Castro Theatre out, massive Frameline LGBTQ+ film fest gets creative

New executive director Allegra Madsen takes on fresh challenges with an agile attitude—and innovative locations.

More by this author

Good Taste: Spring brings new and returning food festivals

POC Food and Wine, Cinco de Mayo by Al Pastor Papi, Harajuku Foodie Fest, more dates with local deliciousness

Watch: What’s up in electronic music? Shawn Reynaldo’s on the case with Music Book Club

The former Bay Area journalist turned his popular newsletter 'First Floor' into a book delving deep into the culture.

Good Taste: Sri Gopinathan’s Copra alights on Fillmore

One of San Francisco’s most elegant chefs shares South Indian-inspired dishes from the mothers in his life.
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED