Hello friends!

It’s restaurant review time.  This week, we walked down the street to Maven, our local small plates cocktail bar in the lower Haight.  Maven has been open at this location since 2010, and I’ve lived in the neighborhood long enough to remember the fantastic restaurant RNM that previously occupied its location on Haight and Steiner.

The lower Haight is one of those infamous gentrifying neighborhoods in San Francisco (and becoming more common across the U.S.).  It’s always been a strange neighborhood, with a mixture of students, young professionals, and layabouts.  When RNM opened in this location in the early 2000’s, it’s fair to say that it wasn’t a great fit for the neighborhood, which favored less upscale fare and more casual eateries.  This is the street that has Toronado pub and Rosamunde sausage grill, so beer and hot dogs pretty much set the standard. RNM lasted a few blissful years, then closed and the space was taken over by Maven.

The space has a small bar on the right side with a staircase in the back to a stylish upper lounge area.  On this day, with temperatures in the 100s, we opted for a spot at the communal tables on the main floor.

Communal tables. You either love them or hate them.  In theory, they facilitate conversations between people who didn’t know each other before the evening started, but in practice most couples just stick to themselves.  I often strike up conversations with neighboring tables – particularly if they get something spectacular while we’re deciding what to order – but somehow the communal table makes this seem an imposition.

Let’s have a look at the menu:

Here is what we ordered:

Food:

Herb Marinated Shrimp

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Chinatown Duck Sliders

Blistered Romano Beans

Drinks:

Zelda Fitzgerald

5 Spot

The Bad Hombre

Hometown Vixen

First round:

The Zelda Fitzgerald (left) and the 5 Spot (right).  The Zelda was immensely refreshing on a hot day, like spiked lemonade with a slight anise seed flavor; perfectly balanced.  The 5 Spot was also refreshing – reminiscent of a sidecar – but I didn’t get strong basil or five spice powder notes.

Now the first round of the food:

Herb Marinated Shrimp (left) and the grilled cheese (right).  The shrimp were served on a bed of corn puree, topped with a light tomato cracker, and abutted by fried shishito peppers.  So I kinda get what they’re going for here – sweetness of the corn offset by the spiciness of the chilis.  But the shrimp were horribly overcooked – tough and rubbery.  And the tomato cracker offered little flavor or texture – it just fell apart into mush when bitten into.  This was notably the most expensive of the small plates.

In contrast, the grilled cheese was perfect.  The bread was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the cheese tangy and melted just right, with a welcome, slight tang from a pickled pepper puree.  And not greasy in the least.  Maybe not the best I’ve ever had, but close.

Second round:

We ordered The Bad Hombre (left) and then the Hometown Vixen (right).  In fact, I ordered The Bad Hombre, and then the waitress was kind enough to exchange it for the Vixen.  The Bad Hombre was, I think, an experiment in how many bold flavors can we throw into a glass and have it still be drinkable.  The clove studded orange peel made me think it would be a spicy old-fashioned type cocktail, but instead it plays off a bizarre contrast of sweet Armagnac and caustic Mescal – France by way of Mexico, I suppose.  It didn’t work.  Mezcal doesn’t play well with sweet flavors and strong spices – it needs tartness and saltiness in most cases.  A noble effort, but it was not pleasant, and the waitress knew it sometimes is not well received.  The Hometown Vixen was much more refreshing, although I just tasted bourbon and orange.  Pistachio is too subtle a flavor to survive in a cocktail I think.

Second round of food:

The Chinatown Duck Sliders (left) and the Blistered Romano Beans (right).  Honestly, I didn’t know what Romano beans were.  They looked like what the British call runner beans.  Thick pods with large tender beans inside, they were nicely cooked to be just soft enough – with a potently mustardy vinaigrette – and bits of crispy garlic.  Very nice small plate.  The Chinatown sliders were a bit odd – rich and yet a bit dry at the same time.  They could have used a little sauce or something tart.  Nonetheless, they were wonderfully filling.

So, what to say of Maven?  It’s not a sit-down restaurant where you will linger over your meal for two hours.  Put if you want a couple clever drinks and some seriously elevated bar food, this may even be worth a trip to the lower Haight.  Just follow it up with a nice ice cream at Three Twins or Powder.

Happy Eating!