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SPRING 2008: A SEASON OF RENEWAL AT MAGNOLIA
There is much to share with you in this dispatch but the first order of business is no doubt the most exciting. Magnolia extended family, meet your new chef, Brandon Jew. Most recently seen hiding out in the Richmond at the tiny but amazing Pizzetta 211, where he was responsible for their wonderful Monday night specials, Brandon has previously worked at Quince and Zuni. All three restaurants, in very different ways, are standard-bearers for the passionate sourcing and ingredient-driven philosophy that we revere here at Magnolia.
We’ve always made it our mission to apply the same sense of craft and artisanship to our food program as we do in the making of our beer. The sourcing of naturally and traditionally grown, raised, caught, baked, or otherwise crafted ingredients is an approach that extends equally into both brewery and kitchen. At the core of each is a love for the bounty of the earth and the desire to take agricultural products and make them into something much larger than the sum of their parts.
With the same clear sense of purpose that informs and inspires us in the brewery, Brandon has enthusiastically embraced the Magnolia kitchen and has refined its gastropub vision. Ultimately, Brandon’s areas of most intense interest, traditional butchery, sausage making, and charcuterie will be woven into Magnolia’s food program in as intimate a way as cask beer is to our brewing. Hello, nose-to-tail pub food.
This is not as much something new and different as a return to the roots of the earliest pubs. “Public houses” were little more than extensions of the home, homes in a community in which the public gathered and the hosts offered the fruits of their culinary labor. That labor would have been directed toward house-brewed beer, farmstead cheeses, meat from animals raised and butchered on the property, and any manner of fruit, vegetable or herb as would grow in that area.
Our needs and abilities are a little different today, here in the City on a little corner of the Haight-Ashbury, but the spirit and intent are the same. And so is the need for neighborhood gathering places where one can enjoy casual, friendly hospitality, conviviality with one’s neighbors, and honest food. Throw in a pint of Proving Ground and you’ve come home. It is within that context that we welcome Brandon’s new menus.
Here is Brandon’s dinner menu, and here is his lunch menu. Brunch changes are coming soon, and so are house-made sausage and charcuterie programs. The menus are changing frequently right now, as Brandon gets the kitchen up to speed, so check back often. Watch this space for more beer tasting menus and other specials as the relationship builds between kitchen and brewery.
We look forward to sharing Brandon’s food with you and we invite all of you to come in and let us know what you think. Feel free to share your thoughts with the staff or send me an email at dave@magnoliapub.com.
MORE CHANGE COMING AROUND
We’ve had many other irons in the fire over the past 18 months or so, most kept tightly under wraps until details were clear, but now it is time to share. Getting Brandon installed behind the stoves moves these other changes into high gear. The thread that unites these projects is the quest for a better Magnolia. We’ve seen and learned a lot in 10 years and we think there are many little things we can do to make your Magnolia experiences even better.
Some of this stuff you may never see, but these changes help us help you have a better time here at the pub. To this end, we’ve spent the winter repairing and upgrading a variety of brewery components, from tweaks to the draft system to a new floor drain in the cask cellar. Astute observers may have already noticed dining room improvements like the second Aloha terminal that eases service bottlenecks on busy nights and the new Meyer Sound system, still being fine tuned until it is just exactly perfect. Even our phone system has received an upgrade.
More tangibly, we have two new additions to our beverage program. First, we have our new water system up and running, eliminating bottled water in an effort to further increase our sustainability. Longtime guests know that we have always waxed poetic, as brewers, about the amazing properties of San Francisco’s Hetch-Hetchy water supply. Now we have a 4-stage filter further polishing this excellent water before we send it to a pair of draft faucets, one for sparkling, one for still. The choice is yours and there is no charge, of course.
We have also teamed up with our good friend and winemaker extraordinaire, Carl Sutton, to bring you a custom-selected wine from the barrel, served on tap alongside our beer. Dean, Ben and I sat down with Carl and a graduated cylinder and tasted our way through many iterations of Carl’s barrel samples, showing a remarkable dedication to the cause. The end result: a blend of carignane and syrah from the Sonoma Coast. Try a glass or carafe next time you are in.
THE BIG FINALE
And now, in the you-ain’t-seen-nothing-yet department, we have much to unveil over the next three months! Coming soon you will find a brand new bar and tabletops, all built from reclaimed douglas fir from the old Levi Strauss building on Valencia Street. We’re repainting, repairing some light fixtures (and adding new ones), giving the booths a makeover, and even adding a beautiful new beer board. Brandon’s menu will get a fresh layout and design, and all will be tied together with a new logo. Not content to let Alembic win in the nicest-restrooms-on-Haight competition, we’ve got ours in the crosshairs, too. Plus, we have a few other surprises up our sleeves.
We’ll have to close for a bit to make this happen, on dates in mid-May to be determined soon. Some pieces of the puzzle may fit into place earlier or later, so thank you for your patience and understanding as we take care of ten years of wear and tear and move Magnolia into its second decade with style. More info coming soon!
Thanks for reading and please stay in touch.
Cheers,
Dave McLean
Magnolia Pub & Brewery
1398 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA94117
(415) 864-7468
www.magnoliapub.com
Whenever we have news to share, we send out an e-mailer letting you know everything that's going on. To get on the mailing list, email news@magnoliapub.com or print your name and address on one of our suggestion cards down at the pub.
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As always, we welcome your thoughts, comments, suggestions and questions about the pub and the website. Please feel free to email us at beer@magnoliapub.com and let us know your mind. Thanks and stay in touch!
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