The Posh Poutine of San Francisco

Poutine with shaved truffle at Wayfare Tavern. [Photo: Flickr/neil conway]

Two things you may not know about Salt House co-owner Doug Washington: 1) He's Canadian 2) He hates poutine. That's precisely why it's been a menu staple at his restaurant since it opened five years ago. His partner, executive chef Mitch Rosenthal thought it would be a funny joke to put poutine on the opening menu at Salt House. It's not too much of a surprise that the Quebecan comfort food—an unmistakable combination of French fries, cheese and gravy—caught on. "It's fat on fat on fat," says Rosenthal. "People love it."

Although the original poutine is a rather humble Canadian dish made with bland cheese curds and gravy, Rosenthal gussies up thick-cut Kennebec French fries with Béchamel sauce, fontina cheese and a short rib gravy that takes about a day to make. The dish comes to the table at Salt House in a little crock pot and servers pour the gravy on it tableside. Rosenthal thinks of it as a great dish to share as a starter, but he's amazed that groups of men will come in for lunch and order one each as an entree.

At Wayfare Tavern chef Mike Thiemann worked with Tyler Florence to create another upscale riff on the theme. The chefs use thinner homemade fries, topped wtih fresh mozzarella cheese curds, red-wine braised short ribs, shaved truffle and truffle oil.

Chef Chris Beerman also has fun with the original recipe at his restaurant Citizen's Band in SoMa. He does what he calls a "diner take" on the dish with house-cut, medium size Kennebec fries, braised bacon and coffee gravy and Tillamook cheddar. "This dish reminds me of the chili cheese fries I ate as a kid," says Beerman.

Finally, chef Adam Carpenter has a version with buffalo mozzarella curds, hot brown gravy and caramelized shitake mushrooms on the late night menu at Jasper's Corner Tap, and there's an off-menu poutine made with lamb chili. "While we like some fun flavors, I prefer to keep it simple and just make small twists." says Carpenter.

We've heard about variations on the theme at Sauce in Hayes Valley, and The Liberties in the Mission. One thing's clear, poutine is not easy to come by in San Francisco. If you know of another one we missed, please do feel free to share in the comments.

If you happen to be in LA, Animal, on Fairfax, makes an incredible poutine with hand cut fries, sharp Vermont cheddar, and a meaty, oxtail gravy. Just don't order it along with the bone marrow, pig's ear, and pork belly sliders like we did. It all sounded good (and OMG it was) but the gall bladders weren't too happy afterward.

By Anonymous (not verified) on October 15, 2011

Dear Anonymous,
Let me get this straight....You're lecturing chefs to "master the original" dish - poutine - before they mutilate it? That's almost funny. If a Canadian (I am one) ever heard someone talking about "mastering" poutine - they'd laugh their butt off! It's hangover food, you clown! It's like saying you need to "master" making a milkshake before you go adding whip cream on top. You've spent 8 years searching for great poutine - maybe you should stop searching and go volunteer your time somewhere. That way, at the end of the next 8 years - you'll have produced something - other than whining. Yee-haw!

By Anonymous (not verified) on October 12, 2011

exactly as one of the commenters said - these "poutine" are actually basically just american chili cheese fries with a different sauce. for the quebec dish, the curds are as paradigmatic as the potato. you can sometimes find shredded cheddar or mozzarella-style cheeses in other parts of canada, but in quebec, it's all curds, even the uber-posh places in montreal, with lobster sauce or fois gras or whatever, they never evacuate the curds. not to say that any of these places here in sf are bad, it's just that by the objective measure, they're missing a core element that would allow that they legitimately be termed poutine.

By david m (not verified) on October 12, 2011

Well, not being Canadian, and never having had actual poutine in Canada, I'm definitely no expert on poutine. All I know is that whatever it is they serve at Salt House has absolutely rocked my world the many times I've had it! (...although I've not had it recently and would be very sad, indeed, if it has been changed...) I've also had it at Jasper's Corner, and, boy, was THAT a disappointment (the poutine, specifically, not the restaurant, overall, which was pretty good...)

By Anonymous (not verified) on October 12, 2011

Hog & Rocks! I believe it's on the late night bar menu but, MAN. Pork Belly gravy any one? Delicious.

http://www.hogandrocks.com/

By Rob (not verified) on October 12, 2011

Hog & Rocks! I believe it's on the late night bar menu but, MAN. Pork Belly gravy any one? Delicious.

http://www.hogandrocks.com/

By Rob (not verified) on October 12, 2011

I always find it interesting that I have never had traditional poutine in the many times I have searched it out in the US in my 8 years here. But to this day i have not ever found one. If you want to make a new interpretation of a dish that is vaguely like reminiscent of the original please master the original before you mutilate something that is nothing like the original and frackly often not very good.

I will say though that the "poutine" dish that Salthouse makes used to be good (something changed a year ago in the dish) and was fun, but not poutine. If you do not have cheese curd it is not poutine, I would expect it to be the American classic Chili Cheese fries. Tyler got it partially right but again he usually used his Mac and cheese sauce over the complicated fresh cheese curds melted by hot gravy.

I admit I liked them both and look forward to trying the others out, but it would be nice to have it done right, the original way just once. Fries, salt, fresh curds, and a great brown gravy, that's all.

By Anonymous (not verified) on October 12, 2011