With fine dining pedigree sans pretension, Maybeck's is a destination in the Marina
29 September 2019
When Erik Lowe and Aaron Toensing, who worked side by side as chefs at Bix—a San Francisco fine dining institution—for four-and-a-half years, started to think of opening their own restaurant, they had a single vision in mind: "We wanted a restaurant where we could cook from the heart."
Maybeck's, now entering its fourth year, has proved to be the successful realization of that dream.
Named for the architect Bernard Maybeck, who built the nearby Palace of Fine Arts, Maybeck's is kind of a choose-your-own-adventure dining experience. You can cozy up at the long bar for oysters and a martini, or snuggle into a booth for a multi-course dinner. The menu itself is similarly unpretentious, but don't let the seeming simplicity fool you.
Lowe, who brings the high standards of his experience at Michelin-starred Ame as well as strong relationships with local farmers and purveyors, describes the food as "classic dishes done really well." All of the pasta is made in house thanks to chef Toensing—the radiatore Bolognese with chile oil is a signature dish on the menu—while executive chef Micheal Pihl brings a little flair to the classic fare from his years spent at two-starred Cyrus, Rubicon, and Michael Mina. A whole grilled fish is dressed up with lemon tzatziki and harissa, while the smoky char of a perfectly cooked skirt steak compliments the cool and bitter flavors of market kale, cherry tomatoes, and green herb ranch.
Maybeck's is kind of a choose your own adventure situation: You can cozy up at the long bar for some oysters and a drink, or snuggle into a booth for a multi-course dinner. Take advantage of daily specials like Tuesdays' $40 three-course tasting menu; an attention-getting beef Wellington on Wednesdays; and half-priced bottles of bubbly on Thursdays.
▲First things first: wine. Humiston's list is easy to navigate, with sections devoted to zippy whites, robust reds, farmer wines, and lady vintners. There's a good chance you'll discover something new.
▲Raw bar items, including oysters, could be the aim of your whole visit or just a jumping off point. Team your mollusks with a dash of homemade hot sauce. Bubbly is also encouraged.
▲Also from the raw bar, tender slices of hamachi are served atop crunchy black rice bites with slices of avocado and a ribbon of shiso.
▲Halibut is locally sourced for a refreshing take on ceviche with crumbles of Spanish chorizo, thin radish slices, and leche de tigre verde sauce.
▲The avocado toast has become something of a classic on Maybeck's menu. Plump Brokaw avocados are sliced over crusty bread with shavings of pecorino cheese and pickled shallots. Pair it with Poe rosé—a Napa wine that also works well with seafood.
▲Count on the menu to feature peak-season ingredients, like this salad of summer tomatoes, burrata, arugula, basil, and garlic chips.
▲Humiston's roundup of red wines includes pinot noir, Italian varietals, as well as more robust offerings.
▲A perfectly cooked portion of local king salmon is placed on top of a bed of white polenta with scorched tomatoes, shishito peppers, and chanterelle mushrooms.
▲Find natural wines listed under the Farmer Wines section of the list. The 2016 En Remount gamay, by Julie Balagny from Fleurie in Beaujolais, is light and packed with fruity notes, a nice pairing for a light fish dish or something to ease the weight of a meat-based entree.
▲Speaking of meat, a tender cut of skirt steak feels downright healthy alongside a green herb ranch salad of kale, treviso radicchio leaves, avocado cubes, and halved cherry tomatoes.
▲Round out your meal with sides like hatch mac and cheese; truffle fries; or these blistered Mariquita Farm peppers with yuzu and bonito salt. An in-house josper oven helps get the perfect charcoal grill to these veggies as well as other meat and seafood dishes.
▲Indulge in chef Toensing's brown butter madeleines with a scoop of vanilla gelato, grilled stone fruit, and a drizzle of salted caramel. Don't shy away from dessert wine—this dish pairs gorgeously with vermouth. Shown here are two vermouth options from lady vintners: Mommenpop D'Orange from Napa Valley, and Istine from Chianti.
▲"It's everything I love about restaurants. It's comfortable, it's good food, it's nice people," says GM and wine director Courtney Humiston. The certified sommelier brings her broad range of experiences in wine and hospitality to the program at Maybeck's. She was the opening GM and wine director at Dominique Crenn's Petit Crenn, but has also worked multiple harvests in viticulture and winemaking. Most recently, she managed the beverage program for a top restaurant in Norway where natural wines were a focus.
"For me, being a good somm and a good wine director means bringing wines I really believe in to our guests," says Humiston. "You can use words like sustainable or natural, but unless you really know the people who are making them, how they're farming, and what their philosophy is, those are just words."
Expect to find some excellent natural wine offerings here, as well a section of wines made by women winemakers. The wine list features seasonally appropriate varietals, with light and fresh offerings playing well in summertime, and deeper and earthier flavors come winter.
The result of this teamwork is a menu that feels classically Northern Californian and a 100 percent chance of getting that just-right glass (or bottle) of wine.
// Maybeck's, 3212 Scott St. (Marina), maybecks.com
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