The lofty, industrial space that housed Alexander’s Steakhouse Group’s The Patio pop-up during pandemic, opened as AFICI on September 24, 2022, on a heavily-trafficked stretch of Folsom Street during rush hours in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood.
But AFICI is not a steakhouse, rather it’s a fine dining restaurant with a regularly changing, four-course prix fixe menu shaped by seasonality, full animal utilization, handmade pastas and unique house charcuterie program centered around A5 wagyu beef. Chef Eric Upper hails from the Bronx, having cooked at renowned NYC restaurants like Morimoto, Aureole and Joël Robuchon. Upper moved to SF in 2018 to take over as executive chef at Alexander’s Steakhouse (my last review/visit there was in 2019), then running The Patio pop-up where he reconnected with his culinary roots and honed the vision for AFICI.
The space is transformed. Still soaring, you move from long marble bar and front, glass-walled room gazing onto Folsom Street, to the also lofty but warmer second room, lined with fabric-covered booths and chandeliers and wine bar. The AFICI team worked with Marc Dimalanta of D-Scheme Studio on the design, reimaging the space, complete with pasta making station, customized charcuterie locker and whisk(e)y lockers.
Chef Upper teamed up with chef de cuisine Daniel Lucero (also from Alexander’s) and they have crafted a menu of luxe decadence, exemplified in menu add-ons like house white sturgeon caviar Upper selected and personally hand-harvested and processed with his team with California Caviar Co. and its founder Deborah Keane. Their house caviar has “high lipid content,” which adds umami and creaminess — it’s also quite salty. Working with the Koehler method, this amazing, growing technique will revolutionize caviar, allowing the fish to stay alive with roe/fish eggs safely harvested from them each season. Upper’s unique caviar service ($183 per ounce) has sieved egg yolk and creme fraiche with the twist of mini-green onion pancakes instead of blini. It feels oh-so-SF with its Chinese nod, warm and savory with the caviar and creme.
The other add-on is a must. I thought I knew what to expect with house A5 wagyu charcuterie (a reasonable $50 per person). I didn’t. Their Hitachi Wagyu whole cow program creatively utilizes the whole cow. The platter is a wonderland of meaty bites featuring the highest grade of beef, A5, cured prosciutto-style, or as rillettes with Bronx grape jam, or a whipped lard paté laced with mustarda and fennel. Then, gnocco fritto, a puffed, fried Emilia Romagna dough, normally rich with lard, here with a lardo sheet draped over it, imparting silky, fatty sumptuousness. A5 pancetta-style, wrapped around grissini bread sticks, makes an ideal bar snack. The platter is also worth ordering at the bar with whisk(e)y, cocktails or wine, a charcuterie platter creative enough to refresh the oft-tired category.
Moving on to the full menu, at $125 per person for three savory courses, you choose from one of five dishes for each course, a filling feast that ranges from seafood and other starters to mid-course pastas to meat and other entrees. Then, if desired, dessert.
My husband Dan, the Renaissance Man, and I did the usual: each chose opposite dishes so we could share eight vs. four courses and try more. We still had trouble narrowing down and choosing from some intriguing-sounding options.
Course One: For seafood contrast to the A5 charcuterie extravaganza, we went with popular halibut crudo doused in a canadew (hybrid melon of honeydew and cantaloupe) emulsion with compressed cantaloupe and subtle hit of serrano chilies. Already eating beef and seafood, I opted for my other favorite meat after pork: rabbit. In this case, a starter of Devil’s Gulch rabbit, which exudes Germanic vibes in roulade mode over an artful green streak of parsnip pistou with a veggie/herb salad and pickled mustard seeds.
Course Two (pasta time): While there were decadent options like white truffle tagliatelle ($80 supplement) or uni, bottarga and caviar-graced spaghetti ($10 supplement), we opted not for luxury item pastas, which I adore but am privileged to have often. Instead, we chose two that sounded the most interesting. First, casoncelli pasta filled with pistachio puree and pickled bing cherries, meaty with confit wagyu. What a happy combo of an already perfect duo — cherry and pistachio — with wagyu’s silkiness. Then corn cappellacci, tasting like late SF summer, playfully savory with popcorn, Jimmy Nardello peppers and yuzu kosho.
Course Three: I am a sucker for a good chicken roulade and this was a winner. A roll of tender chicken filled with red orach, a spinach-esque plant, delicately touched with Point Reyes blue cheese sauce, and partnered with doughly malfatti (Italian spinach ricotta Parmesan dumplings). It was sheer comfort, somehow recalling childhood, though unlike any dish I grew up with.
We also decided to book-end the wagyu experience with “Duo of Beef” (supplement $80): grilled strip steak, tender braised brisket, sunchoke chips and puree, as juicy and rich (yet appropriately-sized) as one would expect. Though this dish is a shining example of what Alexander’s as a group does best, I’d venture to say the other courses — especially that wagyu charcuterie platter — best showcase Upper’s unique perspective and have me intrigued to see where he and AFICI evolve to.
Wine Director Nicholas Keegan has a sharp sense of humor and manages a tight wine list of small production wineries from California, Italy, France and Spain on a menu of roughly 20 wines by the glass and over 80 bottles. His deft wine pairings with our dishes included the balanced, subtle skin contact body of Specogna Friulli Cotti Orientale Pinot Grigio Ramato from Italy, the earthy olive, vegetal, dark berry notes of 2018 Kathryn Kennedy Estate Cabernet from the Santa Cruz Mountains, and a fresh, sparkling 2018 San-Lurins Malvasia Frizzante Venezia Giulia.
Bar director Nicholas Bonney crafts the usual classic cocktails and more intriguing house drinks like Ripple Effect, with Sipsmith London Dry Gin, aquavit, radish as garnish, wasabi-infused bianco vermouth, thyme and butterfly pea flower for a purple hue. The radish adds a welcome savory-vegetal component, while I wish I could actually taste the aquavit and its cumin, dill, anise, caraway notes. Ranchero is a mezcal-forward, rosy-orange cocktail of Los Vecinos Mezcal, Dimmi, rhubarb, tomato water and Terga cucumber vinegar. More cucumber and rhubarb would add a focused sharpness to its tomato-y mezcal profile. House whisk(e)y lockers for your own selected bottles, a solid spirits list and membership offering rare whiskies, complimentary cocktail service and exclusive tastings, further appeal on the drink side.
Pastry chef Anna Szeto’s desserts also showcase seasonal NorCal produce, while a rich chocolate budino in miso caramel, cocoa and candied hazelnuts felt like the evergreen crowdpleaser, though thankfully earthy and dark chocolate-y vs. too sweet. Yuzu posset is a play on the lighter, pudding-esque citrus “milk” dessert, lovely and light with floral local yuzu, citrus meringue and blackberry granita for contrast over yuzu cake.
AFICI is arguably the most unique concept in Alexander’s Steakhouse Restaurant Group (original Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino, CA, since 2005, followed by locations in SF and Pasadena; The Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse in Palo Alto since 2012; 2019’s One65 multi-level French complex in SF). Weaving from caviar to A5 wagyu, housemade pastas to thoughtful wines, it feels like a celebratory night out where the care of the team seals the deal.
// 680 Folsom Street; www.aficisf.com
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