Julia's Grows Up, SF Chronicle July 18, 2004

Julia's Grows Up New chef, decor bring distinction to COPIA eaterySan Francisco

ChronicleSunday, July 18, 2004

Julia's Kitchen -- the restaurant in Copia, the American Center for Food, Wine & the Arts -- has spent much of the past couple of years deciding what it wants to be.
About a year ago, the Patina Group took over management of the restaurant and things began to change. They carpeted the concrete floor and added sheer drapes to the wall of windows overlooking the impressive garden and patio, which is shaded by 80-year-old olive trees.
The harsh, tinny sounds that detracted from the dining experience have been muffled, and the annoying barked orders coming from the open stainless- steel canopied kitchen have also been quelled. Even though the indoor-outdoor brushed aluminum chairs remain in the dining room and are too casual for the other elements, the overall improvement is significant. The 75-seat dining room is still somewhat institutional, but now it feels like a restaurant rather than a museum cafe.
The most important change, however, was the addition of Victor Scargle as chef. A Chronicle Rising Star in 2000, Scargle has headed the kitchens of Pisces in Burlingame and Jardiniere in San Francisco. At his last position, Grand Cafe in San Francisco, the menu seemed too casual for his refined style, but at Copia he's found his niche and is cooking better than ever.
It's an idyllic setting for a chef of his caliber. Many of the herbs, salad greens and vegetables come from the 3 1/2-acre garden just beyond the 35- seat patio. On nice days, guests can dine outdoors -- one of the best places to have a white-tablecloth meal while luxuriating in the warm Napa climate. If ever there was a restaurant that connects diners to the land, this is it.
Scargle's take on sweetbreads ($13) alone would draw me back. They're sauteed to a dry crispness and set on a bed of mushrooms seasoned with tiny chunks of crisp pork belly, preserved lemon and dots of port reduction.
It's a masterful combination, followed closely by pan-seared halibut ($21) with artichokes, morels and a thick, bright green herb sauce. The menu changes often; currently, Scargle is poaching the halibut in olive oil and pairing the fish with summer bean ragout, fingerling potatoes and verjus, a deliciously tart underripe grape juice. He also works magic on petrale sole rolled into tight medallions ($21), and local sand dabs ($21) set on celery root puree with lemon-caper brown butter.
I've never been partial to lobster -- to me it's one of the most over- rated luxury ingredients -- but Scargle tempts me to change my mind. He drapes a half tail and one claw ($22) over creamy, slightly chewy risotto flavored with carrots and dots of English peas, then surrounds the mound with a sauce that echoes the dominant flavors; the interplay of seafood and sweet root vegetable is brilliant.
Grilled rib-eye steak ($27) is so rich that the marbled fat seems to permeate every bite, much like an unctuous sauce. The slices are fanned over fairly insipid blue cheese potato gratin and intensely flavored spinach. The spinach has a marvelous iron edge that works miraculously to clean up the palate, helping to make each bite of steak taste like the first. Scargle's pork chop ($21) also makes a diner sit up and take note -- part of the meat is sliced and fanned around a compact mound of chard and a crisp, tart shell filled with a stewy blend of sweet onions.
Many starters highlight the bounty of the garden, from a simple house salad with confit of baby carrots, radishes and verjus vinaigrette ($10) to pan-seared foie gras ($14). The sear is so perfect that the oval lobe looks as if it were done in a waffle iron. It's set on a pedestal of crisp brioche filled with blueberries and Mexican tarragon, which has intense licorice underpinnings.
One of my favorite starters is the hot duck confit ($12) served with cool mache, arugula, Bing cherries and garden stevia, a plant whose leaves are 200 to 300 times sweeter than sucrose. Used with restraint, it acts like salt, making the other flavors bloom.
In the custom of other high-end restaurants, Scargle sends out amuse bouches, little tastes to occupy guests between courses. It might be a demitasse of watercress and cucumber soup from the garden, a small quenelle of chopped salmon or a perfect poached shrimp on fine threads of crunchy vegetables. Sometimes an intermezzo arrives before dessert; on a couple of visits it was vanilla sorbet with watermelon soup, a sensational combination.
Sweetening the quite reasonable check at the end of the meal, the kitchen sends out shot glasses of fruit seltzer and bite-size housemade truffles and confections. These extras make guests feel pampered, something increasingly rare these days.
To help lure locals, Julia's Kitchen also features a three-course menu for $29 every Thursday night, with choices in each category. The chef also prepares a nightly six-course tasting menu for $60 and four-course lunch menu for $40. Along with the regular menus, patrons can also choose from an impressive shellfish menu that includes at least a half-dozen types of oysters.
At dessert, Nicole Plue proves once again why she's among the best pastry chefs in the Bay Area. She, too, was a Chronicle Rising Star, selected in 1997 when she worked at Hawthorne Lane. She left the Bay Area for several years, wowing diners in New York at such places as Eleven Madison Park and creating recipes for Martha Stewart Living. Now she's back here, concocting sweets that engage all the senses.
Her made-to-order roasted apricot tart ($14) features a caramelized top that flirts on the edge of bitterness, with a rich dark vanilla caramel topping and smooth creme fraiche ice cream that cools the palate and breaks the rhythm of flavors.
The cool butterscotch pot de creme ($8) is topped with a sprinkle of salty pecans. If you ever wonder about the role of salt in dessert, this will explain it. A bite of pudding alone is soothing and sweet, but adding a nut lights up the flavors like fireworks in explosions of sweet, buttery, creamy caramel. The pot cream is served with a warm cherry-pecan brioche set on a thick puddle of pecan cream. But as good as this dessert is, my favorite is still the peanut gianduja ($8), a slim brick of chocolate that tastes like an ethereal Reese's peanut butter cup with crunch.
Service, like the food and the interior, has been refined during the past year. The staff is understated and professional. Waiters are friendly, but not too familiar. They know the menu and perform the mundane tasks like bringing silverware and pouring wine with military efficiency, but never in a ham- handed way.
In fact, if you haven't been to Julia's Kitchen in the past year, you'll find just about everything about the place has changed. It's exciting to see a restaurant perform such a miraculous turnaround. What a difference a year makes.
Lots to Like on Julia's Wine List Julia's Kitchen wine list declares that Copia isn't just about American food and wine. While California dominates the 100-plus offerings, there are representatives from Spain, New Zealand, Australia, Italy and France.
In addition, the restaurant makes it easy for people to try new things because the pricing is so reasonable; most bottles are basically double retail cost. It's a list that promotes the consumption and enjoyment of wine.
There's a concerted effort to offer something for everyone. Those into cult wines will find the 1998 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon ($850) and the 1999 Araujo "Eisele Vineyard'' Cabernet Sauvignon ($250), for example.
Because a lot of business is done at lunch, the restaurant offers 18 wines by the glass, priced from $5 to $14. There are also 14 half bottles, including 2002 Selene Hyde Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ($21) and 2001 Shafer Napa Valley Merlot ($35). There are also continually changing red and white wine flights, such as "Taste of Oregon,'' featuring a Riesling, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay ($12) or a Gamay Noir, Pinot Noir and Syrah ($15).
If you want to bring your own wine, corkage is $15.
—M.B.Michael Bauer is The Chronicle's restaurant critic.