A booming small town that has big-city tastes
Surrounded by vineyards and farms, San Luis Obispo sits halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on U.S. Highway 101. It’s a college town with a lively bar scene and a Thursday night farmers market that’s closer to a street fair -- it seems like the entire town turns out for a stroll up Higuera Street. There’s Santa Maria barbecue and all sorts of other food too.
The last few years have seen a real estate boom in San Luis Obispo, and as a result, the small downtown has prospered. The dining scene is just beginning to catch up. There’s a terrific little Basque restaurant, Le Fandango Bistro and now, just up the street, a new restaurant that features local produce and local wines in a smart contemporary setting.
Seven Hands on Higuera may be a mouthful, but it’s packing in the local gourmands for tasting menus and prix-fixe three- to five-course meals. Chef Frank Mendoza, former sous chef at La Folie in San Francisco and chef at W Hotel City Center in Chicago, has put together a large, ambitious menu in which foie gras and lobster figure prominently.
Service is serious too: Waiters are decked out in long-sleeved shirts and ties, a novelty for casual San Luis Obispo. The dining room features handblown-glass chandeliers, sleek banquettes and a pared-down palette.
The wine list is still getting there.
Meanwhile, the chef must have gone on a china-buying spree; he’s got every trendy shape in white, some so absurdly large that waiters have trouble finding room to set them on the table.
Appetizers include a chilled citrus and lobster soup with creme fraiche sorbet and a clear chicken soup with foie gras ravioli. Dungeness crab is paired in a salad with mango and lime foam to good effect. But the best first course is a lovely warm squab ragout on egg noodles, which, incidentally, is a terrific dish for a Central Coast Syrah or Pinot Noir.
Simpler things tend to be better than more complicated preparations. A roasted veal chop with corn pudding easily outshines an odd olive oil-poached lamb loin in “tomato licorice essence.”
But the plates sail by to an appreciative crowd. San Luis Obispo has never seen anything like it.
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Seven Hands on Higuera
Where: 673 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo
When: Open for lunch Tuesday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; dinner Tuesday-Thursday, 5:30-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5:30-10 p.m.; street parking
Cost: Tasting menu, $60 ($75 with wine); selection of two courses, $35; three, $45; five, $60; lunch is less expensive.
Info: (805) 786-4263