ALL THINGS FOOD: Plum by Chef Daniel Patterson

www.plumoakland.com

Visit date: January 06

This Is Just To Say

By William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Plum is Chef Daniel Patterson’s new digs in downtown Oakland as part of a plan to revitalize an area that typically shuts down and is deserted by 6pm when everyone heads home from work. The surrounding restaurants are pretty dismal offering cheap, often greasy, fast food for the few lunch hours they are open. There are some good taco trucks, though.

While the restaurant name is inspired by the poem above, the image of a deliciously sweet plum is also very fitting of Chef Patterson’s cuisine – modern Californian. He loves our abundance of fresh ingredients and is exceptional at creating great flavor combinations. Said during Le Grand Fooding 2010: New York vs. San Francisco, “products were better, the cooking more careful in my hometown.” (Full blog post here.)

Specifically, Plum is of “Coi lineage” (his upscale San Francisco headquarters) but more casual and a helluva lot less expensive without the 11 course tasting menu. The dinner menu offers four dishes in each section: bites, appetizers, vegetables/grains, proteins, and desserts. Unfortunately, there is no menu posted on the website, only the ability to make reservations (not through OpenTable). Though Plum is four months old, the menu is always changing so maybe he wants diners to be surprised.

The restaurant is small with only 45 seats, counter or communal style tables, all of which are reclaimed wood (very sustainable San Francisco). Lunch service is available on weekdays while dinner is served daily until 1am. This is especially good for those wanting late night snacks after a concert at the Uptown Theatre four blocks away. In keeping with its name, each of the two main walls features an array of 8”x8” depictions of plums connected like puzzle pieces to create two big panels. Seeing them up close, it only makes sense, but from the outside and without context, the panels look like wine racks displaying unopened bottles. (I promise I’m not already drunk.)

Dinner is exceptional. Us two ladies sitting at the counter watching the kitchen staff create dish after dish of beautiful arrangements and indulgent flavors. If I really must pick, my favorites are potato chicharrones (making process described below), cauliflower (I'd cut down on white rice if I can have his bulgur and cauliflower more often), farm egg (always a sucker for runny egg yolks; hard boiled eggs just leave that gritty texture I really hate, blame it on the Chinese tea eggs I was forced to eat growing up, yuck) and roast pork (spicy squash puree over applesauce any day – who came up with that anyway?).

We even receive a free dish of plancha grilled clams. Maybe because we ordered the other three proteins, they think we need to try them all. I don’t know, but we’ll take it. Unfortunately, this is the one dish we do not like. The clams have a peculiar flavor, but not the extreme fishiness of days-old fish not kept on ice. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Lucky for me, the menu is always changing so there are always other great dishes to try!