What is a Spork? I must admit I was totally in the dark. Maybe I don’t get out enough, but for those of you who are as blissfully uninformed as I am, a Spork is an amalgamation of a spoon and a fork, and it allows you to pierce food and scoop food in one easy stroke. The Spork – I am told – is a utensil that originated at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain.
So, why am I bringing this up?
I’ve never eaten at a KFC. Yet, this is about to change, as I descend on San Francisco, along with a small army of colleagues from around the world for a two-day conference. Jet lagged and undernourished (because nothing resembling food is ever served on planes), we arrive famished in the City by the Bay, and our genial host, who I’ll call Papa Bear, immediately sends us to Spork to fill our stomachs and revive our spirits.
In San Francisco, a vacant building is a good enough reason to start a new restaurant, and Spork – located at 1058 Valencia Street – is the site of a former Kentucky Fried Chicken, now revamped and remade and devoted to classic American dishes made with fresh ingredients. While you might think you can almost hear the chickens clucking, no poultry is actually served on the premises.
Allyson the Savage and Pamela the Rock are our designated food photographers for the evening since they actually remembered to bring cameras (unlike your intrepid Culinary Types editor – shame on me). While I usually work alone, it’s kind of nice to have a team of food paparazzi. It gives me more time to eat. The photos presented here are their fine work.
The Original Recipe Pull Apart Rolls are free (the price is listed as a big fat zero on the menu) and they are swoon-worthy. Fat, fluffy and dotted with sea-salt, their arrival stops all conversation in its tracks:
Note the dramatic angle that Pamela achieves on the mile-high house dinner salad. If she ever decides to quit her day job, she can moonlight as a food blogger photographer:
Tera and I, who may be destined to sit together wherever we go, each choose Goat Cheese Croquette with Pears as first course and Seared Dayboat Scallops with farro salad, beet puree, horseradish cream, arugula and orange vinaigrette. The scallops are melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and my culinary twin Tera describes the goat cheese croquettes as “Crispy goodness with melty cheese on the inside.” She does note that the single croquette is “lonely.” One croquette per person is just wrong.
We are hardly discriminating when it comes to dessert. We order one of everything on the menu and share. Buenos Aires Gus is smitten with the Strawberry and Huckleberry Cobbler, topped with vanilla ice cream, and yours truly is all but lusting after Donut Power, the light and fluffy beignets with cinnamon sugar. I also do a number on the Rocky Road Ice Cream. Speaking of sweets, our friend Tera has a prediction. “Pie is the next thing,” she says. “I want us all to be on the lookout for pie.”
You heard it heard it here first, gang. Have your spork ready.
©2008 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved
