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Flywood Firetrap?

David Fortin No Table Service: At Firewood, orders are placed at a counter when you enter the restaurant. Paul Adams sorts out the confusion about the restaurants Firewood, Firefly and Fly Trap By Paul Adams Decor Firewood Stained wood tables, big red lanterns in window, sort of like a nice library or private-school cafeteria. Firefly Homey, lots of firefly art, on the dim side. There are a number of nonmatching sets of plates used in the course of a meal. Fly Trap Minimal, old-school, businesslike. Room divided by a sternum-height wall. Restroom Firewood Serviceable. Clean. Firefly Clean, hippyish. Fly Trap Industrial. Like an office restroom. Style Firewood Ultracasual, but adult. Firefly Home-style, in a folk-arty way. Fly Trap Serious, old-fashioned, civil. Crowd Firewood Neighborhood. Highly gay, young, fairly sedate. Lots of repeat customers, many of whom probably get the same thing. Firefly Young, professional. Groups of friends. Lots of repeat customers, familiar with the weekly-changing menu and eager to try new specialties. Fly Trap Lunching ladies, SoMa business folk, people for whom traditional is trendy. Lots of repeat customers, no doubt with favorites from the rather stable menu. Dress Firewood T-shirts. Firefly Gap Plus. Fly Trap Nice, office environs. Wait Staff Firewood No table service: you place your order (and pay) at the counter. You are given a heavy metal star with a number on it, which you place on your table. The food is then brought to you. Firefly Extremely attentive. In addition to the table visits to take orders, they make a "hello" visit and a "goodbye" visit. Fly Trap Old-school. Napkin draped on forearm, heavy accent, reserved. An Appetizer Firewood Plate of four: marinated mushrooms, marinated asparagus, roasted garlic with crostini, and apple-jicama salad. The salad is quite delicious; the garlic is decent, with nicely crunchy crostini; the vegetables tasted like they were marinated in some sort of cleaning product. Firefly White-corn and green-chile chowder. With hunks of potato, creamy, sweet, intensely satisfying and luxurious. Fly Trap Bruschetta with wild mushrooms. Not exactly bruschetta. Toast in a powerfully flavored reduction of some sort, topped with many savory mushrooms. Mix and Match: There are a number of nonmatching sets of plates used in the course of a meal at Firefly. David Fortin An Entree Firewood Pasta primavera. Al dente noodles in ordinary marinara with peas, broccoli, other vegetables. Filling but not special. Firefly Niman-Schell beef tournedos. Delicious, top-quality filet rounds in a darkly scrumptious morel-Madeira sauce. Served with asparagus and unexciting, greasy shredded-potato galettes. Fly Trap Mushroom tortellini, smothered in an impossibly rich cream sauce the consistency of a hot savory milkshake. A full day's eating in one medium-sized plate. Another Entree Firewood Pizza margherita. A sufficient amount of satisfactory thin-crusted pizza. Firefly Tofu with shiitakes and coconut milk. One of two vegetarian options. The whole thing is way too heavily black-peppered, perhaps accidentally, and the tofu-is-bland problem is insufficiently dealt with. Fly Trap Breast of chicken, on the bone, in that same killingly creamy sauce. What Its Fans Love Firewood Huge Caesar salad with caramelized onions and broccoli. It's cheap, and you don't have to wait for a check. The house beer. The house iced tea. Firefly Consistently delicious food, and the coziness. You can go out to eat without really feeling like you've left home. Fly Trap Eat like your huge healthy forebears ate. You never leave hungry. But it's refined, in a way. What Its Detractors Hate Firewood No table service, unexceptional fare ("dorm food"), usually a wait. Firefly Cheesy hippie atmosphere, homogeneity of clientele, portions not as whopping as "home-style" might indicate. Fly Trap Weighty sauces, preponderance of business types, dishes with proper names whose content is nonintuitive. Totem Firewood Numbered iron stars customers carry to tables to identify themselves to servers. Firefly Glowing firefly sculpture over the door. Particularly welcoming on a chilly night. Fly Trap "The Fly Trap Restaurant" stamp on each paper tablecloth, presumably marking the spot where the eponymous flypaper sat at the turn of the century. What You Could Buy Instead of a Meal Here Firewood The new Tricky album. Firefly A pair of Banana Republic pants. Fly Trap A month of ISDN service. Actually Overheard Firewood "I can't believe I wasn't bear enough for him!" Firefly "The worst thing about spending a year in France is that the cheese here just isn't as good." Fly Trap "They need to start thinking outside the set-top box." Basic Information Firewood Inexpensive ($7 entree); 4248 18th St.; 415/252-0999. Firefly Upper end of moderate ($15 entree); 4288 24th St.; 415/821-7652. Fly Trap Low-mid expensive ($20 entree); 606 Folsom; 415/243-0580. [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]