Where James Baldwin Ate

An important-and forgotten- restaurant. Also: suggestions for last minute gifts. A gift to cook. An astonishing vintage artifact. And a rant about an outdated restaurant ritual.

A few days ago I got this note from my friend David Nasaw.
Reading Nick Boggs’ extraordinary biography of James Baldwin in which Boggs’ prefaces his account of a party for Baldwin at Connie’s in San Francisco in 1963 by citing the review of the restaurant by “renowned restaurant critic Ruth Reichl.”

I wrote him back:
In 1963 I was 15, in high school, had never been to San Francisco and certainly not to a restaurant called Connie’s. What the hell is he talking about?

David’s reply:
The party for Baldwin was held on May 20, 1963 at Connie Williams’ new restaurant in Haight-Ashbury. The quote from you is cited in his endnotes as from a 2016 blog: “If You’re Going to San Francisco.” Some editor, some reader, someone should have told the guy that you can’t use a 2016 review to describe a 1963 restaurant.”

I couldn’t help myself; I had to find that old blog post. Which turned out to be much more interesting than I’d anticipated.

June 9, 2016
Browsing my bookshelf of vintage oddities I came upon The San Francisco Underground Gourmet: An Irreverent Guide to Dining in the Bay Area. Dinners from $1.00 to $3.75. The author, R. B. Read, exhibits a delight in culinary discovery that is so of-this-moment I had to check the publication date. He takes us to an Afghan restaurant in Berkeley for aushak, down to the Peninsula’s Filipino restaurants, and through San Francisco’s Japantown, block by block. Is it really 1969?

But then I kept reading.... While Read revels in nasi goreng, he bemoans the lack of any “underlying rationale” in Indonesian cuisine. Excuse me?

Then I got to the entry on Connie Williams’ West-Indian Cafe, and froze. This was, for years, the place to eat in the Haight-Ashbury, and a favorite of black intellectuals like C.L.R James and James Baldwin. (In the 1940s Baldwin worked as a waiter in Williams’ Greenwich Village restaurant, Calypso. In The Price of the Ticket, he credits Connie with keeping him free of hard drugs.)

I loved reading about Connie’s Trinidadian hospitality, about her coconut loaves and her chicken pilau. But as someone who actually went to San Francisco with flowers in my hair in 1967, I was stopped cold by Read’s description of the impact hippies had on the neighborhood.

We were so blithely thoughtless.

But here - read it yourself.

This is Connie’s in the Haight.

And Calypso, in Greenwich Village, before it was razed to make way for NYU’s law school.

The year Read published his book Connie moved her restaurant out of The Haight to Fillmore Street, where it remained until at least 1979. She was a major force in the community; according to Trinidad and Tobago Newsday “Connie’s Restaurant has been the site of fund-raisers and benefits for every struggle from the Vietnam War and political prisoners to defense of the Soledad Brothers, Angela Davis and the San Quentin Six.”

By 1979, Williams expressed exhaustion and appeared ready to close her restaurant.

“I’ve been in the restaurant business since 1942 and that’s an awfully long time.”

I haven’t been able to discover exactly when Connie closed her restaurant but I suspect that the space was subsequently subdivided; half the space now seems to be occupied by SPQR Restaurant.

It’s getting a bit late to mail order gifts to your friends, so here are a few suggestions for last-minute gifts that will be greeted with joy.

Kishus from Ojai
Alice Waters introduced me to these tiny tangerines, which bring a little sunshine into the cold winter world. I can’t think of anything more fun than offering a handful (yes they’re that tiny), to a small child and watching her delight in the sweet, seedless, juicy fruit.

The season is very short – just a few weeks in January – but you can sign up to be alerted when they start shipping. The best ones, in my opinion, come from Churchill Orchards in Ojai, and if you’re wracking your brain for a unique gift, this is a wonderful one. It’s a few weeks away, but your friends will thank you each time they peel a tangerine and experience that deep, golden flavor.

Artisanal Soy Sauce
Nobody goes out and spends twenty bucks on a bottle of soy sauce. At least too few people do. Which makes this a perfect gift opportunity.

Artisanal soy sauce is one of those magic elixirs that makes everything taste better. If you’ve never had it, you won’t believe how different it can be from the commercial kind. (And if all you’ve ever tasted is the really cheap supermarket soy sauce that is basically salty caramelized water, you’re in for a shock.) Go to any Asian market and you’re bound to find a wide variety of artisanally crafted soy sauces.

One of my favorites is locally-made Moromi Shoyu. When I first discovered it, almost 5 years ago, you pretty much had to buy it on the website. Since then its reputation has grown, and you can now find Moromi in many Gourmet shops. It has a different flavor profile than other soy sauces I’ve tried. Clean, not overly salted, much less funky than some of the older ones. I wouldn’t use it in cooking (it’s expensive), but as a finishing sauce - or in salads - it’s perfect.

Rare and Wonderful Balsamic Vinegar
One of the first theories of gift-giving is to offer your friends the indulgences you most covet but feel guilty about buying for yourself. Excellent aged balsamic definitely falls into that category. I love it, find it endlessly useful in the kitchen – and am always reluctant to spend the money for the best.

Buying it for friends is another matter. It is, I think, a perfect gift. Choosing which one to buy is a constant problem. You can find aged balsamic at pretty much any good Gourmet shop, but here’s an unusual suggestion ... Aceto Balsamico of Monticello is wonderful stuff, with deep, concentrated flavor. Organic and hand-made, it is aged in Italian casks for thirteen years. It is rare – only a thousand bottles are sold each year. And – here’s the amazing thing – it is made in New Mexico. Paul Bertolli of Fra’ Mani first told me about it, and I am forever in his debt. And I love that they now offer a small bottle to put in your pocket.

A once hard to find and very seductive brandy
It was pretty much love at first whiff. The first time I tasted this aged plum brandy the aroma came surging toward me out of the glass. It was so mellow that I imagined a crackling fire, violins playing, a cashmere hug. I folded my hands around the glass and the aroma lingered, still seducing me with its perfume long after the liquor itself had vanished.

I also love cooking with La Vieille Prune; add it to apple sauce, or chicken liver paté, or just toss a drop into a ragu and whatever you’re making becomes softer, rounder, more appealing.

For years you couldn’t buy La Vieille Prune in America, and I faithfully brought bottles back from France for my friends. But now that Michael Skurnik is importing it you can find it in many liquor stores.

While we’re on the subject of liquor… you might go looking for for a liquor store that sells real Shaoxing wine.

Here’s the thing: although many Chinese recipes suggest using dry sherry, Sake or even Scotch in place of Shaoxing, the flavor is not the same. Throw a splash of Shaoxing into your wok and you’ll instantly know the difference. There are many online sources for Chinese rice wine, but it’s mostly cooking wine (whose added salt, is, as far as I can tell, meant to keep the cook from drinking it).

But every Chinatown liquor store stocks a few different brands of serious Shaoxing. My bottle, pictured above, is Pagoda brand. Although it comes in a variety of forms, I’m partial to this one because the pretty ceramic crock makes me smile every time I open the refrigerator. (Here’s a less expensive bottle.)

Most recipes require only a tablespoon or two, so this is a gift that lasts.

Pyrex Clear Custard Cups
Many objects you can find at the supermarket or hardware store make welcome presents. These workhorse vessels of the kitchen are, to my mind, among the best. Perfect for mise en place, for separating eggs, to hold olives for hors d’oeuvres, for custard, or to hold paté (recipe below). And, of course, for leftovers. Most supermarkets sell them by the set.

Should you be offering those to a friend, you might want to fill them up. Here’s my favorite very easy recipe for chicken liver pate.

The Wife Pour
Being more sophisticated than I am you probably know all about this. But until last week, when I was having lunch with Michael Ruhlman and Ann Hood (a wonderful lunch at Il Buco Alimentari, one of the most delightful and reliable restaurants in New York City), we couldn’t help noticing that the sommelier had managed to pour us each exactly the same amount of wine.

This is, apparently, rare. According to my friends the woman almost always gets less. To prove the point, Michael sent me the photo at the top yesterday. “Guess who got the wife pour?” he asked.

Sigh. Aren’t we beyond such silliness by now?

It’s not exactly a menu, but this list of auction items from a 1981 Chez Panisse fundraiser delights me. I suspect it will have the same effect on you.

May your holidays be very happy!