Tonight is the first night of Passover, so let's talk about different ways you can celebrate in Hayes Valley.
As you may know, Passover is a holiday that commemorates the Jewish people's escape from slavery in Egypt over 3,000 years ago. In a hurry to leave, there wasn't time to bake bread so they placed unleavened bread on their backs and let it bake in the sun. To symbolize this act, Passover involves not eating chametz (translation: one of five types of grain and water) for 8 nights and 8 days.
We were curious if any restaurants or dining establishments in Hayes Valley offer Passover-friendly meals for those celebrating.
While our search wasn't completely exhaustive, we did visit around 75% of the places open yesterday around dinnertime. And while many restaurants already have Passover-friendly meals on their menus by default (anything that's just meat, veggies, or fruit), we asked if they had anything that was for Passover or without chametz/yeast.
Drum roll, please.
Only one restaurant said they were specifically doing something for Passover and a few other places shared food/drink items they know don't have yeast or should be okay for Passover. Here's a quick summary of what we found:
________
*not all gluten-free products are kosher for Passover (and vice-versa) but there is a large overlap
**while asking about kosher products, we learned Miette has Macaroon Happy Hour every Monday-Friday (6-7pm) where macaroons are $1 and you can get up to 10 at that price
As you may know, Passover is a holiday that commemorates the Jewish people's escape from slavery in Egypt over 3,000 years ago. In a hurry to leave, there wasn't time to bake bread so they placed unleavened bread on their backs and let it bake in the sun. To symbolize this act, Passover involves not eating chametz (translation: one of five types of grain and water) for 8 nights and 8 days.
We were curious if any restaurants or dining establishments in Hayes Valley offer Passover-friendly meals for those celebrating.
While our search wasn't completely exhaustive, we did visit around 75% of the places open yesterday around dinnertime. And while many restaurants already have Passover-friendly meals on their menus by default (anything that's just meat, veggies, or fruit), we asked if they had anything that was for Passover or without chametz/yeast.
Drum roll, please.
Only one restaurant said they were specifically doing something for Passover and a few other places shared food/drink items they know don't have yeast or should be okay for Passover. Here's a quick summary of what we found:
- Jardinière (300 Grove): 3-course prix fixe menu consisting of matzo ball soup, brisket, flourless chocolate cake with cherry sorbet, kosher dessert wine (tonight only)
- Noir Lounge (581 Hayes): He'Brew Nut Brown Ale beer (though not technically Passover-friendly, less stringent observers may want to indulge)
- Two Sisters Bar & Books (579 Hayes): pickles and homemade potato chips
- La Boulange (500 Hayes): gluten-free macaroons*, challah bread every Friday (not strictly Passover-friendly, but still delicious)
- Miette (449 Octavia): cupcakes and macaroons** are yeast-free
- Chantal Guillon (437 Hayes): macaroons have no yeast and use almond flour
- Boxing Room (399 Grove): Crispin Hard Apple Cider and Mead Honey Wine
- Fatted Calf (320 Fell): although they're all out for this year, they do offer shank bones for the seder plate (so keep that in mind for 2015)
________
*not all gluten-free products are kosher for Passover (and vice-versa) but there is a large overlap
**while asking about kosher products, we learned Miette has Macaroon Happy Hour every Monday-Friday (6-7pm) where macaroons are $1 and you can get up to 10 at that price
