Critics’ choice: Three new James Beard Award winners

State Bird Provisions; Alder; Little Goat

State Bird Provisions San Francisco

This year’s winner of the James Beard Award for the nation’s best new restaurant was attracting “just about everyone in the food world” even before its triumph last month, said Michael Bauer in the San Francisco Chronicle. The location isn’t great, the concrete-walled dining room seats a meager 45, and the lighting leans toward drab, but rival chefs can’t stay away because the food and the overall concept are so original. Most of the dishes that come from the kitchen of husband and wife Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski don’t even appear on the short menu. Instead, food is prepared on the fly, sent out on carts, and peddled table to table, dim-sum-style. If you go, prepare to run up a bill, because “just about everything is a must-order item.” The duck-liver mousse, served with almond biscuits, is “as light as whipped butter.” The signature “state bird” is a deep-fried quail whose “mottled” exterior “brings out the richness of the meat” and is counterbalanced nicely by tart onions stewed in lemon and rosemary. Our prediction: State Bird imitators will soon be popping up from coast to coast. 1529 Fillmore St., (415) 795-1272

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