For Ham Fans and Oyster Eaters

I have an ever-growing list of San Francisco restaurants I want to try chicken-scratched on notebook paper, taped to my fridge. Even though I'm always adding (it seems like a new hot place pops up every week in this city), I'm also able to cross off quite a few. One that's been on my list for almost two years is Hog & Rocks. The San Francisco Chronicle had named it one of the "Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants" in 2013, so it was time to give it a try. It's advertised as a place for "oyster eaters, ham fans and whiskey lovers." While not on-board with the whiskey, the food combo sounds pretty unbeatable, so we finally went to check it out last weekend.

Exterior on 19th!

Interior Art

The restaurant is located on 19th in the Mission. It's the typical smaller size of a Mission gastropub but not impossible to get into. We made dinner reservations earlier the same day (OpenTable said they were full but a call to the hostess proved otherwise). The ambiance is dim lighting but highlighting wall art of what else but pigs, oysters and whiskey. While the restaurant was almost totally full and felt like an energetic Friday night, it wasn't hard to hear across the table (which I appreciate the older I get). For a whiskey bar, it still had a good wine list with some reasonably priced options, so that was a nice discovery. In terms of the menu, we first tackled the "rocks" portion. There were 6 different fresh oyster options, so we tried one of each. It was a wide selection from various regions, so you could actually tell the difference between them which was fun. We also ordered the BBQ oysters, which were tasty but didn't hold a candle to Hog Island's chipotle bourbon BBQ oysters. From the "snacks" menu, we got the artisan pretzels (one is not big enough to spit unless you only want 2-3 bites) and the pimento cheese dip (which  you have to order separately). For a smaller sized pretzel, they give you a giant bowl of cheese, so they should either give you more things to put the cheese on or a smaller bowl and drop the price. We also ordered the deviled eggs and as a huge fan of deviled eggs I feel completely comfortable saying they were possibly the best deviled eggs I've ever had. What really elevates them above other deviled eggs is that ham is involved, plus they're topped with deep fried oysters. Lastly we tried the trotter tots, which are basically deep-fried tater tots infused with pig's feet to give it a fatty pork flavor. They were served with a smoked garlic ranch dipping sauce and fennel bulbs. They definitely elevated plain old tater tots to a whole new level. In summary, their menu is pretty inventive and they stay within theme, so if you like pork products or oysters you'd be satisfied. My main point of contention with them is the price point. 4 glasses of middle of the price-range wine, plus all the food mentioned above came to $150 and frankly we probably could have eaten even more.

Deviled Eggs

Trotter Tots