San Francisco — IT was lunchtime on a Saturday at Farallon, a pricey downtown restaurant, and the place was hopping. In the bar waiting for a table, I overheard an immaculately coifed woman chatting with the bartender. She was complaining, actually, about the crowd. "It must be all those people in for the cheap meals," she said.
My husband, Barry, and I were two of \o7those\f7 \o7people \f7-- here to take advantage of the city's monthlong Dine About Town promotion. Each January about 100 of the city's restaurants, including some top-rated ones, offer three-course meals at discounted prices: $21.95 per person for lunch and $31.95 for dinner, excluding beverages.
Several cities, including New York; Washington, D.C.; San Diego; and Vancouver, Canada, hold restaurant weeks in January, when business lags. San Francisco's promotion, entering its fifth year, seems to be catching on. In 2005, the city's 108 participating restaurants served 40% more diners than in 2004, the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau reported.
The thought of a three-day feast in one of the world's great dining cities had me salivating long before our trip. At bedtime, I would curl up with food guidebooks and restaurant reviews, which I would cross-check against the Dine About Town list. The city was laid out before me like a menu with 108 possibilities. In the end I learned my eyes were bigger than my stomach, but not before I'd made five reservations.
To maximize our time, we arrived into Oakland at 11 a.m. on a Friday, took a BART train to downtown, dropped our bags at the hotel and race-walked to the Campton Place restaurant to make our 1 p.m. reservation.
I had chosen this restaurant, an elegant space in the boutique Campton Place Hotel, because it represented a sizable value (a four-course lunch is usually $49) and was highly rated among the guidebooks I consulted. It was our most expensive meal of the weekend -- more than $100, including tip -- because we also signed on for Wine About Town ($21.95 per person extra), which paired wines with each course. I've never spent -- or eaten -- as much for lunch, but I regret neither a penny nor a calorie.
After our harried journey from Los Angeles, the dining room was a calming influence, dressed in soothing tones of taupe and cream. A gallery of rectangular mirrors defined a wall above the banquettes; the tables were set with fine linens and china. Our waiter was attentive and generous with his knowledge of the menu and wine list; it didn't matter that we were hunting haute cuisine on the cheap.
