CONNECT FEAST

The spicy at Tadich Grill comes with crab and a few slices of butter-soaked garlic bread made from Boudin sourdough. ’s Fresh Catch Cioppino, the old-school fisherman’s stew, is sailing back.

by SERENA RENNER photographs by JAKE STANGEL

OR 165 YEARS, Tadich Grill in cioppino, a tomato-wine stew brimming with where nearly every eatery hawks a version. San Francisco’s financial district clams, mussels, shrimp, whitefish, and For the first five years I lived here, I avoided has operated at the same rhythm. . it entirely. But when I heard that Tadich was Salmon sizzles under the broiler, With that much history under its belt, the opening a second location in Washington, white-jacketedF bartenders stir and shake cioppino is, understandably, delicious. The D.C., I realized it was time to discover cioppino lunch-hour martinis, and servers hurry dish is also ubiquitous in San Francisco, hav- before East Coasters beat me to it. by with bowls of the restaurant’s famous ing become as clichéd as Fisherman’s Wharf, I started by meeting with chef Wil Going,

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3 Cioppinos to Eat in San Francisco

The original Tadich at 240 Street 1 ALIOTO’S One of the oldest restaurants on Fisherman’s Wharf, Alioto’s still serves “Nonna Rose’s the Virginia native charged with re-creating these fishermen, most of them from Genoa, Famous Cioppino.” Dungeness the Tadich experience at its new D.C. location. would combine whatever seafood they couldn’t crab from the restaurant’s He was in San Francisco to get schooled in sell with ingredients they had on deck, namely tanks is cracked live and the coat-and-tie hospitality at the original Tadich, canned tomatoes and wine. Legend has it shell’s ‘butter’ is immediately cooked into a buttery sauce. and to learn the restaurant’s cioppino recipe, someone would walk around the docks calling aliotos.com which dates back at least 50 years. for leftovers to throw into a communal caul- dron. “Chip in, chip in,” the Italian-accented 2 solicitor would yell, which morphed into SCOMA’S “chip-EE-no.” Others say the soup is essentially The broth for this Sicilian standby’s cioppino has been The original dish the Genoese stew ciuppin but with such local made by the same cook, likely arrived ingredients as Dungeness crab. Weng, for 30 years. The sea- Whatever the origins, the stew has endured— food is now as sustainable in San Francisco and for years it remained something you could as it comes, paired with such only truly experience in San Francisco. That is, modern touches as wine on in the mid-19th until Tadich announced its plans to build a tap and barrel-aged cocktails. scomas.com grand corner bistro just down Pennsylvania century. Avenue from the White House, a big move for 3 a restaurant with such strong ties to the Left TOWN HALL “Cioppino has always been a part of my rep- Coast. Tadich, however, is no sellout on authen- A Southern restaurant with ertoire,” Going says. “But I had to come here ticity. The restaurant will regularly fly in a chandeliers and a blues sound track, Town Hall gives the to archive this unique recipe, which has been supply of Dungeness crab and specially baked seafood stew a Big Easy bent passed down verbally from cook to cook.” Boudin sourdough. and pairs it with red pepper The original dish likely arrived in San While Going has been tasked with trans- aioli-smeared grilled bread. Francisco with Italian immigrants in the ferring cioppino to a new city, other Bay Area townhallsf.com mid-19th century. At the end of each day, chefs are reviving it in creative ways. I inhale a

70 AFAR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 Find crab tours, a recipe, and more at afar.com/cioppino. CONNECT FEAST version at Town Hall that features Herbsaint ant with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sus- forbidden to reveal. liquor, fennel, Early Girl tomatoes, potatoes, tainable seafood program. “Cioppino is attributed to Italian immigrants, and a deep-fried softshell crab. I discover Yet it’s Tadich that’s introducing the classic but this city is a definite melting pot of cul- the secret technique behind Alioto’s ciop- cioppino to a new audience. A classic, it turns tures,” he says. And really, is there any better pino. (See previous page.) And I pay a visit out, that has evolved: Going admits that the res- dish to absorb such changes? After all, Going to Scoma’s, another local stalwart that recently taurant’s recipe has more than 30 ingredients, says, “the whole origin of the dish is about made waves by becoming 100 percent compli- including a few Asian components that he’s chipping in.”

“At Tadich, the average age of the waiters is 70.” Going says. “The guys who work here are serious about hospitality.”

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