There are an estimated 4,000 restaurants in San Francisco collectively serving up tens of thousands of dishes. For Gazetteer SF, food enthusiast and man-about-town Omar Mamoon is recommending the best ones. This is Order Up.
Pardon the brief pause in Order Up. I was on vacation in Japan, where I spent a couple weeks in Tokyo and Osaka enjoying big brothy bowls of ramen, partaking in tempura tasting menus (it’s a thing), and eating all the sushi in sight.
But it’s yakitori that I couldn’t get enough of. Whether it was in the streets or at the difficult-to-book omakase counters, I ate these smoky grilled chicken skewers as often as possible, and upon return to San Francisco, it was all that I craved. Luckily I learned about the pop-up Bar Tanuki, where they serve yakitori just as tasty as the stuff I had on my trip.
It helps that the pop-up comes via Megumi Nakamura and Dai Manabe, both alums of the California-meets-Japanese izakaya Rintaro. Nakamura spent years behind the yakitori station at the Mission District restaurant, where she learned to expertly twist and turn skewers of charred chicken until juicy and delicious.
One day after eating Nakamura’s food for family meal, Rintaro’s chef and owner Sylvan Mishima Brackett suggested that she start a pop-up of her own. “It was a surprise,” Nakamura told me. “Rintaro wasn’t open Sunday, so they had available space. I was thinking that I should just try.”
That was almost three years ago. The duo have since left Rintaro to focus on Bar Tanuki full time, getting plugged in with the non-profit incubator La Cocina through a chef friend.
Bar Tanuki’s yakitori starts with its poultry, which is sourced from a few farms including Silver Sky Ranch in Petaluma, where the chickens range freely and probably have names.
“They have better flavor, are super fresh — never frozen — and on the cutting board, it smells good,” says Nakamura.
Each bird yields about 15 skewers depending on the size. As they cook over the scorching binchotan (Japanese charcoal), some of the skewers get dipped into a special tare, a savory glaze made from boiled-down sake, sugar, mirin, and soy sauce that caramelizes upon contact with heat.
As time goes on, the tare gets more potent, imbuing extra charred-chicken smoke into the sauce with each dip of the skewer.
The yakitori range between $11-$13 for two and offer a slightly different taste and texture: the knee cap is a bit crunchy and cartilage-y, while the momo (inner thigh) is crispy skinned and juicy at the center; the negima leans sweet and savory, both from the glaze as well as the slippery grilled green onion, while the bonjiri (aka chicken tails) are super fatty and salty. The last are not always on the menu, but if they are, do not hesitate: these plump little nubbins are my favorite part of the chicken.
Chomping on Nakamura's chicken skewers brings me right back to Japan, except I’m right here at home in beautiful San Francisco.
Check Bar Tanuki’s Instagram for their pop-up schedule. Lately, you can find them consistently at Stable Café (2128 Folsom St.) and Horsies Market (3368 19th St.), both in the Mission. My advice is to get there early and be patient. This is a small operation and deliciousness takes time.
