I took myself on a date yesterday afternoon. I wore my bright new red coat, which is great for confidence, and headed out on the town. And by on the town, I mean that I had some errands to run. And by errands, I mean shopping.

Fortunately it was a very nice afternoon in the bay, and I ended up walking from my little corner of Noe Valley past Dolores Park, and down to Church and Market with no real target in mind. I hopped on the J-Church and headed into the Embarcadero to wander through the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building is the ideal spot for wandering, because if you get bored you can walk outside and sit watching the cars shuttle by on the bay bridge, or you can just eat samples all afternoon.

I spent some time in Sur La Table, testing out some Shun and Global knives, and a tiny part of me wishing I could be a chef and get sponsored by one of these companies and receive a nice shiny set of my own, all for free. Alas, that’s probably not a good enough reason to become a chef…

I was also happy to see Mariposa Baking Company has set up shop in the Ferry Building – tasty gluten free treats that won’t make you miss the gluten laden stuff.

This time I passed up the sweet stuff, and opted to finally sit down and try a bite at Il Cane Rosso, the joint venture of Daniel Patterson (the chef and owner of Coi) and Lauren Kiino (who headed the kitchen at Delfina). Il Cane Rosso is what I like to call slow fast food – where you order your local, organic, and seasonal food, and sit down to eat it in a casual setting with no real table service. I actually love eating this way – I’m particularly fussy about the quality of my food, but have no desire to eat every day in a formal setting. Perhaps why I love Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc so much.

After reading John Birdsall’s review in SF Weekly, Sandy of Foodhoe’s Foraging’s write up, and seeing Haas of No Salad As A Meal’s write up and beautiful photos I knew I had to stop by immediately even if just for a quick bite.

One of my favorite things about this little restaurant is the way it looks. Namely, I’d love to have a kitchen in my own home that looks like this – gray concrete floors (yes, I’m a concrete lover), wooden paneling of real wood, shiny silver appliances, open shelves, and those red metal accent beams and sweeping high ceilings… A girl can dream. But I also quite enjoy the seasonal accents like the squash and corn here. I try to do this regularly in my own kitchen before eating said accents.

I love this big squash! Can’t you see it roasted with a big cheesy strata inside it?

And also, I need to give a nod to their selection of drinks. I’m not really a soda drinker, but their selection even had me debating – Fentimans botanically brewed sodas are mighty tasty.

Finally I opted for the soup of the day, the “Long & Bailey Pork and Lentil Soup” ($6). I know, all I ate was one soup, and I’m passing judgment? Shame on me! But let me tell you, this soup was pretty near perfect. It had the right balance of stuff to flavorful broth that was perfectly seasoned. The lentils were tender but still had a nice bite and weren’t falling apart. The long and bailey pork was cubed in bite size pieces that were melt in your mouth and so darn savory. The difference between this stuff and the conventional is like two completely different animals. It was the perfect afternoon treat.

And yet I managed to only get one measly picture of the soup, fogging my lens to boot. Bad food blogger! I’ll be back soon for a more thorough tasting. Although lunch is generally the perfect time to go, their three course tasting dinner is $25 dollars, and if anything like lunch, is pretty much a steal.

Just as I was getting up to go they were closing their doors for a brief break between lunch and dinner. I contemplating staying for round two, but I had places to go and things to do. I’ll be back, sooner, rather than later.

Il Cane Rosso, open daily for lunch and dinner, breakfasts on Saturdays and Sundays
One Ferry Building #41
San Francisco
Phone: 415.391.7599
www.canerossosf.com