My work trip to San Francisco last week overlapped with the first seven nights of Hanukkah. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I love spending each night lighting candles, eating latkes and playing dreidel with family and friends.
Knowing I was going to be in SF for the holiday, I started asking friends and colleagues for their pick for the best Jewish deli in town. The votes were unanimous, Wise Sons in the Mission.
Wise Sons is located at the corner of 24th Street and Shotwell Street.
When you first walk in, you're standing alongside the takeout counter. The board hanging overhead breaks down the available items into the four essential Jewish food groups: Noshes, Deli Meats, Smoked Fish and Baked Goods.
The dining room is much smaller than I was expecting. There were two rows of small tables with one commual table in the front window.
On the left wall they have decorated with old school family photos. This gallery wall actually reminded me of a wall in my grandparent's house.
We had made a reservation (expecting a Hanukkah rush) but we really didn't need one. We had our choice of table.
We got right down to ordering. The menu was packed with delicious choices.
I started with a tall glass of ice tea. At Wise Sons, ice tea is bottomless, so you can hydrate to your heart's content!
To begin, we shared the potato latkes. After all, that was the whole reason for going.
There were three latkes on the plate, sprinkled with scallions and served with sour cream and apple sauce. The latkes were super crispy, but we both wished there had been much more sour cream for dipping. We were squeezing it out of its tiny paper cup.
For the main course, my friend decided on the pastrami reuben.
When I asked for her take on this classic Jewish deli dish she said, "This was a really nice portion. The bread is thin enough that all the goodies in the center really stand out. It was exactly the right ratio of stuff and the meat was seasoned well. I would definitely order it again."
I agonized over what to get - breakfast (challah French toast!) or something more savory. Ultimately I went with a bowl of matza ball soup.
The soup was excellent. The mazta ball was the size of a softball and was swimming in a deliciously salty broth alongside carrots, celery and a generous shake of dill.
I really loved the bowl the soup was served in:
To accompany my soup, I ordered a side of challah toast. Sadly it wasn't as eggy as I was hoping for.
After I'd slurped my way to the bottom of the soup bowl, we were ready to ask about dessert. Our waiter let us know they have two options - rugelach and babka. There was cinnamon or apricot rugelach, but what we really wanted was the chocolate babka.
You can order the babka as a single slice, a half of a loaf or a full loaf. We decided to order a half and take it back to our hotel room.
When he brought over our babka he leaned in close and said, "If you can get back here early tomorrow, we're making jelly donuts for Hanukkah, but you have to know to ask and they sell out super fast." We were tormented! Our hotel was a 20 minute cab ride away and we definitely wouldn't be able to make it in before work. Curses!
Though we never made it back for the jelly donuts, we did get to have more chocolate babka when one of our work events was held at the Contemporary Jewish Museum later that week. Wise Sons has a second location inside the museum.
Before I conclude, I also have to note, at dinner we were seated next to the most handsome man. He was dining alone, eating soup and half a reuben while reading The New Yorker. I actually walked by him on the street two mornings later, but was too scared to introduce myself. Ladies, there are prospects at Wise Sons!
If you live in SF or are just visiting for a weekend, Wise Sons has all the Jewish deli staples. When you can't have grandma's soup or dad's famous latkes, you can get pretty darn close at Wise Sons.
