Dining Out - B is for Bright

By Stett Holbrook
Photographs by Judi Swinks

You know the look.

You tell someone you live in Oakland, and they wrinkle up their nose a bit and say, “Oh, what’s that like?” as if trying to imagine a tour of duty in Iraq.

Rather than espouse the virtues of the city, take the uninitiated directly to B Restaurant and Bar in Old Oakland and let them see some of what the city has to offer.

Casual yet urbane, not perfect but often delicious, B is one of Oakland’s bright lights. Located in a gloriously restored 19th century building on the corner of Ninth and Washington, B is part of the historic neighborhood’s revival. The restaurant is a partnership between Kevin Best, Misty Rasche and Don Harbison, a trio of food and wine lovers who relocated to the Bay Area about five years ago from North Carolina and New Jersey to open a restaurant in San Francisco. They ended up across the bay when their current landlords, fans of the team’s Financial District lunch spot, Boxed Foods Company, lured them east.

Once in Oakland, Best was impressed with the handsome space and the neighborhood, but what really sealed the deal was the warm reception he got from city hall. Best was so taken that he and Rasche (his business and life partner) recently moved to Oakland from San Francisco.

While they’ve let the old bones of the building shine through, the owners have added modern touches like the translucent resin tables, shiny mosaic tiles and eclectic light fixtures. Soaring floorto- ceiling windows frame the majestic architecture outside. The result is stunning.

Best describes B’s menu as “the food I like to eat, and the food I like to cook.” In his case, that’s a mix of simple, rustic American, European and Asian food full of big flavors. Most of the food is made with organic produce and sustainably farmed or harvested meats and fish. The menu also includes a number of small plates to go with the restaurant’s small but well-chosen wine list and fruity sake- or soju-based cocktails.

I’m pleased more restaurants are serving Brussels sprouts, a vegetable that is still recovering from years of abuse. B’s version ($5) sautés halved sprouts with smoky bacon and a creamy mustard sauce. The kitchen puts its wood-fired oven to good use with its thin-crusted flatbread and pizzas. I especially enjoyed the tarte flambé flatbread ($7), crisp but light and topped with fromage blanc, onion and bacon.

Less is generally more, but some of B’s dishes were too spare and needed a little more refinement to bring them off. From the small plates menu, I was disappointed in the cedar-planked ono ($12) and the squash and duck confit ($6).

From the list of entrees, I loved the seared confit duck breast ($23), a wintry dish that piled on layers flavor with a parsnip and butternut squash hash and perfectly grilled endive. The dish is topped in a Madeira-dried cherry sauce that had me spooning up the last drops. Just as satisfying is the hulking grilled Duroc pork chop. Duroc is an heirloom breed of pig that’s been saved from homogenizing corporate agribusiness. As thick as a bookend, the 16-ounce chop is so juicy and tender it almost squirted me as I knifed into it. The chop is paired with a rich, chard bread pudding and grilled balsamic glazed radicchio and napped with a pomegranate reduction. This is comfort food of the highest order. Best of all was the wild boar ragu special ($17), a sumptuous, cold-weather dish of slow cooked, tomatoey pork sauce topped with tubular pasta and cheese and a thatch of poppingly fresh arugula drizzled with white truffle oil.

The Details

B RESTAURANT AND BAR
New American.
Open for lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tues.- Fri. and dinner 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. and 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.
499 Ninth St.
(510) 251-8770
$$-$$$