Hit Filipino-Japanese pop-up Ox & Tiger scores a permanent home in S.F.
Ox & Tiger, a common Filipino-Japanese pop-up operate by a former Rich Table chef, has identified a long-lasting household in San Francisco.
It has taken about 552 Jones St., formerly a area of Filipino restaurant Tselogs. Owners EJ Macayan and Hitomi Wada will be serving their playful marriage of Filipino and Japanese foods, their respective heritages, for takeout only on weekends at first. They gentle-opened very last weekend and strategy to open completely in late Oct with a tasting menu inside of the intimate, counter-only area.
The duo will keep on to serve Ox & Tiger classics, like Japanese gyoza crammed with Filipino bistek or their consider on the Filipino bicol specific (pork loin that’s brined in fish sauce, then breaded and fried). New dishes incorporate seafood doria, a Japanese casserole-like dish protected with melted provolone cheese, and fish ball skewers, a Filipino street meals staple. Diners will be able to check out Macayan cook dinner the fish balls, topped with annatto chili oil and garlic-vinegar peanuts, on a new yakitori grill driving the counter.
Most dishes come with seasonal atchara, or Filipino pickles. The few draw intensely on seasonal, community produce, like garlic chives and mizuna from Hikari Farms in Watsonville, operate by a Japanese American household.
They plan to implement for a license so they can supply beer, wine and sake pairings. Alex Bernardo, the owner of Millbrae purely natural wine shop Vineyard Gate, who has hosted their pop-ups in the previous, will help advise the wine and sake picks.
Macayan has labored at Abundant Desk in San Francisco, Filipino food truck the Sarap Store and Body fat Rice in Chicago. He and Wada started Ox & Tiger in 2018. Their pop-up dinners, with dishes like pancit topped with spicy cod roe and tonkatsu on handmade milk bread, drew a faithful next. For the duration of the pandemic, they shifted to takeout foods and out of doors pop-ups when they have been permitted again.
The Tenderloin house felt like kismet to Macayan and Wada: Prior to Tselogs, it housed a Japanese curry cafe. And it is a reduction to get back again to serving food stuff in particular person on plates rather of to-go containers, however they’re considering about supplying takeout at lunch, and the space currently has a pickup window.
“When we were 1st performing pop-ups, it was tasting dinners and we had been ready to talk to our consumers and hear their stories and share our tales. We’re truly psyched to get again into undertaking that once more,” Macayan explained. “This earlier yr was hard.”
Look at Ox & Tiger’s Instagram for the most up-to-date information and facts on hours and menu.
Ox & Tiger. 552 Jones St., San Francisco. oxandtiger.co
Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff members writer. E mail: [email protected] Twitter: @ekadvany
