Dinner at Atelier Crenn

Leave a comment

We were having dinner one night at home and started talking about our travel credits due to cancelled trips from the pandemic. We jokingly said we should use our credit to go to San Francisco for a night and have dinner at Atelier Crenn to celebrate our anniversaries. The joke kept going for several weeks until we started looking at flights and realized that we could actually pull this trip off. We were waiting by our computers for reservations to open on Tock, and just like that, our anniversary dinner dreams came true.

Atelier Crenn had been on our bucket list for a long time now thanks to an episode of Chef’s Table on Netflix. Dominique Crenn is the first woman chef in the United States to receive three Michelin stars, and we were insanely excited to finally try out her menu. We arrived at Atelier Crenn for our reservation at 6:00 PM. The outside of the restaurant is very understated and almost unnoticeable with the other bright and loud restaurants near by. We made sure to take our obligatory “we are at a 3 star Michelin restaurant” photo before we headed in for dinner.

We were greeted by a host who knew exactly who we were before we said a word. He welcomed us to the restaurant and we were seated immediately. The restaurant itself is simple but special in décor. All of the art was made by Chef Crenn’s father. If you have watched the Chef’s Table episode on her, you will know how important and special her relationship was with her dad which is reflected all throughout the restaurant. We kicked off our dinner with a champagne toast (thank you mom and dad!) and were taken through the most amazing 15 course dinner.

Atelier Crenn’s menu is always presented by way of poem leaving both a whimsical and mysterious nature to the dinner. The menu is now fully pescatarian, a change they informed us was implemented within the past few years in an effort to be more sustainable. Chef Crenn draws influences from her home in France and the bay area, weaving a delicious menu combined with traditional French techniques and modern coastal cuisine. Many of the ingredients are sourced from the restaurant’s farm upstate in the Napa Valley. We enjoyed dishes like geoduck clam, abalone with cabbage, trout mousse, and a playful spin on “oysters and rose”. We ate the most beautiful tomato dish comprised of 6+ types of tomatoes and were beyond indulged by a seasonal white truffle course that was irresistible. We don’t like to spoil the experience by sharing what each dish was but can tell you that between the four of us, we each walked away with different favorite dishes because everything was just that creative and memorable.

10/10 we would recommend this unique experience to anyone who finds themselves (or purposely goes out of their way) to be in San Francisco. It was such a special and memorable way to celebrate our anniversaries together and cross another Michelin starred restaurant off our never ending dining bucket list.

24 Hours in San Francisco

1 Comment

We decided to splurge for our anniversaries this year and treat ourselves to dinner at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. With busy schedules to consider, we ended up booking flights to have just about 24 hours in San Francisco before we needed to get back home to Denver. We were not going to let any of those hours go to waste, and set upon making a Google Map of all of the restaurants we were hoping to hit during our day in the city. We will give a play-by-play of everything we ate in 24 hours so that if you happen to have a quick stop in San Francisco you can retrace our footsteps.

Stop #1: Breakfast & Irish Coffees at Buena Vista

The Buena Vista is a restaurant located near Fisherman’s Wharf that has been around since the early 1900s. They are credited with making Irish coffees a world famous beverage and have been in institution for over 100 years. We started our morning with a round of Irish Coffees and some breakfast essentials to fuel us for walking around the pier.

Stop #2: Chowder In A Bread Bowl

After walking through Ghirardelli Square and down Fisherman’s Wharf we stopped for a quintessential San Francisco dish, clam chowder in a bread bowl. We went to Boudin Bakery, which is a little bit touristy down by the wharf but an excellent choice for getting in and out without having to commit to a sit down meal. Their sourdough is top notch and they have lots of outdoor seating to enjoy the pier.

Stop #3: Caffe Trieste

We walked from Fisherman’s Wharf back to our hotel, which was located closer to the Theater District area of town. On the way back down Columbus Ave you’ll start to see red, white, and green flags on all of the poles, showing that you have clearly stepped into Little Italy. There are dozens upon dozens of restaurants to chose from along this walk, but we settled for an afternoon pick me up iced cappuccino at Caffe Trieste. It is a cute little mom and pop shop that has been open since 1956. They also have lots of outdoor seating to sit and enjoy a coffee before continuing the food adventures.

Stop #4: Dim Sum in Chinatown

No stop to San Fran is complete without some dim sum from Chinatown. We could have spent the entire day sampling dumplings and noodles from various restaurants around Chinatown, but due to our limited eating window we settled for getting dim sum at just one place: Yank Sing. We sat down at a table and ordered potstickers, xiao long bao, and sticky green beans. The XLBs were some of the best we have ever had and we only wish that could have ordered significantly more of the menu to sample!

Stop #5: Dinner at Atelier Crenn

Dinner at Atelier Crenn was our primary reason for going on this trip to San Francisco and it did not disappoint! Dominique Crenn is the first woman chef in the United States to win 3 Michelin stars. Her menu is inspired by the similarities of her hometown of Brittany, France and San Francisco. The menu consisted of 15 courses of fresh, coastal seafood with many ingredients grown on their their farm further upstate. We will keep the details brief in this post as we will have a full rundown of our experience on a post later in the week. Spoiler alert: it. was. amazing.

Stop #6: Breakfast at Tartine Bakery

Is it possible to be hungry for breakfast after 15 courses of fine dining the night before? Yes, it turns out. We believe that no trip to San Francisco is complete without a trip to Tartine Bakery, even if that means waiting in line for pastries at 8 am after a big night out. The smell of buttery croissants while you wait makes the minutes standing in line worth it. If you go to Tartine croissants are a must. We ordered a pain au chocolate, ham and cheese, and almond croissant as well as a gougere and croque monsieur. The mix of sweet and savory was just what we needed before heading out to the airport and back to Colorado.