By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov
Opened just a month ago, this exciting new restaurant in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill is a kind of Skool even the worst speller can love. Implying a school of fish (and all it has to offer to a discriminate diner) the restaurant boasts a menu of earthy [watery] delights.
For moi, it all started with Chef’s choice oysters on the half-shell, Beau Soleil, which I guess means “beautiful sun” in French. Coming from New Brunswick, Canada, these lovely mollusks, creamy in both color and texture, just fill your mouth with sunshine, accompanied alternatively by lime zest wasabi cocktail sauce and kombu rice wine mignonette.
I knew we were on the same page with the Chef, so I pressed my dining companion to order Chef’s special appetizer du jour. It was poppy seed-crusted albacore tuna, served over summer squash “spaghetti” and topped with raspberry-pickled quail egg yolk. In a mini festival of textures, bursting seeds played well around meaty fish slices, and a gooey egg yolk was nicely contrasted with the sharp sauce of the shaved zucchini.
My Squid Ink Spaghettina, came in a while bowl, enlivened with colors of garlic tomato compote and Japanese red curry. Tiny rings of Monterey squid, whole white shrimp, and baby octopi peeked through the delicate black noodle, enhanced with lemon grass dashi broth (based on fish and seaweed), and topped with green onion shavings. Good, our server didn’t forget to bring me a spoon! While I usually prefer several different bites to one solid meal, and initiate the plate-switching game at any table, when it was time to try each other’s dishes half-way through the main course, I felt a sudden bout of greed, and almost refused to participate. My dining companion’s Pan Roasted Duck was stellar, not surprisingly for the Chef, but surprisingly for a fish restaurant. A tender layer of mascarpone cheese added a velvet touch to a medium-rare duck breast, supplemented by small roasted round “marble” potatoes, and silky cinnamon-braised leek.
A side of French fries was served with delightfully-hot Japanese 7-spice sauce, and a Japanese eggplant, fried on its skin to produce the lightest non-greasy flesh, was topped with a snow daikon radish for an addictive spike.
My dessert of lavender panna cotta came with a sprig of lavender across the cloud-white island of pure joy. It melted in my mouth before I realized that I came this close to licking my plate…
Since our visit happened right before the liquor license was obtained, our dinner was accompanied by very well executed virgin, or “safe” cocktails: Safe Sex on the Beach, Ginger Mule, and [my favorite] Teacher’s Pet, made of fresh apple juice, basil, honey water, and textured ginger foam. What Skool calls fish-focused international cuisine with Japanese flair is actually a wonderfully fresh, seasonal, creative, and amiably priced array of unusual dishes you would hardly try in any other place.
Owner Andy Mirabell, Executive Chef/Partner Toshihiro Nagano, Director of Operations Olia Kedik, and Dessert Chef Hiroko Nagano are two husband-and-wife couples behind its resounding success. The partners used to work together on several continents, and in a number of big-name eateries before launching their own place in Design Center Show Place East building, in the neighborhood of antique stores, design showrooms, a winter garden, and artists’ studios.
It seems fitting, since Skool’s cozy yet spacious dining room has a definitely modern “designer” feel, with floor to ceiling windows, open kitchen, refurbished walnut tables, a bar with a tall communal table, and a nice bamboo-framed patio. And what a relief for a jaded San Francisco motorist: free parking on the street aplenty, come one, come all! Skool sits 45 in the dining room and 35 in the patio. Skool Restaurant and Bar is open for lunch Monday-Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and nightly for dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. It is located at 1725 Alameda Street, at the corner of De Haro, San Francisco. For more information and reservations visit
http://www.skoolsf.com/ or call (415) 255 8800.
Opened just a month ago, this exciting new restaurant in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill is a kind of Skool even the worst speller can love. Implying a school of fish (and all it has to offer to a discriminate diner) the restaurant boasts a menu of earthy [watery] delights. 
For moi, it all started with Chef’s choice oysters on the half-shell, Beau Soleil, which I guess means “beautiful sun” in French. Coming from New Brunswick, Canada, these lovely mollusks, creamy in both color and texture, just fill your mouth with sunshine, accompanied alternatively by lime zest wasabi cocktail sauce and kombu rice wine mignonette. 
I knew we were on the same page with the Chef, so I pressed my dining companion to order Chef’s special appetizer du jour. It was poppy seed-crusted albacore tuna, served over summer squash “spaghetti” and topped with raspberry-pickled quail egg yolk. In a mini festival of textures, bursting seeds played well around meaty fish slices, and a gooey egg yolk was nicely contrasted with the sharp sauce of the shaved zucchini. 
My Squid Ink Spaghettina, came in a while bowl, enlivened with colors of garlic tomato compote and Japanese red curry. Tiny rings of Monterey squid, whole white shrimp, and baby octopi peeked through the delicate black noodle, enhanced with lemon grass dashi broth (based on fish and seaweed), and topped with green onion shavings. Good, our server didn’t forget to bring me a spoon! While I usually prefer several different bites to one solid meal, and initiate the plate-switching game at any table, when it was time to try each other’s dishes half-way through the main course, I felt a sudden bout of greed, and almost refused to participate. My dining companion’s Pan Roasted Duck was stellar, not surprisingly for the Chef, but surprisingly for a fish restaurant. A tender layer of mascarpone cheese added a velvet touch to a medium-rare duck breast, supplemented by small roasted round “marble” potatoes, and silky cinnamon-braised leek. 
A side of French fries was served with delightfully-hot Japanese 7-spice sauce, and a Japanese eggplant, fried on its skin to produce the lightest non-greasy flesh, was topped with a snow daikon radish for an addictive spike. 
My dessert of lavender panna cotta came with a sprig of lavender across the cloud-white island of pure joy. It melted in my mouth before I realized that I came this close to licking my plate… 
Since our visit happened right before the liquor license was obtained, our dinner was accompanied by very well executed virgin, or “safe” cocktails: Safe Sex on the Beach, Ginger Mule, and [my favorite] Teacher’s Pet, made of fresh apple juice, basil, honey water, and textured ginger foam. What Skool calls fish-focused international cuisine with Japanese flair is actually a wonderfully fresh, seasonal, creative, and amiably priced array of unusual dishes you would hardly try in any other place.
Owner Andy Mirabell, Executive Chef/Partner Toshihiro Nagano, Director of Operations Olia Kedik, and Dessert Chef Hiroko Nagano are two husband-and-wife couples behind its resounding success. The partners used to work together on several continents, and in a number of big-name eateries before launching their own place in Design Center Show Place East building, in the neighborhood of antique stores, design showrooms, a winter garden, and artists’ studios.
It seems fitting, since Skool’s cozy yet spacious dining room has a definitely modern “designer” feel, with floor to ceiling windows, open kitchen, refurbished walnut tables, a bar with a tall communal table, and a nice bamboo-framed patio. And what a relief for a jaded San Francisco motorist: free parking on the street aplenty, come one, come all! Skool sits 45 in the dining room and 35 in the patio. Skool Restaurant and Bar is open for lunch Monday-Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and nightly for dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. It is located at 1725 Alameda Street, at the corner of De Haro, San Francisco. For more information and reservations visit http://www.skoolsf.com/ or call (415) 255 8800.
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