Monsieur Benjamin Pork (Dose of Vitamin P)

Pork San Francisco

Fine dining chefs going (somewhat) more casual has been trending for awhile. For example, The French Laundry legend Thomas Keller has opened a string of Bouchon bistros and Bouchon Bakeries. In San Francisco, one of his disciples, Benu chef-owner Corey Lee, added Monsieur Benjamin, an industrial chic French brasserie in Hayes Valley, in 2014, complete with a fashionable fox logo, and if you’re lucky, a knockout pork special.

During a recent dinner at Monsieur Benjamin, my server recited several verbal specials. He said the kitchen had been working their way through a special pig, and asked if we might be interested in a pork duo. Yes! The plate he delivered later in the meal featured slices of roasted pork leg and a meaty slab of sautéed belly plated on an array of market beans – cranberry, wax, haricot vert and black – tossed with crumbles of house-made garlic sausage. Better yet, the plate can with a pitcher of rich, sticky pork jus. Basically, this was a deconstructed cassoulet, only suitable for summer instead of a blustery winter night.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.

Address: 451 Gough Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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