Dining Early Is Good for You, Especially at Market & Rye
With the growing waistline of the general population, late-night dining is out; a healthier, “nothing after dark” alternative is in. Market & Rye, a popular Potrero Hill breakfast and lunch spot in San Francisco pioneered early dinner for the worker bees, which can be taken out or consumed on the premises. The dinner is served Monday through Friday until 7 p.m. and includes daily specials as well as popular lunch items.
Upon entering, early diners are greeted by a friendly staff member who takes their orders and delivers them pronto to the table in the barstool-seating main area, in the spacious dining room, or outside (weather permitting). The restaurant regulars usually know what they want, but for the newcomers it might take several minutes to grasp the variety of market-fresh, seasonal salads packed in half-pint containers, such as couscous mixed with roasted apricot, goat cheese, arugula, and pistachio dressing.
Larger salads—identified as Market Signature on the menu—can substitute a full meal, but you wouldn’t want to miss other enticing choices from the local ingredients-inspired menu. A house-made soup of the day might be a gourmet squash purée, beautifully served in a white porcelain mug with fresh chives and croutons.
As for the heartier plates, Market & Rye sandwiches are so creatively constructed and contain so many all-around favorites you can’t go wrong with any of them.
The popularity star, a cornflake-crusted fried chicken sandwich, has two perfectly crispy chunks of breast meat on a bed of Old Bay aioli and pickles, topped with poppy seed coleslaw and squeezed into a perfectly toasted brioche bun.
Named after the establishment, the Market & Rye Wagyu beef burger is also served on brioche and is crowned with candied bacon and fried egg sunny-side up and oozing with house-made Thousand Island dressing and melted cheddar.
It’s easy to feel cozy and unrushed in this inviting and full-of-light, unpretentious restaurant so go ahead, take your time and enjoy. A piece of advice: Try to order your dessert early. A colorful display of changing daily house-made pastries attracts everyone’s attention, and they tend to disappear fast.
A strawberry pie with fresh berries baked into a puff-pastry crust sprinkled with brown sugar is only one of the many wonderful choices available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
In addition to the gourmet food at great value prices, the restaurant is serving beer and wine during a perpetual all-day Happy Hour. The selection of beers includes domestic and imported ones, and four wines are available by the glass or bottle. At $3 a glass for beer and $5 per glass or $20 per bottle of wine, they are, “the most attractive beverage prices in San Francisco!”
Market & Rye’s newly expanded dining room, which often serves as a meeting and teambuilding place for the surrounding start-ups, boasts floor-to-ceiling windows, hardwood floors, redwood wall panels, a conference table (now a community dining table) previously owned by George Lucas, a 17-foot-long chalk board, and a selection of board games.
Opened by former “Top Chef” contestant chef Ryan Scott in the summer of 2012, Market & Rye has become a neighborhood favorite, but it’s definitely worth a drive from other areas of the city to try the chef’s many crowd-pleasing creations.
Market & Rye is located at 300 De Haro Street in San Francisco, California. The restaurant is open daily, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call (415) 252-7455.
