Medicine: I win :(

[pantryslut]

From this week's Chronicle food section:


"At Medicine (161 Sutter St., in the Crocker Galleria), nobody is calling it a sea change, but the restaurant is reconfiguring itself.

Medicine shut its doors earlier this month. According to a recorded phone message, the temporary closure is due to remodeling, and the restaurant will reopen on a limited basis March 12. And limited it is -- it will be a 30-seat weekday lunch spot only, down from a 160-seat lunch and dinner operation. The space will only be accessible from the second floor of the Galleria.

A publicist for the restaurant says there will be more emphasis on bento boxes (in other words, lots of takeout). What's more, added offerings promised in the recorded message and on a Web site include new noodle and rice dishes -- and seafood. So the formerly monastic vegan Japanese mantra is going to morph into a more mainstream philosophy.

As for the rest of the airy space, when the main dining room reopens as Medicine-Ryori in the fall, it, too, will have a different look and outlook. Janet Crane of San Francisco firm Freebairn-Smith & Crane, will give it a sophisticated Japanese look, and the cuisine will lean away from the austere, Kyoto-inspired shojin menu that rattled a few teacups when it was introduced a year and a half ago.

Current executive chef/general manager Bryan Waites has been made a partner in the restaurant, and will oversee the new menu. According to a restaurant spokesperson, the style of food will be one that's now popular in Japan, called "Burgundian haute cuisine." Whatever that means, it seems certain the prescription for Medicine is going to change."

In this case, I really hate to say I told you so, because I love this place, but I called it within a week of its opening. First of all, naming your restaurant "Medicine" is such a nonstarter. Second of all, the location isn't great unless you're planning on doing a lot of lunch business. That dining room was huge! But it was not set up for the business lunch crowd, which was their price point. And empty all the time. Third of all, the initial menu was *serious*, and I wasn't sure how it was going to fly with people with, um, less adventurous Western palates than mine. I noticed some editing of the menu over the past year, too, which only confirmed my suspicions. And now, this.

I'm not claiming to be some restaurant savant (although I also knew Cafe Jou Jou, down the alley, wouldn't last; its menu was too long. And now it's gone). I ain't got any special skills or knowledge. I'm not proud. I am sad. I will miss the old Medicine.

I will probably also eat their bento-to-come. Yum.

Comments

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

I know you *claim* you don't have The Power, but could you please make a prediction about "Gratitude" in North Berkeley? Just hearing Bean's description of the menu made me want to find a throwin' brick.

(And on doing some research, I find that there are THREE of these things, and they're trying to open a fourth.)

Here's the restaurants' website: http://www.withthecurrent.com/cafe.html
And here's some reviews - all the negative ones sound just like Bean's experience: http://www.yelp.com/biz/4xnPmilefdbkR85NpqksBQ

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Cafe Gratitude will persist for at least a few years, because its shtick appeals to a certain type of California bottom who think they are getting blessed when they are being bossed around. It might even develop a strong enough following to keep it in business indefinitely.

[billbrent.livejournal.com]

It's a bit too literal. I bet someone could get away with something more allusive ... I'm thinking of "Café Médecin" (Doctor Cafe) across from, say, St. Francis Med. Ctr. Especially if it had those annoying accents over the e's.