Here is Bauer's review from the chronicle dated January 2004:
Town Hall has become the talk of the town. A convergence of circumstances has worked to make this the hottest opening in the past couple of years. Part of it is timing. With the depressed economy and so few debuts, diners are hungry for a glamorous new place.
The main lure, however, is the team behind this 115-seat American-regional restaurant in San Francisco. Chef-owners Mitchell and Steven Rosenthal are doing double duty: They remain top toques at Postrio, where they've been for a decade, and share cooking duties at their own venture. They've joined with Doug Washington, who has been a maitre d'/manager at Square One, Vertigo, Jardiniere and Postrio. Washington has such an engaging personality that his presence alone ensures long lines at the door.
The Postrio connections don't stop there. Pastry chef Janet Rikala Dalton was at Postrio in the mid-1990s, and she's creating a sweet sensation at Town Hall.
Yet there's little relationship between the two places. While Postrio may be the "town hall" of Hollywood, with its glitzy prices and grand decor, the more organic look of Town Hall echoes its roots in the historic Marine Electric warehouse, one of the first buildings to be built after the 1906 earthquake.
The name of the restaurant came to the partners when they first saw the narrow space. They wanted a gathering place, and they also didn't mind that the name evokes colonial New England because the interior combines that small- town hominess with big-city sophistication. The location, at Howard and Fremont streets, is in the middle of a newly emerging neighborhood, across the street from the new Schwab building and several residential developments. With all this, Town Hall is poised to become a focal point for the area.
The outside of the brick warehouse is dressed up with red awnings and a handsome landscaped plaza featuring large boulders and willowy trees. Once inside, you'd swear the place has been around for decades, gently updated along the way. Ebony-colored floors, natural brick walls, a slat-wood ceiling and off-white bead board wainscoting give it a period appeal.
Upon entering, one's eyes immediately rise to the ceiling, where five spidery chandeliers, each with 74 pinpoints of light, have a retro-modern look, kind of like George Jetson meets "Star Wars." The lights originally hung in a movie theater in New York's Spanish Harlem and have been restored and replated for Town Hall.
At the far end of the dining room, substantial seismic beams the color of the Golden Gate Bridge crisscross a wall of paned windows, revealing the urban cityscape beyond. Old-time portraits and modern art fill the walls, and the generous window ledges are decorated with small bouquets of flowers and a collection of old books, evoking a cozy library. Even the check at the end of the meal is tucked into a handsome first-edition book.
The pedestal tables are handcrafted in the prairie style, and the tables have a kind of schoolhouse-meets-Craftsman look, which helps convey an Adirondack eating hall as envisioned by New York designer Mark Zeff.
The food, like the interior, combines an East Coast and West Coast style. New Orleans seems to be the spiritual home of many of the Rosenthals' combinations, although you'll find some San Francisco, Southern, French and Italian influences, too. While many dishes are delicious, the menu doesn't seem to have a strong point of view and ends up feeling a little contrived.
However, Cajun/Creole is a natural extension for Mitchell Rosenthal, who spent several years cooking at the famed K-Paul's in New Orleans. At Town Hall, he kicks off the appetizers with smoked chicken gumbo ya ya ($8), a molten crock of thick, golden broth filled with chicken around a hillock of rice; it has a taste as bold as his patron saint, Paul Prudhomme. Prudhomme's influence is evident on other dishes, including a succulent peanut- and Tasso-crusted pork chop ($22) served with a celery root and apple puree and a buttery blend of parsnips, carrots and other winter vegetables.
The Rosenthals also feature roast bass ($19) moistened with lemon butter thick with toasted pecans and propped on a pile of Brabant potatoes and string beans. Just about every restaurant features mussels these days, but at Town Hall they're steamed with Old Bay seasoning and tomato, and topped with a mound of shoestring potatoes that would have been better if served hot.
Classic cioppino has been updated with percatelli pasta ($23), which resembles double-thick spaghetti. Unfortunately, this San Francisco classic was one of the weakest dishes on the menu. Served in a pretentiously large casserole, it's dotted with mussels, clams, flakes of crab, shrimp, chunks of salmon and other fish. The brothy sauce that should pull it all together is bland and has none of the fire and guts associated with this rustic seafood concoction.
Although you rarely see anything this good in North Beach, roasted veal herb meatballs ($9) coated in a green peppercorn sauce and arranged on mashed potatoes is something you would expect in an Italian neighborhood.
The chefs honor the Northwest with cedar-planked salmon ($19) enhanced with a sherry vinegar aioli and served with fennel and shoestring potatoes. The classic spinach salad with bacon dressing ($13) is paired with cornmeal-fried oysters. The golden orbs are just crisp enough to encapsulate the juicy essence of the seafood; the crust breaks once it hits the tongue and releases a warm saline gush.
Although the food is designed to be American, some dishes have a decided European perspective, often with a few American twists. Classic warm frisee salad with lardons and a poached egg ($12) has been slightly changed so that the dressing is made of cider and the lardons are cubes of Smithfield ham.
Trio Sonoma rabbit ($19), the best of the nine main courses, has a more Italian pedigree. The loin is roasted, the saddle is wrapped in bacon, and the leg is braised and served on herb polenta with chanterelles moistened with natural juices and a drizzle of herb-garlic butter.
Slow-roasted duck ($21) has a confit-like texture, accompanied by toasted wild rice, pecans and gravy made with spiced dates and gingersnaps, which adds a hint of complex sweetness to the blend. Grilled chicken ($18) with shallot- mashed potatoes and mustard herb jus is paired with a banger sausage that adds an unnecessary heaviness to the plate. At times like these, you get too much of a good thing. That's a characteristic of the mushroom lasagna ($16), in which thick slabs of cheese overpower layers of mushy pasta. The rectangular wedge is served in a bowl, making it awkward to eat, a problem that seems to plague several courses, including the cioppino.
However, desserts (all $7) should be considered planned indulgences. The most memorable is the layers of butterscotch and chocolate in a pot de creme topped with a thin blanket of butter crunch.
Another dessert, advertised on the menu as "San Francisco's best cup of hot chocolate," is about as thick, rich and decadent as anything I've had. Our waiter explained that it was made with seven kinds of chocolate and a secret ingredient the chef won't reveal.
The staff, led by Washington, takes a casual and caring approach. The servers have to be particularly flexible to maneuver through the tight spaces between tables and to keep customers satisfied when the kitchen gets backed up and the food isn't anywhere to be found. Yet with Washington stopping by each table to chat, no one seems to care. On one visit, a customer was so taken by the service that when she got up to leave, she hugged the waiter.
That's the type of feeling Town Hall evokes. It's clear after three visits that the food will evolve, and watching the changes will be half the fun.
***
I've been to the restaurant about six times since it opened. Its very conveniently located for people outside of the City. See
www.townhallsf.com for information on the restaurant. Up until Michael Mina opened last Friday, Town Hall was the biggest restaurant opening in the City in the last couple years. The two hottest restaurants in the City remain Town Hall and A16. A number of people welcomed JimmyV to the City at Town Hall and iirc everyone enjoyed the food and atmosphere (at the time ex-Mayor Brown looked like he enjoyed the place eventhough he did not drink the Cristal skwid sent him). The cost is for private dining (generally private dining is more expensive then ordering straight from the menu) on the entire second floor of the restaurant and includes tax (8.5%), tip (20%), and corkage (Town Hall usually only allows two bottles to be brought in for an event no matter how big the party. Town Hall has waived this limitation for this event.). To put the charge more in perspective, to buyout the first floor of the restaurant on a Saturday night requires a minimum charge of $30,000 including tax and tip but not including corkage.