All stories about "The Refuge"

Down the Peninsula, Patricia Unterman encounters the "oddest conglomeration of food and drink" she's had in 35 years of restaurant work in her trip to The Refuge: "French wines, Belgian ales and pastrami sandwiches — the most voluptuous, velvety, meltingly tender, luscious pastrami I've ever tasted — all share top billing ... The two chefs must have fantasized together about all the things guys love because every one of them appears on The Refuge's one-page menu — pastrami, burgers, cheesesteaks, 'charcuterie,' a few token salads and chicken noodle soup." [SFE]

"Cognitive dissonance" is the way Nicholas Bauer describes the Refuge, the upscale pastrami lounge in San Carlos with a look inspired by David Lynch films. The glowing 3.5-star review is not only a rave, but an intriguing one: "But this is more than a meal. It's a rich cultural experience. The pastrami, thick hand-carved slices, rivals any found on my deli tour of New York City ... While the Refuge is, as its name implies, a haven for the modern world, Levin tucks another meaning inside: It's a place where endangered dishes get full protection ... That's the beauty of the Refuge. It's all about serving food that chefs actually love to eat, not the precious dishes they cook for others night after night. If the Refuge were located in a metropolis, it would be packed past midnight with hungry chefs just off work." [CCT]

Introducing The Refuge, the newly-opened project in San Carlos that calls itself a ... pastrami lounge: "Now we can add to that list The Refuge, a wine bar and pastrami lounge that has recently opened in downtown SF. Helmed by Matt Levin, a Hebe of the fine dining world, who wrote me that he's 'chucked my michelin stars for the almighty navel cut.' What we get is a high end/low key place to nosh hand carved pastrami with a glass of Domaine Vincent, Auxey Duresses Les Bretterins, Burgundy - France, 2005. The menu is a hybrid of French charcuterie with Yiddish classics." [Save the Deli]