Open less than a month, Company Restaurant serves Mediterranean-inspired food, after transitioning from Tao Vietnamese. Owner Thuy Nguyen brought in 2 additional chef-partners for Company: Karen Hoffman, with a resume that includes Jardiniere kitchen manager and as Four Season’s sous-chef program; and Jason Poindexter, whose background includes working at Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons kitchens.

The restaurant is named because their goal is “to cook for everyone as if they were company.” It’s a restaurant name that is nearly impossible to Google which may make it difficult to find (it can be found at http://companysf.com/).

We started with a Soju-based cocktail confusingly named Gin Refresher. Company has only has a beer & wine license, so cocktails are made from alternatives like Soju. It was refreshing because of the Fever Tree Bitter Lemon Tonic, but didn’t really taste anything like a gin-based cocktail:

The wine list was short but interesting since it featured both domestic and international wines, most of them priced less than $50. They were out of the Tempranillo, so we went with this Nero D’Avola from Sicily, deep red in color with rich berry-like flavors. It was served slightly warm since it was retrieved from an upstairs storage area but cooled off over time:

The Crispy Confit Chicken Wings with red jalapeño slices and mint leaves offers another great place in the Mission to get some tasty wings. The confit process of cooking the chicken in its own fat made it fall-of-the-bone good:

The Grilled Monterey Squid came with butterball potatoes, brussel sprouts and dressed with Salsa Verde. We have noted before that there is a trend to provide squid dishes come with some form of pork, and in this case it was crisp pancetta bits:

The “Bread & Butter” Burger was made with house-ground beef (80% chuck, 20% oxtail). It was messy delicious as it came on a house-made soft bun with Madeira-glazed pioppini mushrooms and melted white cheddar. House-made pickles, ketchup made with crushed fresh tomatoes and a huge mound of seasoned Kennebec french fries accompanied the burger:

The kitchen and service seemed to be fully operational as the restaurant emerged from its soft opening. We noted that the size of the dinner entrées coming out of the kitchen were fairly large. We would definitely come back for the wings and the burger, and look forward to trying out other items from their menu as well.

November 6, 2014 Update
Original chef Karen Hoffman has bought out the ownership and changed Company to become Hoffman’s Grill and Rotisserie. The confit wings and the burger are still on the menu, but now there’s chicken cooked over the newly installed rotisserie. We’ve already made a point to stop by soon.

http://www.hoffmannsgrill.com/