San Francisco
There’s no sommelier, not a foam in sight, and the environs look more living room than dining room, but Tipsy Pig’s uncanny likeness to home is precisely what makes this understated eatery so over-the-top wonderful. “I start with dishes that people have grown up with, things I know from my childhood, like mac and cheese,” says executive chef Daniel Burckhard. “I use high-end ingredients but keep it at a neighborhood price, so it’s still approachable. I’m not dousing
it in truffle oil.” Not that his mac and cheese would need it: Sprinkled with bacon and oozing with Gouda, Cheddar and Shropshire Blue, there’s a dish of it on nearly every table. The rest of the menu leans local, featuring organic meats and produce from Sonoma’s Oak Hill Farm in unfussy preparations like a biscuit-topped chicken pot pie and witbier-battered asparagus. With thoughtful selections like Laverstoke Park Farm Organic Ale and Green Flash Imperial IPA, the beer list is inspiration for spiking the comfort fare, but better serves as the nucleus for the neighborhood crowd that’s taken to parking at the loud bar or back patio and generally, as is expected, making themselves at home.

PHOTO: Chef Burckhard’s go-to pairing is Chimay-braised Tipsy Pork Sliders with a pint of Mirror Pond.