Hope Gets Out of Politics and Moves Into the Kitchen

Updated 9:06 AM PST, Mon, Jan 11, 2010

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There's nothing more inspiring than one master reimagining another, whether it's Shakespeare riffing on Marlowe with The Merchant of Venice, or Sanjaya honoring Stevie Wonder with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Taste the homage, at Anchor & Hope.

Anchor & Hope is an 88-seat resto housed in a century-old mechanic's garage (exposed brick, trestle ceiling, roll-up metal door).

Hope represents San Francisco's legendary seafood badassery, as applied to equally storied Eastern Seaboard fare.

Start small with the raw bar (nine oyster varieties, plus little necks, Dungeness, etc), or apps like Guinness-battered skate wing, sea urchin in the shell, or smoked bacon-wrapped oysters ("Angels on Horseback", far more graceful than the original title, Phlegm in a Blanket).

Entree-wise, there are classics like butter-crusted cod and lobster rolls, plus more inventive action like crayfish ravioli and Portuguese-style clam stew with chorizo, octopus, and monkfish -- who's just happy he lived long enough to see the Pope come to America.

Hope also sports a short but sweet list of non-finned dishes, including stuffed guinea game hen, and bbq pork ribs with baby carrots and fiddlehead ferns -- a garnish that itself pays tribute to its own gone-but-not-forgotten, shrub-headed Idol.

Reserve your garage space at Anchor&Hope.com.