Samantha's offers 'New South' dining

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 3, 1986 by Alan Liddle

Samantha's offers 'New South' dining

SAN FRANCISCO -- Convinced that only the originals and best of the traditional Cajun and Creole restaurants have a bright future, Sam DuVall, who was among the first to exploit that culinary genre in the West, created Samantha's, a "New South" dining experience.

DuVall's 200-seat restaurant at Levi's Plaza is generating up to $200,000 a month in sales by offering expanded taste tours. Rather than beginning and ending with the pyrotechnic spices often associated with Louisiana fare, Samantha's presents the more subtle regional flavors found in Southeastern states running from Texas to Virginia.

The menu includes the traditional--Maryland crab cakes, $6.95, and Carolina corn and crab chowder, $3.95; new versions of Cajun classics--blackened Angus filet mignon with three-pepper butter, $14.95; and even the whimsical--Jack Daniels chocolate ice cream with pecan diamonds, $3.75, and sweet potato tamales.

Other interesting creations--their roots not clear--include grilled tamarind chicken with apricot chutney, $10.50; fried buttermilk oysters with jalapeno sauce,$4.95; and smoked rare beef salad with tomatoes and red onions, $7.50.

Two of the restaurant's more popular side dishes are the sweet potato matchstick fries and the baskets of fresh-baked goods, such as thimble-sized caraway-raisin muffins and larger wheat rools, that are delivered warm to each table.

DuVall said Samantha's, which is named after his infant daughter, offers "a new taste of the Old South." What that means, he said, is that he and his chefs, Thomas Brown and Farnham Hogue (who has since left), had succeeded in "adapting traditional recipes to the tastes of today."

Brown, a Cajun-Creole specialist and native Louisianian, had worked with DuVall at the Elite Cafe. Hogue had been the creator of more esoteric and artsy "Cuisine Moderne" at the now-shuttered Cafe Royale.

The backgrounds of the chefs, along with DuVall's fond memories of the foods he ate while growing up in Mississippi, led them to create hearty, nostalgia-laced fare that is also visually appealing.

As an example of how a traditional recipe might be translated, DuVall cited green beans. In the Old South, he explained, green beans were often thrown in a pot with a ham hock and simmered all day--a process that resulted in beans with lots of flavorful fat and few nutrients. At Samantha's, DuVall said, slivers of premium Smithfield ham might be added to quickly sauteed beans seasoned with some fresh herbs. The result is a pork-flavored dish that has retained much of the nutrition of the raw vegetable but is substantially lower in fat that its "old" inspiration, he said.

SAMANTHA'S is located in a space that was formerly owned by a chef who dedicated a full half of its total 8,400 sq.ft. to food prepartion facilities.

While little remodeling was done in the kitchen, DuVall, who designed the interior space, spared no expense to achieve the warm and classic feel of an Old San Francisco/Old South restaurant. The Honduras mahogany used for the high-wall wraparound booths, the long bar and other fixtures, ate up about half of his $500,000 budget, he said.

Victorian "scrap screens," or dressing screens decorated with fine mosaic-like scenes created by carefully arranging tiny pieces of hand-torn paper, adorn the lightly painted and "antiqued" walls. Polished oak-plank flooring is found underfoot while globe lighting fixtures hang from above and provide the sparkle reflected in the mirrors, etched glass and brass that trim the room.

The restaurant's per-person average is $17 at lunch and $26 at dinner, when prices go up by about $1 an entree and in lesser amounts for some sides.

Besides the prices, the only major difference between the two menus is the availability of four salads ($6.95 to $8.95) at lunch. Labor costs--there are 55 employees, and virtually everything is made from scratch--were recently running about 33% of sales, DuVall said, while food costs hovered at the 32% mark. Food sales to beverage sales, as a percentage of total sales, are about 70% to 30%, he said, and wine outsells liquor.

WHILE AS MANY as six varietals are offered by the glass daily at prices up to $4, bottles account for the largest percentage of total wine sales. The 31-bottle list--mostly california labels and white wine--is priced $10 ('84 Chenin Blanc) to $75 ('78 Dom Perignon).

Clear liquors outsell browns by a substantial margin and the house drinks, including jalepeno-spiked Cajun Martinis and Samantha's Cocktail (champagne, Grand Marnier and orange juice), are priced from $2.75 to $4.

In an effort to pump up bar sales, DuVall said he would give a section of the restaurant a new identity--"Samantha's Chat 'N Chew"--and offer Southern-style tapas, such as Andouille sausage and cheese grits, for $2 to $4 a serving. The idea, he said, is to lure people in for a quick drink or two and a bite by offering a casual environment conducive to conversation and tapas that can be made ahead in large batches. The Chat 'N Chew is scheduled to open by Christmas.