Tag Archives: Gozu San Francisco

Enter The Wild

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California bluefin tuna with ponzu and bonito at The Wild.
California bluefin tuna with ponzu and bonito at The Wild.

Something wild has happened at 201 Spear St. in San Francisco.

The space that housed Gozu restaurant for the past five years was renamed in August to The Wild.

Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman, who also owns San Francisco’s Yokai, is still in charge. The layout of the striking, black-box dining room with seats circling the perimeter of a live-fire open kitchen is still intact. But the menu has shifted, giving him and his team, which includes Chef de Cuisine Peggy Tan and Pastry Chef Mark Lieuw, more liberties with both service and dishes. Even the libations that once touted an impressive collection of Japanese whiskies have now shifted to include many Calvados and Armagnacs.

Previously, Gozu was laser-focused on Japanese A5 Wagyu, and using every bit of that luxurious beef — from flesh to fat to bones to tendons — in uncanny ways. In contrast, The Wild’s current menu is noticeably absent of Wagyu. In fact, the restaurant’s dry-aging fridge that used to hold slabs of Wagyu now house Liberty Farms ducks.

“It feels fresh,” says Zimmerman about the change. “It gives us the ability to stretch more.”

Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman.
Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman.
A glass of Evening Land Seven Springs Chardonnay while taking in the view of the kitchen.
A glass of Evening Land Seven Springs Chardonnay while taking in the view of the kitchen.

Diners seem to be embracing it all, too. Zimmerman acknowledges that Gozu’s use of Wagyu in nearly every dish may have intimidated some and even turned off others. Now, The Wild has attracted more first-time diners, as well as regulars who come in twice a week for the a la carte or the $130 five-course tasting menu.

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Taking a Stab at Stickbar at Gozu

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Canapes of Wagyu tartare topped with Wagyu "caviar'' at Gozu.
Canapes of Wagyu tartare topped with Wagyu “caviar” at Gozu.

Nowadays, there are many restaurants where you can enjoy a Wagyu steak. But at Gozu in San Francisco, you can sink your teeth into smoky skewers that spotlight both familiar and unusual specific cuts of the prized Japanese beef.

When Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman opened his hearth-centered restaurant in 2019, it was thought to be the only restaurant in the United States to directly import from Japan full cuts of top-grade A5 Wagyu. That amounts to a whopping 750 pounds in one shot.

That gives him the ability to use nearly every part of the outrageously marbled beef, often in audacious ways, including burning the bones as charcoal and fermenting lean cuts to make shoyu.

Japanese A5 Wagyu being aged at Gozu.
Japanese A5 Wagyu being aged at Gozu.

You can experience it for yourself with a $125 four-course menu or a $225 tasting menu. Or opt for the a la carte Stickbar menu that allows you to try individual skewers, priced from $14 to $55, depending on the cut.

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Where’s the Beef At Gozu? It’s In Practically Everything

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At the new Gozu -- dining is like theater with the kitchen its stage.
At the new Gozu — dining is like theater with the kitchen its stage.

Much like you wouldn’t expect to a half chicken set before you at a yakitori restaurant, don’t come to the new Gozu in San Francisco craving a brontosaurus-sized steak.

Nope, you won’t find that here.

Unlike so many Wagyu-focused restaurants of late in the Bay Area, this one doesn’t focus solely on the primo primal cuts. Instead, Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman employs a nose-to-tail philosophy here, making use of far more parts of the Japanese specialty-breed, heavily marbled cow than a typical steakhouse ever would.

You’ll find him burning the bones as charcoal, rendering the fat to make sauces and to preserve vegetables, and using lean cuts to even make a house-made version of shoyu.

Charcoal-grilled skewer of the flat-iron of Hokkaido A5 Wagyu Snow Beef.
Charcoal-grilled skewer of the flat-iron of Hokkaido A5 Wagyu Snow Beef.

Zimmerman got the idea for this unique restaurant about five years ago when he was the chef at Alexander’s Steakhouse in San Francisco. He would regularly travel to Japan to source Wagyu from farmers there. But back then, he was only buying the loins, which prompted the farmers to question when he would buy the entire animal. After all, a farmer can’t make a living by only selling part of a cow. The only way to maintain a sustainable business is to make use of every bit of what you’re raising.

It got Zimmerman thinking, and agreeing that it only made sense to buy the entire animal.

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Wagyu Everything at Gozu Pop-up at Avery

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Wrap our heads around this: yellowfin bone marrow. At the Gozu pop-up at Avery restaurant.

Wrap our heads around this: yellowfin bone marrow. At the Gozu pop-up at Avery restaurant.

 

Gozu, the Wagyu beef-centered restaurant, isn’t expected to open its doors in the South of Market area of San Francisco until May. But it’s already opened my eyes to the possibilities of this prized, specialty Japanese beef.

Last week, I had the pleasure of dining as a guest at one of the three nights that Gozu hosted a pop-up at Avery in San Francisco.

The $95 per person tasting menu featured four dishes from the Avery’s Chef Rodney Wages, an alum of The French Laundry in Yountville, and Benu, Atelier Crenn, and Saison, all in San Francisco; as well as four dishes from Gozu’s Chef Marc Zimmerman, who cooked at Nobu, Restaurant Guy Savoy, and Alexander’s Steakhouse in San Francisco. Two supplemental dishes also were available for an extra charge.

Like its predecessor in this Fillmore Street locale, the elegant Korean-influenced Mosu, Avery continues the tradition of having no sign out front. The windows are opaque, too. So, just look carefully for the numerical address, and you’ll find it just fine.

The two-story restaurant is quite compact, and done up with grays and black to give it a chic air.

The upstairs dining room.

The upstairs dining room.

Chef Marc Zimmerman of the forthcoming Gozu (left) and Chef Rodney Wages of Avery (right).

Chef Marc Zimmerman of the forthcoming Gozu (left) and Chef Rodney Wages of Avery (right).

For the first half of the meal, before the restaurant got too full, the two chefs both brought out their dishes, hand-delivering to the table. Zimmerman says he got the idea for a Wagyu-focused restaurant after traveling through Japan. There, casual robata-style eateries specialize in Wagyu and make use of every bit of the pampered, outrageously marbled cows.

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