The only Georgian restaurant in San Francisco is a love letter written on cheese bread

English

For decades, North Beach and Chinatown were nearby restaurants for pizza and dumplings. Cheeseboat opens on Grant Avenue and Columbus Avenue next month, offering the best of both worlds. Turn? It’s not Italian or Chinese; The only Georgian restaurant in San Francisco will bring the taste of the Black Sea and the Caucasus to this diverse area.

Shalva Dzotsenidze, owner of authentic Georgian restaurant Tamari, is preparing to open the sci-fi outpost of his successful San Carlos restaurant. If all goes well with the rest of the construction, he plans to open the Cheeseboat during the first week of February.

San Francisco Business Times spoke about Dzotsenidze’s expansion late last year, noting that, unlike its full-service flagship restaurant, Cheeseboat is a fast-food restaurant serving lunch and dinner.

Dzotsenidze told The Standard that he named Tamari after three strong women — his daughter, the grandmother who partly raised him, and Queen Tamara, who ruled Georgia in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The name of the new restaurant comes from khachapuri, a Georgian appetizer that resembles a puff pastry boat with cheese and a raw egg in the center. The hot cheese melts into the batter, cooking the egg sunny side up.

Dzotsenidze said he had long wanted to open a restaurant in San Francisco. It is a dream that he keeps even in the face of the discouragement of his friends.

“They told me not to come here because of the high crime rate and not very cleanliness, but I think we need to come together as a community to make it better,” he said. “I love the energy of the city and the diversity.”

North Beach might be the perfect place to experience the new cuisine of San Francisco. The historic district is experiencing something of a cultural renaissance. The Cheeseboat is located a block from the 70-year-old literary landmark City Lights Books.

Georgia is a small country with less than 4 million people, and there has been a small community of Georgians in San Francisco since the 1920s. Famous for its food, wine and hospitality, Georgian cuisine is especially popular among Russians and Ukrainians in both Eastern Europe and the US. Dzotsenidze hopes his restaurant will serve other San Francisco residents who are interested in trying new dishes, such as khinkali or Georgian dumplings. He said dumplings usually contain meat, but he plans to serve khinkali with mushrooms and potatoes to attract the attention of vegans.

As far as Dzotsenidze knows, Cheeseboat is the only Georgian restaurant in San Francisco. In the Noe Valley, the Russian eatery Birch and Rye serves khachapuri, and Daly City has a ghost Georgian cuisine called Mimino. However, Dzotsenidze said he feels a great responsibility to present his native cuisine well here.

“I consider San Francisco the gastronomic capital of the United States,” he said. “We take this very seriously.”

cheese boat

1224 Grant Avenue, San Francisco

English