The Other Critics

Kauffman Says the New Original Joe’s Is Long on Charm, Short on Kitsch

The new red leatherette booths.
The new red leatherette booths. Photo: Joey DeRuy/Grub Street

Jonathan Kauffman says it “feels like interloping” and is kind of like “walking into your new husband’s family reunion” to dine at the new Original Joe’s in North Beach. But, he notes, “There is no kitsch to the restaurant’s evocation of its past: a marvel in itself.” He admits to never having eaten at the original Original Joe’s, on Taylor Street, and that’s probably a good thing. He says the upgraded ingredients and warm, dark-wood vibe all work for the place, though not everything is cooked well. He finds they do a “fine job” with a New York strip, serve up a decadent plate of sweetbreads, and the spaghetti with his spaghetti and meatballs was a competent al dente. And, wittily, he notes that restaurants that make top-ten lists this days don’t generally come with the kind of old-school charm of a place like this, where you might run into a guy at the next urinal who “claimed to have kissed Marilyn Monroe in the back of the restaurant when it was still Fior d’Italia,” and where it feels like you stepped back in time to the days when North Beach was “teeming with Army and Navy men, and you could still hear Italian in Little Italy.” [SF Weekly]

Kauffman Says the New Original Joe’s Is Long on Charm, Short on Kitsch