de Young Cafe

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

I was so happy to receive an invitation to the de Young preview. I had to go. The new de Young is large and impressive. The monumental architecture is emphasizing its horizontality and the tower made it look like Mayan ruins. The entire building is clad in perforated copper tiles, so I would imagine in a decade or so, it will start to take verdi-gris colour.
After art, I had to try the cafe. Naturally it was crowded and had to queue up. The menu consists mostly with salads and sandwiches. We had de Young Caesar ($8.00) and Roast Beef Sandwich ($9.00). Caesar salad had nice dressing with Parmesan cheese on top, and it came with chicken breast. Salad part was great, but I am not sure about the chicken. It was bland, and had stringy texture. Perhaps it was boiled, instead of grilled. It also had rosemary on the outside, which, in my opinion, didn't go with Caesar.
Roast Beef Sandwich, on the other hand, was excellent. It was presented on a narrow plate, had horseradish sauce in a small tin in the middle. The beef was in between nice piece of French bread, and god, the meat was tender, and medium-rare, just perfect for my taste.
They also have Vegetarian Sandwich, with buffalo mozzarella, spinach, heirloom tomato, and basil on Foccacia. That really sounds good. Pastry in the case also looked delicious. Ready-made food in packages are also available outside on the way to the sculpture garden. Next time, I would have a picnic on the grass in the sculpture garden.