Union Larder

What’s the surest way to blast out the siren call and get the whole gang together? Wine and cheese. Union Larder, a wine bar with pretty great food in Russian Hill, is broadcasting this signal loud and clear.

The space looks out over Hyde Street, and if you can manage to get a bar seat, the cable-car-watching and people-watching are excellent. Besides the big windows taking up the whole wall facing Hyde, the others are covered in wine bottles and shelves of bread and cheese, with little other decor.

Union Larder’s food is standard issue wine bar, with a few actually exciting exceptions like uni pâté. The cheeses are all superb, the meats are great, and the assorted combinations of them in sandwich form are spot on as well. Salads are a little hit or miss, but let’s stop kidding ourselves and eat what we really came here for: bread and meat and cheese. Oh, and wine. The wine list is a little pricey, but we have yet to be disappointed by an order here.