The Fat Tuesday group headed off to the hinterlands of San Francisco, taking a respite from daily chores for our group food fest. This time we went to a restaurant called Outerlands, located out by the Ocean Beach on Judah Street.

The reknowned SF fog is ferocious and pernicious out in where Outerlands lives, but we and everyone there lucked out with the weather.  Clear skies, warm sun.All the happening things in SF are here.  There’s a parklet installed along the curb of the store; a cool sea urchin mural; chalkboard menu over the bar; recycled and driftwood boards on the walls; super cute waitstaff;

bike parking with a cool bike with quilted cover;   vintage hand crocheted throws to borrow on chilly days in a salvaged box holding the hand painted door open;spices in clamp top canning jars;  you get the drift, right?

I kind of want to hate a place with so darn much going for it, but I couldn’t.

Because this is what we do, we ordered one of everything on the menu.  The only thing we passed on was the mixed green salad. Who needs more greens with all those sandwiches? And as it turned out salad came with practically every sandwich anyway.

We will be attempting to duplicate at home the Hot Ginger Lemon Apple Cider at home.  We ordered it without the optional Bourbon and it was delicious.  The home version may need to include a little spill of bourbon.

The citrus avocado salad was both beautiful and delicious.

And the Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a stunner.  If you like crispy melted onto the griddle bits of sharp cheese on house made bread brushed with garlic oil (or was it butter), this is the sandwich for you.

The Fried Egg and Bacon sandwich had melted cheese harnessing the bacon onto the house made levain slice.  The Asparagus and Portobello Mushroom sandwich had cheese melted onto it made by a local purveyor that only sells to restaurants she deems worthy.

I personally liked the hot sandwiches better than the cold ones, but they were all quite extraordinary, each with complex sauces, chutneys, aiolis, veggies, and all on thick slices of homemade bread.
Dessert consisted of a salted caramel for each of us, and a brownie, ‘Oreo’, and chocolate chip cookie to share.

They were all great, though I think the delicious salted caramel might have tipped me over the edge on full.  I’d particularly recommend the chocolate chip cookie, and the ‘Oreo’.

Michael Bauer, the SF Chronicle food critic calls this place a ‘phenomenon’, reviewing it here, but for dinner.  We thought lunch was pretty great.