Butterfield's Seafood

Butterfield's Seafood

202 Townsend

Tel: 415-281-9001

Stu Pringle, the owner of this joint, is a great guy to have on your side when it comes to eating well. He's devoted to his art and it shows. Stu dreamed of having his own place and made it a reality. He has spent many a night sleeping in his office unable to afford more than the mere supplies to run his seafood emporium.

Stu uses the highest quality and freshest seafood available. No kidding, this guy has connections that the big names in town only wish they had, and he has the pure moxie to go get the stuff. Stu cleans and preps the food himself from beginning to end. Those who get that day's offerings are fortunate indeed that Stu goes those extra steps in preparing his soul satisfying seafood the only way he knows how. People actually pay $65.00 prix fixe for food this good. But Stu doesn't want to charge what it's worth, so what you get is a great deal.

Conveniently located near the train station

There's nothing fancy about Butterfield's, it's above a saloon that doesn't look or even smell like fun, and it's up a rickety flight of stairs your grandma probably can't climb, but once up there, you're in this Cape Cod type clean, simple room, and you can feel the integrity and simple charm of the place. Service can be a pain in the ass, it's inconsistent and inept, but not mean, and given the owner's focus on the food, I can accept this limitation, because the food is truly great.

I never knew that Hawaiian tuna and all varieties of swordfish could taste so good; I never knew that fresh oysters could be so intoxicating or that polenta as a side dish could be so delicious. This guy makes everything I thought didn't sound right shine, and it is only a gifted chef who can do this.

One day at lunch I ordered a half-cracked crab, and Stu wanted me to try a grilled tuna sandwich, and damned if I couldn't stop eating the sandwich and wound up having fresh cracked crab for dinner that night. I'm not a big fan of cioppino, gumbo or paella, but I go out of my way for his versions; they are the valuable pieces of seafood you rarely find in most restaurant versions of these stews.

Everything Stu serves is done so generously-- large portions of the highest quality seafood, vegetables, breads and salads. And then he caps it off with his sensational homemade desserts. I've never had a strawberry shortcake as good as his. And it's all reasonable, about half what you'd pay on the wharf or at Tadich Grill, and to my mind, much better. There's an old saying about a chef who eats his own food, and with Stu, it appears he eats it all. He's a huge man, all heart and soul, food being his gift to we mere mortals.

This place has been reviewed in the so called underground press, so there are times when it's hard to get into, and when he sells out of everything, that's it, so call ahead, and arrive with an appetite to match your expectations.

Stu Smith

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