Cabbage Patch Kid

We gasped when we saw choucroute garnie on the menu at the brand-new Café Des Amis.

The Alsatian icon is one of our favorite dishes and nearly impossible to find locally. But there it was, being served at a stylish new restaurant in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood.

A substantive platter of sauerkraut and cured meats, choucroute garnie is a stalwart of the humming brasseries of Paris.

Café Des Amis itself is modeled after those easygoing Parisian restaurants, so it follows that choucroute garnie ($27) would be one of the spécialités de la maison.

This version, from executive chef Ed Carew, focuses on zippy, melting house-made sauerkraut. To assemble the dish, onions are sautéed in duck fat; then the sauerkraut is added, along with white wine and stock. Next come the house-cured meats: pork loin salted with garlic and rosemary for eight hours, and a pork frankfurter cold-smoked with hickory chips. Wedges of bacon are included and, finally, utilitarian carrots and boiled potatoes are tossed in.

To eat, slick Dijon mustard on the bowl's edge and dip with each bite. Fat, fermentation, starch, smoke, tang: All you then need is a glass of Riesling or, if you're sharing, a large-format bottle of Étienne Dupont ale ($32).

Café Des Amis, 2000 Union St. (at Buchanan St.); 415-563-7700 or cafedesamissf.com