That could be a pretty pretentious label for me to give to any object or business.  But I will defend it.  The restaurant is Greens in San Francisco at Ft. Mason and ‘yes’ it is a vegetarian restaurant. The Best Restaurant in America.

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I don’t have legitimate credentials for saying anything about any restaurant.  But I have great confidence in my own taste. 

In the first years of the 1980’s I had the finest meal of my life at the Soto Zen founding Monastery of Eiheiji near the North Coast of central Japan. The monastery dates back to the founder, Dogen, in the 1240’s.  Back when the Magna Carta was first written. I was a guest at the monastery becau se of my friendship with the Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, Baker Roshi.  The meal was delivered to my room in the early evening and was Kaiseki-style.  About a dozen elegant dishes. 

The next fine meal I had was in the early 1990’s, Fall 1994 at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry.
  It was so good that I ate there every two months (the earliest possible reservations) for the next six years.  The Saturday lunch started at $50 and climbed into the 100s but it was the only good meal I could get.  Now there are hundreds of Keller quality restaurants in America.  Defined by their many servings of ‘amuse bouches’.

Before I explain why Katie Reicher’s Greens is the finest restaurant in America, I need to point out three things that influence my choice.  First, I don’t consider desserts important. Butter and sugar combined will always taste great.  Second, no amount of amuse bouches will impress me.  I love them but they are just kisses to the meal, not really part of the meal. And third, a meal without meat is the true challenge for a chef.  Meat is not hard to make taste great, fish outside of Japan is irrelevant.  But to make a main course solely out of vegetables, totally satisfying and exquisite is the work of a true culinary genius.  That is Katie at Greens.

She has a cook book, if you’re into those things.  It has some of the best writing I have ever seen in a cookbook. The fact that I created Greens forty five years ago, by finding the location and the true creator, Baker Roshi of San Francisco Zen Center, is merely a blessing. Greens is always listed as one of San Francisco’s ten best. But it is really America’s very best.