Roostertail Restaurant | San Francisco, CA

At Roostertail, Gerard Darian and Tracy Green are elevating rotisserie chicken to a fine art.

The husband-and-wife duo worked at Postrio during its heyday. Now, at Roostertail, organic birds, first bathed in a secret marinade, turn lazily on a spit for a good hour and 40 minutes. At the end of the cooking time, every morsel is tender and juicy, and the skin is paper-thin.

Order chicken by the whole ($18.50), half ($10.50) or quarter ($6.50 for white; $5.75 for dark), then choose à la carte sides. Nostalgia accounts for our partiality to steamed broccoli with cheddar sauce and buttery crumbs ($5.50), but the steakhouse-style onion strings ($4.50) are as salty and crisp as you'd hope.

There are also wings ($6.50 for 7; $11.50 for 13), salads and sandwiches, including pulled pork, and cheesesteak, a hash-like mixture of chopped beef, onions and sweet peppers with Pepper Jack on an Acme torpedo roll ($10.75).

Eat in and you can pair your poultry with one of 17 beers or a glass of tap wine. But take it to go, and no one has to watch you devour your chicken, leaving nothing but bones behind.

Roostertail, 1963 Sutter St.; 415-776-6783 or roostertailsf.com