Continuing with our low key dining (Kin Khao last week), we went to Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine in the MIssion who’s name largely explains what it’s all about. The “trash” is about “waste” from food suppliers that might be bruised or damaged in some way so their ethos is about reducing climate change and food waste. The pie is a “gradma pies” which are thin crust cut in squares in a tray. The natural wine part should be self explanatory. The decor is described as “trashy-glam”, a sort of maximalistic aesthetic and the antipodes of our usual minimalist fine dining venues, but it certainly was fun . The music was largely music from our youth, but played at a volume that few of us at our age to which we are inclined (i.e. we’re old and it seemed pretty damn loud. The average age of other diners seemed to be 25+ years younger than we are).

There was so much on the menu we wanted to try, but we did go along primarily with suggestions for the bar tender/server. (we were seated at the bar/counter). We had a couple of the shareables to start – the Stems, Leaves, & Buds which was roasted mini cauliflower stalks, romesco, and cotja and also the Captian Beefheart & His Spicy Meatball Night which was a middle eastern inspired meatball, labneh, harissa sauce. Both were very tasty and flavorful thanks to all of the various spices, herbs, and seasoning.

For our trash pies, we went with the Bobo’s The Pep, The Roni and the Dead Combo. Bobo’s was basically their version of a pepperoni pie which we also had with the side of Ricotta Fluff (whipped ricotta). The Dead Combo was a white pizza with salt cod, potato, farm egg. Both were interesting and solid, but not spectacular (and the farm egg yolk was cooked all the way through and would have been so much better if the yolk had been still runny) and you can find a lot of well made pizza here in SF (e.g. Delfina).

There was one option for dessert, called Two Bites of Chocolate. It was a chocolate pot de creme with a lot going on in the other layers and toppings including banana (and unfortunately a hair…). You wouldn’t be missing much if you skipped dessert.

Service was hit and miss. No huge delays – we were in and out in about 75 minutes, buy there were some lulls (and the bartender/server was veeery busy (and it was Friday night)), but at least it was speedy overall. There were quite a few people waiting to get seated by the time we left.

In the end, we enjoyed ourselves and we found the starters/shareables to be the best dishes with the pies being solid as well. The menu is so varied and interesting that we’re interested in coming back to try other dishes.