Food GPS » XOX Truffles – San Francisco, CA

XOX Truffles – San Francisco, CA – Saturday, July 14, 2007

Posted August 10, 2007 at 4:13 pm

Address:
754 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133

Phone Number:
415 421 4814

The XOX Truffles motto: “Created with a French attitude…handmade in the USA…taste out of this world.” Sounds about right.

Jean-Marc Gorce, preciously of Fringale, opened this truffle shop with his wife Casimira on October 11, 1998, around the corner from Washington Square. It’s a tiny shop, with one table inside, a counter, and a couple tables on the sidewalk. XOX Truffles are often mentioned among the best in the city, and the best in the country. They’ve been featured three times in the San Francisco Chronicle and twice in Food & Wine.

So far, Chef Gorce has concocted 27 flavors of truffles, both Liqueured, including Amaretto (Cocoa Powder-Dusted); Cognac (Cocoa Powder-Dusted); Creme de Framboise/Raspberry (Cocoa Powder-Dusted); Liqueur de Noisette (Hazelnut-Coated); and Rum Coco (Coconut-Coated)…

…and Non-Liqueured – Casimira’s Favourite (White Chocolate-Coated); Citron/Lemon (Cocoa Powder-Dusted); and French Roast (Coffee Crunch-Coated); a l’Orange (Cocoa Powder-Dusted). There are even Soy/Vegan versions of Dark Chocolate, a l’Orange and Noisette.

Every day, there are 20 varieties on offer, piled in bowls or laid on trays and protected by a glass display case. XOX Truffles also offers coffee drinks. Apparently a bitter espresso is the perfect contrast to the sweet truffles, though I was already seriously over-caffeinated.

We ordered a ¼ pound variety ($8), featuring one of each of the day’s 20 truffles, cleverly packaged in a miniature Chinese takeout container.

With each order, you get one free sample. I chose Dark Chocolate, which was dusted with cocoa powder and sensational.

We sat at a sidewalk table and ate five more truffles. Since they were all jumbled together, we had fun tasting them and cross-checking our best guesses against the flavor list.