Father’s Day Feast

A new ballpark classic: Dad is sure to love the bacon-wrapped hot dog drizzled with chipotle mayonnaise and topped with a medium-hot jalapeño available at the Tres Agaves stand at AT&T Park. (Bret Putnam/Special to the Examiner)

After years of astute observation, I have come to the conclusion that mothers like to be taken to one nice place on their special day, while dads, given the choice, prefer to hit several. Dads like a party, a whole night out starting with a cocktail and an appetizer at one spot and dinner at another.

Personally, I consider all that moving around a bother, but a lot of dads I know care less about the food and more about the fun. Go figure.

Bix
56 Gold St., S.F.; (415) 433-6300; 6 to 10 p.m. Sundays

At this sophisticated dinner house in a Jackson Square alley, the old-school bar specializes in classic cocktails using top-of-the-line spirits to go with chef Bruce Hill’s classic steak tartare — fresh, dewy, hand-chopped, raw New York steak and kobe beef tossed with just the right proportion of tart, salty and aromatic seasonings, all bound with an organic raw egg yolk. Piled on warm toast, the steak tartare ($13) with an icy martini ($11) will please many generations of dads.

Hog Island Oyster Bar
Ferry Building, Embarcadero at Market, S.F.; (415) 391-7117; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays

Otherwise, get an early start on Father’s Day at the Hog Island Oyster Bar with platters of fresh, local Sweet Water oysters on the half shell (six for $15) accompanied with glasses of cold, crisp, oyster-friendly white wines. Hogs on the half shell warmed under the broiler so their juices blend with tarragon-scented wine and butter sauce spooned over them (four for $12) just might appeal to mom if dad doesn’t snatch them first.

Harris’ Restaurant
2100 Van Ness Ave., S.F.; (415) 673-1888; 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sundays

While I don’t believe that moms really want brunch for Mother’s Day, most everyone in the family looks forward to Father’s Day steak dinner, right along with dad. Splurge at Harris’, the most luxurious steakhouse in town.

Start in the clubby, wood-paneled bar with martinis ($10) poured from a glass carafe buried in a miniature ice bucket so that every sip stays icy cold. Then proceed to big, upholstered, U-shaped booths in the carpeted and draped dining room. Order an iceberg wedge ($9.50) smothered in thick ranch dressing and crumbled blue cheese for Dad. Mom might prefer a tossed green salad in balanced balsamic vinaigrette ($8.50).

Then move on to prime, aged New York steak with a bone ($40) or a gigantic Porterhouse ($48); or a fat-marbled rib-eye ($43). All these buttery, tender, juicy steaks are environmentally and nutritionally a disaster — feed lot, corn-fed beef loaded with calories and cholesterol, served in oversized portions with baked potatoes piled with sour cream and whipped butter or a huge square of scalloped potatoes oozing cheese and butter. Oh, well. It’s Dad’s special day.

The House of Prime Rib
1906 Van Ness Ave., S.F.; (415) 885-4605; 4 to 10 p.m. Sundays

The great Father’s Day crowd pleaser for the whole family has to be the House of Prime Rib, a San Francisco institution that specializes in big slabs of roast beef carved at a tableside cart.

For one all-inclusive price ($36.85 for the huge House of Prime Rib cut, $11.45 for kids 10 and under), everyone gets a chopped salad dressed in pink Russian dressing poured from on high into the famous spinning salad bowl and hot mini-loaves of Boudin sourdough with big hunks of fresh butter. The baked potatoes dressed with sour cream, real bacon bits, chives and more butter are meals in themselves. Yorkshire pudding and creamed spinach can barely fit on the beef plate, awash in “jus.” Martinis ($10) are served in silver shakers from which Dad can strain second and sometimes third portions at the table.

The Tipsy Pig
2231 Chestnut St., S.F.; (415) 292-2300; 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays

Kids are welcome at this roaringly noisy gastropub where chef owners Sam Josi and Daniel Burckhard cook dreamy guy-food — airy onion fritters ($7), pulled pork sliders ($12), romaine wedges ($9), mac ’n’ cheese ($8), fried chicken ($18) — that is so luscious, bounteous and affordable that the whole family will be ecstatic. The trick is getting in.

Tres Agaves Stand
AT&T Park on the view level behind home plate; on the promenade level behind first and third bases

Of course, the ultimate Father’s Day outing starts at 1:05 p.m. at AT&T Park when the Giants play the Texas Rangers. Bring dad a grilled, bacon-wrapped hot dog drizzled with chipotle mayonnaise and topped with a medium-hot jalapeño on a soft white bun ($9) from the new Tres Agaves stand. If you remove half the bread, each bite will be succulent and spicy. Thin, crisp tortilla chips topped with fresh tomato and cucumber salsa come on the side, perfect with a Tecate or Dos Equis draft with fresh lime wedge ($8.75). Tres Agaves chef-owner Joseph Manzare has invented a new ball park classic, lifted from street carts in Mexico. Dad will be very happy.

Patricia Unterman is author of the just released 2nd Edition of the “San Francisco Food Lovers’ Pocket Guide.” Contact her at pattiu@concentric.net.