The Charter Oak’s crudités feature produce from the restaurant’s farm.

As a kid, Sean Thomas always looked forward to his mom’s special crudités dinners: whatever veggies she had on hand paired with creamy dip made from a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch powdered seasoning (a non-negotiable element).

As a chef at San Francisco bar Buddy, he’s channeled his crudités nostalgia into an adult adaptation. Buddy’s version is stunning: raw spring radishes — lush green tops included — curved like a cat’s tail around a glass bowl of smoked oyster ranch. It’s all Hidden Valley vibes amped up with the additions of smoked oysters and alliums.

Crudités, both a cherished childhood snack and outdated 1980s party appetizer, appear to be making a comeback in the Bay Area. The dish is taking on new life on restaurant menus all over: white nectarines with vadouvan aioli at the Michelin-starred Commis in Oakland; crunchy purple-tipped asparagus with smoked Italian stracchino at Bar Nonnina in San Francisco; radishes with whipped soy milk at Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco. No sad baby carrots or overcooked green beans to find here.

It’s the perfect vessel to celebrate the glory of Bay Area produce. At Oakland natural wine bar Snail Bar, where the dish has been on the menu since opening day, you can follow the seasons via crudités as winter carrots make way for springy snap peas and purple potatoes.

“It’s one of those things that people don’t think to order but once they do they’re like, ‘Oh, that thing’s next level,’” Snail Bar owner Andres Giraldo Florez said, whose favorite snack growing up was raw vegetables with ranch and lime juice.

Below are The Chronicle Food + Wine team’s favorite local crudités and where to find them, in alphabetical order. — E.K.

Crudités from Bar Nonnina, located on the rooftop of Fiorella in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset.

The centerpiece of the crudités platter ($16) at Bar Nonnina, a new, 14-person-capacity bar hidden above a lively Italian restaurant, is a shock of bright-orange, liquid cheese. In the dim lighting here, it might at first glance look like a pimento dip, but it’s actually stracchino, a type of cow’s milk cheese also known as crescenza, and in this case it’s smoked. The thick dip makes for an assertive pairing with the platter’s wispy vegetables, which depending on the season might include radishes, green beans, cucumbers and endive leaves. Wash it all down with a Slushy di Modena, a cocktail that blends Lambrusco wine with amaro, gin and a mound of crushed ice. — E.M.

1290 Ninth Ave., San Francisco. barnonnina.com

San Francisco bar Buddy serves crudités with spring radishes and smoked oyster ranch.

Buddy’s crudités veg of choice ($11) recently shifted from whole radishes to fioretto, flowering cauliflower. The veggies are dressed in a citrusy spritz, which recently transitioned from bergamot to preserved Meyer lemons. And the luscious dip remains the same: Pacific oysters from Washington state are smoked over applewood and mixed with a buttermilk ranch made from house-made aioli and creme fraiche. “Truth be told, Hidden Valley is still my all-time favorite ranch,” Thomas admitted. “I feel like this gets close to it, flavor wise.” — E.K.

3115 24th St., San Francisco. buddythebar.com

The vegetables change with the crudités at Chezchez in San Francisco, but the green goddess remains.

San Francisco claims goddess dressing as one of its homespun creations, and a version of it is on display at Chezchez, the Mission District cocktail bar from the team behind Trick Dog. Chezchez’s take on the goddess, used in its crudités appetizer ($13), is less green than some but still packed with fresh-herb flavors. Surrounding the creamy dip is a crown of colorful vegetables like romanesco, fennel, purple cauliflower and glossy, whole peppers. It’s a prime example of the light drinking snacks that are Chezchez’s specialty, along with tinned fish and citrusy white beans. — E.M.

584 Valencia St., San Francisco. Chezchezinsf.com

The crudités course on the spring tasting menu at Oakland’s Commis.

The tasting menu ($225) at Oakland’s two-Michelin-starred Commis always starts with something raw and refreshing. Lately, it’s been a mini crudites platter. A spring version with radishes, cucumbers and peas on ice felt playful thanks to tiny orbs of golden aioli replacing every other green pea in the pods. The latter felt like a full-on, creamy-crunchy crudités experience in one preassembled bite. As the restaurant moves into summer, the peas are gone in favor of underripe white nectarines — a nod to chef-owner James Syhabout’s Southeast Asian heritage and his appreciation for green papaya and mango. The accompanying vadouvan aioli doubles as an intro to the restaurant’s East-meets-West mentality. — J.B.

3859 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. commisrestaurant.com

Folktable, the under-the-radar restaurant set within the Cornerstone Sonoma marketplace, takes produce that’s picked daily from the Cornerstone gardens and adds a little something extra that you won’t find on most crudités platters: salty chips and a soft-boiled farm egg ($15). The kimchi dip adds a nice kick; the heat from the kimchi is softened and balanced by creamy ingredients like creme fraiche, and then it’s topped with sesame oil and toasted seeds for added texture and flavor. If you’re looking for a light lunch in Wine Country, this dish would pair well with the black truffle hand pies (four for $20). — J.L.

23584 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, folktable.com

Two versions of Nam Prik, the regular version and the yellowtail fish version, from Jo’s Modern Thai in Oakland.

The Nam Prik Noon ($12), a fiery dipping sauce served with crisp vegetables and fruit, at Jo’s Modern Thai is essentially Southeast Asian crudités. The scorched-pepper dip is made with roasted, smoky chiles so spicy you’ll need to take a break in between bites. But the Oakland restaurant has many versions of Nam Prik, with rotating chef’s specials such as one that adds yellowtail fish ($23) to the charred pepper mixture. The extra protein scales back the heat a bit. The chilled produce for dipping might include crunchy snap peas, cucumbers and watermelon radishes along with fruit like pear slices, plums and white strawberries. It’s a fresh, spicy appetizer to include in your dinner but makes for an amazing potluck dish to-go. Enjoy it in the vibrant interior or on the patio with a refreshing cocktail. — C.H.

3725 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. josmodernthai.com

Crudités are always on the menu at Snail Bar in Oakland’s Temescal.

Four words describe the crudités ($14) on Snail Bar’s menu, and it’s all you need to know: “perfect veggies, savory mayo.” The vegetables change often depending on what owner Andres Giraldo Florez finds at the farmers’ market, but recent iterations featured spring potatoes cooked in kombu water for extra umami; flowering mustard greens; and even maple blossoms, fuzzy, grassy flowers that bloom on maple trees just once a year. The raw veggies get showered with citronette, a combination of shiso dashi and Meyer lemon juice, and crunchy Mexican sea salt. The next-level dip builds flavor from Kewpie mayonnaise, koji soy sauce from Bay Area fermentation favorite Shared Cultures and ogo seaweed. — E.K.

4925 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. snailbaroakland.com

Beyond the double patty burger, the crudités ($25) at chef Christopher Kostow’s Charter Oak in Napa is probably the restaurant’s most talked about (and Instagrammed) dish. Listed on the menu as “raw vegetables from our farm,” the rotating selection of seasonal produce is pulled daily from Charter Oak’s 5-acre farm. Arranged in a colorful wreath formation, it’s a mix of traditional and lesser-known veggies, like purslane, ice plant and nasturtium. Yet the main draw here is the thick and creamy fermented soy dip placed at the center of the plate. A mix of fermented soy beans, creme fraiche and chive oil, plus a few other secret ingredients, it’s so addicting that Charter Oak sells it separately in 6- and 12-ounce containers. — J.L.

1050 Charter Oak Ave., St. Helena. www.thecharteroak.com

Email the Chronicle food staff at food@sfchronicle.com

Janelle Bitker spearheads The San Francisco Chronicle's Food & Wine department. She joined the newspaper in 2019 as a food enterprise reporter, covering restaurants as well as Bay Area culture through a food lens. Previously, she served as a reporter for Eater SF, managing editor at the East Bay Express, and arts & culture editor at the Sacramento News & Review. Her writing has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Association of Alternative Newsmedia.