Everyone’s invited
Everyone’s invited
Bar Jabroni, Roses on Adeline, new school slice shops, Michael Mina, R&G Lounge, best coffee shop in the world, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Neo-Victorian
I squeezed into the buzzy new Bar Jabroni on a drizzly Thursday night, hoping the hype had died down, or at least been temporarily dampened. No such luck. Grabbing a glass of cremant at the bar, I ran into a handful of food media types, a restaurant publicist, and my hair stylist — all within 10 minutes.
Hoagie fans have dearly loved Palm City Wines since 2020, and apparently everyone you’ve ever known is excited for the follow-up, Bar Jabroni, which opened in the Lower Haight in March. While Palm City is more of a wine shop with sandwiches, Bar Jabroni is a full-service experience, with its plates both small and large.
Since it’s owned by a couple of wine pros — husband Dennis Cantwell was Nopa’s wine director, while wife Monica Wong worked up front at A16 and Bar Agricole — that chilled house red “Vini Jabroni” from Mendocino is super fresh and crushable. For the food, they tapped Chef Robert Hernandez, previously at Octavia. He’s rising to the occasion with dishes like a flaky green garlic pancake dunked in whipped feta, charred cabbage sunk in black garlic ranch, and ultra rich braised wagyu beef cheeks.
Bar Jabroni occupies a sweet corner space in the ground floor of a Victorian which has been repainted a wild canary yellow, in quintessential San Francisco style. The bar runs down the left, several high tops sit to the right, and of course, the most coveted seats are at the front, a couple of tables in the big windows. Don’t miss the fun art toward the back, including the Dude from The Big Lebowski, abiding in the bathroom.
If you can’t score a reservation, that’s fine — they take walk-ins, but there’s going to be a wait for a table. Lucky for you, there might be no better place right now to drink in the scene and a glass of wine. –Becky Duffett
→ Bar Jabroni (Lower Haight) • 698 Haight St • Tues-Sat 5-11p • Reserve.
SF RESTAURANT LINKS: Shuttered Park Tavern returning to North Beach, with a tweaked name and original chef • Original Joe’s opening new Italian spinoff tomorrow in the Marina • Soon-to-reopen Bar Agricole hosting party next Tuesday at its new Mission location • Does the Tadich Grill have a coarseness problem? • Will new pop-up traps lead to a longer Dungeness crab season? • Appreciating San Francisco’s very own Hillstone. (Previously: FOUND LA’s Hillstone scene report.)
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Slice shops, new school
Flour + Water Pizza Shop (North Beach), fermented dough, aged mozz, natural wine to-go
Outta Sight (Tenderloin), NY-style slices from two Mister Jiu’s alums
Sunset Squares Slice Shop (NoPa), home of the bulgogi-topped “Bulldog” slice
The Good Life Pizza (Marina), for vegans and their pepperoni-loving pals, open late
Pizza Squared (SoMa): Sicilian squares baked in duck fat, plus cheddar-crusted Detroit slices
Il Parco (Presidio), maximalist focaccia with views of the Golden Gate
A16 La Pala (Embarcadero, above), pedigreed pizza al taglio in the Ferry Building
Joyride (multiple locations), rapidly growing chain with top-heavy squares
Pie Punks (SoMa), ‘roni-cupped grandma slices and tiki cocktails
WORK • Tuesday Routine
Multi-coastal
MICHAEL MINA • chef & founder • MINA Group
Neighborhood you work in: Various
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
On any given Tuesday, I could be anywhere in the world these days. This week, I’m in New York City working on our new restaurant, Bourbon Steak (at the JW Marriott Essex House). I meet with my culinary and operations leaders each morning to review business across all our restaurants. It’s important that we have a regular cadence of connecting as we can be spread across the country — or globe — at times, so this ensures we’re always connected. When I’m not on the road, I start my morning working from home in Las Vegas.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Today, it’s all about working with our team at Bourbon Steak. After weeks of training and practice meals, we’re finally ready to welcome guests. This is our first Mina Group restaurant in New York, and since I went to culinary school here and started my professional career here, this is a huge moment. I love the energy of openings, and that, mixed with the pace of New York, is exhilarating. It’s also been great to connect with chefs and other friends in the city. New York has always been a playground for me, and now I get to invite people in to dine at my restaurant — what a special moment!
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
The list of restaurants I plan to visit when I’m in NYC is long. There’s always something new, and yet, I also like to visit friends and some of my favorite spots. Coming up this weekend, I’m planning to go to Le Bernardin, Le Pavillon, Cote, and Marea.
When I’m in San Francisco, I’m partial to:
La Taqueria in the Mission District: A San Francisco institution since the ’70s. It is no frills, the place is always packed, and the food is excellent.
R&G Lounge: There are always people waiting outside of R&G Lounge. They have all kinds of crab dishes, but the salt and pepper Dungeness crab is the best.
Tadich Grill: The oldest restaurant in California is located on the cable car lines, so if you’re visiting from out of town, the visuals and sound of the cable cars going by make for a true San Francisco experience.
Bourbon and Branch: A speakeasy-style bar that’s very unassuming from the outside, but the experience inside is like you’ve stepped back in time to the 1902s — dark, swanky, and with great cocktails.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I’m a big sports fan — specifically, San Francisco teams — but since I’ve been spending so much time this spring in New York, I’ve enjoyed going to Yankee Stadium. I was even able to celebrate my son’s birthday with him at a game earlier this month. My two sons are now out of college, so any time I can spend with them is cherished.
Any weekend getaways?
Living in Las Vegas, my favorite weekend getaway is riding my dirt bike to Red Rock Canyon.
What was your last great vacation?
Any chance I get to take a vacation, it’s always to Hawaii with my family. I’ve been traveling to Hawaii for years, and even if it’s for work (I have two restaurants in Hawaii, Mina’s Fish House, and StripSteak), I feel immediately relaxed the moment I step on the island. My favorite thing to do while I’m there is go fishing, and my spot is a sandbar in Kaneohe on Oahu.
SF WORK AND PLAY LINKS: In SF residential real estate transactions, price per square foot is ticking down • Even as it thrives anew, Ferry Building facing questions about future • Sightglass Coffee founders step down, former Starbucks exec in as new CEO • Nintendo planning flagship store in Union Square to open next year • That 50-story skyscraper in the Sunset? Not happening • After ETH approval, more crypto ETFs are coming • SF’s hottest new tourist attraction: driverless cars.
CULTURE & LEISURE • 4-Night Stand
Zach Bryan, Oakland Coliseum (Oakland), Fri @ 7p, section 117, $242 per
My Morning Jacket, special 4-night stand, Fillmore (Fillmore District), Fri @ 830, GA, $187 per
Yankees vs Giants, Oracle Park (Soma), Sat @ 705, section 107, $153 per
GETAWAYS • Highway 1
A version of this post first appeared in A Continuous Lean, Michael Williams’s excellent men’s style (and lifestyle) newsletter, which adheres to the edict, “Buy less, buy better.” Subscribe at acl.news.
Take the long way
“It’s the best coffee shop in the world,” my new friend Tim told me about Cafe Aquatica in Jenner, California.
I was highly skeptical. How could someone even say that? We had spent part of the week doing a photoshoot under the towering redwoods at Northwood Golf Club in Northern California. The night before I am meant to leave town via SFO my friend Alex asks me about my plan. I was just going to go to the airport early and send emails until my flight leaves. He felt strongly about me taking the coastal road to see everything. “You should really go the long way and take Highway 1,” he said confidently. It made me think about this story Kurt Vonnegut told Inc. magazine in the ’90s.
I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterwards I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, ‘Are you still doing typing?’ Sure she is… and I say, ‘OK, I’ll send you the pages.’
Then I’m going down the steps, and my wife calls up, ‘Where are you going?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m going to go buy an envelope.’ And she says, ‘You’re not a poor man. Why don’t you buy a thousand envelopes? They’ll deliver them, and you can put them in a closet.’ And I say, ‘Hush.’ So I go down the steps here, and I go out to this newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery… The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when it’s my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block at the corner of 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, where I’m secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I address the envelope to Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of the post office, and I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. And I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.
Needless to say I took Alex, Tim, and Kurt’s advice. I meandered and took the coastal route. The first stop was Jenner and Cafe Aquatica. When I walked outside to wait for my order I understood exactly what Tim meant. This place is the best. The coffee is good, the view incredible, and the feeling there was just right. It was the best way to spend a morning. Turns out Tim, Alex, and Kurt were right. –Michael Williams, A Continuous Lean
→ Cafe Aquatica (Jenner, CA) • 10439 Hwy 1 • Daily 8a-4p.
GETAWAYS LINKS: South Lake Tahoe split over plan to tax vacant homes • Inside the plan to bring back iconic Tahoe hotel Cal Neva • Clampdown on Hawaii vacation rentals escalates: first Maui, now Oahu • Hawaii Magazine’s 2024 readers choice awards • Why NYC hotel rooms are so expensive right now • After debuting new sister hotel brand there, Aman’s first standalone branded residences will also be in Tokyo.
BARS • First Round
Sweet Adeline
The Skinny: New bars in Berkeley rarely open as appealingly entrenched as Roses On Adeline, from first-time owner Rose Soffa Clarke, a young neighborhood local whose family has lived in Berkeley’s Lorin district for a combined 50+ years.
The Vibe: Everyone’s invited. At the soft opening, the house was filled with people from all walks, at all ages (over 21), enjoying the comfortable, mid-century-styled interior with high ceilings and pretty little design details overseen by Clarke’s architect parents.
The Menu: We liked the small and “in between” bites best — seasonal, snacky nibbles such as deviled eggs topped with crispy potato; halibut ceviche; and a spring asparagus salad with ricotta and cured egg yolk. Beverage director Jennifer Colliau (The Interval at Long Now, Small Hand Cocktails) handles the drinks that come “shaken,” “stirred,” “slushy,” and seasonal (often with candy garnishes), along with a good shortlist of wines and local craft beers on tap.
The Verdict: Inclusive, welcoming, Berkeley cool with no pretense, good drinks, and a here-to-stay vibe. Exactly what we didn’t know we needed. –Joanna Della Penna
→ Roses On Adeline Bar & Kitchen (Berkeley) • 3218 Adeline St • Thurs-Mon 4p–late • Reserve.
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