San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Downtown S.F. gets some island love
Hawaiian chefs team up with Michael Mina
San Francisco restaurateur Michael Mina is days away from opening the doors to his latest blockbuster project, the Hawaii-inspired Trailblazer Tavern.
The sprawling 7,000square-foot restaurant, set in the Salesforce East building, is a collaboration among Mina and James Beard-nominated Hawaiian chefs Michelle KarrUeoka and Wade Ueoka of Honolulu’s MW Restaurant. It’s slated to open on Monday, Dec. 3.
Trailblazer Tavern is one of 2018’s more ambitious restaurant projects in terms of scope, with more than 200 seats, divided across a 72-seat mezzanine, 24-seat bar and 47-seat dining room, plus private rooms and a patio area.
While it represents KarrUeoka and Ueoka’s first foray into the San Francisco culinary world, it’s not their first project with Mina. The trio partnered together on Mina’s food hall in Honolulu, the Street. There, the pair of Hawaiian chefs created the menu for Burger Hale, one of the 10 food stalls in the hall.
“This whole process started about three years ago when Michael Mina was looking for a concept at the Street,” KarrUeoka said. “Then one day he asked us if we wanted to do something in San Francisco with him and (co-CEO of Salesforce) Marc Benioff. Everything just kind of went from there.”
“We didn’t have any plans to come to San Francisco before that,” Ueoka added.
Stylistically, the couple specialize in projects that slide comfortably into the category of casual yet upscale, similar to their celebrated MW Restaurant. Based on the early word from the Mina camp, Trailblazer Tavern will fall into a similar mold in the Salesforce East building.
Diners will be greeted at the entrance of the restaurant with the Hawaiian expression “E komo mai, e noho mai, e ‘ai a e, wala‘au” — meaning “Come in, come sit, eat, and talk.”
Reservations will be available but the restaurant will also accommodate walk-ins.
The main dining area of Trailblazer Tavern, designed by Los Angeles company Bishop Pass, is centered around the restaurant’s bar.
Trailblazer Tavern might fall under the ever-expanding Mina Group umbrella, but overall, the partnership is more reminiscent of what Mina has done with International Smoke, the very popular barbecue spot he opened last year with Ayesha Curry (who at this point, with all of her other ventures outside of food, is more celebrity endorser than actual in-the-kitchen chef ). The Mina Group provides the foundation and funding for the project, while the chefs shape nearly everything else.
The same is happening at Trailblazer Tavern. Karr-Ueoka and Ueoka have spent the last few weeks navigating Bay Area farmers’ markets, finding produce and obtaining a general understanding of Bay Area seasonality, something they want to reflect in their menu.
“To be able to pick different types of squashes and gourds and apple and pears,” said Karr-Ueoka. “We’re just looking forward to working all of these things into the menu.”
Here’s a quick rundown of what they have in the works: shareable dishes and snacks like dim sum, ahi poke nachos and mochi-crusted spam musubi made with smoked-porkarabiki-meatloaf. Among the more formal entrees is a miso honey-glazed butterfish with Chinese cabbage, Taegu salad and crispy shallots, as well as a stew made with oxtail, corned beef, pork belly and peanut risotto. The restaurant will debut with dinner service only before adding lunch at a later date.
On the beverage side, local and Hawaiian beers made the cut, as did a handful of tropical cocktails, a private selection of bourbon, Japanese whiskey and a 100-bottle wine list.
If this project takes the same path as International Smoke, meaning immediate popularity and rapid expansion, this could mark a new chapter for Karr-Ueoka and Ueoka.
“We just want to see how this goes first,” Karr-Ueoka said with a laugh when asked about the possibility of opening more restaurants in San Francisco. “We just want to make sure people like what we’re doing first. Then we’ll see.”
Trailblazer Tavern: 350 Mission St. in Salesforce East. 415625-5445 or www.michaelmina.net. Open Monday-Saturday 5-10 p.m.