San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A night at Moongate Lounge
Chinatown’s stunning new bar embraces the spotlight.
Act INT. MOONGATE LOUNGE EARLY EVENING
The room is a sea of curves, of teal and soft neon pink, a sprawling bisexual flag with a stillsparse crowd of people in their early 30s sipping on brightly colored cocktails in plush chairs. Retro Afrobeat and electropop tunes play softly on the sound system. The lighting is very flattering and romantic in a neonoir kind of way, though at this early hour, the round skylight keeps the room bright.
Our protagonists, SOLEIL and ESTHER, walk up the wooden stairs from Mister Jiu’s, the restaurant below on the street level. The two young critics look fresh out of the office and are eager to get their drink on. Soleil’s glance alights upon an altarlike cluster of geodes, crystals and tea lights on the corner of the bar. After a few minutes of idling, a SERVER in a neat, dark blue shirt greets them and guides them to a highbacked red velvet booth. The two women slide into the ample booth and sit perpendicular to each other.
SOLEIL:
I spy so many selfie opportunities.
ESTHER:
And the colors in here are so cinematic, like “Bladerunner” ...
SOLEIL:
Or “Miami Vice,” even? If the music were techno or ’80s pop, that would be so onthenose it would be cringeworthy. But this playlist is great!
ESTHER:
So what’s the plan?
Turning her attention to the menu, a small white booklet, Soleil flips through and gestures at the contents. The cocktail list includes drinks named after — what else? — moons: Titan, Deimos, Kerberos. Summertime specials like Summer Solstice and Grain in Ear are said to be inspired by the Chinese lunar calendar. All of them are $15. Esther snaps a photo of a page with her smartphone.
SOLEIL:
All of this is so ofthemoment. It’s like a monument to all of the text messages I’ve ever gotten from friends who are really into horoscopes: highsaturation photos of crystals and doodads, Marianne Williamson memes, Moon Juice pics, selfies in Joshua Tree. It’s not a scifi or outerspace take on the moon, but more of a “spiritual but not religious” one, and I think it speaks to a lot of people in our generation.
ESTHER:
Yeah, this also just screams L.A. to me: Everyone’s dressed way nicer than you’d expect, being in San Francisco, and no one seems depressed?
Spotlight shines on a group of stylishly dressed women clustered around a small table in the middle of the room, toasting cheerfully. A couple walk past the booth as they are led to the one next to Soleil and Esther’s. One of them is carrying a tote bag that says “Vagabond Spirit” on it.
COUPLE, OVERHEARD:
This is just where I’m at on my journey, you know? I’m finally living my truth ...
During a pause in the conversation, Soleil and Esther lean back into the plush booth and snap a selfie: Soleil puts up a peace sign and Esther tilts her head to the side. As they converse, Soleil fiddles with the photo on her phone and places cute stickers over their faces.
ESTHER:
Speaking of, this wine list looks really compelling. And the prices on bottles are actually pretty reasonable for San Francisco: lots of bottles hovering around $40$60, so you can really play around and order something new.
SOLEIL:
It’s all organic, bio, natty wines, yeah? Designed by that “radical” wine director?
ESTHER:
Louisa Smith! Just like the wine list she designed at Lord Stanley, this one is very invested in lowintervention winemaking practices. Louisa mentioned they’d be paying special attention to wines farmed according to biodynamic principles, which follows the lunar calendar — since this is a lunar bar. You know, I was a little worried coming in, because each of these cocktails looks like they have this obligatory “extra thing” in the mix to make them special: plum powder, black sesame ... rice?! The Trick Dog approach of adding supereyebrowraising ingredients is suddenly everywhere. In the wrong hands, it could be gimmicky, but —
Esther peers around the booth — really, she flops over and sticks her head out. The server appears from around the corner and delivers a practiced and smooth spiel.
SERVER:
We actually have someone who worked at Trick Dog coming up with drinks here: Alex Kulick. She and Danny Louie both designed our cocktail menu, so you have lots of those touches as well as Danny’s love for savory ingredients. So ... anything look good?
Act II
When the lights go up, the room has clearly gotten more crowded, with the booths and low, cushioned seats filling up with Financial District workers in floral blouses and buttonedup shirts with rolledup sleeves. The room is full of limbs: outstretched with drinks in hand, held out for embraces, waving down servers. The music shifts into a more psychedelic rock direction; somehow the pink neon seems to shine brighter and hazier. Amid all of this romance, Soleil and Esther examine the glasses in front of them in the manner of forensic investigators.
On the table are the Io and Grain in Ear cocktails. In the former, served in a lowball glass, a huge ice cube stamped with MOONGATE spins in place. Enthralled, Esther takes a photo. The Grain in Ear cocktail, a mezcalbased drink, features curly strands of corn husk that are burnt at the ends. The two women take their first sips; Esther takes care to prevent the husk from poking her in the eye.
SOLEIL:
The menu says the Io has black garlic in it, so I was compelled to order this one. It’s a good indicator, you know? So many places that have black garlic somewhere on the menu don’t know how to use it: They either have an extremely heavy hand with it or they pair it with something totally nonsensical. But this is subtle.
Soleil takes another sip and hands the drink to Esther, who does the same. In the background, a group of friends takes a selfie in front of the bar.
ESTHER:
I don’t taste any black garlic, but the Amaro Montenegro really comes through. And I like the mezcal in both of these drinks a lot — the bar knows how to balance that smokiness with other flavors.
SOLEIL:
Like I said! The black garlic here is softly caramely and not treated like a centerpiece. So ... “gimmicky”?
ESTHER:
I wouldn’t say so! And my cocktail is pretty restrained, too, surprisingly. Herbal mezcal with “smoked husk” and Sichuan pepper sounds like it could be an overwhelming combination, but this one achieves a kind of amazing harmony. I’ve sampled other cornbased drinks that taste like pulverized elote, while this is light and spritzy.
The first plates begin to arrive: peanuts and crunchy dried anchovies ($8) seasoned with a Sichuan pepper mixture, cold cucumbers with sesame seeds ($8), fried ham sui gok ($16) filled with minced pig trotter,
lightly cured anchovy fillets ($8) and saltandpepper fried mushrooms ($16). Soleil wipes the plates’ rims and arranges them on the aqua blue Amazonite table, artfully but not too much so as to not alienate her social media followers with perfection. She takes a few photos, rotating her phone to get various angles, before she and Esther dig in.
SOLEIL, in a whisper:
Damn, even the lighting is perfect for food shots.
ESTHER:
Have you had any of these before? Which ones did you like on your earlier visits?
SOLEIL:
I’ve had the chicken in a space suit ($16), pork collar bao ($16) and saltandpepper squid ($16) — honestly, the chicken sums up Brandon Jew’s approach to culinary nostalgia perfectly. Think about them like a Chinese bakery’s take on pigs in a blanket. The steamed dough coiled around the chicken sausages is so squishy and perfect; they sear the tops a little so there’s some nice textural difference as you eat them.
Soleil holds out her fingers and makes a squishing motion to emphasize her point, then quickly tosses some peanuts into her mouth with chopsticks. (Director’s note: Punctuate the next lines with crunching noises.)
SOLEIL:
I adore the whole genre of Asian drinking food: It’s strongflavored
(crunch), fermented (crunch) and fishy. Here, everything is centered around the Cantonese American milieu, so I hope Louie adds a baijiu cocktail to the list eventually, since the pickles at Mister Jiu’s would go so well with that. If there are any mustorders, it’s gotta be the peanuts, lamb belly skewers, chicken and whatever dish is on special. It’s just too bad there aren’t any real vegetarian options besides this offmenu mushroom dish.
The server, diligent as ever, appears instantly. (Director’s note: Can we sling her onto the stage, like on the ‘SpiderMan’ Broadway show?) (Producer’s note: No, but we can get a smoke machine.)
SERVER:
Actually, I’ve been begging the kitchen to put that on the menu! Isn’t it great? They’ve got a few more ideas in the works, I promise. Can I get you anything else?
They order more cocktails and a buffalo milk softserve sundae ($8), and the server floats away.
ESTHER:
The drinkingsnacks theme makes sense, since everything we’ve had so far, except for the cucumbers, just creeps over the line into salty territory.
SOLEIL:
This anchovy dish is super balanced, though.
ESTHER:
Yes! The fish are so bright and freshtasting with these herbs and flowers, and this plating is beautiful. Must be because it’s tonight’s special. Are these chopped almonds in it?
SOLEIL:
I think so. And yusheng is a Cantonese preparation that has a lot in common with Japanese sashimi. I’m having flashbacks to your whole thing about natural wine bars and tinned seafood!
ESTHER:
Oh god, yeah. Even the most interesting places can’t help but have a bit of predictability to them, because some pairings just feel logical — they go really well together. But you’re right, I really want a glass of mineraly white wine with these anchovies, not a corn cocktail.
Act III
As the sun sets, the light coming from the central skylight gets darker and more orange. Voices in the crowd periodically burst into loud laughter, saying nonsense lines during the rest of the scene.
VOICE FROM THE CROWD: And she was a Scorpio!
The sundae is childish and cute, served in the fluted glass you’d expect to find at a Friendly’s restaurant and adorned with colorful sprinkles, bits of strawberry meringue shattered like an Eton mess and chocolate cookie crumbs. Soleil and Esther immediately pull out their phones to take photos, taking turns posing behind the ice cream with adoring eyes as if it were Keanu Reeves or a very small puppy.
SOLEIL & ESTHER:
Soooo good.
SOLEIL:
Melissa Chou, the pastry chef, is a genius: There’s so much expert technique on display in this sundae. Oh, and speaking of, we should get the Parisian egg tart ($8) next time we come! It’s halfflan, halfdan tat and as silky as something you’d have rubbed into your face at a spa. It’s amazing.
ESTHER:
I bet a lot of people just come here for dessert after eating at Mister Jiu’s or around the neighborhood. That seems like the smartest move.
Soleil peers into her new drink, the Minor Heat, a mix of rum and coconut with a black square floating in the middle of a
lowball glass.
SOLEIL:
It looks like a stop button from a VCR. The monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The ... I’m running out of metaphors.
ESTHER:
I need to get a pic of this. Did it say charcoal on the menu?
SOLEIL:
Black radish, actually.
ESTHER:
It smells like a typical tiki drink, but it’s not as sweet as the aroma would suggest. This is a really good nightcap, which, again, is probably another reason to come up after dinner downstairs.
SOLEIL:
Mister Jiu’s is great, but I think I’d rather come here if I’m not in the mood for a big, blowout dinner. Moongate is way less hectic and, to be honest, they really know how to appeal to people our age.
Spotlight on Soleil as the rest of the stage goes dark and quiet. She turns to the audience.
SOLEIL:
I’m talking about Millennials. In the midst of climatechange anxiety, economic precariousness and the stress of trying to be a moral person in a time when morality is all relative and the globalized economy is making it harder and harder to live your life without hurting other people, we need soft places like this, where we can marvel at beautiful cocktails and talk about astrology.
Spotlight fades and the action resumes. The two women gulp down the sundae, because it has already melted after all of that talking, and signal for the bill, which is presented with a small piece of black tourmaline — another little monolith — on an iridescent titanium tray.
As they get up to leave, Soleil and Esther take a lap around the room, which has now filled to the brim with people on dates and girls’ nights out. They look at each other, silently waiting for someone else to say the obvious thing.
ESTHER:
So ... mirror selfie?
SOLEIL:
Mirror selfie!
FADE TO PINK