San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Owners of hit sandwich shop open their dream eatery
The owners of San Francisco’s Palm City Wines never meant to open a hit sandwich shop. But when the pandemic derailed their plans for a neighborhood wine bar with great food, they rejiggered to survive.
Now, four years and many hoagies later, their original dream has come to fruition. Dennis Cantwell and Monica Wong opened Bar Jabroni at 698 Haight St. in San Francisco on Thursday, March 21. It’s a “restaurant disguised as a bar,” Cantwell said.
They teamed up with Robert Hernandez, former chef de cuisine of San Francisco’s Octavia and a “Top Chef” contestant, to create a playful menu that defies the typical bounds of wine bar food.
“I want a menu that is as funky as their wine,” Hernandez said. “I want things that are very flavorful, that will stand out, that are not one-dimensional. I don’t want to put olives on a plate.”
Customers can drop in for a glass of chilled red wine and oysters with pickled kohlrabi or cornmeal-battered artichokes with a pepperoncini remoulade. Hernandez is particularly excited about his riff on a scallion pancake, layered with date purée, green garlic and sesame oil, and served with whipped feta for dipping. In homage to a baked potato, gnocchi is topped with creme fraiche, chives and caviar. Punchy sauces like salsa macha and black garlic ranch punctuate the menu.
Or diners can linger over a full meal, from braised beef cheeks to pasta rotolo. The latter, which Hernandez likened in the same breath to lasagna and cinnamon rolls, starts with a ragu of mushrooms whipped with cream cheese. He layers the ragu onto a sheet of pasta, rolls it up and poaches it whole. Slices are crisped up in butter and served with salsa verde, Pecorino Romano and parsley oil.
For dessert, there’s tres leches topped with whipped sour cream and an Okinawan brown sugar crumble, plus simple Parmesan cheese with hazelnut biscotti and orange marmalade.
The menu may change on a seasonal or creative whim, which Cantwell and Wong are excited about after keeping things mostly consistent at Palm City.
Palm City, named one of Esquire’s best new restaurants in the country in 2020, also became known for its natural-leaning wine selection. Cantwell, previously the wine director at San Francisco institution Nopa, said he’s drawn to bottles that “punch above their price point” and “esoteric varietals” from less classically famous wine-growing regions like the Dolomites in Italy or the Sierra Foothills. The bar serves several by-the-glass options, from light reds to the owners’ own wines under the label Vini Jabroni: a Pinot Gris from a vineyard on the Sacramento River and a carbonic Carignan from Mendocino County. It boasts an unusually extensive bottle list for a casual bar, featuring revered European natural wines and cheeky tasting notes such as “so smooth, just like your boy Carlos Santana.”
They’ve transformed former Lower Haight Ethiopian restaurant Axum Cafe into a cozy bar with the help of Hayley Johnson of Rakis Design and La Playa Builders. They kept an exposed wood bar and concrete floor, but covered one wall with textured pale green and pink plaster. Yellow-tile tabletops bring another pop of color. The bathroom, moody with maroon and gold accent walls, is decorated with prints of quintessential cinematic toilet scenes, including the Dude from “The Big Lebowski.”
“We didn’t want it to feel too precious or perfect,” Wong said. “It’s something that still feels like it belongs to the neighborhood.”
Bar Jabroni. 5-11 p.m. (last call for food at 10 p.m.) Tuesday-Saturday. 698 Haight St., San Francisco. barjabroni.com