Good Taste is a menu for eating well in the Bay Area. Subscribe to our newsletters, including Good Taste, for more weekend-exclusive food & drink news delivered to your inbox. This week we’re diving into the upscale world of Michael Mina—check out Marke B.’s visit to Mina’s new Bourbon Steak San Francisco in Union Square here.
On October 8, chef and restaurateur Michael Mina and NBA star Stephen Curry rode a cable car down to The Westin St. Francis to cut the ribbon at the new Bourbon Steak San Francisco restaurant and The Eighth Rule bourbon bar. There was a man on horseback outside, and inside, the wall-to-wall tall guests lined up for canapés and dancing girls shimmied everywhere. E-40 was there, so it was a real Bay Function.
That event was too packed for this invited claustrophobe to follow through on and go, which is a rather funny thing to say when I just reported on the Fred again.. party at the Cow Palace. Suffice it to say that this was a big and splashy opening to celebrate Mina’s return to the hotel in a more flamboyant way after the restaurant there being closed for nine years. No other opening has had this level of pomp so far this year.
The Mina Group has another new place worth visiting that is enjoying a far more lowkey opening period. The glass room in the plaza at 101 California Street in front of the company’s wonderful PABU Izakaya is now a tasting room called PABU-Chan. When I stopped by a couple weeks ago, there were balloons in front, but otherwise no signage that would explain what’s in the room unless you walk in and inquire. It looks like an intimate wine bar, but only sake is on the menu. Reservations aren’t required.
The room isn’t yet licensed for dining, but I learned that there’s a treasure of a bento box ($39) that was off-menu and takeout-only as of my visit, but a dine-in option may be available in the future. One person could eat it and be satiated for a whole day, but it’s fun to split with a friend, as I did when I requested a box to sample. Inside the bento box are three kinds of Oshizushi, a layered and pressed alternative to maki that is hard to find around here, with salmon, bluefin tuna, and hamachi; two kinds of inari (filled variously with tuna poké and crab with avocado), and three sando slices: egg salad, pork katsu, and lobster.
As for the main restaurant, which opened in 2014, I was reminded earlier this year that it’s still a sexy and delicious place to sit down for lunch, dinner, or a bite at the bar. You can keep it cute with a few shared dishes or really delve into the nigiri and sashimi selection. Or you can make an event out of PABU-Chan’s takeout treat, and get an idea of the quality served at 101 California Street.
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