A gleaming restaurant and wine bar with a creative concept will open this Thursday in the FiDi, but it's no newcomer to the scene.
First off, the space in the Fugazi Building at 415 Sansome St. was home to America's first wine bar, the London Wine Bar, which closed in 2008. And now, The Barrel Room is bringing back the tradition with a restaurant featuring an extensive wine program including flights, a retail space with a tasting room, and a Prohibition-style basement wine and cocktail bar.
The Barrel Room closed its original location in the Fitzgerald Hotel in the Tenderloin in April, and will roll out its special blend of food and wine pairings this week in a spiffy new 60-seat space that after London Wine Bar housed Georges seafood restaurant for four years. The store and speakeasy-style basement bar are still under construction and will open in about a month or so.
As with its sister Rockridge location, the Barrel Room's menu will change quarterly, spotlighting wine and food from a different region of the world. "The idea is to take someone to the region and educate them about what pairs with the wine," said Sarah Trubnick, co-owner. "The whole thing changes every three months."
The first foray will be to Latin and South America, featuring wines not just from the usual suspects—Chile, Argentina and Uruguay—but also from Mexico and Brazil. Look for Chilean seafood plates, Mexican-inspired dishes with regional peppers and steak with chimichurri. Appetizers will run $8–16 and entrees will be about $21–$36. After that, they'll explore Italy with risotto, pasta and steak. It's a great way to create regulars because people don't get bored with the menu, Trubinck said.
Wines are small production and "off the beaten path." she added. They'll run about $10 to $40 by the glass and $30 into the hundreds by the bottle for those special spurge nights. More than 50 flights will be offered. The restaurant will have a full bar, and will pair cocktails featuring regional spirits with the plates as well. Think drinks with mezcal and other Latin American liquors for this go-round.
The Barrel Room also took over the nail salon next door, and that'll become the retail shop and tasting bar that can do double-duty as the waiting area for the restaurant. It will sell bottles from 10am–10:30pm.
There's more: The owners are recreating the original Barrel Room ambiance in a speakeasy-type basement bar. "This is going to be the reincarnation of the Barrel Room, but with cocktails," Trubnick said. She realized the liquor license covered the downstairs when she was doing paperwork at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). "A lot of our customers were asking us, 'What's going to happen with The Barrel Room we know?'" Trubnick said. "We decided instead of letting them down and turning it into something else, we'd rebuild it as a speakeasy with Prohibition cocktails."
They're bringing the old sofas and Victorian-era furniture from the Tenderloin location to the new 30-seat space, which will be dark and candlelit like the former one. (Bonus: This space has an actual bank vault.) In true speakeasy style, patrons will enter the bar through a door in back of the retail shop and go down a flight of stairs. They'll also have to request to access it.
Matt Pennington, bartender at the Barrel Room.
In addition to Trubnick, the partners in The Barrel Room are her original business partner, Carolyn Johnson, along with Stephen Deyton, who's worked at Michael Mina, Park Tavern and Sens, and Jay Marx, a former owner of Georges. The group launched a Kickstarter campaign to try to raise money for this ambitious project, but it didn't get funded. Instead, Trubnick said two-thirds of the capital came from "regular customers" who wanted to be part of their next venture. "Multiple times, they patted me on the arm and said, 'We have faith in you,'" she said. "It was very flattering and I hope we make them proud."
Hours for the Barrel Room restaurant and bar will be 11:30am–2:30pm Monday through Friday for lunch and 5–10:30pm Monday through Saturday for dinner. They'll stay open from 2:30–4pm for drinks and light snacks, and happy hour will run 4–5:30 featuring oysters ("That's what Georges was known for," Trubnick notes) and discounted drinks. The downstairs bar will be open from 5pm to "late," and the retail hours will be 10am–10:30pm.
