Chef Jonathan Waxman's highly anticipated restaurant, appropriately named Waxman's, opens for dinner today at Ghirardelli Square.
As we reported earlier, the name changed suddenly at the last minute from Brezza Emporio and Pizzeria, but the team behind the restaurant is still in place: Waxman, the James Beard Award-nominated chef who made good in the Big Apple (and for whom this is a homecoming), and partner Howard Greenstone, formerly CEO of Rosa Mexicano and cofounder of the Waxman Group, which also owns Adele's and Bajo Sexto in Nashville and Brezza Cucina in Atlanta.
The California-Italian seasonal menu, just released today, includes dishes like baked Hammersley oysters with onion confit and brown butter; petrale sole crudo with avocado and orange salad; and charcoal-grilled market vegetables with Meyer lemon mayo.
Waxman's also has pastas, like gnocchi with turnips, radishes, thumbelina carrots and green garlic, and risotto di mare with mussels, squid and Dungeness crab. Entrees include the signature JW chicken with salsa verde, and there's a list of decadent desserts.
Calamari salad with chicory and herb aioli.
David Lynch, the James Beard Award-winning sommelier and author and former owner of the Mission's St. Vincent, curated the wine list, which includes domestic and international selections with a focus on California and West Coast producers. Look for 20 wines by the glass, as well as local beers and handcrafted seasonal cocktails by Patrick Poolverde.
Waxman worked with Boor Bridges Architecture to restore the 6,500 square-foot former warehouse at Ghirardelli Square. The space includes two solid walnut bars seating 20, bentwood barstools, a 75-seat café with cypress wood tables and Fermob chairs, and a 110-seat dining room with walnut tables and Thonet chairs, according to a press release sent out today.
"An oversized cypress and redwood service table sits in the center of the restaurant, while a communal table made out of reclaimed redwood logs seats 10," it continues. "An outdoor patio seats 60."
The dining room opens tonight, but the fast-casual cafe won't be up and running until later this spring, we're told.
Evan Shively and John Berggruen finished up the interior design, which includes five wall-mounted medallions cut from a felled cypress tree, as well as the cut-out interior of a walnut burl tree root, nine feet in diameter.
Hours for Waxman's are currently 5–10pm Sunday–Wednesday and 5–11pm Thursday–Saturday. The bar opens daily at 4pm.
