A new restaurant inside Hotel Spero is putting an unusual culinary marriage on the table: Portuguese tavern cooking crossed with Japanese technique, served in the Tenderloin. Bar Esper opened this spring, and its menu leans hard into that combination, offering everything from bacalhau croquettes finished with an herbed nori kewpie relish to a short rib dish inspired by the Azorean stew alcatra, plated with Japanese curry and furikake-dusted rice.
The pairing runs throughout Bar Esper's menu, with items like green bean tempura with nori aioli and wasabi oil, and a fisherman's stew with seafood in a miso broth. The menu's emphasis on seafood is another thread connecting the cuisines.
A Menu Built Around Shared Coastlines
That maritime thread runs through much of Bar Esper's food. There's a smashed cucumber dish served with peri-peri chili crisp. Heartier plates include black cod fish and chips with sweet potato and furikake, sausage and shrimp dumplings finished with black garlic aioli and grapefruit ponzu, and a wagyu burger topped with bone marrow butter and port onion chutney.
Bar Esper is the restaurant inside Hotel Spero. Suniga discussed the restaurant with Resy.
Sweets and Sips Cross Oceans Too
Dessert includes lemon-matcha curd malasadas, along with pastel de nata custard tarts.
The drink program includes cocktails like the Rainwater, built on Toki whiskey, Madeira, and crème de banana. That beverage program came together with help from cocktail consultant Jacques Bezuidenhout, who won Best American Brand Ambassador at the 2011 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards and was a partner with the PlumpJack group in creating and launching San Francisco cocktail venues The Forgery and Wildhawk.
Behind a Property in Transition
Bar Esper's arrival also marks a shift for Hotel Spero itself. The San Francisco Standard reported that Bar Esper opened May 20, taking over the space long occupied by Jasper's Corner Tap & Kitchen, an all-day gastropub that ran inside the hotel for more than a decade before quietly closing four months earlier. The shift came ahead of the new restaurant's launch. Hotel Spero itself is known for its Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and historic character.
Hotel Spero's food and beverage director, Amy Currens, discussed the fisherman's stew and Portugal's coast. The Standard's report also placed Bar Esper within a broader wave of Japanese fusion openings across San Francisco, noting recent restaurants blending Japanese traditions with Peruvian, Italian, and Filipino influences.
The location itself carries its own duality. Hotel Spero sits in the Tenderloin at 405 Taylor Street, near Union Square and the Theater District. Resy gave Bar Esper a 4.8 rating and places it in the $$ price range; its report also includes photos of the restaurant.
