A Portland-based restaurateur is bringing a big new restaurant and event-space concept to a former boiler factory at Third and 19th Streets. The unnamed, 12,300-square-foot project will include a 100-seat restaurant and bar, an event space that can accommodate 400, an on-site distillery, and potentially a rooftop bar as well.
The man behind it is Portland's Kurt Huffman, whose restaurant group includes Ox, Lardo, Oven & Shaker, Block & Tackle, Grassa, and more. He recently expanded to Seattle with the steakhouse concept Miller's Guild, and for his first San Francisco restaurant, "re-examined steakhouse" is one of the concepts he's batting around, as Eater reports.
As the Business Times reports, Huffman had a pleasant surprise finding out about the Warriors Arena moving in nearby, but this real estate deal has been in the works a long time. The designers for the project are Alexis Laurent of Laurent Studios and architect Rebecca Amato (who worked on Serpentine, AQ, and the new Magnolia Brewery). Huffman says they're aiming for something very “neighborhoody," and the goal is to be open in about a year.
Plans for the onsite distillery are still taking shape, but Huffman is in talks with Napa Valley Distillery about operating a small satellite operation in the space, with their whiskey and vodka featured prominently on the menu in the bar.
Huffman lived in the Bay Area from 2006 to 2008, attending grad school, and he's been looking forward to expanding his operation back down here. "I wouldn't have done it before now," he tells Eater. "It's a world-class city if you want to come here, you need to have something to say."
