Replacing the defunct John Colins at 90 Natoma this week is Natoma Cabana, a new "one-stop vacation spot" from local chef and entrepreneur Dennis Leary. After closing his beloved Canteen last summer after a good eight-year run, Leary has been in expansion mode with his bar and cafe businesses. Along with partner Eric Passetti he opened Cafe Terminus (16 California Street) in October, adding to his other already successful Financial District lunch spots The Sentinel and The Golden West, and his always busy revamp of House of Shields, the bar next door to The Sentinel. Also in October he opened his revamp of Tenderloin sports bar RJ's, Trocadero Club (701 Geary), making reference to long-ago S.F. nightclub The Trocadero Transfer.

As Leary tells the Business Times, his vision for Natoma Cabana is "like an outdoor party taken indoors... a hybrid between an adult cocktail party and a teenage keg party in the woods." With that in mind, he's decorated with lots of tropical looking indoor plants and wicker, and the drink list, by Pasetti, features crowd pleasers "of the Southern latitudes" like mojitos, juleps, and a white whiskey cooler based on a Trader Vic's Mai Tai called the Whiskey Vic, as Eater notes.

Leary and the team have remodeled the brick-walled space, complete with Astroturf for carpeting, and added a handsome new mural to the front facade by artist Ian Ross.

It's a canny move given that the bar, while construction-zone-adjacent for the moment, is poised to be right next to the new Transbay Terminal complex and Salesforce Tower, once those get built.

Hours are 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., and it's been open since Wednesday night.

[Business Times]
[Eater]