You may recall that when Range sadly called it quits on Valencia Street on New Year's Eve after 11 good years, owners Phil and Cameron West suggested they were holding onto the space (which still has ten years left on its lease) and pivoting to something more "suitable" to the evolving neighborhood. Sensing the the demographic of the Mission was only getting younger and that the neighborhood had perhaps become saturated with restaurant options, that more suitable new concept is going to be a cocktail bar with food specifically a bar with a 1960s vibe and throwback nibbles like fondue and Bananas Foster. The name: The Beehive.
Eater has word of the plan, which still involves Phil West handling the food and brings in bar star Carlos Yturria (formerly of Absinthe) and restaurateur partner Arnold Eric Wong (E&O Kitchen), both of whom West partnered with to open The Treasury down in the Financial District last year.
The plan is to keep most of Range's cozy front bar intact, and then to add a second bar with a lounge in back.
The only hints of the cocktail menu so far, per Eater, come in the form of two drinks from Yturria named for 1960s icons: the Marilyn, made with Dom Perignon, apple brandy and grenadine; and The Presley, made with pisco, roasted peanuts, and grape jelly.
(I'll just note that the concept, which sounds like a winning one, echoes that of the short-lived Thermidor on Mint Plaza a few years back, though that had a full dinner menu.)
The team is aiming for a late-summer opening, and hopefully since they've already got a working, permitted kitchen, etc., there won't be any major delays in getting any new construction approved.
The Beehive - 842 Valencia Street between 19th and 20th - Opening late summer, 2017
