A trendy new local maker of excellent amari — Italian-style, herbal digestif and aperitif liqueurs — Brucato Amaro, has set an opening date for their first tasting room, which is doubling as a full-service restaurant and cocktail bar.
Bar Brucato, which SFist first reported on in January, is opening April 10 in an industrial space at 275 South Van Ness Avenue, and it marks a notable first brick-and-mortar presence for Brucato Amaro, whose products have been trending on local cocktail lists for several years.
The new bar, restaurant, and distillery will feature a cocktail menu in which Brucato's products are front and center, as well as a full dinner menu from chef Chip King, a former chef de cuisine at Merchant Roots (see the full menu below). It features some small plates for cocktail snacking, including some house-made cheddar-paprika crackers, as well as full meals like lamb riblets, and a harissa-spiced hanger steak.
The director of operations for Bar Brucato is Adam Timney, the co-founder and former executive chef of Starbelly. And the team says that lunch service will be added in the coming months, along with distillery tours, but for starters, the bar and restaurant will be open Wednesday to Friday, 4:30 to 9 pm, and weekends from noon to 9 pm.
Amaro is, traditionally, a very local thing in Italy, with every town and region having their own distinct styles, made from local ingredients. For the unfamiliar, liqueurs like Campari, Aperol, and Fernet-Branca are all types of amaro that hail from different parts of Italy, with the fernet style representing the darkest, most intense variety of the spectrum, and Aperol representing the lighter end.
Brucato Amaro makes three amari, which they've dubbed Woodlands, Orchards, and Chaparral. All have distinct flavor profiles, with Woodlands skewing toward the fernet end of things, and Orchards skewing the fruitiest, though it is still in the more mid-range compared to Italian amaro, and more intensely herbaceous than, say, Aperol. Chaparral is perhaps more akin to a Chartreuse or other, more "green" tasting digestif, with anise notes as well, made primarily with a California native herb called yerba santa.
The distilling operation was founded in San Francisco by Sierra and James Clark, with the goal of creating locally sourced liqueurs in the Italian tradition. The name Brucato comes from John Brucato, who founded the San Francisco Farmer's Market way back in 1943. (Not to be confused with the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, which dates to 1993, and was launched by the organization now known as Foodwise.)
"Brucato Amaro has always been a celebration of the culture and landscapes of Northern California," says Sierra Clark. "Bar Brucato is not only the home to our distillery, but an opportunity for us to welcome San Francisco residents to experience the spirit of Brucato Amaro through our cocktails and food. It has been a labor of love and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with our friends and neighbors."
Bar Brucato - 275 South Van Ness Avenue - Opening April 10
