Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/133302
Recasting San Francisco's Film Noir Spirit CHARLIE PALMER'S BURRITT ROOM + TAVERN S ince its opening a little over a year ago, celebrity chef Charlie Palmer's Burritt Room + Tavern has literally become San Francisco's hidden treasure. The speakeasy-style craft bar and connecting restaurant are sequestered on the second floor of the Mystic Hotel, at 417 Stockton Street, just off Burritt Alley, where Sam Spade's partner, Miles Archer, was gunned down in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Walking into the hotel lobby, a discrete sign directs customers up a narrow flight of stairs to this popular hideaway. There, one will find head bartender Josh Trabulsi and his team, energetically supported by a backbar of almost 200 spirits, shaking and stirring such house creations as the Mass Appeal (vodka, grapefruit, St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur and ginger beer) and the Vesper Lynd (Leopold Bros Navy Strength Gin and cucumberinfused Dolin Blanc vermouth), plus on-the-spot bespoke cocktails. Trabulsi's Bitter Courage, made with Junipero Gin, housemade Burritt orange cordial, Gran Classico Bitter and fresh lemon, must be asked for by name; it was taken off the menu as being "too much for most"! In the restaurant, with its 150-bottle wine list, guests are greeted by vivacious Dining Room Manager Gina Wong, while Chef Lucas Knox, newly arrived from Charlie Palmer's Aureole in Las Vegas, has just switched to a spring menu, eschewing heavier items like Peking duck carved tableside, for lighter fare such as Sonoma chicken with smashed potatoes. Charlie Palmer has indeed brought Baghdad by the Bay a rekindled retro-world of evocative food and drink. —Richard Carleton Hacker At Charlie Palmer's Burritt Room + Tavern, head bartender Josh Trabulsi knows his way around craft cocktails . . . and he certainly dresses the part of a classic Sam Spade– era barman. PHOTO COURTESY OF BURRITT ROOM + TAVERN 104 / the tasting panel / june 2013 TP0613_080-119.indd 104 5/23/13 5:30 PM