Cocktails to eat by: Three standout bars with food in San Francisco

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By Virginia Miller

From one of the key cities that birthed cocktails to the world in the 1800s, San Francisco has no end of hundreds of stellar bars with stellar food. We welcome a new one from a beloved industry bartender and standout new menus at two bars we already love, all three with quality food, too.

The Madrigal is an underrated cocktail lounge and elevated bar food restaurant ideal for pre-and post-show imbibing near the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, Ballet, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and SF Jazz. But it's also ideal any night. The space is buzzy yet relaxed, lofty, curved and retro. Opened December 2021 from Hi Neighbor Hospitality (Trestle, The Vault Steakhouse, The Vault Garden), I wrote last year of Madrigal's secret cocktail menu and chef Jason Halverson and Joe Humphrey's dishes. On a Tuesday in Mat, I returned for my third visit.

New food delights are many. I historically loved their crudo and still do. Currently, yellowfin tuna crudo is vividly spicy in passionfruit leche di tigre and aji rojo pepper sauce, brightly contrasted with Meyer lemon aioli. I can't resist a smoked trout dip. Madrigal's version features our best-in-the-world NorCal Mt. Lassen trout, herbed mascarpone and sweet pickled chilies scooped up with Ritz crackers. It tastes like childhood.

Fried mozzarella bites in tomato jam and herbed crème fraiche have an optional white sturgeon caviar add-on. Do it. I’ve loved many playful renditions of caviar service over the years, from tater tots to Japanese banana-filled dorayaki. While fried cheese may be a less delicate pairing for caviar to shine, it's high-low fun. Who knew tomato sauce would work with caviar? If it were a price-tag-less world, I’d have caviar on everything.

But thinly sliced, cumin-spiced American lamb stole the show. It's not at all gamey, in braised peanuts and crispy garlic chile oil, layered on steaming warm scallion bread. Oil and peanuts reminds me of my beloved Mexican salsa macha, enhancing this creative, memorable dish. Wrap the meal with brown butter madeleines dipped in chocolate mousse, butterscotch pudding and meyer lemon cream artfully streaked across a plate.

Madrigal's strong cocktail focus is a key draw, as I’ve written about in the past. Bar director Mikey McCardle and general manager Suzanne Miller (a longtime bar manager) continue to create drinks both fun and well-crafted, with the "Secret Service" cocktail menu a must (hint: ask for a bowl of Fruit Loops). On the latest regular menu, The Ensemble is a welcome Ramos Gin Fizz tribute with Tanqueray Gin and butterfly pea flower adding a purplish hue to the citrusy, frothy fizz.

On the secret menu, I felt like a kid again with Mystery Banana, poured out of a yellow banana flask filled with rum-lime-banana happiness. The Buck Ten was my number one drink on either menu with its frosty mix of Roe & Co. Irish whiskey, Cocchi di Torino, root beer shrub, vanilla cream, soda and a toasted marshmallow garnish. The soda adds dry backbone, keeping the drink from being too sweet while the shrub brings vinegar-acid balance. The utterly crushable drink is full-on root beer, tasting like a homebrewed version.

This June, Miller and McCardle have gone well above with a June 14th Drag Happy Hour show and their thoughtful Pride month menu, taking inspiration from major Pride moments with drinks like Harvey Milk Punch or their protest to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill, Say Gay, combining Union Mezcal, 21 Seeds grapefruit tequila, thyme, lemon bitters and agave syrup. This June-only menu exemplifies the heartwarming team behind Madrigal.

// 100 Van Ness Avenue, www.themadrigalsf.com

Last year, I wrote of Janice Bailon's delightful music-themed menus at then-brand-new For the Record in Cow Hollow. The bar just turned one year old in May and was among the semi-finalists for Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail this year (it should have been among the just-announced finalists).

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We’re into volume three of Bailon's music-themed menus now, this one dubbed Yacht Rockin’, tributing the West Coast soft rock sound of yacht rock music popular mid-1970s to mid-80s. I’m immediately drawn to Sailing, a savory, martini/Gisbon-esque mix of Botanist Gin, Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin, a house white/blanc vermouth blend, Japanese awamori, El Guapo crawfish boil bitters, salt and a pickled onion garnish. The Magic cocktail is a tart-refreshing-tropical sleeper hit of Malfy Limone gin, St. Germain elderflower, Japanese shochu and lychee, balanced by white pepper, topped with sparkling wine and a gentle purple hue from a butterfly pea flower ice cube slowly dissolving into the bubbly drink.

With a chill backdrop of lava lamps, disco balls and vintage Fillmore concert posters, fill up on creamy deviled eggs in smoked trout roe, panko and coconut-crusted coconut shrimp and those exceptional garlic fries. My ideal dessert is named after maybe the ultimate yacht rock song, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ Islands in the Stream. The drink is softly purple with ube (Filipino purple yam), garnished with a Trader Joe's yogurt-dipped pretzel. It's a tequila-rum cocktail lush with coconut cream, macadamia nut orgeat and toasted coconut, balanced by lime and nutty-dry sherry. Yacht rockin’, indeed.

// 2120 Greenwich Street, www.fortherecordsf.com

**At publication time, we learned Rendezvous in its current location will serve its last day on June 30, as the venue has been sold to new ownership. But Rendezvous will live on as the brainchild of Shaher Misif, whether pop-up or a permanent location. Follow @rendezvou.sf on Instagram to keep up-to-date on the next location.**

Debuting April 20th, 2023, in the Marina/Cow Hollow and open 5pm-midnight, or 2am on Friday to Saturday, Rendezvous already has industry late nights written all over it. But when I learn it's run by award-winning Shaher Misif, a beloved industry bartender for a good 15 years, I know it's going to be FUN. He has run bars in the PlumpJack Group and Kimpton Group and bars from San Francisco and New York to Boston. He's also co-founder of the popular Deck the Halls holiday pop-up.

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Rendezvous’ sparkling material-lined bar is all about fun. There are toys galore, like handheld water games and My Little Pony. There is also Misif's delightful collection of glasses and drink receptacles of all sizes and shapes, from a horn set to mini-toilets. But at core, the fun is brought by Misif and team. His warm, masterful hospitality puts all at ease and makes Rendezvous worth lingering in. So does a spot-on playlist that veers from 90s rap to feel-good pop.

Misif works with chefs and industry friends on food offerings, with pop-ups and seasonal concepts in the works. There's a hefty charcuterie and cheese plate but the crudité mezze of seasonal vegetables and hummus is a worthwhile lighter but still generous platter, both from Little Bear Boards. Likewise, mortadella sliders are large with optional truffle mortadella.

I can't resist Swiss cheddar fondue with French and pretzel breads plus green apples to dip in. Rounding out cheeky food offerings, my friend and I enjoyed Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce served on a sword and childhood-reminiscent bacon-wrapped cocktail wieners in BBQ sauce, tributing the ubiquitous Tijuana-style bacon-wrapped hotdogs you find late night via street carts in SF's Mission District or post-Giants games.

Cocktails continue the fun. Though sweet, Netflix and Chill is an immediate crowd-pleaser served in a popcorn box topped with popcorn, with a lush base of butter-washed bourbon and amaro, lightened by tamarind and elderflower soda. The coconut-pineapple-malty genever Cubby Colada slushy is served in a honey bear bottle.

The balanced Rose Petal Fizz delicately weaves tequila, pomegranate, citrus and whey for texture with subtle rose petal syrup. My favorites were low proof: Sherry Amour (carbonated sherry and cranberry) and an off-menu, bartender's choice low ABV Sidecar of sherry with a touch of brandy to add heft. Playful shots and shooters abound. I took the Mind Blazer shooter (tequila, pineapple, smoke, herbal tincture) challenge — down it fastest out of a bong — and won.

In the blessed craft cocktail age, some bars have lost their joy. Not Rendezvous, thanks to Misif's inviting spirit with a high value on play.

// 2030 Lombard Street, www.sfrendezvous.com

Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.

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