Restaurant Reborn
Three Michelin-starred Quince is widely known to be one of the best restaurants in the world. I remember Quince’s cozy original space that opened in 2003 on Octavia Street, where chef Michael Tusk and wife, Lindsay, first revealed to us his Bologna, Italy-trained pasta perfection and her hospitality and restaurateur genius. They moved to Jackson Square six years later, and now — with a recent renovation — Quince is a restaurant reborn.
The massive remodel broke down walls and rearranged the space entirely, with Quince reopening in late November feeling like a completely new venue. Neutral tones and soft lighting, merely 10 tables in the now larger main dining room, all impart relaxed yet still refined vibes.
You can’t miss the stunning new bar and lounge area, which finally makes Quince more accessible for those who can’t shell out for the few hundred per person tasting menus with drink pairings. Multiple experiences are now possible: a full fine dining tasting menu, a shortened lounge tasting menu or a la carte bites and cocktails at the bar.
Quince has always offered the best in fine dining: It garnered a Michelin star in 2007, increased to two stars in 2014 and ever since 2017, it has been a three star restaurant, the highest honor possible. Quince has been a part of my life for twenty years. I’ve spent anniversaries and birthdays here, on to media visits each time they’ve moved or remodeled.
The Tusks smartly offer the full 8-to-10-course ($360) dining room menu, and in the gorgeous new bar and lounge area, a shorter four-course tasting ($270) and a “Salon” menu with a la carte dishes, including Michael’s legendary, vivid red beetroot spaghetti in yuzu, vodka and Tsar Nicoulai caviar. I’m especially excited to hear they plan on opening for lunch. With all that light and view of the Transamerica Pyramid, it will recall the many Michelin-starred greats in Asia and Europe that serve lunch and help me out when I have to pack in restaurant research on those continents.
When my friend Michael Kudra oversaw the bar at Quince — he currently runs Gary Danko’s bar — it was a tiny bar and small lounge area, with bar cart tableside. In 2018, I wrote about Kudra’s progressive saline solution library and vintage spirits program, pouring deep cuts vintage amari and grappa before that was a trend.
Quince’s new wood-lined bar now allows their cocktail, spirits and bar side to be fully showcased. The space is marked by portholes, comfy couches and banquettes and a striking mural of green that contrasts with lighter wood walls. Cocktails like the Hokkaido Snowcone layer sheep milk’s yogurt, Pal’alma Mezcal, red Kuri squash, pomegranate and pepperoncini reduction over crushed ice, aromatic with a dusting of lime zest.
Produce is supplied from Quince’s own Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas, while hyper-local seafood blessedly plays heavy on the full tasting menu. Delicate slivers of razor clams sang with yuzu, turnips and leeks, as did Monterey Bay poached abalone in Meyer lemon barigoule (artichoke) sauce, with preserved gooseberry, avocado and fava leaves.
Wine pairings always keep step, whether intriguing green olive notes from a rare 2013 Clos Saron “Carte Blanche” white from the nearby Sierra Foothills vivid with an oyster sunchoke dish, the almost briny hit of Benoit Champagne ideal with caviar, or the earthy, balanced natural wine rarity 2022 Tanca Nica Soki Soki from the Sicilian sub-island of Pantelleria.
As Michelin-starred chefs in Sicily told me “off the record” when I last visited some of the island’s best restaurants, they see Michael Tusk as the greatest pasta master in the world outside of Italy. His passionfruit risotto with Hokkaido urchin, espelette pepper, Meyer lemon and sea beans proves it. The dishes umami tropical lushness is unreal. Dungeness crab and spinach-stuffed farfalle pasta teeming in butter crab jus also showcases his Emilia-Romagna pasta training with Bay Area spirit. His squab (pigeon) is one of the best I’ve had in years, sourced from legendary Philip Paine, decadent in black truffle and mirto liqueur.
Some of the very best bites, however, are amuse bouche starting bites on the full tasting menu, like a little brioche sandwich layered with white sturgeon “bacon”, avocado, caviar and crème fraîche. Or a divine celery root tube laced with dill and black truffles that reminds me of Chicken in a Biskit crackers, a childhood favorite. It’s a “wow” moment.
Ending the night over vintage amaro in the bar with a brilliant dessert of Sicilian chocolate, mint, orange rind marmalade and pistachios certainly confirms why this is one of the most lauded restaurants in the nation.
At a difficult-to-achieve 20 years, but with a whole new aesthetic, Quince has morphed into a multi-experience space that can now be enjoyed on multiple levels by more of us. And just like the old days, they still send you home with a warm cup of rich hot chocolate.
// 470 Pacific Avenue, www.quincerestaurant.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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