The LINE Hotel is an uber-hip line of boutique hotels only in LA, DC, Austin and San Francisco, with the latest sleek LINE Hotel SF opened August 2022 on Market and Turk Streets next to the Warfield. The good news for food and drink lovers is that the hotel also houses restaurants overseen by talented chef Joe Hou (Angler, Le Fantastique, Bird Dog, Per Se in NYC) and bar master and beverage consultant Danny Louie (Mister Jiu’s, Chino), who I’ve written about for a good decade, with his unique and oh-so-SF cocktail artistry.
There’s Tenderheart, a NorCal restaurant showcasing the cultural and edible glories of the Bay Area from dish to drink, Rise Over Run, a gorgeous rooftop bar and solarium with its own casual food menu, photo-worthy Alfred Coffee and Dark Bar, an elevated, intimate cocktail lounge for experimental drinks.
This review, I focus specifically on Tenderheart, the encompassing ground floor restaurant, which opened September 30 in a striking, lofty space of soothing neutrals and modern art. Its headed by curved floor-to-ceiling windows covered with see-through curtains thinly separated from the Mid-Market busyness outside (on the night I dined, there was a long line stretching around the block, waiting to get into the Warfield for K-pop group, The Rose).
Besides hailing from the aforementioned Le Fantastique and Angler, both superb spots, chef Hou spent years as a pastry chef at none other than the likes of Per Se and NoMad In NYC, then moved to SF in 2019 to join Joshua Skenes’ team at Angler. While Hou’s Taiwanese-American roots definitely show in his cooking, this is global California, representing the deep diversity inherent in the roots of our state. Here, East-meets-West, with hints of Hou’s time staging in Spain, Japan and Copenhagen. It’s a playful, sometimes unexpected menu. We’ll get to the food in a couple minutes.
Danny Louie has been one of the great bartenders in the nation for over a decade, and I’ve been championing and writing about him since his days at the original Alembic, to his many years-ahead-of-the-nation (and world) cocktails at long-closed Chino in 2014 where he made boozy boba slushies and showcased Chinese baijiu in many styles of cocktails. Over the years, he ran the bar at Mister Jiu’s, where I wrote about his dill-infused martini with drops of crab oil he made roasting local Dungeness crab shells, then cooking them sous vide with lemon peel, rice bran oil and salt. Garnished with pickled long beans and smoked olives, it was signature Louie: creative, layered, surprising, delightful, representative of SF’s pioneering flavor palate and his SF Chinese heritage.
As a San Francisco native born and raised in the Richmond District, Louie’s father bartended at legendary Cecilia Chiang’s famed Mandarin Restaurant decades back. He’s continued on in his father’s footsteps bartending at key spots around SF. In 2019, he launched Gāmsāān Cocktail Co. canned cocktail company, which was also a bar pop-up in pandemic. Now his RTDs (ready-to-drink, canned cocktails) are being sold at LINE hotels across the nation.
Louie is overseeing all three bars at the LINE, and next I’ll be visiting the rooftop bar, Rise Over Run (more to come on that soon) with its stunning views of the SF skyline, then Dark Bar is set to open mid-December with a Hitchock-themed menu initially (which will change after a few months). This is a true thrill for a film buff, classic film and Hitchock film fan like me (though I am far from a fan of Hitchock as a person and his treatment of women). I’ts exciting hearing what’s coming from Louie himself: tune in, cocktail geeks, as Louie has built out a full-on cocktail kitchen and lab (complete with rotovap, dehydrator, etc.) in the basement of the hotel, with the most esoteric and dramatic drinks coming at Dark Bar. Yes.
Back upstairs at Tenderheart, cocktails feature culinary elements, like One Flew Over the Bitter Nest: tequila, apple, cucumber and subtle bitter melon, with a vivid red grape tomato ice cube that slowly melts into the drink as it sits. While I wanted to taste just a bit more corn and fennel in the 16th & Margarita, it’s a crushable California margarita with a dramatic salt rim showering down one side of the glass. Negroni and bitter lovers will dig Negroni Coast, where the always-happy pairing of coconut and Campari is mixed with gin, sweet vermouth and Thai basil, topped with deliciously toasted, shaved coconut resting on an orange wedge.
My initial cocktail favorite is the Post Martini. This gorgeous gin martini goes umami-silky with white truffle butter, balanced with dryness from fortified wine and the secret “weapon”: dill-infusion, giving it blessedly herby-savory life. Bourbon-based Shiso Arigato is also a crusher with Amontillado sherry, apple and citrus, given that “extra something” from shiso mint. Further in drink, there are a few local beers on draft, a couple sakes and California wines, alongside wines from France, Italy, Portugal and South Africa.
Set to eventually be an all-day dining spot, Tenderheart is currently dinner-only plus weekday happy hours with bites, starting at 3pm. Diving in, my husband Dan (the Renaissance Man) and I know we are in for a treat when little gems lettuces are already exciting. Hand-held leaves each individually cradle tempura crispies, sunflower seeds, fines herbs, orange zest and scallion ginger dressing. It’s a crispy, creamy bite of NorCal freshness.
Trying both crudo, silky big eye tuna surprises under a layer of lardo (thin slices of cured pork fat), fermented carrot dressing and achiote oil. The playful burst of flavor married with pristine raw fish is a winning pairing, as if Japan met Italy somewhere in Mexico. But I especially love the kampachi crudo, given umami and acidic whispers from fermented black beans and sudachi citrus, brilliantly crusted in crumbled pecans. This dish transported me straight to Lima the first time I visited Peru a decade ago, when I was blown away by brilliant chef Javier Wong’s pecan-crusted tiradito at Chez Wong.
A little interlude of mini-house English muffins topped with whipped chive cream, salted egg yolk and The Caviar Co. kaluga caviar was a whimsical, relaxed take on caviar service. Because of all we’d ordered, we skipped the milk bread, but I was intrigued to try it to compare to other brilliant milk breads in town (like at the aforementioned Le Fantastique or Breadbelly) with its accompanying pimenton and dried shrimp cultured butter.
Creamy burrata set itself apart from the millionth other burrata dishes out there dressed in pickled gypsy peppers and salsa macha. This “salsa” from Veracruz, Mexico, is actually a rich chile oil doused with dried chiles, garlic and nuts (often peanuts or pumpkin seeds). I first fell in love with it in Mexico and have not been annoyed to see it trend the last couple years (first here in SF, then in multiple cities). Salsa macha recalls Chinese chili crisp, which has also trended. Scooped up with irresistible house wonton chips, this dish tastes like Italy playing with Mexico and China on a plate.
Salt and pepper cauliflower is a smart take on salt and pepper shrimp and almost holds that texture. This dish would be just at home in nearby Chinatown, modernized over cashew cream and pickled jalapeno.
By this point, our expectations had risen as each dish was even better than it sounded on the menu. It hurt to skip over Chinese lionhead meatballs reinterpreted as a pork crepenette, a flattened French sausage of pork parts. Going bold, chef Hou serves it “on the bone” with pickled Thai eggplant. I’ll have to try this next time but couldn’t resist the sweet and sour quail. I’m glad I didn’t. It’s all dark meat juiciness in lively Chinese American sweet and sour sauce, tasting like childhood Chinese American food of my LA and NYC suburbs youth. It’s also perked up by gochugaru (Korean chili powder) and slivered pineapple, giving it contrasting sweetness and spice.
I can rarely resist one of my all-time favorite Japanese dishes, okonomiyaki, a savory “pancake” of shredded cabbage, flour, egg with all manner of things in the batter. While I lean towards the Osaka version vs. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, chef Hou’s version is neither, really. There is certainly cabbage and egg, but also fried brussels sprouts, matsutake mushrooms and fatty-meaty hit of thinly-sliced guanciale (pork jowl). Though topped with traditional flavors in his bonito mayo, the whole effect is more like a mash or hash, than the average okonomiyaki. This threw off The Renaissance Man (a 20+ year okonomiyaki fan like me, including in our Japan travels), but I appreciated a twist.
A tender, medium-rare 5.5 oz. dry aged washugyu ribeye was the right smaller size after the feast we had, drizzled in blessedly peppery Sichuan peppercorn jus with charred broccolini savory with fried bone marrow. We need a bigger group to try the whole Fogline Farm organic chicken in suya spice with chicken fat rice, long beans, mushrooms, fried shallots and sweet-savory lap cheong, my favorite Chinese sausage.
Not forgetting chef Hou’s pastry chef history in three Michelin echelons, dessert was a must despite being stuffed. I’m immediately drawn to chocolate peanut butter mousse, as a top childhood flavor, especially with coffee kombucha foam, cocoa nib granita and salted caramel ice cream. But my favorite was nutty, gently sour (exuding yogurt vibes) almond ice cream and hibiscus granita dotted with effervescent, carbonated grapes (you heard right) and an herbaceous touch of lovage oil. A light, bright beauty.
I’ll be visiting Rise Over Run and Dark Bar over the coming weeks so stay tuned at this space for more. It does my heart good to see Louie back in action again running bars and I can’t wait for his elevated take in the Dark Bar. The global mashup of chef Hou’s dishes is inviting and playful, but most of all, it tastes of home: San Francisco. You did right bringing on these two to steer the food and drink ship, LINE Hotel.
// 33 Turk Street, www.thelinehotel.com/san-francisco/restaurants-bars/tenderheart
