Glitzy downtown S.F. restaurant opens with ‘Champagne buttons’ at tables
Holbrook House at One Sansome in downtown San Francisco claims to have one of the city’s largest bars, an oval seating more than 20.
Read the full article on the San Francisco Chronicle
An extravagant new Financial District bar and restaurant opening Wednesday is hoping to play a role in the nightlife revival happening in downtown San Francisco.
The owners of FiDi’s One Sansome building, Barker Pacific Group, also hope the ground floor restaurant, called Holbrook House, will serve as a tempting amenity to office tenants of their 42-story building.
Holbrook House is backed by Please FiDi, a hospitality company founded by Phil Spiegel, who oversaw sales and business operations at the Julia Morgan Ballroom and Merchants Exchange Club, a nearby events space and private club. In an interview with the Chronicle last year, Spiegel said he hoped that the space would be “like you’re looking at Gatsby’s mansion, and there’s a party going on and you’re wondering what’s happening.”
With indoor and outdoor seating, Holbrook House spills into a privately owned public space that will be used for special events.
Chef Holly Stevens, a San Francisco native who previously worked at Aziza, Bar Agricole, Delfina and Michael Mina, is leading the kitchen at Holbrook House. Stevens will serve modern American cuisine at breakfast, lunch and happy hour with small plates, including oysters and snails, in an indoor dining room space with capacity for 60 diners; an outdoor patio section can accommodate another 40. The large oval bar, billed in a press release as one of the largest in the city, has a capacity of 24. And each table is equipped with a call button to summon Champagne or martinis.
The complex also includes a marble clad private events space at the old conservatory, which dates to 1910, and while privately owned, is open to the public. The 16,000-square-foot events space can accommodate up to 2,000 people and is already booked for future functions.
Call buttons for Champagne and martinis at Holbrook House, a new Financial District bar and restaurant.
Barker Pacific Group purchased the One Sansome building from foreclosure along with partners PGIM in 2010. Since taking over the building, they claim to have invested over $100 million into it, and have recently been busy with renovations priced at $20 million, according to a press release.
Downtown, Holbrook House joins a number of swanky new bars and restaurants hoping for a turnaround, like the Dawn Club, a revival of a historic jazz club in the Monadnock building on Market Street; the Harlequin, a 1920s-inspired bar on Fourth Street; and the gilded Bar Sprezzatura at 1 Maritime Plaza. Holbrook House brings at least 50 employees with it to One Sansome. But San Francisco’s downtown office vacancy rate remains dismal, rising to a record high of 31.8% in the second quarter of the year.
Written by Mario Cortez
ABOUT BARKER PACIFIC GROUP
Barker Pacific Group (BPG) was founded more than 39 years ago and is comprised of experienced real estate professionals active in asset management, acquisitions, and development of major commercial projects. BPG developed 100 First Plaza in San Francisco and also owns and manages One Sansome Street in San Francisco. Some of the firm’s other notable projects include Hamilton Landing and Rowland Plaza in Marin County; The Fine Arts Building, 626 Wilshire Blvd., and 5055 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles; 101 Continental in El Segundo, Calif.; City Square in Phoenix; and Tower 300 in Las Vegas. Additionally, BPG manages Storage Solutions, a growing leader in the self-storage industry, offering consumers and businesses a variety of self-storage space and supplies throughout California.
BPG also has self-storage facilities in Arizona. BPG has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Las Vegas. The company specializes in developing and acquiring institutional quality office, retail, and residential projects in select U.S. cities.