I’m always happy to hear about new venues offering live music, and this recently opened Tenderloin supper club, BLACK CAT, has a dinner menu, cocktail lineup, and wine list that will get your attention as well. New York restaurateur Fritz Quattlebaum and local operations partner Khalid Mushasha (formerly Lolinda) have assembled quite a team for this project, including chef Ryan Cantwell (Zuni, Chez Panisse), bar manager Gabriel Lowe (Locanda, Beretta, and The Battery), and wine director Eugenio Jardim (formerly of Jardinière).
The modern supper club menu includes pan con tomate; two kinds of meatballs, latkes, and potpies; and a Black Cat double brisket patty melt with Munster, Swiss, and pickled and caramelized onions on Jewish rye. The Black Cat is also the only restaurant in San Francisco to carry oysters from The Marshall Store on Tomales Bay. There are cocktails, large-format low-ABV punches, and house sodas, and Jardim’s well-selected wine list includes 90 bottes, with many grower-producer Champagnes (view the wines by the glass here).
Craige Walters (Blackbird, Hecho) designed the two-level space, which has high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a basement where you’ll find the revue stage, plus velvet-backed banquettes, cabaret tables, and eclectic seating and lighting; there are bars on both levels. Local artist Joe Keefe and photographs from nearby Jessica Silverman Gallery also contribute to the artsy décor.
Dinner nightly until 1am, and there’s a limited bar menu until 1:30am. You can come by for a drink and bites, or a full meal; you need to make reservations for the nightly shows downstairs. Brunch will launch later on. And for those of you who want to brush up on some history, you can read about the original Black Cat here, which played an important part in San Francisco’s gay and bohemian roots over the last century. 400 Eddy St. at Leavenworth, 415-358-1999.
Some of the swanky seating at Black Cat. Photo: Kelly Puleio.
