Last week I attended the preview party of the new STEM KITCHEN & GARDEN, which we mentioned awhile ago. It is in Mission Bay, very near where the new Warriors event center will be built. The 120-seat restaurant is now open and serving breakfast and lunch, plus happy hour. It’s a spacious location on the second floor (Engstrom Design Group designed the modern interior, with an open kitchen, a lounge area, a bar, and plenty of seats). In the back, there’s an expansive garden and patio that looks out onto the bay, complete with fire pits, a bocce ball lane, and a heated seating area too. The patio is going to be a huge hit on sunny game days, and since cocktails are allowed out back, you have a spiffy new happy hour destination.
It’s a Bon Appétit Management Company project, with executive chef Brent Johnson leading the kitchen. You can look at the opening menu here. The most prominent component to the project is the fact there’s a huge and abundant garden (managed by Farmscape), with the kitchen incorporating 100 percent of the produce into the Cal-Med menu. Some ingredients in the numerous raised beds include Castelfranco radicchio, Chioggia beets, broccoli di cicco, and bronze fennel. You don’t want to miss a look at it.
Open Mon-Fri 7am-7pm for now. 499 Illinois St. at 16th St., 415-915-1000.
The dining area. Photo: © 2014, AubriePick.com.
