Looking for a swank new hotel lounge, or spot for a breakfast meeting, or a lunch date, or bite for dinner after work? The first food and beverage concept in the San Francisco Proper Hotel in Mid-Market, VILLON, has opened. It’s an all-day restaurant and lounge, under the direction of executive chef Jason Franey (Campton Place, Eleven Madison Park, Canlis, Restaurant 1833) and a beverage program by Josh Harris and Morgan Schick of BVHospitality (Trick Dog, The Bon Vivants).
Come by for breakfast (here’s the menu), and you’ll find eggs Benedict made with speck (the Italian smoked ham); a croissant sandwich with Taylor ham; ricotta pancakes; a smoked salmon dish with socca bread, avocado, and ranch labneh; and then there’s breakfast pho with beef broth, poached eggs, short rib, pork belly, and rice noodles.
It then transitions into an all-day and seasonally driven menu, where you can really see Franey’s contemporary American style, with clever bites like “everything” Hawaiian bread with cultured butter, nectarine preserves, and strawberry chicken-liver mousse; scallop ceviche; and mushroom dumplings with pickled chanterelles, mushroom broth, brown butter (all $8-$16). There’s steak tartare ($14) with yuzu, nori cracker, and furikake; grilled Little Gems ($12) with Sherman potato, pancetta, smoked egg yolk; and baby beet salad ($13) with burnt ricotta, pumpernickel streusel, and plum.
Larger dishes include squid ink tagliatelle ($22) with uni, bottarga, Parmesan; tai snapper ($25) with Beluga lentils, yogurt, garbanzo beans; and for the table, whole duck ($110) with Brussels sprouts and duck bacon, plum chutney, vadouvan-glazed carrots, crispy sunchokes, soubise, and duck jus.
Now, you look thirsty. Crack into Harris and Schick’s playful “7x7” cocktail menu, with seven thematic categories of seven cocktails each, like “7 x Hotels” (invented in famous hotels), “7 x The Bay” (invented or made famous in the Bay Area), and “7 x The Book” (featured in novels). You have your work cut out for you—49 drinks in all, just like our square mileage. And then the rooftop bar (Charmaine’s) will be open in a month…
Villon is in the lobby of this historic building, with a fun style by designer Kelly Wearstler. The salon has 32 seats, featuring one-of-a-kind art and furnishings arranged into living room vignettes, plus a 44-seat dining room and a 14-seat private dining room.
Hours are Sun-Thu 7am-10:30pm and Fri-Sat 7am-11pm. 1100 Market St. at Jones.
Open-faced sandwich with figs and goat Brie. Photo: Daniel Dent, San Francisco Proper Hotel.
