Tenderheart Restaurant Opens at New LINE Hotel in Downtown San Francisco

Following lung fever, lung– The debut of Kin Khao, which is expected to reopen at the Parc55 hotel, and La Société at the SOMA Hyatt Regency in downtown San Francisco is the rise of another downtown San Francisco dinner hotspot. On September 30, Tenderheart began rolling out sweet and sour quail, corn noodles and lion head meatballs on the ground floor of the new LINE SF hotel, which is located at the tip of the wedge at the intersection of Market and Turk streets. The menu comes from Chef Joe Hou, who oversees food at all of the hotel’s outlets. For Tenderheart, the chef said he draws inspiration from Northern California’s abundance of local ingredients and his identity as a first-generation Chinese American.

Tenderheart will open Friday for breakfast, happy hour and dinner, the first of the hotel’s four food and beverage outlets. The all-day dining restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating on a small patio off Turkey Street. Later this month, downtown folks should also be able to pamper themselves at the Dark Bar in hotel lobbies, which could finally include Los Angeles-based Alfred Coffee’s first Bay Area outpost and new rooftop bar and restaurant, Rise Over Run. their dining options.

Tenderheart at the LINE Hotel in Downtown San Francisco

Hou, an East Coast native who has previously cooked at Angler and Le Fantastique in San Francisco, said the Tenderheart menu represents an eclectic mix of “things I love in life.” The son of two Taiwanese-American immigrants, Hou said the dishes reference ingredients he grew up eating — but with an elegant and sometimes playful twist. For example, kampachi crudo will absorb the flavors of fermented black beans and sudachi to reflect the steamed fish dishes he ate with his parents as a child. He also applied French techniques to Chinese lion head meatballs, reinterpreting the dish as a giant pork crepe, delivered “because why not” to the bones of diners. A little Jimmy Nardello chili brings a decidedly Northern California flavor to the whole thing.

Hou hopes sweet and sour quail can become a staple on the menu. He wanted to make a delicate neon-orange-red-orange American classic, substituting local quail for chicken, and pairing the sticky sauce-covered bird with fermented pineapple slices. “Who doesn’t love fried birds that are basically dark meat?” jokes the chef. “If you don’t like it, sorry, I can’t help you.”

A white plate with fried quail on thin slices of fermented pineapple.

The food is paired with a cocktail menu from seasoned bartender Danny Louie, a San Francisco native born and raised in the Richmond district. In addition to launching the canned cocktail company Gāmsāān Cocktail Co. in 2019, Louie also worked at the Alembic bar in Haight for over a decade before helping launch the cocktail program at Mister Jiu’s. For Tenderheart, Louie infused the drink with global flavors, including bitter gourd, raw lamb (also known as Vietnamese coriander), and white truffle. Take Oaxaca, for example, combines tequila with sherry, passion fruit, black pepper, and cilantro, while New Fashioned uses rye bourbon as a base with banana, winter squash, and smoky Sfumato amaro for a classic.

Hou said the dark bar will also have a small menu when it opens “in a few months”, although the team is still working on options for lighter snacks. “I would love to use this as a place for all the chefs here to try out opportunities,” he said. Rooftop bar and restaurant Rise Over Run will also offer a completely separate menu, the chef said, to ensure that even if guests don’t want to step out of the hotel, they A variety of food and beverage options can be enjoyed. Hou, who lives just a few blocks from the hotel (near Cocobang, a late-night Korean food destination, to be exact), said he wanted to try all three of the LINE Hotel’s restaurant menus. “We’re not trying to change the world,” he said. “But this community deserves great food.”

weak heart exist Line SF Express (33 Turk Street, San Francisco) Opens September 30, serving breakfast daily from 7am-11am Happy Hour will be Monday-Friday 3-6pm, Tuesday-Saturday 5-10pm Available for dinner via open table.