It’s been a long time since SF witnessed the birth of a distillery, let alone a 6,000-square-foot operation that’s also a full restaurant and bar. Formerly the home of Double Rainbow ice cream, a two-story building on an industrial block of South Van Ness Avenue is now the flagship of Brucato Amaro, a brand of bitter liqueur that Sierra and James Clark developed only a few years ago and named for the vintner who started the city’s first farmers market.
Herbal digestifs typically consumed after dinner or to settle the stomach, amaros — or amari, if you want to be punctilious about it — are hyperlocal in their native Italy, involving the maceration of dozens or even hundreds of ingredients. Bar Brucato takes the company’s three main offerings (Chaparral, Orchards, and Woodlands) and builds food and cocktail programs around them. Former Merchant Roots chef de cuisine Chip King is at the helm, cranking out dishes like tomato-glazed octopus confit skewers and harissa-spiced hangar steak. And because it’s also a production facility, there will be tours to demystify this versatile, intriguing liqueur.
San Francisco has long been a Fernet-Branca kind of town. But that may be about to change. — Astrid Kane