The 2021 San Francisco Eater Awards Winners

The Eater Awards are again, which implies it’s as soon as once more time to rejoice the individuals and locations that make San Francisco one of many nation’s most enthralling locations to eat and drink. And this 12 months, there’s much more to applaud as we be a part of Eater cities in honoring the eating places, bars, and bakeries that pivoted and preserved by means of the previous 18 months with a powerful mix of grit, creativity, and innovation.

San Francisco’s 2021 winners reveal the breadth of the Bay Space’s eating and ingesting scenes, capturing all the pieces from the beautiful class of Michelin-star-worthy restaurant design to the chaos of a rowdy pure wine dance celebration. There’s a Filipino American chef carving out a brand new dwelling for contemporary Southeast Asian delicacies in Fisherman’s Wharf, a German bakery that’s breaking out of the field, and a West Oakland pitmaster who put Bay Space barbecue on the nationwide map. With out additional ado, listed here are Eater SF’s 2021 Eater Awards winners.

Greatest New Restaurant

Horn Barbecue

All of us craved one thing to rejoice in 2020, and pitmaster Matt Horn was more than pleased to oblige. Regardless of the chances, Horn lastly gave his meticulously ready meats a everlasting dwelling in September of final 12 months, and since then, the plumes of oak-scented smoke have drawn diners from close to and much to an industrial nook of West Oakland like ships to a lighthouse. The self-taught pitmaster started pulling glistening slabs of slow-cooked Central Texas-style brisket from his large smoker again in 2018, when his pop-ups drew lengthy strains of diners in search of paper-wrapped packages of snappy house-made sausage and tubs of eggy potato salad. Now it’s all out there by the pound, served on steel trays, together with the requisite aspect of pillowy white bread, although you’ll in all probability nonetheless have to face in line. — Lauren Saria

Most Modern Menu

Abacá

There’s by no means been a Filipino restaurant within the Bay Space fairly like Abacá. Discover the sun-drenched eating room in a Fisherman’s Wharf resort foyer, the place chef Francis Ang places a contemporary contact on Filipino classics partially by drawing inspiration from California’s expansive agricultural bounty. The menu strikes past clumsy mashups to supply intricately layered plates like vibrant end-of-season peaches and tomatoes tumbled by means of savory mung bean puree and a clam chowder riff that’s lifted with coconut milk and cilantro — every without delay distinctly Californian and recognizably Filipino, too. Unsurprisingly, contemplating Ang’s pastry chef pedigree, desserts are notably thrilling; he packs a stunning array of textures onto the plate and assuredly harnesses a kaleidoscope of flavors, from the tender sweetness of summer season corn to the tart chew of passionfruit. — Lauren Saria

Most Over-the-Prime Design

Ettan

When Ettan opened one month earlier than lockdown, it embedded an acclaimed chef in Silicon Valley and introduced a unique regional taste to the Peninsula’s closely North and South Indian restaurant scene. Restaurateur Ayesha Thapar partnered with chef Srijith Gopinathan of Taj Campton Place, then the one South Asian restaurant within the nation to carry two Michelin stars, to construct out a menu that uplifts Gopinathan’s signature Cal-Indian delicacies, because of the lighter and brighter flavors of the chef’s native Kerala.

However whereas diners have been ready to be wowed by the menu, they weren’t anticipating to gasp when moving into the area. Tucked away on one in every of Palo Alto’s quiet alleys, Ettan opens upward to disclose two tales illuminated by a central skylight. Designer Thomas Schoos strung chandeliers and vegetation from the domed home windows; layered patterned wallpaper, textiles, and woodwork; and made it pop with fashionable artwork and black-and-white portraits. In an period when each restaurant appears to have a neon signal and an overabundance of ferns, Ettan showcases a totally distinctive feel and look. — Becky Duffett

Most Out-of-the-Field Pastries

Hahdough

The Bay loves pastries at the perfect of instances and took solace in them on the worst — many bakeries confirmed countless ingenuity all through the pandemic, sizing down muffins and pies, making combined containers, and repackaging their items to go. However the best underdog story of all is Hahdough, which opened on March 1, 2020, and although it’s solely a small store, it has the excellence of being the one devoted German bakery in San Francisco. Proprietor Ha Do, who’s initially from Vietnam however grew up in Germany, launched town to her favourite conventional tortes and fueled a toddler fan following together with her jammy Berliner doughnuts.

As town locked down, reopened, and adjusted the eating guidelines relentlessly, Do by no means turned off the ovens, baking mini stollen by means of the evening. She’s an extremely hardworking baker placing out a mode of cake not often seen on this metropolis, and plenty of Europeans who weren’t in a position to go dwelling (to not point out San Franciscans merely caught at dwelling) discovered pleasure within the candied-almond crush of a bee-sting cake or the fragile layers of a gentleman’s torte. — Becky Duffett

Most Electrical Cocktail Scene

Sobre Mesa

Nelson German of Alamar seafood restaurant opened Sobre Mesa, a hotly anticipated Afro-Latino cocktail lounge, in March 2020, and whereas that was robust timing, the bar got here again sturdy nearly precisely a 12 months later with tropical rum drinks, lush resort foyer appears, and large Oakland power. It led the pack in one of the crucial aggressive classes this 12 months, as San Francisco and Oakland noticed a resurgence of cool cocktail bars when vaccinated drinkers have been lastly able to pour one out.

Alex Maynard (Starline Social Membership) and Susan Eggett (Final Rites) consulted on the opening cocktail menu, which options Caribbean rums, recent fruit juices, and tropical components whereas dodging tiki stereotypes. And although a lot of bars are filled with a lot of plants as of late, Sobre Mesa does it essentially the most immersively, with jungle-green partitions, a black marble bar, and tan leather-based banquets beneath the glow of low lights. Brush apart a frond and slide right into a leather-based sales space, sip on a Zombie Reviver and snack on tostones, and soak in all the pieces you missed about going out. — Becky Duffett

Greatest Bacchanal Wine Get together

Bar Part Time

After a 12 months spent aside, a sure variety of San Franciscans discovered themselves vaccinated and able to resume some pre-pandemic enjoyable this fall. Thankfully, Bar Half Time met the second with a wholesome dose of swagger — working example, the tagline “in all probability the perfect wine bar on this planet” — and a flood of pure wine. What began as a pop-up advanced right into a everlasting wine-soaked dance celebration, the place you’ll be able to lose your self on the black-and-white plaid dance ground beneath spinning disco lights whereas the room thunders to the lyrics of the Human League’s “Don’t You Need Me.” Pure wine devotees might be drawn by a menu that’s restricted to bottles with no chemical additions, a few dozen of which may be sipped by the glass and loved with a menu of Korean-influenced small plates from Inside Sundown suprette Queens. — Lauren Saria