The restaurant issue
Kiln, best steakhouses, Spring Restaurant Rush, best al fresco restaurants, last-minute gift idea, best French restaurants, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Cool Kiln
The night before I was to leave the country for a month, I had dinner at Kiln, the restaurant John Wesley and Julianna Yang opened in the spring of 2023, with its 15-course seating, since expanded to 18-20. On my way, I texted my friend: “I’m so frazzled, a two-hour-plus tasting menu is just what I need.”
Sometimes, hiding from the world for an evening inside a fine-dining restaurant is the recipe for a stress-free transatlantic flight the next day. And Kiln does a great job at hiding — both itself, in plain sight, right next to a beaten-up concert hall in Hayes Valley, and its patrons, in a bubble of serenity, away from reality.
The space, once home to Gabriela Camara’s esteemed Cala, greeted us with its strikingly clean lines, lack of flourishes, stark open kitchen, and pointed lighting. The first impression, later debunked, was that Kiln attempts to telegraph itself as cool, in every sense of the word.
As hushed music played through well-hidden speakers and well-heeled two-tops brimmed with quiet anticipation, the procession of dishes started: crispy beef tendon arranged as an abstract sculpture, pate-like Dungeness crab with dill and horseradish, precious crispy cones adorned with caviar, and buttery, fatty monkfish in a seductive veil of Champagne sauce. Each was delivered by tattooed hands with only the hint of a smile.
Yes, Kiln is extreme fine-dining, my friend and I speculated, as our Champagne started to take effect. In these remarkably escapist environs, the dishes demonstrated a skill at enhancing the flavors of each individual component to a distilled essence.
Nordic (and maybe Slavic) influences started to show as the next group of meat courses started parading in — translucent pieces of Iberico pork, California-raised aged beef, juicy Schmitz lamb accented by tart preserved cherries. Some dishes, like the fermented potato bread with dill seed, felt like reimagined, hyped-up versions of the USSR grandma food my dining companion and I were born into. The staff neither confirmed nor denied this hypothesis, but smiled at us more broadly as the meal progressed. A meal that began as a cool pause from reality had turned into a nostalgic experience with warmer tones.
Part of Kiln’s parting ceremony is a Polaroid photo, taken by the smiliest staff member available, and presented to its diner-subjects. We each got one. As the photo developed in front of us and our childlike expressions came into focus, another layer of Kiln’s cool, aloof exterior peeled away. We had escaped for a moment, but we were back, ready to face the world. –Flora Tsapovsky
→ Kiln (Civic Center) • 149 Fell St • Tues-Thurs 6-8p, Fri-Sat 5-8:30p • 18-20 courses, $295 per; beverage pairing, $185 per (reserve pairing, $350; spirit-free pairing, $145) • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Steakhouses
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the Bay Area’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com.
Miller & Lux (Mission Bay, above), Tyler Florence’s mid-century-stylings in Chase Center