In our latest Eat Here Now column, we serve up the newest, the hottest, the buzziest or simply the rediscovered in SF food. If you can pick only one place to eat at this week — go here.
If ’90s fashion — from chokers to slip dresses to platform heels — can make a comeback, why not ’90s-era restaurants?
Specifically, ’90s-style restaurant service. This wasn’t something I even knew I wanted until a recent dinner at Bix, the 36-year-old Jackson Square restaurant that was a ’90s hot spot for live jazz and meticulously made martinis. I had just entered the restaurant and was trying to pick out my friends from the sea of shadowy faces at the bar when a figure seemed to apparate at my elbow.
“Welcome. May I check that for you?” a sharply dressed manager asked with a smile, gesturing to my backpack.
The question took me by surprise, but I handed it over (receiving a numbered token in exchange), grateful to not have to tote my utilitarian bag through the stylish dining room and upstairs to our table.
As our party sank into the semicircular booth at a table draped in starched white linens, I got to thinking about how different Bix felt from other recent dining experiences: the lunch when I thought I might strain my neck trying to grab the attention of the server — or anyone at all — in an effort to get the bill; the dinner at which we had to ask for water three times.
I’m not expecting purse stools and tuxedos. But it is nice to be offered a black napkin to lay on your dark-colored pants and fresh utensils for the next course.
Fortunately, there are places in this town that still deliver this kind of attentive and elegant hospitality. Bix certainly does. So does Boulevard, the 1994-born restaurant on the Embarcadero where I let a staff member graciously guide me from my seat through the dining room, all the way to the stairwell leading to the bathroom — even though I already knew the way. Another prime example: At a recent birthday dinner at Foreign Cinema, which opened in 1999 in the Mission, a handwritten card from owner Gayle Pirie greeted us at the table.
As a professional restaurant-goer, I acknowledge that dining at these peak-’90s places does nothing for your street cred. TikToks and Reels reward shots of tattooed chefs and unnecessarily oversize food, not attentive service and leather-bound menus. But I can promise there’s real joy to be found in a restaurant that goes out of its way to make customers feel valued.
And, for the record, dining at restaurants of this genre and vintage does not mean compromising on quality. From now through the end of the season, Bix will roll out a cart for tableside heirloom-tomato service. The pomp and circumstance behind something as humble (yet precious) as a ripe tomato had me giddy. A server wearing a vest and tie presented a plate of burrata and sliced, peak-season tomatoes with a level of care usually reserved for bottles of vintage Champagne.
At Boulevard, a recent meal included a miniature souffle blanketed by summer truffles and surrounded by a pool of buttery Brillat-Savarin cheese sauce. It was upstaged only by the escargot Rochambeau, which saw a bunch of garlic-and-leek-scented snails served inside a crusty bread bowl, a playful San Francisco riff on the French classic.
Foreign Cinema’s summer menu also captured the spirit of the season, in the form of a brothy bowl of cavatelli tangled with peas, corn and tender morels.
Of course, there are times when this is not the kind of experience I crave — when I want to slip into a familiar spot and dine without having to engage with an effusive server; nights when the energy of a buzzy, chef-driven restaurant makes even a mundane meal feel like a special occasion.
But from time to time, it’s good — important, I’d argue — to go back to a classic spot and be reminded that self-care can mean letting a restaurant take care of you.
At the end of that dinner at Bix, our party waffled over dessert, inquiring about the seasonal sorbet before deciding against ordering anything at all. A few minutes later, our server returned with four mini scoops of a gorgeous plum sorbet, “Just so you can get a taste.”
The gesture alone was enough to leave me wanting more.
📍 Bix, 56 Gold St., Jackson Square
📍 Boulevard, 1 Mission St., Embarcadero
📍 Foreign Cinema, 2534 Mission St., Mission