As soon as Park Tavern announced plans to reopen on Washington Square in fall 2024, diners were impatient for both the return of celebrity chef Jonathan Waxman and the revival of a celebrated restaurant. When I visited, less than two weeks after the debut in November, the dining room was buzzing, while staff, including Waxman himself, hustled around.
But the homecoming did not go as planned. In January, the San Francisco Chronicle’s chief critic, MacKenzie Chung Fegan, slammed not just the food — including “the worst steak of my life” — but also the service, which was apparently “rife with mishaps.”
Four months later, Waxman is humble when talking about the opening. “I think it was a wake-up call that we needed, and I think it was good for us,” he says of the colossally bad review, his icy blue eyes taking in the empty dining room minutes before service starts. “I’m not gonna make excuses about it. It’s entirely my responsibility. But now I feel good about it.”
The show, as they say, must go on. In the aftermath of the “hurtful article,” Waxman and his business partner, James Nicholas (Marlowe, The Cavalier, and formerly Leo’s Oyster Bar), buckled down, making changes to the kitchen personnel — namely, bringing in chef de cuisine Chris Santopinto (Delfina, Aphotic) — and training up the back and front of house.
Now, they’re adding a new layer to Park Tavern’s offerings — literally. Two floors above the expansive dining room, they’ve transformed what was a rabbit warren of tiny offices and storage space into McQueen’s, an exclusive and, yes, expensive members-only lounge.
Park Tavern’s wine director, Jeff Lennon, says Waxman and Nicholas didn’t want to open “a regular speakeasy.” So while the walls at McQueen’s sport high-gloss midnight-blue paint and the windows are covered with heavy velvet drapes, it won’t be a password-protected bar serving brown drinks over big cubes of ice. It’s meant to feel like a piece of old-school San Francisco revived. “James wanted to bring back, not luxury, but global, worldly nightlife,” Lennon says.
The team hopes to sign up 50 founding members; details about pricing and availability will be available by direct inquiry only. Members will get access to the space and a private liquor locker to store rare spirits and vintage wines they might want to enjoy with dinner downstairs. “We provide access to the lockers based on a variety of factors, including frequency of use, number of private events, and retail spend,” a spokesperson says, noting that a typical locker holder will spend more than $10,000 annually on food and beverages.
Members will be able to come up to the third-floor lounge to enjoy a classic San Francisco cocktail like a Revolver — basically, a Manhattan boosted with coffee liqueur — while taking a business meeting or watching a Warriors game on the oversize TV (usually hidden behind heavy drapes). They’ll be able to book the space for events, from 12-person seated dinners to 60-person cocktail hours. There will be emails announcing opportunities to drop even more cash on allocated wines, including “Burgundies, Bordeaux, and Napa cabs with some age on them,” Lennon says. Winemaker events and other tastings will be on the calendar soon.
Opening a bar and lounge most people will never see might seem like a nervy move for a restaurant that bungled its grand reentry. But Lennon says Park Tavern has been doing a steady event business between group dining downstairs and larger events, mostly for tech corporate clients, in the second-floor dining room.
Nicholas’ other spots — Marlowe and The Cavalier, both located closer to downtown and the Moscone Center — offer stylish spaces and solid food, but McQueen’s is intended to cater to customers with both a corporate expense account and a more discerning palate. “This is product-driven,” Lennon says, “for people who want to come in and have Waxman’s food.”