It’s North Beach’s hottest late-night hangout — and it’s still not fully open

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The oyster leaderboard at Lillie Coit’s reveals that “Nathan Lane” once ate 120 raw oysters in one sitting, putting him in first place by half a dozen.

It wasn’t the comic actor from “The Producers.” In fact, the champion bivalve binger at North Beach’s hottest late-night hangout was actually two people, Nathan and Lane. Lane, as it happens, is Lane McCormick, a bartender at Pacific Cocktail Haven. He and his friend Nathan had made a previous run for the top spot, but the kitchen ran out of oysters after they’d downed 156. (That attempt is also on the leaderboard, in fifth place.) A few months later, they tried again and got to 120 oysters apiece with little trouble — but a lot of mignonette.

“Honestly, I could have kept going,” McCormick says. “But you see the finish line, and you’re like, ‘Nah, I’m solid.’”

The Oyster Jubilee is the centerpiece of Lillie Coit’s popular late-night happy hour, available daily from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Patrons who buy six oysters ($23 if they’re raw, $25 broiled with escargot butter) get six free. Unlike many pared-down late-night menus, Lillie Coit’s is the real deal, with $24 tinned octopus in garlic sauce with salad and a toasted baguette; a $16 hot coppa and mortadella melt; and an $18, three-egg omelet made with cultured French butter (plus gruyère, for an extra $3, or an ounce of caviar, for another $70).

There’s even a $99, 32-ounce tomahawk steak. Owner Nick Floulis uses the same meat purveyor as nearby Original Joe’s, which is where he takes many of his 8 p.m. “lunch” breaks.

And there are cocktails, all $17 and as rarefied as a piano bar in a grand hotel. The biggest seller is the Dirty Junipero Martini, made with locally produced gin. But the real standouts are the lightly tart Pamplemousse French 75 and the silky smooth Blood Orange Gimlet — both also made from gin, as is the effortlessly drinkable, pale-blue Aviation. There are not one but three espresso martinis, in part because Floulis also owns Union Street’s Hole in the Wall Coffee.

A scruffy-glam Barbary Coast brasserie with vintage liqueur posters and an air of after-midnight naughtiness — think of it as a minimalist Tosca Cafe — Lillie Coit’s has already become a neighborhood icon, with a considerable following among industry folk, an impressive feat considering it isn’t technically finished.

With the tagline “Never early, sometimes later,” Floulis has kept his baby in soft-open mode for two and a half years. He’s using this extended gestation period, which he calls “Petite Lil’s,” to complete work on the interior. Declining most media attention, he’s instead working to leverage the neighborhood’s nostalgia for an address with a long history and complicated wiring. The space was previously the home of Washington Square Bar & Grill, affectionately known as “Washbag,” which opened and closed numerous times before giving up the ghost circa 2010.

The love is strong. Patrons routinely tell Floulis things like “I met the second love of my life on that bar stool over there.” So, rather than rely on GoFundMe to reupholster the booths and reconstruct the mezzanine, among other projects, Floulis is capitalizing on that misty-eyed fondness by soliciting donations through what he calls Project Cioppino. As with the fish stew, people “chip in” $100 or more on a gift certificate they’ll be able to redeem after the grand opening. They’ll also get their name on a plaque installed on the black, horseshoe-shaped bar. Floulis won’t say how much he’s raked in through this unconventional campaign, but the grand opening is tentatively scheduled for this fall.

In the meantime, Lillie Coit’s is selling around 4,000 oysters a month, half before 10 p.m. and half after. National Oyster Day is Aug. 5, at which point Floulis will erase the leaderboard, and the contest will begin anew. With less than a month for another shellfish aficionado to snatch the title, Nathan and Lane appear headed for a coronation, plus a prize that Floulis declines to reveal. 

Having dropped approximately $550 to win the title once, would McCormick ever consider breaking his own record? “If I need to,” he says.