Welcome to Swig City, where we point you toward the can’t-miss drinks at some of the best bars, clubs, and seafood-centric pop-ups in SF. Cheers!
For a long time, San Francisco had one and only one crustacean doughnut, and it was the magnificent crawfish beignet at Brenda’s French Soul Food ($5.75). But that halcyon era of unquestioned fried-dough-and-seafood supremacy has passed, as The Bar by Accarrino’s, a weekend pop-up at Pacific Heights Italian restaurant SPQR, has a formidable rival in the form of the “hot shellfish donut” ($9.75).
The “donut” — as with Brenda’s, it’s actually a beignet — is the “hot” part. (The accompanying crab salad, trout roe, and ramekin of tonnato sauce, a savory condiment made with tuna and anchovies, are cold.) Together, they’re the centerpiece of a sexy brunch menu that might best be characterized as upscale-casual — “upscale” in that it comprises chiefly seafood and wine, and “casual” in that it’s counter service and designed to accommodate walk-ins. You won’t encounter eggs and bacon or even avocado toast at The Bar by Accarrino’s, but you will find half-ounce servings of caviar ($49.75) and mimosa carafes ($26.75), along with Handlebar espresso with vanilla-bean cream ($3.50).
It’s an extension of a project that SPQR chef-owner Matthew Accarrino launched during Covid, selling coffee and doughnuts out of the restaurant’s front door in paper bags. (Even then, there were savory options, like mushroom doughnuts, with the fungi infused into the dough.) Fillmore Street didn’t need another lunch place, Accarrino says, so for the pandemic-era side hustle to pivot, the team came up with a build-your-own-raw-bar experience, featuring oysters, crudo, and mussel soup — plus that shellfish doughnut, which is proving popular. “It’s fried dough,” he says. “Who doesn’t love it?”
Point taken. And the crudo ($17.75), a layer of tuna buried under capers, green onions, and tonnato, is an elegant counterpoint to a crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside beignet. Other facets of the menu, though, can be so low-key as to be downright cryptic, such as listings for “beer,” “house white,” and “cocktail.”
These options rotate — sometimes week to week. In particular, the beers are mostly small-batch productions from Oakland craft brewers like Temescal and Original Pattern. “You can’t even go from delivery to delivery on the same beer,” Accarrino says. “Which is fun, but also nerve-wracking.” In terms of the wine, a little randomness is simply the price of sourcing Southern Italian varietals from esteemed yet value-driven producers like Graci, all for $16.25 a glass or $65.75 a bottle.
“Cocktail,” meanwhile, refers to the shrimp cocktail. But there’s another eye-catching type of cocktail to be had: a Negroni for $15.75. Spritzes and mimosas beg to be consumed in the early afternoon, but aren’t Negronis a little brawny for brunch? It helps, no doubt, when they’re served over ice in a delicate rocks glass. Still, I pondered that question on the day of the revived Fillmore Street Festival. As a New Orleans jazz band moved among the vendors, I decided that, yes, I was more than OK with some gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth at 1:30 p.m. — although there’s a zero-proof alternative available.
Named after the civic emblem of ancient Rome, SPQR has been a neighborhood staple for nearly two decades, offering adventurous antipasti like veal sweetbreads, mains like huitlacoche-and-ricotta lasagna, and an inflation-defying, five-course pasta tasting menu on Wednesdays and Thursdays for $62.
Accarrino, whose business cards give his title as “problem solver,” is focused on reinterpreting the workhorses of the culinary repertoire by pumping as much flavor into them as possible. The crudo, for example, involves confit’ing the bluefin tuna belly. For the shrimp cocktail ($17.75), the team decided to roast the shells and heads to make a stock, zhuzh it up with saffron and other spices, poach the shrimp in it, then dehydrate the heads to make a salt that gets sprinkled onto a white cocktail sauce. Try some with the house rosé — don’t fret about which rosé it is — and above all, treat yourself to a doughnut.
- Website
- The Bar by Accarrino’s
- Date and time
- Saturdays and Sundays at SPQR