Just outside the doors of PABU, the 11-year-old izakaya that Michael Mina opened in the base of 101 California, there is a new separate sake bar and private event space, and it's called Pabu-Chan.
Michael Mina has had a big fall season in San Francisco, with the debut of the stunning new, reimagined Bourbon Steak and Bourbon Lounge at the Westin St. Francis, marking a major return to Union Square and a show of faith for the neighborhood's comeback.
And just weeks after that opening, we have news of the opening of Pabu-Chan, a new sake tasting room and private event space, in a glass cube space just outside PABU, in the plaza of 101 California -- off California Street near Front Street. The jewel-box-like space, formerly a newsstand, has been transformed into a 20-seat sake bar with its own menu, separate from PABU.
Pabu-Chan will feature a menu focused almost entirely on sake, along with some shochu cocktails, Japanese beers, and select food items. Curated by MINA Group Beverage Director Anthony Attanasio, the menu intends to showcase some of the most celebrated sake breweries in Japan. These include the famed, family-run breweries Tomita and Tsujizenbei, which each go back 15 generations.
Carafes of warm Kagatobi Super Dry sake from Fukumitsuya Sake Brewery will be served, as well as guided sake flights, like a vertical flight from Hachidori Sake.
The food menu will include exclusive bento box offerings at lunch, consisting of three small Japanese sandwiches, along with three pieces of oshizushi or pressed sushi (salmon, bluefin tuna, and hamachi), and two pieces of inari nigiri -- deep-fried tofu skin stuffed with seasoned rice and fillings, which will include crab and tuna poke.
For now, Pabu-Chan is more of a daytime and happy hour business, closing at 6 pm on weeknights.
The new space off the PABU patio will double as a private-event venue, either a stand-alone one for a smaller event, or it can be combined with PABU's other private dining space or a full restaurant buyout for a walkaround type of event.
The MINA Group team says that the latest opening, along with the revamp of Boubon Steak, "underscores Chef Mina's enduring commitment to San Francisco's dining landscape and downtown revival."
MINA Group continues to operate International Smoke and Bungalow Kitchen, as well, here in the Bay Area, as well as Bar Sprezzatura under the auspices of TableOne Hospitality, which was co-founded by Michael Mina and Patric Yumul.