Prospect Opening Night

So last night was the opening of new San Francisco restaurant, Prospect. I convinced a few friends to come with me, "just for one cocktail," but ended up getting wooed into some small plates and dessert. I'm no restaurant critic and the yelps are already flooding in, so I'll just leave you with a few pics and observations.

Prospect is the new project of Nancy Oakes, Pamela Mazzola, and Ravi Kapur of Boulevard. I think the idea was for it to be a bit more breezy and accessible than Boulevard. The vibe is definitely breezy: open, clean, with huge glass windows looking out on the Financial District. The drinks are perfectly balanced and the plates are tightly composed. Our server was perky but not annoying or pretentious. They did have some opening-night kinks to work out in terms of pacing, but it wasn't egregious.

I started with "The Whaler," an effervescent little gem of a drink with rum, champagne, honey, mint, lime and egg white (well I would have started with it, if it didn't end up coming out after our food arrived...) Somehow The Whaler seems to embody Prospect: at once earthy and sparkling.

One of my dining partners ordered "The Roxana," with tequila, Aperol, cassis, blackberry, and lime.








For nibbles we ordered calamari, warm beet salad, and buffalo carpaccio. The carpaccio is in the foreground of this photo, plated with fried oysters and a garnish of greens. The carpaccio was definitely tasty and the fried oysters provided a nice texture to go along. The calamari was probably my favorite, and the beet salad was nicely done. I'm a bad blogger and didn't take notes (and Prospect doesn't have a menu online yet), but a yelper tells me the beet salad was served with a curried honey vinaigrette, Cowgirl Creamery paneer, and walnut brittle. When the dish came out one of my dining buddies remarked that the walnut brittle looked like a Nature Valley granola bar. It was true.

We couldn't resist dessert so we ordered the peach "pie." It looked more like a beignet to me. Delicious nonetheless.

Would I go back? Eh, it's not really my scene, nor my part of town. Most likely I'd go back to the bar if I was in the neighborhood. It would be a nice place to take out of towners or clients if you're the sort that does business lunches (I'm not). But overall a lovely evening!