Verjus
Michael and Lindsay Tusk, who also run Quince and Cotogna, painted the ceiling here in ten coats of lacquered burgundy. The menu hangs above the open kitchen on a lit marquee, and a manager climbs a library ladder to change it when a dish sells out. Verjus opened in 2019, closed for four years, and reopened in 2024. The Chronicle's critics rank it 25th in the Bay Area for 2026.
Why go
Walker Stern runs the kitchen night to night. He co-owned Battersby in Brooklyn and was executive chef at Le Rock in Rockefeller Center before he moved west. The cooking covers the breadth of France: trout Grenobloise under lemon and capers, chicken Normande in a Calvados sauce with a lot of butter. Michael Tusk spent time in Marseille, and the specials drift south, so a pissaladiere turns up with caramelized onions, olives and anchovies over flaky pastry.
Thad Vogler built the cocktail list when the room reopened. The wine is French and natural-leaning, which is what it was in 2019 and what people missed for four years.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the soupe de crabe if it is on. Russet-colored, built like a bouillabaisse, meaty with Dungeness, with a round crouton coated in saffron rouille floating on it.1
- Order: the chicken Normande.1
- Order: the pain perdu, which arrives in a pool of caramel taken to the edge of bitter and stopped with butter.1
- Avoid: the low stools in the main room if anybody at your table wants a back. Ask for the back room, which has proper chairs and is a shade quieter.1
What locals & experts say
- MacKenzie Chung Fegan, San Francisco Chronicle, December 2024, on the crab soup:
hands down one of the best things I've eaten all year
.1 - Elena Kadvany, San Francisco Chronicle, November 2024, on the original room: it
managed to capture the magic of stumbling into a random wine bar in Paris
.2
Good to know
- Getting in: Fegan walked in on a Tuesday in December 2024 and got a table.1
- Where: 550 Washington Street, on the edge of Jackson Square.
Verdict
should-visit — Go on a weeknight. This is a wine bar with a serious restaurant's kitchen behind it, and the kitchen is the half worth planning around.