San Francisco’s temple of whimsical molecular gastronomy is getting into the speakeasy game.
Merchant Roots (opens in new tab), the high-concept SoMa restaurant known for dreaming up elaborately themed tasting menus that rotate four times a year, has unveiled a semi-secret bar with only 12 seats. Bar Orso (opens in new tab) will operate inside the restaurant Tuesdays through Saturdays, open to both Merchant Roots diners and anyone looking for a fanciful drink made with eight ingredients or more. Unlike its parent, it won’t be flipping concepts every three months. Instead, it’s evergreen — in every sense of the word.
The menu embodies the flavors of Northern California, says chef-owner Ryan Shelton, citing redwoods as his chief inspiration. But, as a spinoff of Merchant Roots — where one tasting menu was themed around broken eggs and guests have hunted for an edible fungus amuse-bouche hidden within a woodsy tablescape — Bar Orso is driven by a commitment to playfulness and endless tinkering. “We have a list of five drinks we’ve taken our time to ‘Orso-fy,’” Shelton says.
Chef Ryan Shelton mixes a Golden Winter. | Source: Hardy Wilson Photography
The signature beverage is an elaborate spin on the classic Fernet-and-Coke. Using nuts from a staff member’s backyard tree, the team made nocino, a walnut liqueur. They combine it with cola and syrup made from foraged botanicals, including spruce tips and redwood needles. Then they “spray a garnish, so you get a scent of walking through” the trees, Shelton says.
He keeps some common bar terminology at arm’s length. For example, he prefers “libation” to “cocktail,” because he thinks the latter focuses attention on the base alcohol rather than the overall combination of flavors. Shelton also holds the term “low-ABV” in low regard. “It sounds like diet food and drink,” he says. “What we’re doing is not a less-fun version of the thing.”
As with Merchant Roots, the goal at Bar Orso is to take guests on a slightly wacky adventure, led by amaros, vermouths, and complex or unusual ingredients such as a toasted mushroom marshmallow or a frozen cucumber. If a libation happens to be gin-based, for example, the brand of gin “is way less important to us than all the cool shit we put into it,” Shelton says.
The Spa Water is an amazake and mint tea cocktail served in a frozen cucumber. | Source: Hardy Wilson Photography
The “Smokey gets Sandy” is Bar Orso’s tiki drink. | Source: Hardy Wilson Photography
The small à la carte food program centers on a simple yet satisfying snack: a garlic-butter tri-tip sandwich. It’s an ode to Santa Maria-style barbecue, as well as a nostalgic treat from Shelton’s childhood in the South Bay. “We’re cooking the meat over oak with charcoal,” he adds.
For all of Merchant Roots’ culinary ambitions, Bar Orso didn’t require an extensive buildout. Strictly speaking, the restaurant space, which was home to City Beer Store until 2022, always had a bar. Since Merchant Roots relocated there from its original, much smaller location in the Fillmore, the bar had been put to use only sporadically. Now it will be open five nights a week, accommodating its own clientele as well as guests at Merchant Roots’ two nightly seatings who may want a pregame beverage or a nightcap.
Keeping two sets of guests separate — and minimizing sound bleed — while maintaining a welcoming atmosphere may be a delicate balancing act, requiring curtains, partitions, and some organizational prowess. It’s the kind of challenge that Shelton and his team, who are known for a gregarious style of service, embrace. “If someone’s at Merchant Roots and they want to order a cocktail from the bar, I’m not gonna say no,” he says.
Bar OrsoOpening hoursOpens Tuesday