{"id":91885,"date":"2025-12-12T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91885\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:53:16","slug":"rich-tables-baby-sister-is-opening-in-january-heres-the-first-peek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91885\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Table\u2019s baby sister is opening in January. Here\u2019s the first peek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come 2026, chefs Sarah and Evan Rich will have officially created their own dining district, one we\u2019ll call SoHa (South of Hayes). <\/p>\n

In early January, the husband and wife team \u2014 along with their longtime partner and GM Jonny Gilbert \u2014 will open RT Bistro. Located on Oak Street, it is around the corner from their lauded 13-year-old restaurant Rich Table and a short stroll from the first of their two counter-service RT Rotisseries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let the word \u201cbistro\u201d confuse you. This is not a roast-chicken-and-burger kind of place. RT Bistro will be a continuation of the Riches\u2019 signature elevated but eclectic California sensibilities. The couple knows how to cook with whim.<\/p>\n

Todd McCrea of Fine Root Design helped them make the most of the weensy 1,000-foot-space (a mere 300 feet of which was allotted for the kitchen) that used to house sushi restaurant O-Toro. The 37-seat bistro is cozy, painted a delicious green (Benjamin Moore\u2019s Lush, if you were wondering) and accented with blond-wood tables and a few reclaimed planks \u2014 a nod to Rich Table\u2019s barn-chic. Oversize black, domed pendant lights hang from the ceiling; a skull with antlers is mounted on the wall. Two parklets will be built, which will extend the seating when the weather is kinder.<\/p>\n

\"Wood-paneledThe tiny space conceived of by FineRoot Design gives cabin vibes.\"AThe main elements are a mix of a delicious green and warm wood. <\/p>\n

Early in the conception of RT Bistro, the Riches gave their designers an inspiration board for the intended \u201cvibe.\u201d Among other chill conceits, it contained a picture of Bob Marley smoking a spliff and one of two dudes drinking coffee in front of a graffitied wall in New York. That aesthetic appears to have been politely ignored by the designers. The mood is less urban Rastafarian, more Scandinavian mountain; think cabin with a dash of hygge thrown in. However, there are plenty of personal touches if you know where to look: On one wall is a photo of the Grateful Dead (Sarah has a dancing-bear apron to match); on another, a carved wooden topography of Kirkwood, the Tahoe-loving family\u2019s favorite ski resort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bathrooms are bicoastal. One has California wallpaper; the other a nod to New York, where the chefs met while working at the legendary French restaurant Bouley. They\u2019ve invested in a nice sound system. \u201cWe tested it out with the Cure yesterday. It sounds so good,\u201d says Gilbert.<\/p>\n

Not an inch has been underutilized. \u201cI\u2019ve been on the internet trolling tiny Paris bistros for space-saving ideas,\u201d Evan says. Beneath the banquettes, logs of almond wood are stored, ready to toss into the squat, custom J&R grill-smoker-oven where dry-aged New York strip steak, with an armagnac-and-roasted garlic glaze, will be grilled and served with a pluot jam and a side of potato-leek mille feuille. There\u2019s even a fryer dedicated to beef tallow, ready to crank out thrice-fried fries in the style of British chef Heston Blumenthal. <\/p>\n

And because there\u2019s no room for a bar, a tiny cocktail station is situated inside the kitchen, framed by a window so diners can see their drinks being shaken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"RT Bistro partners Evan and Sarah Rich and Jonny Gilbert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever people ask what kind of food we\u2019re going to serve at the bistro, I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019 \u2014 whatever we feel like eating,\u201d says Evan. The goal is to keep the price point a little lower, and the cooking a little simpler, than at Rich Table \u2014 though for chefs of their caliber, restraint is not easy.<\/p>\n

Early experiments include a West Coast riff on oysters Rockefeller, baked with Shared Cultures miso, garlic, kombu, and parmesan \u2014 a delicious umami bomb. Spooned over kampachi crudo is a punchy, sweet-spicy cocktail sauce made of ginger, shallots, shoyu, and a tiny bit of ketchup, courtesy of Taiwanese chef de cuisine Bill Wang. Instead of a classic 1,000-layer lasagna, the Riches will serve a more ground-level, two-layer seasonal variation; in winter, it will have butternut squash and TomaTruffle cheese from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. In the spring, maybe peas; in the summer, some corn. Desserts, like a nod to the ice box pies Sarah grew up with, will be kept simple.<\/p>\n

The wine list, curated by Kevin Born, will focus on local, lesser known producers, while the cocktails, drummed up by bar director Marisa Miller, will similarly highlight Northern California spirit makers. There will be a version of a rusty nail, a forgotten classic (well, forgotten until Evan\u2019s dad ordered one on a recent family vacation), and of course, a clarified milk punch, something Rich Table has been doing before clarifying was cool. The NBD (\u201cno big deal\u201d) Manhattan will have Vallejo-based Redwood Empire Pipe Dream bourbon, house-preserved cherry leaves, Japanese Sakura bitters, and Laie, a Spanish red vermouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe efficiently designed kitchen is all of 300 square feet.\"SlicesWood-fired grilled New York steak with an armagnac-and-roasted garlic glaze. \u200b\"ATwo-layer lasagna with butternut squash and TomaTruffle cheese.\"AChocolate \u201dice box pie\u201d with lime-chantilly cream.<\/p>\n

The truth is, even if this is the more casual version of Rich Table, none of it seems particularly chill. You can\u2019t take the chefs out of the bistro. With a kitchen so miniscule, and seating limited, there will be some problem-solving to be done in real time. For instance \u2014 considering that the counter space is about an arm\u2019s length \u2014 where on earth is the food going to be plated? Clearly a veteran of restaurant-opening chaos, Sarah just shrugs. \u201cWe\u2019re still working it all out. I\u2019m sure the first week or so, it\u2019ll be a lot of, \u2018Oh, shit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, judging off the Riches\u2019 previous successes, diners will be the last to notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come 2026, chefs Sarah and Evan Rich will have officially created their own dining district, one we\u2019ll call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[414,1910,412,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-91885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-chefs","9":"tag-hayes-valley","10":"tag-restaurants","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}