San Fran Travelogue

San Fran based restaurant designer Pat Kuleto  has said about himself that he was born with a builder's permit instead of a birth certificate.  Close to 200 restaurant designs now under his belt, he has pioneered a specialized field that used to be the prospect of the restaurant owner him or herself: find the location, build the building, design the interior, and run it for life, if fortunate.  Kuleto says he is forever trying to match a narrative fantasy to a real-life design, and has had the gaul to make many of these happen, including our first restaurant excursion on our trip to San Fran, down the Embarcadero, at the foot of the Bay Bridge, and virtually on top of the water.

And fantasy meets seafood is exactly what Kuleto and chef Mark Franz achieve at Waterbar.  One of Kuleto's long-time lead builders has mentioned that as he is working on a restaurant project he sometimes wonders if Kuleto's taste is a bit to kitschy (Disney-like spectacle) but that he is almost always astonished at the end result of how a design works out in the long term.  Waterbar is a great example of this.  Corners are softened by a perfect lighting; the aquarium tubes are a bit dreamlike; glass walls and a balcony look like a classic New Orleans style cafe overlooking Bourbon street.  Yet the restaurant, in full, feels like you think about San Franscisco – a sort of sleek wharf space, close to seafood and lit by the night light of two major bridges, the Bay and the Golden.  

An open air kitchen lends to the feel of the populated energy of the Embarcadero, the diversity of the streets, and the collage of smells swirling in and around virtually every street corner.  

A lone tugboat sits outside promenade under the late afternoon sunlight.  It might very well bring into kitchen the crab and sole on the menu.  Large boats and schooners parade out over the crisp blue bay.  A postcard is what Kuleto has brought to life.