Michael Mina, who operates a four-star restaurant in San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis, has just opened a far more casual place in the city’s Millennium Tower. Named RH74 after the highway that runs through Burgundy’s Cot d’Or, the restaurant resembles a French train station with leather depot benches, subway tile and antique lanterns.
Forget the white tablecloths. Here you’ll see servers wear jeans and tennis shoes. Mina’s chef is a Thomas Keller protégé, Jason Berthold, while the sommelier is Rajat Parr. Both are winemakers, so the casual French menu will be paired with one of the city’s most extensive wine collections. This is a place where one can eat inexpensively (no entrée is more than $19) or push on the envelope with some pricy wine selections. A three-course meal at RH74 is as surprising bargain of $48.
So, what you have here is a chef and winemaker who have both breathed rarefied air, yet Mina is allowing them to relax and have fun. And isn’t that fun?