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 Named
for the windswept islands off the coast of San Francisco, Farallon,
the restaurant created by restaurateur/designer Pat Kuleto and chef
Mark Franz, opened June 10, 1997. Forging their partnership and plans
for the restaurant came together quickly thanks to the long histories
Kuleto and Franz have in common as sailing, fishing and diving enthusiast.
Their search for the right location fortuitously landed them one of
San Francisco’s most architecturally significant buildings in the
Union Square shopping area.
Built in 1925 for the Elk’s Club, this
building was featured in a ten-page article in the very first issue
of Architectural Digest and designed by one of the most important
architectural firms of the period, Meyer and Johnson. Turn-of-the-century
designer Anthony Heinsberger is credited for the original interior
work. Working with a team of the finest artisans he could assemble,
Kuleto created an undersea fantasy in the restaurant’s interior, retaining
the classic integrity of the original structure while introducing
whimsy and romance. The Jelly Bar invites guests into the restaurant
with custom-made jellyfish sculpted lights suspended two stories overhead
and its octopus stools next to the kelp columns lit from within. Following
the path, suggestive of a sandy ocean floor, guests pass by a “caviar”
staircase sweeping up to the  balcony
and covered with 50,000 iridescent indigo-blue marbles. In what is
called the Pool Room of the restaurant, Heinsberger painted an elaborate
mosaic design of bathing beauties to grace the three arches of what
was then the ceiling over the club’s swimming pool, still in use below
the restaurant. Early design reviews describe the painted ceiling
as exceeding true mosaic in both cost and effect. Time has lent a
warmth to the original design which Kuleto restored and made the focus
of the Pool Room, along with the giant custom-made “sea urchin” light
fixtures.
Succeeding in his desire to make his guests feel comfortable
and secure in the restaurant, Kuleto designed the restaurant with
smaller areas and intimate spaces such as “the nautilus room” and
“the wine hold.” In the nautilus room, an area between the bar and
the Pool Room, are six booths surrounded by a spiraling shellfish
pillar with a tile floor suggesting the cross-section of a nautilus.
A 10-seat semi-private room off the Pool Room, the wine hold features
a painting of the hold of a ship filled with wine bottles and glass
windows looking into the dining room and the restaurant’s wine cellar.
All of these details provide the perfect backdrop for Chef/Co-Owner Mark Franz,
who, for some time, has wanted to more fully explore a culinary area
he describes as “coastal cuisine.” He created a menu at Farallon that
features his sophisticated and innovative preparations of fish from
fresh and salt waters around the world. Complemented by farm fresh
products and his meat and game dishes, his food clearly reflects his
classic French training as well as his long-standing devotion to American
cooking. Farallon, chosen by the James Beard Foundation, as well as
national publications such as Bon Appetit, as one of the best new
restaurants in the country, is located in the heart of San Francisco’s
Union Square area at 450 Post Street. The Farallon Cookbook is now
also available from the restaurant directly.
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