Inside Prelude, San Francisco's new Southern restaurant in the Financial District

Go to the Jay Hotel, where the new fine-dining restaurant Prelude is set to open on Tuesday, August 20, you’ll likely be impressed by the building’s brutalist architecture and gray exposed concrete and sharp angles. But stepping into the new restaurant on the ground floor, you’re transported to the Presidio’s eucalyptus groves; it’s a space that feels detached from the outside world, or at least offers a respite from the raw concrete facade. The decor serves as a backdrop for chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones’ elevated approach to Southern grandmother’s fare. “We went for a very upscale, kind of moody space,” says Sergio Mondragon, design director at AvroKO. “With the eucalyptus grove in the Presidio, we really wanted to honor California, San Francisco and the Bay.”

Hendrickson-Jones is originally from California, but as a child he cooked with his mother and grandmother in Alabama and learned their recipes. On Sundays, they mainly had chicken and creamed corn for dinner, and at Christmas there was always a big pot of gumbo.

For Prelude, Hendrickson-Jones combines the family recipes he learned and the broader lexicon of Southern cooking with his experiences at Niku Steakhouse, the two-Michelin-starred Commis and Morimoto. Think cornbread financiers with fermented Hokkaido uni butter. There’s also the take on the humble grits dish, a dish the young chef says won’t go off the menu and will be a staple on the prix fixe menu. The Prelude version currently uses hominy grits from Tierra Farm and combines it with crispy country ham, shrimp marinated in Aleppo pepper, champagne, apple cider vinegar and herbs, pickled and preserved vegetables from the pantry, sour cream butter and a sauce made with shrimp shells and heads. “I always like to subtly bring in that (Southern) influence wherever I can,” Hendrickson-Jones says. “It was a nice challenge for me to look at it from the perspective of California agriculture – the gourmet scene is already here, but I’m trying to be something that’s decidedly different and unique.”

A colorful stained glass window behind a black booth. — Prelude’s interior is designed to recall the eucalyptus groves of the Presidio.

AvroKO has put its stamp on the Jay’s other spaces, including the Prelude’s sister restaurant, the Third Floor. But the Prelude was an opportunity to stand out from the rest of the hotel. Mondragon and another colleague wandered through the Presidio for design inspiration. Now, those elements are coming out in small and large forms. Eucalyptus wood is present throughout the space—a wood that is less used compared to oak or walnut, but has a “really beautiful movement” and sheen with a glossy effect on the surface, according to Mondragon. The custom carpet is meant to mimic the floor of the eucalyptus grove with its scattered dry, sage-green leaves, while the lighting is inspired by the seed pods of the eucalyptus flora, Mondragon says. “The lighting is the jewel (of the space), so we really wanted to get that right and spent a lot of attention and a lot of time on it—that was the most important piece.”

While the eucalyptus wood is a common element in the main dining room, lounge and two private rooms, they each have their own atmosphere and mood. Look up at the lounge ceiling and the gold plaster is meant to create a glittering light effect, similar to sunlight under the eucalyptus roofs, Mondragon says. In the main dining room, a Los Angeles stained glass artist designed the glass panels to look like leaf structures. Thoughtful details like these give the space a unified overall look. “A lot of restaurant spaces in San Francisco feel too casual, which I love,” Mondragon says, “but I think this restaurant will shine because it’s a different caliber, a different category of upscale experience. I think that’s what will set it apart from the crowd.”

A white bowl of groats with a piece of melting butter and ground pepper. — Corn grits.

Shiny rolls of silver anchovies on two slices of bread on a floral patterned plate. — Anchovy toast.

Just as AvroKO is trying to stand out with its restaurant design, Hendrickson-Jones is looking to make a splash in San Francisco’s crowded fine dining scene. “When you start a new venture of this magnitude and break into the fine dining scene, which is very well established here in the Bay Area, you have to disrupt or differentiate yourself in some way,” says Hendrickson-Jones. “I think I do that by differentiating myself from California seafood restaurants or Asian fusion cuisines. My way of saying, ‘Here I am, and I’m offering something different than everyone else.’ That might not be for everyone, but hopefully it will be for enough of you to make us successful.”