Pre-Previews

The Company Bar & Kitchen Coming to the Former Shanghai 1930 Space

Rajat Parr
Rajat Parr

It looks like the deal announced last year, in which entrepreneur John Chen and Las Vegas party dude Matt Minichino were taking over the former Shanghai 1930 space at 133 Steuart Street, must have fallen through. Today Grub Street learns that the Michael Mina Group and star sommelier Rajat Parr are now taking the space and will open The Company Bar & Kitchen, due by summer 2013. (Not to be confused with this little place, which just opened in Noe Valley.) The concept is a “casual, high-energy bar and restaurant serving creative, East Indies-inspired cocktails” as well as a focused wine list from Parr highlighting Syrahs and Rieslings from around the world, all to accompany a menu of Indian small plates.

The name “The Company” refers to the popular shorthand used for The East India Trading Company, the historic English company formed in the 1600s to pursue trade with the East Indies. And thus, you can expect an amalgam of Eastern and Western influences, and plenty of gin and tonics.

They aren’t yet announcing the name of the executive chef, likely because he or she is currently holding down another job, but Parr offers the clue that it is someone whom he met and became friends with while at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

Parr is working on this project with Patric Yumul, president of Mina Group, and they say that The Company Bar & Kitchen will reflect their shared love of Indian food, cocktails, craft beers and wine in an upbeat setting.

The design will be by AK Design Network, whose credits include some Viceroy Hotel Group properties and The Fat Cow by Gordon Ramsay, and it will be a 130-seat restaurant with two distinct rooms. Also, they’re planning to keep the existing curved staircase near the entrance, as well as certain other elements of the former Shanghai 1930, which has now been shuttered since early 2010.

We’ll update you in the coming months as we learn further details.

Earlier: How Sommelier and Budding Winemaker Rajat Parr Eats and Drinks His Way Through Harvest

The Company Bar & Kitchen Coming to the Former Shanghai 1930 Space