We broke the initial news about Hopwater Distribution, a new beer-focused restaurant on its way to a former retail space at 850 Bush Street (near Mason), and today we bring you some more details, and a prediction about the ETA. Partner Christopher Barry, who’s also an owner of 83 Proof and Dogpatch Saloon, tells Grub Street that the concept is California craft beer and comfort food, and they’ve hired “Beer Chef” Bruce Paton to design the menu.
Paton has a ton of experience creating beer-pairing menus for events around the Bay Area featuring a range of California beers, many of which you can check out right here. The San Francisco native forged a sort of specialty in crafting dishes to pair with beer starting in the mid-nineties at Barclay’s Restaurant and Pub. He’s also worked in the kitchens at the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, The Cathedral Hill Hotel, and the Redwood Room, where he became executive chef.
Barry says that “the permitting process has not been kind to us,” which is par for the course in S.F. when trying to pull off a change of use for a retail space, but he says the hope now is for a mid-June or early July opening.
Hopwater Distribution is part of a veritable beer bar boom around town, with taprooms like Speakeasy’s just entering the scene, last year’s openings of Abbot’s Cellar and Southern Pacific Brewing Co., and the upcoming Beer Hall and Magnolia’s Dogpatch brewery, not to mention Hog’s Apothecary, Sierra Nevada, and The Rare Barrel on their way in the East Bay.
We’ll bring you more menu details and such as the opening approaches.
Hopwater Distribution - 850 Bush Street at Mason - Coming Summer 2013
