Saison - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Saison

by Luke Sykora • June 28, 2013

Saison co-owners Joshua Skenes (chef) and Mark Bright (wine director) have a lot more elbow room now that they’ve moved from Folsom Street into the former California Electric Light Company building near the ballpark. Built in 1888, the structure is a red brick survivor of the 1906 quake. During the move, Bright has nearly doubled the size of his Burgundy-centric wine list, and made a particular effort to pick up more whites from heavy hitters like Raveneau, Coche-Dury and Domaine Leflaive. White Burgundy shows particularly well against the subtle toasty scent that pervades the dining room from the kitchen’s wood-burning hearth. Its glowing embers leave their mark on many of Skenes’ dishes, from roasted brassicas to jewel-like pieces of fish. With the campfire aromas and the pristine seafood, the precipitously thin Zalto stemware and Michael Jackson on the sound system, Saison feels simultaneously casual and high-concept. One significant shift: The new space includes a lounge area for those who aren’t in the market for the $298 tasting menus. Sit at the bar, and the kitchen will send out six or seven courses, rather than the full 20-plus, for around $90.

178 Townsend St. (at 3rd), San Francisco, California

New American

415-828-7990

Luke Sykora

Longtime senior editor at Wine & Spirits magazine, Luke now works for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

This story appears in the print issue of June 2013.
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TAGS California New American Restaurant San Francisco

David Paradela
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David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.