So Much Love And Attention Was Paid To Stoa-Lower Haight’s Newest Bar Destination

PHOTOS AND WORDS BY ANDY SAMWICK

Soft openings for restaurants, bars, and clubs have always been exciting, the moment before a business’ grand entrance. They’re usually full of friends and family members of a new venture coming together to celebrate and look at the accomplishment in finally opening up the doors and allowing customers to come in.

On Monday, August 28th, I got to see tons of friends at the soft opening for Stoa, a new destination bar by a team that has brought out the best at Nopa, Nopalito, Liholiho Yacht Club and many other San Francisco jewels of hospitality. The team was all center stage with their “hall of fame” bar team to help sample some of the Stoa magic that will be open to the public starting September 1. The room was comfortably stacked with a full house of patrons observing the warm booths and each of the bar seats that surrounded this long beautiful bar. 

As with other soft openings, the evening’s menu allowed us to really dive deep and wide in all the drinking areas. For instance, the bar’s menu’s opening page reads “Low Octane, Yet Complex” which sounded incredibly exciting. Actually, it was from this page we were served one of our favorite sips of the evening. My cohort ordered what the business calls The Castaway after bartender Chris Kiyuna suggested it to her. Kiyuna is an expert in crafting simple cocktails, letting small amounts of ingredients speak loud and bold. This drink was just that: It married sherry and green chartreuse, but the real kicker was the salted velvet falernum. It had bright nutty notes you realize you have to slow down and sip because it can get guzzled too easily.

My first impression was on Stoa’s “Lean & Mean” page, the Hedge Maze-gin, vermouth, and chartreuse. Another simple drink that wows you. For both of these concoctions, I ascribe this focus on detail on Yanni Kehagiaras. Kehagiaras’ speciality is to make you find the best characteristics of a drink by finding the right coordinates to match the highlighted spirit and at the same time  be gentle with its combination. He did this again with his other “Lean and Mean” drinks throughout the night. The Belmont was what seemed to be a riff on the Manhattan with rye, dubonnet, and amaro, and his Cafe Ireland wasserved similarly to a Sazerac with Irish Whiskey, dry vermouth, and a coffee liqueur. Both were eventually ordered, and both were eventually adored.

As for fare that evening, we got to try some of the techniques that made Nopalito a star from Gonzalo Guzmán and Joji Sumi who are taking the reins leading the Stoa kitchen with outrageous dishes like Sumi’s Rice Fried chicken. Apparently there are also chicken wings and chicken in a porridge that we will be definitely looking for on our next visit. The Rice Fried chicken nuggets were both lightly fried and very enticing. They certainly helped with the stiffness of our cocktails that we were both thoroughly enjoying. Bartender Kiyuna made sure we didn’t miss the summer melons and cucumbers with lime and shiso, which were quite juicy and sweet like the summer light that was still coming through their windows across Stoa’s long bar.

The light was changing as we got some more drinks and food items delivered to our bar seats. A standout of the evening was their cumin lamb taco with this green hummus and a Chinese salsa macha amongst other tantalizing ingredients on the plate. That came out with the Beet Fat potatoes and this incredible sea salt-grilled pork collar my compadre and I fought over.

I eyed other dishes throughout the 20-seat bar as I went to see other friends and make sure they were having as good a time as we were. There was another dish with chicken skin and popcorn that looked like perfection. I also heard that the poke tostada was so popular it was gone by the time we placed our order.

To close the evening, we each paired the Café Ireland with the Black Sesame Cake with banana pudding, roasted bananas, and coconut caramel. I let that sesame cake soak in the pudding and caramel and enjoyed every last morsel.

We hugged co-owner Allyson Jossel and thanked her and her staff for an incredible glimpse inside this new exquisite corner of the pulsing Lower Haight. With their pulsating friend Palm City set to open across the way, the Lower Haight is about to ride some new highs and become another destination again. Just watch!