El Rincon Rebranding with Marcel's Kitchen

You may remember El Rincon, the restaurant and club serving Cuban and Mexican food, was forced to shutter a bit ago due to a shooting. We received good news yesterday that the venue reopened on July 31st with entirely different management and is in the process of a complete rebranding. Instrumental in all this is Marcel Neal the San Francisco-born former owner of Marcel's on Wheels catering truck who Thrillist tells us has trained at Gary Danko and Jardiniere. Neal is now serving this menu of Louisiana-inspired fare at a pop-up called Marcel's Kitchen at El Rincon; and it sounds like he's especially proud of the chicken and waffles.

The kitchen will be operating Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will be serving bar menu items like tacos and quesadillas from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. A Sunday funk/jazz brunch and dinner series will start in September and they are going to get started on a new sign on Monday. Sounds like a change for the better; so we'll await your early reports right here in to the tip jar. [Update: We just caught up with Gary Rivera, the new bookings manager at El Rincon. He tells us Marcel's Kitchen will be operating with counter service and a number system as opposed to table service. There was a half hour wait for food on the first night of service last night.]

· City Closes Mission Nightclub After SFPD Officer Shot [SF Appeal]
· Marcel's Kitchen at El Rincon [Thrillist]

[Photo: LikeMe]