Team Behind The Barrel Room Are Bringing Big-time Wine to the Marina

The team behind Financial District wine bar and excellent first date spot The Barrel Room is plotting a new Marina wine-focused concept. Owners Sarah Trubnick (wine director) and Manny Hewitt (executive chef) have taken over the former Scotland Yard space and plan to turn it into a food-and-wine pairing restaurant, returning it to its former Marina wine drinking glory from its Bin 38 days.

Joe Keefe

The concept is focused specifically on the interplay of food and wine, and thus every dish on the “New American” menu will come with two wine pairing options, one a complement and the other a contrast to the dish. Diners will be able to order either, or try half glasses of both for the full experience (or just order whatever they want, too).

Hewitt is currently developing the menu along with chef de cuisine Danny Murcia (Michael Mina Group), and wine is in the thought process for each dish from the very beginning, almost like an ingredient itself. There will also be a themed, rotating prix fixe menu with three or four courses for $50 or $60. Glasses of wine (of which there will be 50 to 60) will start at $10 and up, and dishes will be between $6 and $30. Trubnick is also putting together a 250-bottle reserve list, with rare and older vintages, though they won’t all be prohibitively expensive.

Trubnick told Eater SF that the team hadn’t been looking for a space, but that they couldn’t pass up this deal, which includes the awesome patio out back. “We want to open up the space a lot more and make it warmer,” she said. “We’re putting a bar outside on the patio and using it as a raw bar, and it gives us the ability to do events out there.” They’re keeping the fire pit, and just making the space “more of an environment you’ll want to sit and have a nice dinner and drink a lot of wine in.”

There’s still no name for the project, but construction begins in two weeks wth a mid May or early June debut. Stay tuned for more.

• All Coverage of The Barrel Room [ESF]