New Mid-Market Hotel’s Rooftop Bar Will Offer ‘Highball Service’

The Proper Hotel, due to open later this summer at the flatiron corner of 7th and Market, has revealed the names and details of its three dining and drinking destinations. Run by executive chef Jason Franey and Trick Dog barmen Josh Harris and Morgan Schick, those are an all-day restaurant called Villon, a rooftop bar and lounge called Charmaine's, and a street-level cafe at the corner of the building called La Bande.

Located in the space previously home to the Renoir Hotel, the San Francisco Proper Hotel is the first in a new chain of luxury hotels with forthcoming Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and Austin locations. Interiors are designed by the acclaimed Kelley Wearstler, and in SF, the Proper Hotel’s 131 rooms start at $400 a night.

Villon will be the hotel’s main restaurant, serving new American food in what Franey calls a “comfort geek” style, which sounds like higher-end takes on well-known dishes. The James Beard award nominated chef previously ran Monterey’s Restaurant 1833, and before that, cooked at Campton Place, Eleven Madison Park, and helmed the kitchen at Seattle’s Canlis.

At Villon, Franey’s food will be served in the lobby salon area as well as a main dining room and a private dining area. Schick and Harris, of the BV (or Bon Vivant) Hospitality group, have drawn up a “7x7” cocktail menu to go with Franey’s food. That menu includes seven sections with seven cocktails apiece, adding up to a lot of cocktails and a typically intricate menu from the duo.

Charmaine’s, the hotel’s rooftop lounge, is 120 feet above Market Street. It boasts room for 200 people, with fire pits and heaters to keep them warm during San Francisco summer. Up there, Schick and Harris have promised “large format” drinks — punch bowls? — and “highball service” as a take on bottle service. Chef Franey will offer bar snacks.

Back at street level, La Bande will be making its own pastries, tartines, and sandwiches while Franey will be serving salads there. That cafe seems geared to hotel guests, but could please passersby, too.

The Proper Hotel is one of a small cohort of new, deluxe hotels opening in downtown San Francisco with ambitious dining and drinking options. That group of newcomers includes The Yotel, which will house a new location of Daniel Patterson’s Alta, and the Hotel VIA in South Beach, which also offers a rooftop lounge. But unlike VIA’s rooftop, Charmaine’s at the Proper Hotel won’t demand that non-hotel guests book a $1,000 cabana for the day. That means more money for highball service, which can’t be cheap.

• This New Mid-Market Hotel Sounds Like a Big Deal [ESF]