Massive New Restaurant Will Serve Financial District’s Needs for Upscale Dining

The Financial District will soon have a swanky new dining destination in the bottom of the Bank of America building at 555 California. Called The Vault, it’ll feature 160 seats throughout its 4,800 square feet.

It’s an ambitious project for the Hi Neighbor restaurant group, which is comprised of Ryan Cole, Jason Kirmse, Tai Ricci and executive chef Jason Halverson. Joining the group’s other restaurants, Trestle, Stones Throw, Fat Angel, and Corridor, the Vault will be their most upscale dining experience yet, serving what partner Ryan Cole says will be a very classic menu of American cuisine and cocktails.

“This will be the most refined experience we have in our company,” Cole told Eater SF. “The location, the building itself: You have to match your clientele.”

That clientele includes 5,000 employees in the building above them, from companies like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. And while nearby restaurants like Michael Mina and Bob’s Steak and Chops strive to be destinations for business lunches and dinners, the Bank of America building’s employees had long lacked their own in-house dining destination, apart from a deli that closed several years ago. Now they’ll even have the option to store their favorite beverages on site: the Vault will give building tenants private liquor and wine lockers at the restaurant to store their (likely) high-end bottles of booze.

Most notably, it will be one of the only openings in recent memory that isn’t taking over a previously occupied restaurant space. D-Scheme Studio is transforming space that was previously a bank vault, including repurposing old safety deposit boxes as part of the decor. The enormous space will be divvied up into several seating areas, including a main dining room (60 seats), a lounge with banquettes, booths, and communal tables (60 seats), a marble-topped bar (15 seats) and private dining rooms (seating up to 25).

As part of their full-service Financial District vibe, Cole says the group plans on hiring a maitre’d to run things at the restaurant, identifying regulars and employees in the building, and bringing back a front-of-house position that has almost died out.

“Fine dining is not dead,” says Cole. “Everyone at Hi Neighbor came from fine dining, and we used that experience to serve upscale food in non-fine dining, neighborhood settings like Stones Throw. We’ll still have a neighborhood here, it’s just going to be the 5,000 employees in the building above us and around us.”

The restaurant is slated to open in spring 2019 for lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday. Stay tuned for more details.