Westwood Opens for Whiskey Drinking and Mechanical Bull-Riding in the Marina

San Francisco’s only mechanical bull is now spinning and bucking riders at a Westwood, but it’s the food, cocktails, and extensive whiskey selection that could hook locals on the Marina’s new country music bar. The 6,000-square-foot bar, restaurant, and live entertainment venue opened July 4th — appropriate timing for an establishment brimming with Americana and country kitsch. Take a ride inside.

At 2036 Lombard Street (formerly Stock in Trade), Westwood’s wall of cowboy hats, reams of western blankets, and a floor-to-ceiling American flag invoke the concept of “country“ — an idea that’s “more a spirit than a place,” says owner Kingston Wu.

“I think that you can be born in Burlingame and still embody country music,” says Wu, himself a Burlingame-born country lover. And Westwood’s not Wu’s first rodeo: A financial analyst and restaurant investor, he and business associate Lily Peng have backed bars like Trademark & Copyright, Horsefeather, and Last Rites through their fund Proof Positive Partners.

Marina bar goers will recognize Westwood’s new bartenders Brian Mitchell and Sean Doolan from neighborhood bars like Jaxson: They’ve left the Marina’s other country-focused bar to line up Westwood’s 101 whiskeys, local beer and wine selection, and a list of “non-intimidating” cocktails like a house old fashioned with Crown Royal Vanilla and cherry walnut bitters. Customers can mix and match sours: Choose a whiskey, bourbon, or mescal and select peach, raspberry, or strawberry sour mix.

“We’re a country bar,” says Mitchell. “We want to make it like [when] you get off a hard day of work, you you come on the front porch, have a cocktail, and say, ’this is just want I needed.’”

To eat, chef Jesus Dominguez (Campton Place, Little by Little) will serve a menu of southern, Tex-Mex, and Californian food. That includes Nashville-style fried chicken, animal style nachos, and elevated chicken-fried steak, gussied up with prime rib in place of cube steak. “People I think they’re gonna come here, or the entertainment of the place,” says chef Dominguez, “but I think they’re gonna be really surprised by the quality of the food.”

• A Country Music Bar With a Mechanical Bull Is Riding Into the Marina [ESF]

Westwood

, , CA