Top San Francisco Chef Charles Phan Is Opening Another Slanted Door — in France

What do you get when you combine the skills of a high-end hotelier and restaurateur, one of San Francisco’s top chefs, and a sommelier with experience working at Michelin-starred restaurants? Apparently, the answer is a boutique hotel with an international outpost of one of the Bay Area’s most popular Vietnamese restaurants. According to an announcement on November 15, chef Charles Phan will open a new location of Slanted Door in Beaune, France next summer. The restaurant debuts in tandem with an upcoming hotel from David Fink, CEO and founder of Mirabel Hotel & Restaurant Group, which owns the luxury hotel L’Auberge Carmel and the Michelin-starred hotel restaurant Aubergine. Saison Hospitality co-founder and wine director Mark Bright will head up the hotel and restaurant wine program.

The hotel, Maison 1896, takes over a historic building owned by French wine producer Maison Joseph Drouhin in the town of Beaune. The winemaking village, which also hosts the annual Hospices de Beaune wine auction, is about a two-hour train ride from Paris and about a 90-minute drive from Lyon, making it “a very accessible location,” according to the news release — at least for those who find themselves in France with time and resources to explore the country’s winemaking region. It’ll be restored to become a 16-room hotel with a 100-seat restaurant and bar on the ground floor.

Details are scant on the plans for the restaurant menu but the announcement promises diners can expect “the brilliant cuisine [Phan is] known for,” which will be “adapted to the wines from the surrounding vineyards of Burgundy.” Phan opened the original Slanted Door in 1995 in the Mission District, serving Vietnamese cuisine made with sustainable and local ingredients. The restaurant later moved to SoMa, and finally to the historic Ferry Building — though that restaurant has been closed for more than two years while the space undergoes renovations.

As for the wine, Bright plans to put together “the best selection of Burgundy wines in Beaune,” per the announcement. Burgundy wines will naturally make up the majority of the list, with “new vintages and cellar selections from select domaines and producers in the Cote du Rhône, Champagne, and wines from throughout Europe, all on display in the glass cellar.” Bright co-founded Saison in 2009 and has since helped shepherd the restaurant and its parent group into one of the leaders in high-end dining in San Francisco. Saison Hospitality now includes Saison, Angler San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Saison Cellar.