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The St. Regis San Francisco

7 SF Hotels With Housemade Rooftop Honey

Very local honey is hitting hotel menus around town

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Hotel rooftops around San Francisco may seem like prime bar space, but many are instead being utilized in a decidedly different way: as a home for bees. Specifically, seven hotels around the city are now a part of the Sustainability Committee of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. As a part of the program, the hotels have installed hives on their rooftops, tended to daily by beekeeper Roger Garrison.

And where there are bees, there is honey: The hundreds of thousands of bees are producing 100 to 300 pounds of honey per hotel every year, which the hotels’ chefs are now utilizing in a myriad of ways.

Beers, cocktails, tea, salads, baked goods, and much more are benefitting from a dose of very local honey, an idea that fits perfectly into SF’s ethos. Here is where you can sample some of the menu items featuring homegrown honey produced by these industrious urban dwellers.

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Bob's Steak & Chop House at Omni San Francisco

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Beekeeper Roger Garrison looks after eight hives producing 300 pounds of honey for executive chef Thomas Rhodes. Rhodes whips honey into the butter to top fluffy pancakes, waffles, and French toast. It also shows up in cocktails, and unspun honey in the comb embellishes cheese platters. What to order: Grapefruit ginger mule, Tennessee highball, honey blossom margarita and the Bee’s Knees, a gin-based cocktail. All four drinks feature the Omni’s rooftop honey.

Omni Hotel

Grill at The St. Regis San Francisco

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Six beehives provide chef Franck Desplechin with rooftop honey for finishing touches to cheese plates and as a natural sweetener in his homemade granola. What to order: At the Grill restaurant, a frisee salad with black Mission figs, balsamic jelly, mascarpone, and hazelnuts showcases the property’s own honey in both the vinaigrette and the balsamic jelly.

Grill at St. Regis San Francisco

Holiday Inn San Francisco-Fishermans Wharf

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Jars of honey from the bees' second harvest are being offered for sale to employees to raise funds for the hotel’s designated disaster relief initiative, Shelter in the Storm. By the third harvest, there may be enough honey to share in the hotel’s menu items.

Holiday Inn San Francisco-Fishermans Wharf

Laurel Court at Fairmont Hotel

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Fairmont Bee Sustainable has 22 hotels participating around the world. Atop Nob Hill, guests can see the chef’s culinary garden, home to the hotel’s pollinator bees. Elsewhere on the roof, 250,000 honey bees work to produce an impressive 1,000 pounds of honey used in soups, salad dressings, pastries, and as an accompaniment to the Fairmont’s afternoon tea service.What to order: The house label beer, Beespoke Honey Pale Ale, created in partnership with Local Brewing Co. and offered on draft in Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar.

Laurel Court at Fairmont Hotel

Redwood Room at the Clift

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Last year, ten queens and 100,000 bees checked into their rooftop suites in box hives positioned above the landmark Geary Street property. Now 600,000 in number, a bountiful fall harvest supplied executive chef Thomas Weibull with honey for a compressed watermelon salad with lavender-infused honey and goat cheese as well as a honey-glazed pork adobo appetizer. Head mixologist Tony Kim has also created two honey-themed signature cocktails served in the historic lounge.What to order: 49er Tea Time with black tea-infused Cyrus Noble whisky, honey syrup and lemon juice or the Peerless Purple cocktail with housemade lavender-infused No. 209 gin, housemade honey syrup, lemon juice, and lavender bitters.

The Clift Hotel

San Francisco Marriott Fisherman's Wharf

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The honey bees are loving it at Fisherman’s Wharf, producing an outstanding first year harvest of 100 pounds of honey. The hotel is serving pop-up complimentary cornbread with honey to guests at check-in, at breakfast, and during meeting breaks.

Marriott Fisherman's Wharf

TRACE at W San Francisco

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It’s a short flight from the rooftop of the W San Francisco to the pollinator flowers in Yerba Buena Gardens. Ten busy beehives are producing 240 pounds of honey in each annual harvest, used to sweeten and glaze dishes like roasted beets salad with burrata, pistachio, baby greens, and honey, plus tasty ginger pork skewers with honey and sesame seed.What to order: The Peach Thyme cocktail uses Casa Noble Blanco tequila, Lillet Blanc, housemade lemon thyme honey syrup, lemon juice, fresh peach, and a sprig of fresh lemon thyme.

TRACE at W San Francisco

Bob's Steak & Chop House at Omni San Francisco

Beekeeper Roger Garrison looks after eight hives producing 300 pounds of honey for executive chef Thomas Rhodes. Rhodes whips honey into the butter to top fluffy pancakes, waffles, and French toast. It also shows up in cocktails, and unspun honey in the comb embellishes cheese platters. What to order: Grapefruit ginger mule, Tennessee highball, honey blossom margarita and the Bee’s Knees, a gin-based cocktail. All four drinks feature the Omni’s rooftop honey.

Omni Hotel

Grill at The St. Regis San Francisco

Six beehives provide chef Franck Desplechin with rooftop honey for finishing touches to cheese plates and as a natural sweetener in his homemade granola. What to order: At the Grill restaurant, a frisee salad with black Mission figs, balsamic jelly, mascarpone, and hazelnuts showcases the property’s own honey in both the vinaigrette and the balsamic jelly.

Grill at St. Regis San Francisco

Holiday Inn San Francisco-Fishermans Wharf

Jars of honey from the bees' second harvest are being offered for sale to employees to raise funds for the hotel’s designated disaster relief initiative, Shelter in the Storm. By the third harvest, there may be enough honey to share in the hotel’s menu items.

Holiday Inn San Francisco-Fishermans Wharf

Laurel Court at Fairmont Hotel

Fairmont Bee Sustainable has 22 hotels participating around the world. Atop Nob Hill, guests can see the chef’s culinary garden, home to the hotel’s pollinator bees. Elsewhere on the roof, 250,000 honey bees work to produce an impressive 1,000 pounds of honey used in soups, salad dressings, pastries, and as an accompaniment to the Fairmont’s afternoon tea service.What to order: The house label beer, Beespoke Honey Pale Ale, created in partnership with Local Brewing Co. and offered on draft in Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar.

Laurel Court at Fairmont Hotel

Redwood Room at the Clift

Last year, ten queens and 100,000 bees checked into their rooftop suites in box hives positioned above the landmark Geary Street property. Now 600,000 in number, a bountiful fall harvest supplied executive chef Thomas Weibull with honey for a compressed watermelon salad with lavender-infused honey and goat cheese as well as a honey-glazed pork adobo appetizer. Head mixologist Tony Kim has also created two honey-themed signature cocktails served in the historic lounge.What to order: 49er Tea Time with black tea-infused Cyrus Noble whisky, honey syrup and lemon juice or the Peerless Purple cocktail with housemade lavender-infused No. 209 gin, housemade honey syrup, lemon juice, and lavender bitters.

The Clift Hotel

San Francisco Marriott Fisherman's Wharf

The honey bees are loving it at Fisherman’s Wharf, producing an outstanding first year harvest of 100 pounds of honey. The hotel is serving pop-up complimentary cornbread with honey to guests at check-in, at breakfast, and during meeting breaks.

Marriott Fisherman's Wharf

TRACE at W San Francisco

It’s a short flight from the rooftop of the W San Francisco to the pollinator flowers in Yerba Buena Gardens. Ten busy beehives are producing 240 pounds of honey in each annual harvest, used to sweeten and glaze dishes like roasted beets salad with burrata, pistachio, baby greens, and honey, plus tasty ginger pork skewers with honey and sesame seed.What to order: The Peach Thyme cocktail uses Casa Noble Blanco tequila, Lillet Blanc, housemade lemon thyme honey syrup, lemon juice, fresh peach, and a sprig of fresh lemon thyme.

TRACE at W San Francisco

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