Bar Maritime

For some time, the vintage-styled dining space inside Palihotel San Francisco flew largely under the radar. Recently, however, Bar Maritime and its more refined sibling, Maritime Boat Club, have begun attracting renewed attention from local diners. Much of that momentum comes from chef Felix Santos, a longtime presence on the San Francisco dining scene whose past experience includes the Crenn Dining Group and Sorrel. Taking the reins of the kitchen, Santos has preserved elements of the restaurant’s sea-inspired identity while introducing his own globally influenced approach to the menu.

“At the core, we are a seafood restaurant that focuses on our friends who swim along the Pacific coastline, from Baja to Washington,” he says. “I try to choose what we serve with intention and the provenance of the product goes hand in hand with the quality when making those choices.”

According to Santos, that philosophy extends first to produce, which he sources himself at the farmers market. “It's a product driven menu. If I run out of an ingredient in the middle of the week I am not making a phone call to the produce purveyor for any old replacement from wherever.”

Beyond the dialed-in menu, which includes dishes such as kampachi crudo with passion fruit, fish collars with chipotle salsa, and black cod with poblano peppers, both the bar and the restaurant aim to create a lively atmosphere. Santos also enjoys bringing a sense of celebration to the space and is currently planning a series of collaborative dinners with chefs from New York, Seattle, and Mexico City. “When I worked for Dominique Crenn, I was able to travel extensively with her and participate in these types of events and I want to bring a piece of that energy here,” he says.

One advantage of having both a restaurant and a bar side by side, Santos says, is the ability to offer guests a “slightly elevated experience in the dining room while offering a la carte options from our guest chefs at the bar.” This way, diners do not have to commit to a strict timeline or steep price point to take part in the experience.