By the time you read this, there’s a good chance that not only have the dishes changed on the menu at AQ in San Francisco, but the decor, as well.
That’s because this new restaurant, opened less than two months ago, takes seasonality as literally as it gets — down to switching out the bar top, light fixtures, artwork and waitstaff uniforms according to whether it’s autumn, winter, spring or summer.
If you’re familiar with Park Avenue (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) in New York City, you’ve seen this concept before. It can be gimmicky, but only if the food falls short and plays second fiddle to the switcheroo interior. In the case of AQ, it does not. Indeed, the food created by Executive Chef-Proprietor Mark Liberman, former chef de cuisine at La Folie in San Francisco, is the star of the show. It’s executed so well, and with so many thoughtful little touches, that you long to come back again and again just to experience more, no matter how the dining room morphs.
When I was invited in two weeks ago as a guest of the restaurant, it was still officially “autumn” at AQ — down to the bronze plaque embedded in the floor right after you walk through the front door. The bar top was a gleaming, gorgeous copper, which will give way to white marble in winter. The industrial-chic space with exposed brick walls and massive timber beams is decorated with soaring trees, whose leaves will be stripped for the winter. So will the hip ceiling fixtures fashioned out of vintage heaters and chicken wire. The servers were dressed in warm, plaid shirts, but will be wearing something all together different in the next season.
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