Tag Archives: Omakase Group restaurant

Savoring Southern Flair at Prelude

The fabulous stuffed chicken wings at Prelude.
The fabulous stuffed chicken wings at Prelude.

There was a time in the planning stages that the flagship fine-dining restaurant on the ground floor of The Jay Hotel in San Francisco was to be a steak-centric establishment named Sage.

But when the Omakase Restaurant Group decided to put Executive Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones (formerly chef de cuisine of its Niku Steakhouse in San Francisco) in charge of the new restaurant, it rightly let him lean into his Southern heritage.

The result is Prelude, a sultry, chic restaurant, which opened last year to serve elevated Southern cuisine with Northern California sensibilities. It joins the Omakase Group’s other more casual restaurant in the hotel, The Third Floor.

Executive Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones in the open kitchen.
Executive Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones in the open kitchen.

Hendrickson-Jones may have grown up in Sacramento, but his Southern roots come from his maternal grandmother who lived in Alabama. From a young age, he started cooking bountiful Sunday dinners with his mother that had Southern influence. His professional career began when he was a sushi apprentice at Morimoto Napa. He then worked at Michelin two-starred Commis in Oakland and Picco in Larkspur before taking on his first executive chef position at Prelude.

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Dining Up On The Third Floor

The incredible duck soup at The Third Floor in San Francisco.
The incredible duck soup at The Third Floor in San Francisco.

Can we talk duck soup?

Because we must.

The kind redolent of star anise plus a pop of chili. The kind with an aroma that tantalizes with warm spices from the first whiff. And the kind that soothes, satisfies, and lingers on the mind and palate long after the last slurp.

I’m talking about the superlative duck soup at the new Third Floor Restaurant and Lounge, which opened late last year inside San Francisco’s 25-story Jay Hotel near the Embarcadero.

It’s the first hotel restaurant by the Omakase Group, the force behind such celebrated establishments as Niku Steakhouse, Omakase, and Dumpling Time.

The Third Floor dining room.
The Third Floor dining room.

What was formerly Le Meridien hotel has undergone a multi-million-dollar renovation that includes a sleek contemporary yet soothing pale earth-tone interior design by AvroKO, which also did SingleThread Farms in Healdsburg. The look was inspired by the organic and natural sculptural style of the late-great Ruth Asawa.

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