Classic Bix — refined, inspired, flirty
Arts & Entertainment // Entertainment
Michael Bauer July 22, 2015 Updated: Nov. 3, 2015 8:23 p.m.
Cocktails at the popular Bix restaurant on Gold Street in S.F., which is as popular and timely as when it opened in 1988.
Photo: John Storey, Special to the Chronicle
In one corner of the Deco-inspired dining room at Bix, a couple sitting on the banquette looked as if they were connected at the hip as they flirted, listened to the music playing a few feet away, and then uncoupled to order five dishes to be shared.
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The couple in the opposite corner were a mirror image, except they were 10 years older and were toasting each other with rosé Champagne.
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Upstairs, the mezzanine overlooking the always-packed bar and dining room is lined with booths that give diners an added sense of privacy. Both areas weave a tale of nostalgia and romance.
Bix, which opened in 1988, is one of the rare restaurants that's been able to walk the line between tradition and innovation. The feel is akin to a supper club — the low lighting is keyed to romance, and the location in an alley makes it feel like a speakeasy.
Bix is a restaurant that's for all seasons, and all reasons. It's always been one of my favorite places, and the food has been consistently good under Bruce Hill, who is also involved in Picco in Larkspur and Zero Zero and Fog City in San Francisco.
Hill is an excellent chef, but with so many restaurants to watch over, it's tough to consistently produce three-star food. However, with the help of chef de cuisine Emmanuel Eng, best known for his work at Maverick, the menu at Bix is taking on a new polish.
Eng most recently was the chef at Bartlett Hall. He never found his footing there, but at Bix he combines casual and more buttoned-down genres.
He's created a version of General Tso fried chicken ($10) with just the right amount of sweetness in the sauce coating the crisp nuggets, making the dish well tailored to one of the always well-crafted classic cocktails.
His more refined side shows on such dishes as a la minute ceviche ($16). Here five slices of hamachi are draped over chunks of just-ripe avocado scattered with chiles, ginger and toasted corn nuts.
Service continues to remain on point — adult servers for an adult restaurant. Somehow I screwed up on OpenTable; I thought I had booked for 6:30 p.m., but my name (fake, of course) was nowhere to be found on the reservation list. The host was able to give us a table, with the proviso that another party would need it at 8 p.m. Given the circumstances, that felt right.
Once we were seated, service was as smooth and professional as it's always been. With their vests and ties, servers are the antithesis of the jeans-and-T-shirt-clad staff that seems to populate most new restaurants.
Yet Bix attracts a wide-ranging crowd, and Eng is able to produce classics such as the chicken hash ($8) and the lobster spaghetti ($37) while adding his stamp to items such as the California white sea bass ($35) perched on a pile of sauteed spinach with green olives and chunks of firm, acidic tomatoes.
He's also carrying on the tradition of the tomato cart ($17), where several types of tomatoes, burrata and a confetti of basil are arranged on the plate and dressed with a simple vinaigrette table side. The waiter is happy to split the order — and it's a perfect celebration of the season.
Now the kitchen needs to turn attention to dessert. The chocolate brioche bread pudding ($10) had good flavor, but the sandy grains of undissolved sugar were distracting, and when I tasted the financier ($10), I heard Richard Harris singing, "Someone left the cake out in the rain." Both deflate the high of the savory courses.
But then the live music washes over the dining room, with its impressive columns and soaring ceiling. I see people standing three deep at the bar and hear the melodic tinkle of cocktails being shaken, and it's obvious why Bix has endured.
Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic and editor at large. Find his blog at http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com and his reviews on www.sfchronicle.com. E-mail: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1
Food: ★ ★1/2
Service: ★ ★ ★
Atmosphere: ★ ★ ★1/2
Prices: $$$$
Noise: Four Bells
56 Gold St. (off Montgomery, between Pacific and Jackson), San Francisco; (415) 433-6300. www.bixrestaurant.com
Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Friday; dinner 5:30-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Full bar. 4% S.F. surcharge. Reservations and credit cards accepted. Valet $10.
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Michael Bauer has been following the food and wine scene at the San Francisco Chronicle for more than 28 years. Before working at The Chronicle, he was a reporter and editor at the Kansas City Star and the Dallas Times Herald.
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