Cavaña Brings Latin American Culture, Cuisine And Cocktails To San Francisco’s Rooftop Scene

Cavaña is San Francisco’s latest rooftop cocktail bar and lounge from San Francisco restaurateurs, John Park of Brick x Brick Hospitality Group and Anthony Parks of True Hospitality. Located atop the 17-story Luma Lodge in Mission bay, Cavaña gives friends an expansive collection of sugar-cane and agave distillates, artisanal cocktails, minimal intervention wines and a menu of sharable dishes that showcase the flavors of Latin America.

This stylish, trendy rooftop options expansive views of San Francisco, from Twin Peaks and Sutro Tower to the Bay Bridge, East Bay and past. It’s so near Oracle Park that friends may even watch what’s happening on the park, whether or not that be a Big’s recreation or live performance. Cavaña’s out of doors seating space gives plush, lounge seating; elongated hearth pits; in addition to heaters for friends seated on the out of doors bar. The Latin-American impressed interiors are equally spectacular, with a buzzy, illuminated bar on the coronary heart of the up to date, plant stuffed house.

On the culinary aspect of issues, Chef Alex Reccio, who can also be on the helm of the kitchen at Kaiyo Rooftop, is serving pan-Latin tapas. Anticipate elevated, conventional dishes from throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. Standouts on the menu embrace the Aguachille Rojo de Camaron with Gulf prawns, tomato, hoja santo, serrano chili, limen and avocado; Arepitas de Pabellon with brisket stew, black beans, peppers, and cotija cheese; and Costillar de Res with gradual roasted beef brief ribs, broccolini and chimichurri.

“Our travels via Central & South America closely impressed the meals menu,” says Anthony Parks of True Hospitality. “As a staff, we spent three weeks collectively consuming, ingesting, and immersing ourselves within the tradition earlier than opening Cavaña. There have been many memorable meals throughout our journey, however we constantly stored returning to the concept that these road meals we have been consuming would make superb bar bites.”

“We had beef pastels in Rio de Janeiro, bowls of ceviche from bicycle carts in Callao, Peru, and Esquites from one of many many road distributors lined up on the cobblestone alleyways in Oaxaca. All of those dishes landed on our opening menu.”

The cocktail program at Cavaña that really shines. Brothers and twins, Beverage director Emilio Salehi and bar supervisor Miguel Salehi previously from Valencia Road’s Beehive, created an revolutionary cocktail menu that pulls inspiration from their Venezuelan heritage, in addition to their travels all through Latin America. The cocktails incorporate many components widespread in Latin America together with the purple chicha morada, hoja santa, mole, feijoa and ancho chile.

Every cocktail on the menu has a reputation that mixes the 2 foremost components used within the libation. For instance, the Kiwi Hoja is a clarified mik punch with mezcal, kiwi, bolivian brandy, hoja santa and lime. Different stand outs embrace the Coco Cafecito with Venezuelan rum, toasted coconut, px sherry, espresso, almond and orange salt; the Chicha Tonica with charanda, chicha morada, pineapple amaro, ginger, lime and tonic; and the Caña Parchita Oaxacan aguardiente, bajan rum, passionfruit, coconut, ancho chile, pineapple and lime.

We chatted with Cavaña Homeowners and Operators John Park of Brick x Brick Hospitality Group (which encompasses KAIYŌ, Whitechapel and Novela) and Anthony Parks of True Hospitality on this new rooftop bar, inspiration and extra. Right here’s what they needed to say!

The town is in want of rooftop bars! Speak about how this one is exclusive. What are the vibes, ambiance… and so forth.

John Park: In addition to Cavaña being positioned atop a newly constructed LUMA resort in San Francisco, Cavaña options an agave and cane targeted cocktail program in a fantastic rooftop setting, providing expansive views from SF downtown to East Bay to the peaks of Sutro Tower. With our expansive idea, it gives a chance to function enjoyable and fascinating Latin cultures via our cocktail and meals choices and the house.

Cavaña additionally showcases artwork from numerous latin artists similar to DJs, ceramics, and even canvas work. Any given weekend night, we function a neighborhood deejay or band taking part in numerous latin music – from cumbia and reggaeton, to Latin Afrofunk. With music being so embedded within the latin tradition, we felt that music programming completely needed to be a part of our branding technique.

What evokes the meals menu? What are the stand-out dishes?

Anthony Parks: We’ve taken an elevated method, our plating and presentation lean up to date, however the palette we draw from is deeply rooted in conventional strategies and flavors. We consistently try to make use of the very best expression of native components and keep excessive moral requirements with every part we serve. Our dishes are designed to be shareable and work properly with cocktails. Some dishes are extra conventional than others, similar to our Arepitas.

Our Chef tapped one in every of his newly employed prep cooks to help with our home recipe. She lived and traveled via South America, making and promoting Arepas! She was by no means a formally educated prepare dinner, however she was desirous to study from our staff and ended up instructing us lots within the course of. Considered one of my favorites on the menu is our Anticucho de Pollo, Peruvian skewers with grilled rooster thighs coated in aji panca chile marinade, papas doradas, and pico de gallo.

What evokes the cocktail menu? What are a number of the must-try?

Anthony Parks: Our staff is growing all authentic cocktails with a mosaic of Latin components. We’re mixing flavors from completely different areas and pushing ourselves to create distinctive and considerate drinks. We deploy trendy strategies in manufacturing however by no means need our menu to really feel too heady. It’s vital to us that our cocktails are approachable, social, and scrumptious!

The names of our drinks will at all times showcase two major components or flavors represented, such because the Coco Cafecito, which mixes a Venezuelan aged rum that is been fat-washed with toasted coconut oil, espresso, pasilla chili, and Pedro Ximenez sherry. We whip-shake this drink and provides it a vigorous pressure over ice, leading to a wealthy, frothy texture that creates a cascade impact within the glass. The cocktail is completed with a light-weight dusting of dehydrated orange salt.

We additionally dedicate a web page of our menu to the “Submit Card Cocktail,” a rotating function highlighting vital basic cocktails from Latin America. Suppose Mojito, Daiquiri and Margarita, and so forth.. Every month we function a brand new basic and provides a short assertion on why it’s vital and slightly word of the historical past behind the drink. We’re presently on the Caipirinha!

Discuss concerning the music, arts & occasions at Cavana. What do friends need to look ahead to?

Anthony Parks: Music is vastly vital to us, and we’re dedicated to offering nice programming right here at Cavaña. We really feel strongly that good music offers life and power to the room and retains folks immersed. Each weekend we’ll have Latin DJs spinning Afro Beat, Reggaeton, Brazilian funk, and so forth. We’ll quickly host dwell salsa bands on Sunday evenings on the terraces. I’m actually excited to construct on this and hope Cavaña turns into a vacation spot in San Francisco for nice music.

As for the artwork right here, we imagine it’s one other alternative for us to assist our neighborhood and pals. We need to work with native and worldwide artists and have their items be proudly on show right here. After we lastly secured the lease for Cavaña, the very first thing I did was faucet my artistic pals and say, “Hey, let’s work collectively!”.

All the pieces from customized furnishings makers, ceramic artists, customized aprons & leather-based work, photographers, graphic arts, and so forth. There was such an enormous community of artists who’ve contributed to this challenge, and we admire the chance to collaborate with them. We’ll proceed to make use of Cavaña as a conduit for good artwork, music, meals, and drinks.

What was right here earlier than? How do you hope Cavana stands out and makes this house its personal?

John Park: Previous to LUMA Lodge, it was in all probability a plot of undeveloped land. We hope that Cavaña can be perceived as an elevated cocktail bar expertise that tells fascinating tales of the Latin cultures, via our menus that includes not solely fascinating and properly executed cocktails, but additionally scrumptious meals which frequently is a second thought in cocktail bar settings. Cavaña strives to be one of many distinguished Lodge Bars within the nation.