Nightbird

Beeswax ice cream— these delicate few spoonfuls are a reflection of our honey and cheese course featuring the beautiful, fragrant, liquid gold produced by our friend Terry of from hives in The Mission and Bolinas!

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Next door at we have put together a Winter cocktail menu that includes a perfectly sized glass of rich, dreamy eggnog. While it doesn’t appear on our abbreviated cocktail list at Nightbird, we are pretty proud of our nog and will happily arrange to bring you a glass to sip on after your meal should you request it of us!

A last look at the reflection course to the matsutake dish on Grateful” menu ending this week.

The flavors of fall! Binchotan grilled + raw Euvitas Matsutake, and kumquat with housemade yuzu koshu sit atop a king trumpet and fermented sh*take puree. Garnished with shiso, red-veined sorrel and kohlrabi greens plus finger lime from Chef ’s garden, the dish is finished with Matsutake broth and a touch of Sichuan chili oil.

This week is the final countdown on our “Grateful” menu — pictured is our giant prawn in lobster sauce covered in a cozy blanket of delicate butternut squash sheets and honeynut squash “leaves”from along with bay leaf oil, lemon puree, carnival amaranth and a brown butter-honeynut squash sauce atop to finish.

We will be closed for service until Friday so our team can spend some well deserved time with friends and family. We hope you all have a restful holiday and will see you on the 25th!

Only a week or so left of our “Thankful” menu before we change over to something playfully oriented towards December’s celebrations!

A little look back to a favorite dish from last year’s fall menu!

A few bites to start perched atop and hidden within beautiful pieces by

We love the kiss of seared flavor binchōtan coal leaves upon lobster!

As we move into the chillier months, come join us for a warm, intimate meal celebrating the flavors and produce of late fall.

A Nightbird classic and f and always one of our favorite small bites! This soft cooked quail egg with hollandaise and crispy leeks is our opening bite regardless of how much our menu changes otherwise. We serve this amuse bouche in a beautiful vessel by and captured here by photographer

We source much of our beef from , a family run outfit just across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Rafael. Bryan and Katie Flannery are a father and daughter team and raise gorgeously marbled, incredibly flavorful Holstein cattle that we are consistently awed by, no matter how many times we try it. We are so lucky to be here in Northern California, surrounded by a cornucopia of incredible farmers of both fauna and flora and we feel privileged to be the conduit between their agrarian acumen and your experience as a diner.

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Saturday is upon us! We offer an abbreviated selection of garden to glass cocktails from , our tucked away 8 seat bar just around the corner on Linden. Happy weekend!

While the end of summer is always a bit mournful (and we must admit we were hoping we might have the Bay’s more usual lingering, lackadaisical warmth until the end of the month) the chill in the air has us excited for all matter of fall and winter root vegetables, and warming, savory broths!

A good omen of what’s to come— our starting bite is a petite caviar tart crowned with blossoms and nestled beside smoked egg yolk purée and creme fraiche.

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Summer may be officially over with the Bay Area’s lingering good weather but we are still holding on the last dreamy of days of the season with this menu for a teeny bit longer before moving into a crisper fall.

Our reflection bites are designed to create a conversation about food waste and utilize often tossed parts of ingredients from larger dishes to make something compelling and delicious.

This reflection course is cheekily inspired by the Chili’s “Awesome Blossom” which was a mainstay of ’s childhood.

Residual squash scrap from the confit in the larger course it reflects is puréed and seasoned with vadouvan to create a Nightbird dip we use in place of ranch, on top of which sits a deep fried squash cut into the a pattern reminiscent of the “bloom” of the OG Awesome Blossom.

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There has been a chill in the air upon waking and a layer of fog has blanketed the city each morning, harkening the transition from late Summer into a crisper Fall. Come join us for the last moments of our late summer menu before we move away from the warmer months. Book through the link in our bio or by searching Nightbird on Open Table.

The tomato worship continues! Tomato salad with confit tomatoes lies beneath tomato espuma all topped with sesame tuile, burnt makrut, cucumber blossoms and basils.

duck breast roasted plus confit wrapped in squash: The dish is accented by squash purée and dehydrated blossom as well as gooseberry compote and finished tableside with a drizzle of duck jus and marigold leaves.

The reflection bite (or in this case,
sip) following our tomato course is perfect for the sultry heat of September in California. Tomato water made from the leftover tomato odds and ends from the larger course that precedes it and is seasoned simply with citrus and shio koji then served chilled. The result is a savory yet bright, refreshing drink.

We source our tomatoes from , and

The final savory course of our late summer menu is a celebration of nightshades in the family’s many beautiful forms— a filet of beef is brushed with ramp-kimchi tare and served alongside a medley of grilled Padron peppers, thinly sliced and golden roasted potatoes and roasted eggplant. All is finished with a smokey romesco.

Our garden to glass cocktail list has quite few recent changes! Inspired by the same resplendent late summer produce as our menu, the Nightshade is a tomato martini of gin, tomato water, sun dried tomato, vermouth and shiso.

Should you prefer a boozier libation than wine, our garden to glass cocktail list is inspired by the same resplendent late summer produce as our menu. The Nightshade is a tomato martini of gin, tomato water, sun dried tomato, vermouth and shiso.

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Hope everyone is finding an icy treat or chilled drink to keep you cool during this unreasonably warm SF weather 🥵— we we be closed this evening but looking forward to re-opening tomorrow — make a res through the link in our bio to join us for our late summer menu.

We offer three bread courses at Nightbird to sate you — Choose your fighter!

1. Our supplemental cheese + bread course course comes with our gluten-free “adventure bread” made from nuts and seeds, honey from our friend ’s Mission hives, which has beautiful, distinct notes of fennel pollen and pink peppercorn) and a gossamer curl of Tete du Mois, an Alpine cheese of raw cow’s milk made by monks in the Swiss Jura mountains. We love to serve this dish on our plates inspired by best friend necklaces that fit together to form a whole.

2. Pillow-y Parker House rolls with yeasted butter are a staple of our menu. In the hours before service, the intoxicating smell of them baking perfumes the air of the restaurant. Made with a generous amount of butter and milk, the ingredients along with the fold over technique give these rolls their dreamily soft, rich interior and a light egg wash is responsible for their burnished, golden tops. We can’t imagine a Nightbird meal without them!

3. A petite Farro sourdough loaf with a richly flavored butter we make in house using cream.

Not that we would ever make you choose between the three (because we aren’t monsters), but out of curiosity, do you have a favorite of our bread courses?

We recently had the distinct pleasure of hosting an incredibly intimate dinner celebrating women in food and wine, featuring winemakers Alecia Moore and Alison Thomson speaking about the gorgeous bottles they are producing out of the Santa Ynez valley. Alecia chose five single varietals (Semillon, Graciano, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and Chef planned a special mid-summer menu to pair them with, featuring some of our favorite women producers like and . We are always so inspired to work with other rad ladies who are so passionate and knowledgeable about their craft and it was electrifying hearing Alecia’s journey into the oenological profession, from enthusiast to student to garagiste to vinyard steward and winemaker producing these special bottles. It was a truly magical night with so many close friends from the food and wine world— thank you to everyone who joined us and made this evening such a beautiful, jubilant party!

We are taking off the next week so our team can enjoy the summer. We will re-open next week on Wednesday the 27th. See ya then!

Can’t resist posting one more photo of this teeny elote of baby corn brushed with huitlacoche aioli, truffle salt and garnished with chive blossoms! This is the reflection course to our truffle and sweet corn agnolotti.

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