Black Cat Reopens with Live Jazz and Puerto Rican Flavor in the Tenderloin | Eater SF

"After being nearly dark for a year and a half, Black Cat finally reopened on August 4, 2021. When it first opened in 2016 it restored a century-old corner of the Tenderloin into a swanky space with a horseshoe bar on street level that descends into an intimate lounge serving jazz, cocktails, and supper-club plates. It was always a fun experience, although the opening menu drew a harsh SF Chronicle review with a cat-food allusion before the critic changed his tune a couple years later. Now the club has a whole new team — chef Yainiel Negró (from the Michelin-starred Commonwealth and Proper Hotel), bar lead Jason Moser, sommelier Eric Forbes, manager Olu Gartin, and partner Fritz Quattlebaum — and Negró has completely redone the menu to treat Californian ingredients with Caribbean island flavor. Standouts include burrata with seasonal produce, grilled ribeye with Romano beans and Nardello peppers, shrimp croquettes that riff on bacalao flavors (cured shrimp instead of salt cod and taro instead of yams, served in a roasted shrimp broth), halibut ceviche with chiles and avocado, pork pinchos with pique vinegar, and pork belly sliders on pan de leche buns, plus potato chips dusted with adobo. Moser is crafting riffs on jazz-classic cocktails as well as a “Mission Penicillin” (blanco tequila, mezcal, lemon, coconut honey, and ginger), Forbes will be pouring nearly a dozen grower Champagnes, and Gartin — after a decade at the Blue Note — is helping run a new residency program that keeps artists in for weeks at a time; hours are Wed–Thu 6 p.m.–midnight, Fri–Sat 6 p.m.–1:30 a.m., and Sun 6:30 p.m.–midnight." - Becky Duffett