When Boulettes Larder closed its doors last summer for a remodel and an expansion, we were nervous. The small restaurant in San Francisco's Ferry Building overlooking the Bay Bridge served breakfast, lunch, and the best private dinners around, and had become a Remodelista hang out. We need not have worried. Boulettes Larder soon reopened, a smarter, reincarnated version of itself, with a larger, all-day dining offshoot, Bouli Bar, right next door.
For the renovation, restaurant chef-owners Amaryll Schwertner and Lori Regis enlisted San Francisco- and London-based architecture firm Kallos Turin. Schwertner, who trained in neuroscience before shifting to the culinary world, is known for intellectual rigor in her approach to food. “From the start of my career I wove every interest I had into food," she says. "That has allowed for a deeply personal voice to emerge in my cooking. I see all the elements of the environment I work in as critical tools in the endeavor for a distinctive voice.” Kallos Turin was able to complement Schwertner's approach with a design that employs a limited, yet elegant palette of timeless materials reduced to a simple design that adds a welcome note of glamour to the Ferry Building.
Photography by Mariko Reed.
Above: A palette of American white oak, bronze, and black forms the Bouli Bar backdrop, overlaid with the rich texture of a beaded bronze curtain.
Above L: An American white oak table with a brass base stands before built-in seating with pillows of black Mongolian lamb under a black smoked mirror. Above R: The beaded bronze curtain is made from a brass ball chains; it lends a formal element to the dining room and screens it from Ferry Building shoppers.
Above: The dining tables, bars, cabinetry, and wainscoting were all crafted in American white oak. The black ceiling is punctuated by a selection of black and brass Tom Dixon Beat Pendant lights, providing a counterpoint to the black Hans Wegner dining chairs. The large smoked mirror adds a moody note to the space.
Above L: The naval bronze wood-burning hearth is shared by both Boulette's Larder and Bouli Bar as part of a communal kitchen. Above R: The counters are made from naval bronze and terrazzo.
Above: A dining room, organized as if it were a stage set, is located at the entry to the restaurant; its communal table is illuminated by oversized Tom Dixon Beat Pendants. For more details, visit Bouli Bar.
To discover another Bay Area chef who's a former neuropsychologist, check out our post on Sir and Star. For more of our Bay Area haunts, see our San Francisco City Guide and have a look at Gardenista's San Francisco posts here, including Go Directly to Jail to Tour the Gardens.