I would like to hereby welcome one of North Beach’s most recent additions to the restaurant scene: The Square Bar & Kitchen. Just across the street from Washington Square Park (see what they did there?), and taking the place of the former Bottle Cap (and even more former Washington Square Bar & Grill), The Square opened in March of this year serving upscale, creative takes on classic American dishes.

The Square is the latest creation of Teague Moriarty and Matt McNamara, owners of Sons & Daughters on Bush ($98 tasting menu, no a la carte options) and Sweet Woodruff on Sutter (20-seat casual counter service and take-out only). The food at The Square appears to fit squarely in the middle of their other two restaurants, offering upscale a la carte dining with a full bar and lounge.

Two awesome things about The Square:

1. The Farm: The owners run an 83-acre farm in the Santa Cruz mountains — Dark Hill Farm — from which they source as much of their food as possible for all three of their restaurants. This farm is not open to the public, nor does it sell to any other restaurants or stores. Talk about local — I’m certainly impressed by their dedication.
2. Open Late: If you’re not feeling so philosophical about where your food comes from, what it all means, and double rainbows, you might just be looking for a place to eat in North Beach around, say, 11pm. You’ll notice that your choices start to slim down rapidly as the moon shines on, but The Square offers food until midnight and bevs until 1am every night.

I’ve now been twice for dinner and both times the service was impeccable, the drinks were great, and the food was worth writing blogs about. It’s not cheap — the bill for two people was around $130 both times — but it’s definitely worth it. You could easily cut back on drinks and dessert to get the price down (we got an appetizer or two, two meals, dessert, and two drinks each… we weren’t exactly feeling thrifty).

The menu appears to change often, with some classics staying on all the time. Also, the facility is relatively large for SF — a 90-seat dining room goes a long way on a busy night. AND, they now serve brunch on weekends (score!) and have a good happy hour from 3-6pm every day. So. There’s obviously something here for pretty much anyone, anytime, even all you squares out there.

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