About Urban Tavern

The Three Faces of Urban Tavern

Gastropub Cuisine

Urban Tavern’s mission is as simple as its food is inventive: to incorporate fresh, seasonal ingredients—most of which come from sources within 100 miles of the kitchen—into its menu of reimagined American classics. The result: breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus with familiar dishes imbued with new twists and distinct flavors. The sausage-and-pretzel appetizer, for instance, promises a spicy grilled Caggiano beer sausage with sauerkraut and a housemade soft pretzel. The fish and chips dish features Pacific cod that’s battered in Anchor Steam, and is served with Yukon chips or cucumber-fennel slaw. The theme carries over into breakfast classics—in addition to a breakfast buffet, chefs prepare a rum-raisin french toast and frittatas with Laura Chenel goat cheese and red bliss potatoes.

Local Beer and Creative Cocktails

The Lounge at Urban Tavern is like the main restaurant’s laid-back little brother. The Lounge shares many of the same dishes as the main restaurant, plus pub snacks like eggplant sliders and spiced nuts, and features a bar stocked with Bay Area–brewers like Mad River and Pyramid Brewing. Mixologist Gerard Miller and his team, meanwhile, kick out specialty cocktails for the post-work or pre-theater crowd: there’s the Spanish Manhattan with Bulliet Bourbon, and the Pisco Fug Cutter, a blend of Meyers’s dark rum, orgeat liquor, and Harvey’s Bristol Cream spiced with muddled jalapeño. The Lounge also features California wines and desserts like the Valrhona chocolate pot de creme, which is made with toffee caramel, graham streusel, and toasted marshmallow.

Reclaimed Tree-Tables and Steel Horses

The first thing that will likely catch your eye is artist Doug Owen’s horse statue, a life-sized rendering constructed from welded tractor, motorcycle, and car parts. But a second glance around Urban Tavern’s dining room reveals the smaller details, which are equally as deliberate and artful. Donna Scala and Gensler Design channeled Urban Tavern’s green missive by using salvaged and reclaimed materials for the interior. The best example is the communal dining table, which was crafted from a fallen tree. But there’s also the reclaimed wooden ceiling beams, the exposed concrete, and the maple-topped bar, all of which echo the chefs’ abilities to re-imagine familiar cuisine as something new.