13 December 2019
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Ready or not, the Christmas holiday is fast approaching. Whether you're looking to give yourself the gift of not having to cook for your family, or merely looking for a spot that's open to fuel your impending Netflix binge, here are five restaurants that are open on Christmas Eve in the Bay Area.
Spruce
“Micro-seasonal and thoroughly Californian, Spruce spotlights cooking that’s both simple and undeniably elegant,” state MICHELIN inspectors of Mark Sullivan’s one-MICHELIN-starred restaurant in Laurel Heights. A four-course menu is on offer for Christmas Eve for $140 per person. (Add wine pairings for an additional $80.) Dishes include Little Farm potato vichyssoise with black trumpet mushrooms and Parmesan mousse; butter-poached pheasant with celeriac caramelle and sauce Allemande; 50-day dry-aged rib eye with truffled potato mousseline, Bloomsdale spinach and Bordelaise; and gingersnap pudding with salted caramel, whipped mascarpone and candied thyme.Pausa
Keep Christmas casual by hitting up Andrea Giuliani and Steve Ugur’s Bib Gourmand-designated eatery in San Mateo for wood-fired pizza. Start out the night with a lavish butcher’s board bedecked with various salumis (some of which are cured in-house) and cheeses before taking a deep dive into pizzas like salame Calabrese with tomatoes, housemade mozzarella, wild oregano, Calabrian chile pepper and garlic; or Gulf shrimp with buffalo mozzarella, butternut squash purée, celery root chips, sage and New Zealand spinach.Octavia
Melissa Perello is offering up a special four-course prix-fixe menu for $90 per person at her one-MICHELIN-starred haven in the lower Pacific Heights. Choose from cauliflower soup with compressed pear and Périgord truffle or winter panzanella with burrata, squash, kale and charred persimmon before moving onto squid ink tonnarelli with pancetta and Monterey Bay squid or coulotte of wagyu beef with leek and celery root gratin, Swiss chard and Port and Medjool date jus. The meal is capped off with devil's food cake served with nutmeg cream and Brandy-spiced white chocolate mousse, giving Santa's cookie tray a run for its money.Perbacco
“Slick financial types flex their expense accounts at this longtime Northern Italian retreat," state inspectors of Staffan Terje and Umberto Gibin's eatery in the Financial District. A special Festa dei Tartufi Bianchi tasting menu is currently available, with its final performance showing on Christmas Eve. Dishes include sformatino with warm celery root custard and Fontina cheese fonduta; raviolo all'uovo; and Occitan potato gnocchi with Castelmagno cheese fonduta. All dishes on the menu are served with five grams of white truffles shaved table-side.Michael Mina
A three-course menu is on offer at Michael Mina’s one-MICHELIN-starred flagship for $175 per person, with a beverage pairing available for an additional $135. Choose between starters like Stonington sea scallops with parsley root, kataifi and ocean herbal wash or roasted pumpkin soup with chestnut cream, persimmon and Périgord truffle before moving on to entrées like apicius-glazed Long Island duck with Medjool dates, quince and kumquat or Maine lobster pot pie with Périgord black truffle, winter vegetables and Cognac cream. Not in the mood for something sweet at the end of the meal? Not to worry—a Harbison cheese course with spiced walnut, honeycomb and wild herbs is yours for the taking.
