The Vestry Restaurant The Chapel Mission | Tasting Table San Francisco

Much as we love the Fox or the Great American Music Hall, we wouldn't eat there when the stage is silent.

Not so with The Vestry: The newly launched food operation at the Chapel–formerly the site of a Mission mortuary–fills up particularly fast when there's a show next door, but is much more than a pre-concert stop.

The Vestry's executive chef, Matthew Colgan, also oversees the kitchen at longtime favorite À Côté in Oakland. So instead of bland burgers and dogs, Colgan and chef de cuisine Seamus Mackenzie are putting out ricotta-stuffed squash blossoms ($13) whose crisp, battered exteriors are no more than a millimeter thick, and chicory salads whose bitter crunch is offset with the season's first sweet persimmons ($10).

The food's what we San Franciscans might call unfussy–a few citrus-smacked seared scallops ($18) arranged around beet risotto, or slices of a righteously tender Alsatian sausage ($13) with roast potatoes and grainy mustard.

The bar at The Vestry
There are two seating options: gothic and picnic. Right now, the correct choice is the latter; on warm evenings the restaurant's fenced-in patio is a hive of conversation. After 10 p.m., the action shifts to the black-walled, moodily lit interior.

The restaurant takes reservations until 11:30 p.m. every night, so you can ignore the concert schedule altogether.

Just be sure to dress accordingly. (We'd recommend black.)