Bar Tartine's Closing, Motze's Opening
Major changes are happening in SF's Mission
There are major changes happening in San Francisco's Mission. After five-plus years, Bar Tartine chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns have announced that they are moving on and that the famed restaurant will close at the end of the year. The two have been focusing their energy on Motze, their new Japanese-inspired restaurant that opened yesterday just a few blocks away.
Motze is somewhere between a pop-up and a restaurant. The plan is to keep it open for just a year and a half, serving a $58 family style menu of dishes like black koji bread with salmon roe, house-made mung bean noodles and whole fish with nare porridge (which is akin to congee but made with a different variety of rice).
A year and a half is a very short lease for a restaurant, though in Houston, Underbelly's Chris Shepherd is working on a project that will change every year over five years.
Meanwhile, Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt, who recently opened Tartine Manufactory, will decide what goes into the Bar Tartine space next. So stay tuned.