The Story
One cannot talk about San Francisco’s food scene without talking about the iconic Waterbar, sitting right next to the Bay Bridge.
Inspired by New York’s Grand Central Oyster Bar and designed as a restaurant for locals, Waterbar opened in January 2008, right as the subprime crisis made expensive dinners an easy cut. So the ever-resourceful team started daily dollar oysters. Seventeen years and plenty of inflation later, that oyster costs $1.50, still served daily.
Pete Sittnick
Pete Sittnick, Waterbar’s Managing Partner, and Rich Troiani, its General Manager, have worked together for forty years, including 13 at Waterbar. The waterfront location, just South of the Ferry Building, made for a natural seafood restaurant, at a time when most of the city’s seafood spots clustered around Fisherman’s Wharf, increasingly built for tourists.
Rich Troiani
Sustainability was baked in from day one, from the fishermen and farms Waterbar sources from to how it gives back to its community. Through the Oyster Give Back program and other initiatives, the restaurant has raised close to half a million dollars for children’s hospitals, food banks, schools, and marine centers.
As the story goes, Waterbar and its sister restaurant, EPIC Steak, were designed to evoke the city’s waterfront history after the 1906 earthquake, when San Francisco had no way to pump in water fast enough to stop the fires.The two buildings, designed by Pat Kuleto, and are a nod to that: one bringing water in from the Bay, the other as the pump house that would move it back out in case of another disaster. The two aquariums – holding 1,500 gallons of water each, stocked with fish you’d actually find out in the Bay, and cared for by staff from the California Academy of Sciences – are the cherry on the cake.
Upscale yet welcoming, come in jeans and a t-shirt or your most beautiful dress: you’ll fit right in either way. Most nights, the dining room is full of celebration: birthdays, anniversaries, or the occasional proposal. As Rich puts it, people come to Waterbar to celebrate life. Sitting around 287 guests inside and another 50 on the patio, with a staff of 120 keeping it all running, there is, indeed, plenty of life to celebrate.
On the Menu
Credit: Hardy Wilson
The menu centers on shellfish, oysters, and appetizers with seasonal tweaks, sourced directly from named boats and farms the team has worked with for decades.
Pete’s favorites lean local: West Coast king salmon and swordfish. Rich’s current pick is the whole dorade, served over charred green cabbage with a spicy sumac-yogurt sauce and chili oil.
My favorites: the plump oysters, the market salad, the iconic SF garlic noodles, and the dorade alongside a glass of Waterbar’s own Chenin Blanc.
Rich, a San Francisco native, born into the restaurant business, is bullish on SF’s comeback: the last year and a half brought record sales and a livelier Embarcadero, which he credits partly to a new mayor and a safer, cleaner city overall.
And we can’t agree more: it feels good to celebrate life at Waterbar. And before you leave, have a peek at the railings throughout the restaurant, subtly resembling fish fins.
MerciSF Rapid FireFavorite bakery: Favorite restaurant (besides his own): Pete: Boulevard, a neighbor, helmed daily by chef-owner Nancy Oakes since 25 years. California cuisine with a French influence, and deeply soulful cooking.Rich: he’s drawn to small neighborhood spots What he’d miss most about California:Pete: access to nature: mountains, vineyards, water, all within reach. A kind of built-in meditation, especially useful working in a city full of intangible, screen-based industries.Rich: The beauty of the Bay, he’s found little else compares to what’s within an hour’s drive of San Francisco.One thing he wishes San Francisco had more of:Pete: later nights. The city tends to wind down by 10 or 10:30pm: he’d love to see more places stay open until 11pm or midnight. We hear you Pete!Rich: Not much, he considers SF as one of the best food cities anywhere to find a taste of home, whatever that means to you.
Waterbar, 399 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States – Opens every day. Happy Hour 2:30-5PM
EPIC Steak, 369 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States – Opens every day. Happy Hour Monday-Friday 4-6PM
Dining and Cooking