Step Into a Moody, Presidio Eucalyptus Grove at Prelude in the Financial District (2024)

Walk up to the Jay hotel, where the upcoming fine dining restaurant Prelude is set to open on Tuesday, August 20, and you’ll most likely be struck by the Brutalist architecture and the building’s gray, exposed concrete and sharp angles. However, step inside the new first-floor restaurant, and diners are whisked away to the eucalyptus groves of the Presidio; it’s a space that feels divorced from the outside or, at least, a respite from the raw concrete exterior. The decor serves as background to chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones’s fine dining approach to Southern grandma fare. “We gravitated to a very elevated, sort of moody space,” says Sergio Mondragon, design lead at AvroKO. “We really wanted to honor California, San Francisco, and the Bay, with the eucalyptus grove area in the Presidio.”

Hendrickson-Jones hails from California, but he grew up cooking with his mother and grandmother in Alabama and learning their recipes. Sunday dinners were filled with fried chicken and creamed corn; Christmas always featured a big pot of gumbo.

With Prelude, Hendrickson-Jones takes a mix of the family recipes he learned and the larger lexicon of Southern cooking, and combines that with his experience working at Niku Steakhouse, two-Michelin-starred Commis, and Morimoto. Think cornbread financiers with cultured Hokkaido uni butter. There’s also the chef’s take on the humble dish of grits, an item the young chef says won’t leave the a la carte menu and will be a staple of the prix fixe. The Prelude version currently uses Tierra Farm hominy grits and pairs it with crispy country ham; shrimp pickled in Aleppo pepper, Champagne, apple cider vinegar, and herbs; pickled and preserved vegetables from the larder; cultured butter; and a gravy made with the shrimp shells and head. “I always like to bring that [Southern] influence in subtly wherever I can,” Hendrickson-Jones says. “This was a fun challenge for me to kind of look at this through the guise of using California agriculture — the fine dining scene already exists here, but I’m trying to be something that’s decidedly a little bit different and unique.”

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

AvroKO put its stamp on the Jay’s other spaces, including Prelude’s sister restaurant, the Third Floor. But Prelude was a chance to break from the rest of the hotel. Mondragon and another co-worker hiked the Presidio for design inspiration. Now, those elements come through in small and big ways. Eucalyptus wood is present throughout the space — a lesser-used wood comparatively to oak or walnut, but one that Mondragon says has “really beautiful movement” and shine, with a glossy effect on the surface. The custom carpet is meant to mimic the floor of the eucalyptus grove, with its dry, sage green leaves strewn about, while the lighting is inspired by the seed pods of the flora of eucalyptus, Mondragon says. “The lighting is the jewelry [of the room], so we wanted to really get this right and we put a lot of attention in and a lot of time — that was the most important piece.”

While the eucalyptus wood is a common factor in the main dining room, lounge, and two private rooms, they each have a vibe and mood. Look towards the lounge ceiling and the gold plaster is meant to create a glistening light effect, much like the sunlight under the eucalyptus canopies, Mondragon says. In the main dining room, a stained glass artist from Los Angeles designed the glass panels to look like leaf structures. Thoughtful touches like this bring the space together. “A lot of restaurant spaces feel too casual in San Francisco, which I love,” Mondragon says, “but I think this restaurant is going to shine because it has a different caliber, a different category of elevated experience. So I think that’s going to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd.”

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Much like how AvroKO is looking for its restaurant design to stand out from the pack, in the crowded fine dining field of San Francisco, Hendrickson-Jones looks to make waves of his own. “Starting a new project to this scale and breaking into the fine dining scene that’s very well established here in the Bay Area, you have to be a disruptor or a differentiator in some way,” Hendrickson-Jones says. “I think that stepping away from California seafood restaurants or Asian fusion flavors is my way of doing that, my way of saying, ‘Here I am, and I’m offering something different than everyone else.’ This might not be for everybody, but hopefully, it’s for enough of you that we are a success.”

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Get up close and personal with the bread pudding.

Adahlia Cole/Prelude

Prelude, inside the Jay, Autograph Collection (433 Clay Street), debuts Tuesday, August 20; reservations are available on Opentable.

Prelude Sample Menu Prix Fixe & Salon