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True Laurel

San Francisco

• Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2024

New Entry

You’ll find True Laurel in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District: a cozy but buzzy cocktail destination with two bars, indoor tables and outdoor patio dining. Chef David Barzelay’s dinner and brunch menus filled with stellar bar food complement bar director’s Nicolas Torres’s creative cocktail menu in their conjoined sophomore effort after two Michelin-starred Lazy Bear. The science-forward selection of complex drinks incorporates local flora you didn’t know existed, whether that’s overgrown weeds, foraged conifers or root vegetables from local farmers.

Its menu, which is full of visually stunning and often crystal-clear cocktails, changes day-to-day due to the hyper-seasonality of its ingredients. Expect to find creations made out of unique applications such as honey ferment, pine cone distillate, cinnamon-Meyer lemon cordial and California bay tincture. Hardly anything goes wasted here, with seeds and peels factored into the drinks and providing nuanced notes on the palate – just a few of the reasons the bar was bestowed the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2024. Service is warm and knowledgeable but not overbearing, with just the right amount of background knowledge imparted with each dish and drink. Reservations are also available, including tasting bar takeovers where parties of six to ten get the entire bar to themselves for two hours. Enjoy each glass within the confines of an artfully crafted space, where every component has been custom designed to make locals feel right at home as much as they are intended to make visitors feel as though they’ve stepped into a true cocktail destination.

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