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San Francisco's Clift Hotel Closes French Room
The ornate French Room at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco has closed for at least 14 months while the new owners decide how to refurbish it. Meanwhile, the restaurant's Grand Award-winning wine list and a few dining tables have been installed in the Redwood Room bar next door.
The Clift was acquired last May by Ian Schrager Hotels, which is planning some changes at the property. Schrager, the creator of New York's famed Studio 54 nightclub in the 1970s, now owns and manages trendy boutique hotels such as the Royalton in New York, Miami Beach's Delano and Mondrian in Los Angeles.
Currently, the Clift is serving a brasserie-inspired menu in the Redwood Room, an art deco palace with polished redwood-paneled walls, 20-foot ceilings, ziggurat chandeliers and two framed Gustav Klimt prints at opposite ends of the elaborate bar. The wine collection -- some 550 selections, emphasizing California and Bordeaux -- is still available there.
The list, however, is in a state of suspension until the fate of the French Room is decided. Currently, the dining area is being used only for private parties. General manager Sileshi Mengeste said that refurbishing the French Room would wait until a renovation of the hotel's guest rooms is completed, in about a year. He commented, "We'll decide in about six months what kind of restaurant we want it to be, and focus the wine list accordingly."
For background on the French Room:
October 15, 1996
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