COCO5OO

(SoMa)
500 Brannan Street  
415-543-2222 Map it
www.coco500.com

$$$
California
business lunch, dine at the bar, good for groups, lunch, notable chef, notable wine list, romantic, take-out

SCENE: When chef Loretta Keller closed her beloved Bizou, she gave it a makeover with lots of blond wood and blue hues and then reopened it as Coco500. Well-coiffed couples and businessmen doing lunch come to sample Keller’s California-Mediterranean cuisine. Sit at an elevated table at the bar to get a better view of the scene.

EATS: Change is good, but sometimes the classics are better: Keller kept a few precious menu items from Bizou’s inventory, including the duck-liver terrine, the beef cheek and her light-as-air fried green beans. The understated menu has a little bit of something for everyone, with pastas and soups, wood oven–baked flatbreads and pizzas, items like prawns with heirloom peppers grilled “a la plancha” and “California dirt” vegetable sides such as braised rapini.