Opening of Magnolia Dogpatch!
Passers-by in Dogpatch have probably noticed that Magnolia’s Smokestack location has paper up in the windows, busy crews of workers coming and going, and a general air of mystery about just what’s going on there. The place is closed, it’s true, for the next couple of months anyway, as we refurbish the restaurant space and its concept, convert a loading dock area into an indoor beer garden, and prepare to embark on annexing and constructing an additional 5000 or so square feet next door along 3rd Street. I know that’s a lot to chew on, so let’s take these things one at a time…
First the restaurant. For the past few years, Smokestack has been turning out delicious barbecue for Dogpatch visitors and residents, as well as running Magnolia’s production-scale brewery behind the scenes for local draft and canned beer. The new restaurant will be less limiting in concept, and will be geared more for hanging out and enjoying a drink or a couple of beers while tucking into food geared more along the lines of what the Magnolia’s Haight Street pub provides, along with some more involved dishes for a more dining-committed experience. The bar area will remain essentially the same, but we’ve taken some liberties with the coming look and feel of the place, as well as the introduction of friendlier and more navigable table service. At the pub, chef Roque Mendoza has done a brilliant job putting fabulous pub food in front of Haight Street beer drinkers, especially recently as he’s been called upon to pair his wares up with a pretty interesting array of new beers. He’ll be working with Magnolia Dogpatch’s new chef to bring the best of the Magnolia ethos to a rapidly changing neighborhood in the City.
Speaking of which, a lot of our changes are tied to what’s happening in the bigger Dogpatch picture, changes bringing the Golden State Warriors to their new arena a scant six blocks up the street, the mega-development of the pier 70 area, the fleshing out of the massive UCSF hospital complex, as well as the proliferation of construction cranes gradually providing the area with thousands of new residential units. We’ll need to be ready for all these people coming into the neighborhood, with the mentioned alterations to the Dogpatch restaurant and the conversion of the loading dock off 22nd Street (which within a year or so will be converted to a park fronting various new businesses in the American Industrial Center complex) into an indoor beer garden where patrons can sit at long tables or on permanently installed bleachers while watching a game or simply hanging out. Yes, there will be a TV—table service and a TV, along with delicious cocktails and a full lineup of interesting and innovative beers.
Many will remember some of the verbiage included in the announcements covering the takeover of Magnolia back in October by me, New Belgium and Oud Beersel, in which we described some of the brewing and blending projects yet to come. The event space we’ll be building out after all the abovementioned projects are completed is where we’ll be putting the coolship and foeders for spontaneous fermentation, aging and blending, as well as a space for events we trust will become one of the most sought-after in San Francisco. We’re calling this phase three, since it won’t really get underway until after we’ve pretty much completed the restaurant and beer garden projects.
So there you have it. We hope you’ll bear with us as we undertake all this exciting new renovation and re-expression of the Magnolia brand, responsive to and in anticipation of the changes to the essence of its neighborhoods. We’re having a great time bringing out new beers and giving Magnolia’s loyal customers an ongoing reason to stay in touch, and to raise a pint, etc., as we collectively figure out how we all want to take it further.