With so many options for locals and visitors, the top of San Francisco’s Nob Hill is usually an area yielded to the out-of-town crowd who are equipped to spend their wads of money on overpriced cocktails and expensive, dated hotel rooms. There is one exception to that premise – the Big 4 Restaurant – a place so fine that locals will grin and bear a walk through the throng of Alcatraz t-shirts just to savor the experience.
This may be a sign of growing up. As a 20-something just beginning to discover all of the places people only told you about, a big night out on the town with a date was a sweet, super expensive Mai Tai at the Tonga Room – once the swimming pool of the Fairmont – or a cocktail served by the uninspired at the Top of the Mark (Hopkins) with it’s incredible, expansive view of The City.
Over time, however, a bar raining every 15 minutes or snobby service with tables near the busboy station just didn’t seem cool anymore. Imagine then a bar that is quintessential San Francisco: bartenders in tuxedo’s, a piano played with the same care as by Sam at Rick’s Cafe Americain, Martini’s perfectly constructed, a small bowl of nuts at each of the few stools at the bar or at each table, walls filled with memories of the old time San Francisco railroad era, and a perfect melding of marble, leather, brass and glass.
Sounds romantic? In every way. The Big 4 Restaurant sets at the bottom of the Huntington Hotel named for C.P. Huntington, a railroad magnate. The other “big four” railroad tycoons in San Francisco history -Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, and Mark Hopkins – inspired the restaurant’s name.
The bar has no view. But the lighting is marvelous, the din (even when the piano player is on break) is music to the ears and the layout, while small, is ideal except on the rare event that the bar is crowded.
A dress code seems self-enforced. I wouldn’t think of arriving without at least a sport coat, even in today’s casual world. Though seemingly built for the Martini, wines by the glass are excellent and the selection of single malts scotches are ample. And the bartender will not blink if you fancy a Rob Roy or a Sidecar.
I have visited the Big 4 with a small group or alone on many occasions and have always been afforded the same hospitality. In the back is a very underrated restaurant serving continental cuisine, no doubt suffering from high marks because of its hotel location although a hotel location doesn’t hurt Postrio or the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton.
The best place to park is in the back seat of a taxicab or limo. However, the Powell Street cable car line is just two blocks away and a nearby garage offers parking if your name is Rockefeller or Getty (or Huntington or Crocker…).
The Big 4 is a place that is ideal for the pre-dinner cocktail or the post-dinner wind down. It is not, however, for those that have just gotten off of the ferry from Alcatraz. D.M.