At Olde Fashioned, at California and Polk, the Negroni comes in a flower-patterned ceramic teacup with a gold-enameled lip. Up the hill at Bruma, inside the Ritz-Carlton, the vodka sour called the Karl gets a garnish of floating bubbles made with a bubble gun. One drink costs $13 and the other about $32, yet both rooms were designed around the same idea.
Three of Nob Hill's 2026 hospitality openings set out to rebuild the drawing room of a Gilded Age or Victorian mansion. They have also said plainly that they want the people who live on the hill to come in. The Huntington Hotel came back in March, Bruma opened in October, and Olde Fashioned took over a longtime bar space on California Street the same month. Taken together, they give residents three versions of the same room at three very different prices.
The Huntington reopened the original clubhouse
The Huntington Hotel at 1075 California St. closed in 2020. It officially reopened on Sunday, March 1, 2026, under new owners and after a top-to-bottom renovation, ABC7 reported. Mayor Daniel Lurie came to the ribbon-cutting and told the station, "We're seeing it in Union Square. We're seeing it now up here on Nob Hill."
The Big Four restaurant came back with the hotel, in its 50th year. 7x7 reported that designer Ken Fulk kept the building's original Georgian plasterwork ceilings, boiserie wall panels and stained glass, then added dark mahogany, green velvet and oversized framed portraits. The dining room calls itself the "Officially Unofficial Club House." The name refers to the men the restaurant honors: Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, the railroad executives who built competing homes on what was then called California Hill.
The smaller room is the one that sets the pattern. Arabella's sits behind closed doors just past the lobby. According to the hotel, it hosts "a nightly cocktail party" with dim lighting and 25 seats, from 5 to 11 p.m. every evening. The Big Four is open daily for breakfast through dinner. The hotel's pages list slightly different hours for it, so check the restaurant's page before planning a late meal.
Bruma rebuilt the Ritz-Carlton's lounge as a mansion parlor
Seven months later, the Ritz-Carlton at 600 Stockton St. replaced its hotel bar, the Lounge, with Bruma, which opened October 12. The hotel's announcement says the design firm Fettle based the room on the parlors of Nob Hill's historic mansions, the Leland Stanford Mansion among them. The finished space has a custom mural of the neighborhood, a hand-etched back-bar mirror and the hotel's original fireplace, meant to read as "a grand residential parlor rather than a conventional hotel bar."
So the Huntington's Big Four honors those four men, and Bruma borrows from Stanford's own house. In the same announcement, general manager Nicholas McDermott called the room "an extension of the neighborhood itself" and invited "guests and locals alike." SFGATE pointed to the obstacle that line is aimed at. The 1909 building "doesn't always lure locals into the neighborhood," wrote travel editor Silas Valentino, who reported cocktails at about $32 a glass.
The weekly schedule suggests the hotel wants repeat visits from people who live nearby. According to the announcement, the regular events are:
- Golden Hour Aperitivo: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 6 p.m.
- Friday Night Live Jazz: Fridays, 7 to 10 p.m.
- Latin Fusion Band Saturdays: Saturdays, 7 to 10 p.m.
The 80-seat room is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Tables can be booked on the hotel's dining page. The Fall Harvest Afternoon Tea runs weekends through November 22. It costs $135 per guest before tax and gratuity, includes Veuve Clicquot Brut Rosé, and must be reserved 24 hours ahead.
Olde Fashioned brings the parlor down to $13
Farther west on California Street, at Polk, the same idea becomes a neighborhood bar. The space at 1548 California St. was Zhuzh, a small disco bar that closed on Pride Sunday. Before that it was Soda Popinski's, and in the 1960s it was a tavern called Traveler. Eric Passetti brought in Will Herrera, operating partner of the downtown listening bar Harlan Records, to remake it. Tablehopper notes that the two once worked together at Pesce, back when it was on Polk Street.
The design asks what a bar would look like if the Victorian era had never gone out of style. "We have an affinity for San Francisco's Victorians," Herrera told The San Francisco Standard. The bar's brass footrests came from Eddie Rickenbacker's, the downtown motorcycle bar that closed in 2019. In the back, vintage art, mirrors and maps hang salon-style. Herrera told Tablehopper he plans to honor San Francisco figures including Mary Ellen Pleasant, Julia Morgan and Maya Angelou.
Olde Fashioned has kept the parlor and dropped the cost. The menu has six classics, from a daiquiri to a Sazerac, plus three wines and four beers. House cocktails are $13, well drinks $10 and beers $8, according to Tablehopper. "The whole point is to eliminate the pretense of a prototypical cocktail bar," Herrera told the Standard. He also described the place to Tablehopper as "a neighborhood bar, a bar that actually understands them."
The bar is open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight. Its website says longer hours are coming. Tablehopper reports that the plan includes Sunday and Monday service, a 1:30 a.m. last call, and live jazz on the small corner stage where Zhuzh's DJ booth used to be.
Three parlors at three prices
| Room | Address | What sets it apart | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabella's at The Huntington | 1075 California St. | 25 seats behind closed doors off the lobby | Nightly, 5 to 11 p.m. |
| Bruma at the Ritz-Carlton | 600 Stockton St. | 80 seats, cocktails around $32 | Sun to Thu 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Fri and Sat to midnight |
| Olde Fashioned | 1548 California St. | House cocktails $13, beers $8 | Tue to Sat, 5 p.m. to midnight, expanding |
The hill's older rooms are still open too. Top of the Mark at 999 California St. opens at 4 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The Fairmont's Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar at 950 Mason St. is open Wednesday through Saturday evenings and seats both reservations and walk-ins. The hotel warns that buyouts can close it for a whole night.
The November calendar is set in the same kind of rooms
Most of this month's dated events on the hill take place in hotel lobbies, a hotel garden and the cathedral:
- November 6, 7 to 9 p.m.: Grace Cathedral hosts Steven Universe in Concert with the Sixth Station Trio and composers Aivi & Surasshu. Tickets are $25 to $50, and seating starts at 6:30 p.m.
- November 21, 11 a.m.: The Fairmont lights its life-sized Gingerbread House in the lobby, with the San Francisco Boys Chorus. The holiday Carousel Bar opens beside it the same day and runs through December 31, and the Balsam Hill Holiday Lane fills the Loggia hallway.
- November 26, noon to 7 p.m.: Thanksgiving buffet at the Fairmont's Laurel Court, $130.80 to $262.80 per person, reservations required.
- November 27 to 29, noon to 5 p.m.: The Fairmont's new Winter Rooftop Faire, an open-air market of local artisans in the hotel's Rooftop Garden. It returns December 18 to 20.
- November 30, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.: The Nob Hill Association holds its free Holiday Lighting Celebration in Huntington Park, with music, warm drinks and children's activities.
Of the five, the Huntington Park lighting on November 30 is the only one run by a neighborhood group, and it is free.
If you live on the hill and follow which rooms are opening, closing and changing hands, you are already tracking what shapes a block's character, and that is part of how I advise buyers and sellers here. I'm happy to talk through Nob Hill's buildings and blocks whenever you are ready. Let me guide you home. William Freeman
