Bradley Kilgore Opens Café Sebastian in San Francisco

Bradley Kilgore made his name in Miami, but the chef is now bringing his lauded cuisine to the West Coast.

Kilgore debuted on Thursday the all-day restaurant Café Sebastian at San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid. He’s partnered with the luxury developer SHVO to bring numerous concepts to the building, and his first opening highlights the region’s ingredients and flavors, with an emphasis on the in-house pastry program too.

In the morning, Café Sebastian will serve homemade pastries and breakfast sandwiches, with the standout being the restaurant’s babka, one of Kilgore’s favorite pastries, he said in a statement. Here, the historically Jewish baked good is presented in both sweet and savory preparations, with fillings like Parmesan and herb, jamon and queso, and cocoa-walnut praline. Kilgore’s team has also been testing out versions with figs, goat cheese, and pistachio, as well as mortadella, leeks, and Comté, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

For lunch, sandwiches abound on the restaurant’s own bread (whole wheat, milk bread, Parker House rolls, and sourdough from a decades-old starter that a friend of Kilgore’s took from the kitchen of a well-known California restaurant, the Chronicle noted). Baguettes will be stuffed with turkey, smoked gouda pimento, and piquillo peppers, or mortadella, cherry-apricot mostarda, and pistachio pistou. If you’re looking for something a little heartier, there are also plates like beef tartare toast with caper salsa verde and a half chicken with everything crust. In the evening, expect dishes such as an overnight lamb shank, cacio pepe tortellini, and baked sea scallops.

The 65-seat Café Sebastian is just one of several openings Kilgore has in the pipeline. In the coming weeks, he’ll debut MadLab Gelato & Kakigori, an extension of his wife’s former spot in Miami. Located within the Café Sebastian space but with a separate entrance, MadLab will focus on gelato and Japanese-style shaved ice, for which Kilgore has imported a machine from Tokyo, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote. The two desserts may be layered into a sundae with yuzu whipped cream, or topped with mochi macarons and pickled Fresno chile caramel.

Later, Kilgore will open the Italian-Japanese Ama, a slightly fancier restaurant but with dishes still served a la carte. That menu will include a bruschetta-like milk bread topped with umami butter, roasted tomato jam, dashi gel, and uni, plus pastas such as puttanesca agnolotti. Across the hall will be a back room where you can dine on Ama’s dishes, listen to live music, and play pinball.

San Francisco’s downtown dining scene took a hit during the pandemic. Kilgore is here to revive it—with the addition of three new hot spots in the center of the city.

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Click here to see all the images of Café Sebastian.