Warriors bad boy Draymond Green is getting into the restaurant game for the first time, and he's partnered with two well-known East Bay chefs to create a restaurant that celebrates "Black culture in San Francisco."
News arrived Monday, first via the Chronicle, that Green is helping to open Meski, a new restaurant fusing the cuisines of Ethiopia, Dominican Republic, and the Afro-Latino Caribbean, opening March 7. It's an offshoot, of sorts, of 33-year-old Meskie’s Ethiopia Restaurant in Berkeley, and it will be a collaboration between Meski's chef-owner Guma Fassil, and Nelson German, the Top Chef Season 18 contestant and owner of Sobre Mesa and alaMar Kitchen & Bar in Oakland.
While Green is a primary backer, Fassil will serve as managing partner, and German serve as executive chef-partner in charge of building the menus and kitchen team. The name Meski is a tribute to Fassil's mother, the longtime chef and founder of the Berkeley restaurant.
As Green and the chefs tell the paper, they had initially been hunting for space in Oakland, but they settled on the two-level former Members Only/Finders Keepers space at 1000 Larkin Street — also known, pre-pandemic, as The Saratoga, a high-end steakhouse.
Speaking of San Francisco, Green says, "We don’t have many footprints in the sand here when you talk about taking in Black culture," and he and the two partners say they want to create a fun, inviting, and relaxing vibe at Meski.
As German adds, speaking to the Chronicle, "The city is turning around and we want to be part of that trend and innovation — honoring foods that have been unrepresented for years, especially in San Francisco."
The ground-floor, upstairs area of Meski will be the main dining room and bar of the restaurant, while the downstairs will become a lounge with TV screens for showing sports. DJ's will set the tone, playing Afrobeat, amapiano, and R&B music.
The menu will feature dishes that mix the flavors of the Caribbean, and the Dominican cuisine of German's heritage, with the flavors of Ethiopia. German points to a Dominican steak encebollado, a stew his mother made, that is reminiscent of beef tibs, and will be served here with Ethiopian misir wot (spiced red lentils), and a Caribbean XO sauce.
A large-format T-bone steak will be coated in a berbere-coffee rub, and served with chile-glazed plantains and pigeon peas. Sambusas, Ethiopia's version of the samosa (and not unlike an empanada), will be served here filled with either lentils or berbere-spiced beef.
Drinks will also get Ethiopian-Caribbean twists, like an espresso martini made with Dominican spiced rum, Ethiopian coffee, espresso liqueur, and cinnamon-plantain syrup.
A remodel is already nearing completion — the SF Business Times picked up on the liquor license activity and new name of the place back in mid-December — and the team plans to open the first weekend in March.
Dinner will be served 5 pm to 11 pm, and until midnight on weekends, and brunch hours and a brunch menu will be announced at a later date. See their Instagram for updates.
Top image from the former Members Only
