Inspired Imperfection: Cadillac Bar & Grill
Cadillac Bar & Grill, located at 44 9th Street, San Francisco, California 94103, offers guests deliciously authentic food prepared the same way it is prepared in Mexico — but we came for the puffy tacos and guacamole!
The San Francisco Cadillac Bar Restaurant can be traced back to the original Mexican Cadillac Bar which opened in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in 1926. In 1982, the concept came to San Francisco and opened with an authentic look and feel in the South of Market neighborhood. The menu was authentic, the house margaritas were always hand shaken, and when visiting, it felt like you were south of the border.
For years, the Cadillac was voted the best Mexican food restaurant in San Francisco. Unfortunately, in 1999 the restaurant was forced to close due to the expansion of the Moscone Convention Center. Luckily, in 2012, one of the original founding partners revived the Cadillac Bar and Grill with the goal of recreating the Mexican restaurant with the same feel and look of its famous predecessor.
WE LOVED THE CADILLAC!
Our server was attentive, friendly, and fun, and he really took our experience over the top.
A Mariachi band wandered the restaurant while we ate, without stunting our conversation.
The puffy tacos are to die for. They are everything you want them to be. The fajitas were fantastic. The guacamole was fresh and full of flavor. The empanadas… OMG, you have to try them!
All of us want to come back with our families and I have recommended the restaurant to several friends. It was the perfect place to enjoy a great meal before heading over to the Orpheum. Because the Cadillac Bar & Grill and the Orpheum are close together, we walked to the theater after dinner, which helped settle our food (because we all ate way too much).
Photos: John Storey
The Cadillac was always a party. The rollicking, margarita-fueled Mexican restaurant and bar originally opened more than three decades ago in a SoMa alley, but closed in 1999 to make room for the Moscone expansion.
Now, the Cadillac is back, 16 years after it went dark.
One of the three partners in the original, Michael Rodriguez, returned to open a 21st century version on the ground floor of the Twitter building.
The Deco building, one of the most prominent symbols of the San Francisco tech culture, is an apropos setting for the resurrected restaurant. Like the original version — a barebones warehouse — it’s a large 8,000-square-foot space with concrete floors, unfinished ceilings and a bar that dominates the room.
I’m sure Rodriguez hopes this will become a center of drinking culture, much as it once was. Even though the Cadillac never had the best Mexican food in the city, it always promoted a bustling atmosphere, thanks in large part to pretty good margaritas.
Yet things have changed dramatically in the last decade or so, and the Cadillac has adapted. While it shadows the ghost of the original, the look of the massive space, which has seating for more than 250, is a cleaned-up rendition, and the menu has a fresher touch. It’s clear that Rodriguez, who doubles as executive chef, cares about what’s coming out of the kitchen.
Gone are the tacos and tamales that used to be the backbone of the menu, although the puffy tacos ($12-$14 for two), made famous at the ’80s version, have a place of honor on the menu. The bready folded masa pockets are filled with fish, turkey chorizo, carnitas, fajitas or grilled vegetables. While they are very good, they now pale by other things on the menu crafted by chef Kelvin Ott.
The crowd continues to be fueled by margaritas, professionally made by bartenders in bow ties and white jackets behind the 50-foot bar. The house margarita is $6 with Sauza Gold Tequila and a fresh lime mix; and the Cadillac margarita is $10 for Arette Reposado Tequila with Grand Marnier and Cointreau.
Both the chips and guacamole ($8) are exemplary. So is the ceviche ($11) with chunks of halibut, rock fish or whatever is fresh blended with citrus and precise dices of tomatoes that actually taste vine-ripened.
The food, in fact, offers a big upgrade on such items as grilled snapper Veracruzano ($18) that I’d put up against just about any preparation in the city. The smoky fish is accompanied by a fluffy mound of seasoned rice and half-moons of grilled squash. The fajitas are also carefully grilled over mesquite; the steak comes out crusted and just cooked through ($14 for half-pound/$24 for a pound), as does the chicken, which is the same price. Both are cut into strips and tossed with sautéed onions and served with rice, beans, guacamole and steamy tortillas.
I was reminded of Zuni Cafe when taking the first bite of the whole-leaf Caesar salad ($8) with its creamy dressing and shavings of Parmesan cheese. The image of that restaurant emerged again with the whole mesquite grilled chicken ($28), which comes with excellent beans, rice, tortillas, guacamole and pico de gallo.
Sure, a few items are reminiscent of the old place, such as the greasy, gooey queso Flameado ($9), but even this melted-cheese concoction nods to the current era. It’s made with turkey rather than the traditional chorizo.
Rodriguez could have settled for a knockoff and probably done just fine, but he didn’t. The service is so caring it borders on solicitous and the waiters know the menu and what’s behind the bar. They are quick to split salads and even the spicy, rich posole ($12) without asking once they realize the table is dining family-style.
Still I wonder if the restaurant will capture the same cult status it had in its heyday more than a dozen years ago. The first iPhone wasn’t even produced until eight years after the original Cadillac closed, and most of the employees who work for Twitter were years from legally having their first margarita.
However, with its reasonable prices, convivial atmosphere and upgraded food, I have a feeling a lot of workers in the area will be stopping by and creating a party for a new generation. After all, when was the last time you saw a $6 margarita?
Cadillac Bar & Grill voted OpenTable#LocalDinerChoice San Francisco local pick this month!