People open restaurants for lots of reasons. Certainly some do it because the thing they love the most in the world is food, others probably do it just because they can’t think of anything else they’d rather do. I once knew a guy who, I thought, opened a big fancy restaurant because he wanted to be around different pretty women all the time.

I opened a restaurant for a few reasons, but one of them trumps all the rest by a pretty wide margin. The greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life is to collaborate creatively with other people—nothing has ever given me more joy, and I’m tempted to say that no circumstances have ever drawn better work out of me.

I’ve already been lucky, in seven short months, to have worked with extraordinary artisans of different kinds. After I decided on gnocchi with black truffles as a dish for our New Year’s Eve menu, our new sous chef, Erin Cochran, promptly (the next night) made handmade pappardelle noodles for the staff, at least partially (I thought) to show me how great her pasta is. (It is very great, and it’s on the menu now.) Sara Bissonnette, who was one of the first people I hired, surprised me at brunch (as she has consistently for seven months) on Saturday with fresh-baked pumpkin bread and persimmon jam. Our service staff regularly beats me to the punch in implementing service improvements, brainstorming about special events, designing wreaths for the front doors.

Then of course there are the wine salespeople who call to say they have something wonderful and special open and can they bring it by the restaurant, and our superb produce purveyor, who every week reminds us that seasons change and tips us off to the flavors that will be peaking soon. And this is to say nothing of the team that put the place together in the first place—the plumbers and electricians, my engineer landlord, my friend Kevin who envisioned the soffit over the kitchen, my friend Adam who proudly walked out of a salvage yard holding our wall sconces.

One of the greatest events of the development stage of this restaurant was my mother’s discovery of the woman who produces our centerpiece flower arrangement every week. My mom I think was having restless nights as she tried to envision our progress from 3,000 miles away, and as is her habit, hit the nail on the head when she announced that she had found someone to design an arrangement for our opening and maybe beyond. She had been poking around on the internet and had found something spectacular.

What she found was a woman named Pat Miller, who owns a company called A Bed of Roses (www.abedofrosessf.com), which it turned out is located not very far from Heirloom in the Mission. Pat took one look at our almost-ready dining room in mid-April and seemed, right on the spot, to thrill to the idea of building an arrangement to suit the room. A day or two later, something unspeakably beautiful arrived at our door—I’m hesitant to describe it in worldly terms—which looked like something out of Lewis Carroll. I half expected a four-inch troll to jump out from behind one of the stems.

In the seven months since then, Pat has turned out one gorgeous arrangement after another for us, every one as or more stunning than the last. And every time we receive the new week’s delivery, I can’t help but feel like she has us in mind when she constructs these works of art. She possesses buckets of talent of course—any of you (or all of you) who have seen these arrangements know that; but what amazes me is the sense I always have when I see these things that they all just seem to fit our aesthetic here. Her work each and every week is breathtaking and inspired, and we wouldn’t be exactly whole, as I think we have been, without her wonderful sensibility.

There are so many moving pieces to so many of our endeavors, and I think one of the reasons I’ve always loved restaurants is because they, in particular, present opportunities everywhere to think creatively and deliciously about better ways to do things.

Which reminds me, our New Year’s Eve menu is now posted on our website (www.heirloom-sf.com) for your convenient perusal, and we still have space for both our early and late seatings. The jazz starts at 8:30. We’re also beginning to test menu items for the New Year’s menu and for January. This week we’ll be serving leg of lamb from Cattail Creek Farms in Oregon, Dungeness crab salad with brioche croutons and meyer lemon, and handmade pappardelle with braised pork, Tuscan kale and red wine.

I also want to mention again that we will be closed from New Year’s Day until January 11th.

Happy Holidays, best wishes for a festive and healthy season,

Matt

I needed an affordable arrangement for my boss who was home recovering from surgery. Two days later, we got a call. The flowers had been delivered, and were greatly appreciated and admired.

I hope to make some vessels someday for Pat to fill with flowers!

Thanks Pat!!!

– Scott Montgomery, Geographic Expeditions

They deliver so if you are even considering ordering flowers over the internet for someone in the San Francisco area, forget it – call Pat instead. For about the same price, you will get a bouquet that is tens times better. Couple a treat from here with a dinner at Parcel 104 and you could get yourself one heck of a “get out of jail free” card with your honey.

IanS.
San Jose, CA
via Yelp

Adam Barnum

Wendy

Every detail is masterfully executed, creating combinations that challenge color, texture, space, line, and tantalizing all of the senses. You don’t get that from just any florist.

Joel Hendler, Hendler Design