Workers at Wayfare Tavern are planning to make the most of the time they have left in their historic four-story building on Sacramento Street by opening up seldom-seen floors for two upcoming holiday events. The restaurant — which has earned a reputation for its classic aesthetic and sophisticated takes on familiar American mainstays ever since it first opened up 15 years ago in San Francisco’s Financial District — is getting ready to relocate early next year . In the meantime, Wayfare has temporarily converted its fourth-floor bar, the Sequoia, into a pop-up speakeasy featuring holiday-inspired cocktails for an ongoing event that will run through the weekend to Monday.
Then on New Year’s Eve, all four floors will be dedicated to a ticketed party for attendees to ring in the New Year with dinner, drinks and dancing. “We just want to show people a really good time,” said Andrea Boyd, the restaurant’s director of sales and events. The events will cap off a storied run at the Sacramento Street location.
Not long after celebrity chef Tyler Florence first opened Wayfare in 2010 , the restaurant won plaudits for its upscale yet accessible fare that hearkens back to the local cuisine of early-20th-century San Francisco. That includes its well-known fried chicken and baked macaroni dishes. The restaurant’s interior decor — including its William Morris wallpaper — also takes inspiration from the time period when the neighborhood was referred to as the Barbary Coast.
