Historic North Beach is the scene of San Francisco’s best comeback story of 2024.

Once upon a time, way back in 2011, restaurateur and owner of Marlowe and The Cavalier, James Nicholas, opened Park Tavern on Washington Square.

With its iconic location, spacious interior and excellent food, it became a neighborhood anchor almost overnight. Within a year, Park Tavern had nabbed a James Beard nomination for best new restaurant.

It wasn’t to the pandemic that Park Tavern fell a little over a decade later. It actually weathered that storm fairly well, reopening after a temporary closure and staying that way for awhile. Then, last December, when an eviction notice for unpaid back rent hit the restaurant hard, Park Tavern closed for good—or so everyone thought.

Now, almost exactly a year later, the restaurant’s fortunes have reversed. Park Tavern hasn’t just reopened: With a major chef at its helm, a remastered look by designer du jour Jon de la Cruz, and a new bar program by Jeff Lyon of Third Rail, it has reawakened with a vitality that would impress even its 2011 self.

The refreshed bar at Park Tavern.(Robert Gomez)

Park Tavern is still quiet when I take a seat in the dining room on an early Saturday evening about a week after it resumes business at the corner of Stockton and Filbert Streets—but it won’t be for long. The slow trickle of early diners and happy hour partakers soon swells to a rapid stream, locals and tourists all swirling together in the beautifully refreshed space.

Award-winning designer Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID put the look together but, according to him, it was more a process of restoring the restaurant’s “evergreen” origins than redesigning it. The hexagonal white tiles that formerly lined the floor have been upgraded with more dramatic color and a punchier design; the black subway tiles that plastered its columns are now shiny and blue-grey, and extend from the bar all the way to the kitchen. There’s reportedly 12,000 pounds of them altogether.

Of Park Tavern’s 180 seats, a dozen peer over the chef’s counter into the open kitchen. Cozy booths with leather banquets frame the walls and corners, and a marble-topped communal counter runs parallel to the actual bar like its identical twin. Antlers, both in the dining room’s chandelier and in the bar, lend a touch of hunting-lodge chic and nod to the neighborhood’s history. Chef Waxman, says de la Cruz, knew exactly how he wanted it all to look. The DLC-ID team just brought the vision to life.

Wood oven miyagi oysters at Park Tavern.(Robert Gomez)

Waxman wasn’t in the kitchen at Park Tavern 1.0. But while he's new to the restaurant, he isn’t new to the city or, for that matter, to Nicholas, its owner. The two homegrown Bay Areans are longtime friends. Best known as a Chez Panisse alum and for his New York restaurants Barbuto and Jams, Park Tavern is the first opportunity James Beard’s “Best Chef in New York City” has had to return to his roots since the closure of his two Ghirardelli Square restaurants in 2017.

Several of the dishes on the Cal-Italian menu traveled with Waxman from his current New York digs. It’s with his signature red pepper pancakes, tangy blinis topped with morsels of smoked salmon, trout roe, and creme fraiche, and lathered in beurre blanc that my meal begins. I pair them with wood-oven grilled Miyagi oysters dressed in tequila, chili, and butter and a margarita that features Waxman’s bright, housemade orange cordial—one of 10 house cocktails that riff on classics, including the Bay Area’s own Martinez (gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino, bitters) and pisco punch (pisco, pineapple, pink peppercorn, lemon). They set a mood for the meal that, despite the impeccability of its ingredients, has the congenial, laidback feels you can only get from a neighborhood restaurant.

With Park Tavern’s new open fire broiler, Waxman prepares a crispier take on Barbuto’s signature roast chicken with salsa verde. It will be a menu mainstay along with seasonal Liberty duck and fish dishes. The current menu’s hook-and-line-caught black cod is a poster child for Waxman’s delicate touch, a simply prepared filet served with a lighter-than-air sorrel sauce through which the fish's natural succulence shines.

The recipe for JW chicken came with Waxman from his New York restaurant, Barbuto.(Robert Gomez)

Pasta will always have a place on Park Tavern’s menu, too. I try the shrimp scampi which, although it’s not exactly what I expect—the lobster sauce lends it more of a bisque flavor than a traditional garlic-and-white-wine one—is belly-warming on a cool night, deliciously accented with fresno chilis and shallots. The autumn vegetable Bolognese, which replaces meat with portobello mushrooms and root vegetables also sounds like it would have hit the spot.

Desserts are a mix-and-match of Italian classics like affogato (espresso and vanilla ice cream) and American comfort food like ice cream sandwiches (chocolate chip cookie, vanilla ice cream, chocolate dip). Leaning into Waxman’s seasonal strengths, I dig into the buttery pastry envelope of an apple-filled crostata topped with whipped cream. It’s sweet but not too sweet, warm but not too warm, a perfect paragon of autumn.

No doubt Waxman has other tricks up his sleeve that will capture winter, spring, and summer just as well. The first time around may have been good but for Park Tavern, but the second time’s a charm.

// Park Tavern is open for dinner nightly; 1652 Stockton St. (North Beach), parktavern-sf.com.

Park Tavern's refreshed dining room.(Robert Gomez)