Thanks to openings like the Japanese bathhouse and tea room, Onsen, the gritty-around-the-edges Tenderloin may be San Francisco’s fastest changing nabe – and it finally has a hotel that it deserves. The 1928-built Mark Twain Hotel has undergone a top-to-bottom transformation to be reborn as the Tilden.
Brooklyn-based design firm Studio Tack has imbued the 118-room hotel with minimalist lines, natural textures, warm wood surfaces, and plenty of Californian sunlight. Simplicity in layout and furniture design provides a sense of calm in the heart of the city, just steps from Union Square.
Also on site is the Douglas Room, a new watering hole by local nightlife impresarios Mo Hodges and Brian Felley, whose two-year-old bar Benjamin Cooper elevated the Tenderloin’s nightlife option. Expect concoctions like La Di Da Di (vodka, ginger beer, grapefruit cordial, and black lava salt served in a metal cup) and a highball spiced with cardamom and basil.
The drinks menu is complemented by bar bites like charred eggplants paired with shishito peppers, pork and rabbit terrine, and roasted carrots and fennel topped with labneh. No worries if you stay out too late – the hotel’s curbside café serves strong brews by Equator Coffee.
