Chef's Culinary Journey at Frances

On a quiet edge of the Castro, Frances is the kind of restaurant that feels like it has always been there. The intimate dining room carries a warmth that is genuinely personal: Chef Melissa Perello named it after her grandmother, and the tribute runs deeper than sentiment—her mother sewed the staff aprons and dining room pillows. This is a place built with care from the inside out, and you feel it the moment you sit down.

Perello's path to Frances was a long and distinguished one; from Michael Mina's Aqua to executive chef at Charles Nob Hill, where she earned early national recognition, to the Fifth Floor, where she led the restaurant to a Michelin star in 2006. After a deliberate step back to travel and reconnect with what she loved about cooking, she returned with something entirely her own. Frances opened in 2009, earned a Michelin star, a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant, and was named one of Bon Appétit's ten best new restaurants in America. None of it felt like a surprise to anyone who had eaten there. 

The ultra-seasonal tasting menu is served family style and combines exceptional Californian produce with a Mediterranean sensibility: rustic in spirit, precise in execution, and refreshingly free of culinary theatrics. The menu spotlights the best local and seasonal ingredients from nearby farms and markets, guided by a chef who has always believed that great food is about honesty rather than spectacle.

This experience does not include beverages.