Bay AreaWaterfront Design

Waterfront Chic

Steven Smith: Bicontinental Man

Steven Smith, as Managing Partner of Lapis, is a man of many flavors. He’s also a man of many locales, currently maintaining homes in Bali and Marin.

Native San Franciscan Smith boasts an impressive restaurant pedigree, starting with the original Vanessi’s at Kearny and Broadway. But culinary adventurism took hold and next up was one of the first high-end Mexican eateries in the City, Pancho Villa in Pacific Heights.

Pancho Villa was successful enough to make possible a zig to Ibiza, Spain (where Smith managed a jet-setter nightclub called Glory) and then a zag back to San Francisco, where he opened Danseur in 1983.

That’s when Smith and his Balinese wife opted for a bicontinental lifestyle, shuttling between homes in Indonesia and California. Mellowed out, a contented family man and with nothing left to prove, the furthest thing from Smith’s mind was a return to the backbreaking schedule of running a top-flight restaurant.

But seduced back he was, by the business plan and personal charm of Seifi and Sheila Zaki, co-owners of Lapis. The inexpressibly beautiful setting of Lapis on San Francisco’s Embarcadero was just too much to resist.

When in Marin he commutes to Lapis by the Golden Gate Ferry, but Steve Smith wants to know: how about ferry service to Bali?
The Lapis culinary team, clockwise from rear; Executive Chef Thomas Ricci, Manager Matthew Fuhrmann, Wine Director Karla Kilgore and Managing Director Steven Smith

By Bobby Winston

The City of San Francisco, pioneer of tie-dye, the gay ghetto and environmentalism now brings you waterfront chic.

Once again, the City is at the cutting edge of a radical departure in how people live, work and play. The waterfront is "in", just starting to take off big-time, and there’s no better place to see this phenomena in action than at the beautiful new Lapis Restaurant at Pier 33.

Until quite recently, political leaders all around the Bay had little use for the waterfront and even viewed it as dangerous, most likely because unionism festered there. As a result the waterfront was often literally a dump (look for large mounds at waterside all around the Bay – they’re covering open-air landfills closed not so long ago). In the case of San Francisco, planners vandalized the waterfront by installing the Embarcadero Freeway, a supremely ugly concrete slab that slashed across the City’s underbelly – and deep into its aesthetic soul — effectively splitting the community from the Bay.

The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake was certainly a terrible disaster but we should be thankful for one thing: it brought down the Embarcadero Freeway. San Francisco, reconnected with the Bay, is experiencing an exciting revival of its waterfront that is a harbinger of the "post freeway" era.

The splendid Lapis bar with peerless views of, well, the Pier (33, that is).

California is about to hit rock bottom with its addiction to cars and freeways. You could pave over every square inch of California — and pass out space suits to deal with the resulting air pollution — and you’d still have gridlock.

People need a different way to live and work. And what’s happening on the San Francisco waterfront is a preview of how that’s going to be.

City planners, architects and world class entrepreneurs are laying plans for a return to the 

The Design Guy

Bay Crossings is proud to debut this first in a continuing series of Design Nazi commentaries by San Francisco interior designer Scott Johnson

I was meeting a friend who was traveling from the East Bay on the ferry. We decided to grab a drink at a waterfront restaurant. He suggested a place recently opened…

I walked up to Pier 33 and found Lapis Restaurant. I pushed through the doors and into an incredible space with soaring ceilings and a wall of glass. Immediately I felt the warmth of the space. I took a place at the bar…what a great bar! The undulating lines of the bar front afforded a view of the bay from every perspective. I ordered my drink and perched myself where I could take in the whole space.

My eyes were first drawn up the massive beams supporting the roof. Thick, century-old beams left in their natural state and dark from years of warehouse service. The black ceiling, dotted with small, halogen lighting left me with the sense of looking at the stars in space. Hanging from the support beams was chocolate brown velvet, draped and falling some 10 feet to the floor, strategically separating the dining room from the bar.

The dining room, with juxtaposed banquettes in cut and patterned gold velvet, afforded a view from every seat. I was seated at my table and sunk into the warm seat pulling a casually thrown pillow next to me. I felt as thought I were sinking into a deep comfy sofa. The blond wood chairs with small animal print faced me and would soon be filled by my friend.

I continued to absorb the room. The open kitchen nicely separated from the dining room allowed for the wonderful aroma of food being prepared to gently touch the nostrils without overpowering the senses. The music, not too loud or mundane, was a wonderful mix of 1940’s jazz and vocals. My mind drifted to the time of dressing for dinner and making an evening of dining and dancing.

My friend arrived and we had a wonderful meal. The restaurant was full and the conversations lively, but not noticed, as the carpet, drapes and fabrics helped to absorb all peripheral noise and made for enjoyment of table conversation.

For our after dinner drinks, we retired to the lounge situated along the back of the dining room and right on the water. Black leather club chairs and sofas gave the feel of a cocktail lounge of the 1950’s. The wall of glass gave us the impression of a giant movie screen showing the life on the bay…the ferries moving their cargo back and forth across the bay with the Berkeley Hills in the distance, dotted with lights like small campfires of a century and a half ago.

Having sated our appetites, we pushed through the doors into the cool evening air and walked my friend back to the ferry.

Floral Designs by Amy Kee, Levi Plaza

Murano glass lighting

Bruce Prescott, designer, Adel Santos Associates

415-908-3767

past, to a time when it was possible to commute via trains and ferries from pretty much anyplace in the Bay Area to anyplace else. But there is nothing nostalgic or anachronistic about these plans; they involve cutting edge economic and telecommunications concepts that serve the crème de la crème of the Internet warrior class.

At the heart of these plans: compact communities with exciting and worthwhile destinations instead of soulless, car-dependent suburban sprawl. What better place for these communities of the not-so-distant future than the waterfront?

The finest interior design Internet money can buy, against the backdrop of old Mother San Francisco Bay. Gold Rush, Internet Mania: to her, it’s all the same.

And not just because that’s where you find the best views, but also because the waterfront is convenient to all modes of transit. Importantly, ferries prove that public transportation is not just for within big cities; significant numbers of folks joyfully commute from relatively small communities such as Alameda, Vallejo and Sausalito to San Francisco every day.

And when they get to San Francisco, what do they find? Well, right now they find a drab, barely utilitarian ferry terminal, but that’s about to change dramatically for the better with the opening of the glamorous San Francisco Ferry Terminal, just weeks away.

Lapis exemplifies the "new waterfront". Located on Pier 33, not far from Fisherman’s Wharf in distance but worlds away in style, Lapis follows in the footsteps of the elegant "new waterfront" pioneer Waterfront restaurant and represents a case study of what we can expect more of – lots more of – on waterfronts all around the Bay, not just in San Francisco.

The dream child of high-tech mandarins Sheila and Seifi Zaki (she’s Director of Finance at Cisco Systems, he’s a high-tech success story in his own right), Lapis reeks style, elegance and

good taste. Taking over a "problemed" spaced that has seen several restaurants quickly come and go, the Zaki’s, with the able assistance of long-time San Francisco restaurant pro Steven Smith (see inset), have shown that they’re as savvy at picking important lifestyle trends as they are at picking killer jobs. Doesn’t it just make you sick?

One of the best places for a rendezvous in San Francisco: Lapis’ secluded bar seating area. Handsome leather chairs are arranged smack-dab against floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Bay.

We decided to write about Lapis because of what it represents in terms of the emerging new waterfront – hip new place, exciting design, glamorous ownership. But in the course of preparing this article we’ve had a chance to taste the food (bless their hearts) and we’re here to tell you: it’s great.

However sluttish it may be journalistically, this writer feels compelled to evangelize the Nicoise salad. It’s truly magnificent. I’ve been there five times now, and have ordered it every time. Since I’ve thrown pride out the window, why not point out that the service is sublime; understated excellence a’ la the late, great Square One (run by the sainted Joyce Goldstein). You simply can’t go wrong checking out Lapis – and it’s not even that expensive.

In the coming months, Bay Crossings will be looking at more examples of the "new waterfront", not only in San Francisco but all around the Bay. Until then, if you’re looking for us you can find us sitting by a dock on the bay – bone dry Vodka martini in hand – at the extraordinary Lapis restaurant on Pier 33.