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Watermelon Crayon kakigori cocktail at Lilah in San Francisco.
Watermelon Crayon kakigori cocktail at Lilah
Nicola Parisi

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Japanese Shaved Ice Drinks Await at This Low-Proof Cocktail Paradise

Marina bar Lilah features showstopper cocktails and food from the Causwells team

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Dianne de Guzman is the regional editor for Eater's Northern California/Pacific Northwest sites, writing about restaurant and bar trends, upcoming openings, and pop-ups for the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, and Denver.

Marina favorite Causwells spins off its newest restaurant project with the debut of Lilah, a low-proof cocktail bar just two doors down, on Saturday, September 28. Opening at 2336 Chestnut Street, Lilah is a space where partner Elmer Mejicanos’s cocktails can shine, building on his time making low-proof drinks at Red Window, his previous project. Mejicanos challenged himself then to create a drink menu without a full liquor license, instead focusing on sherries, vermouths, and aperitivi as the base for his cocktails. Now, Lilah carries on with that low-proof philosophy and a food menu by Causwells chef and partner Adam Rosenblum.

The bar launches with an impressive roster of over 20 drinks, across seven categories: spritzes, sours, martinis, tiki, kakigori (Japanese shaved ice), savory, and nonalcoholic. The kakigori cocktails seemed poised to become the bar’s showstoppers, taking the frozen dessert and transforming it into low-proof cocktails. The bar’s hand-cranked, cast iron ice shaver will pump out piles of fluffy ice ready to be dressed with syrups, powders, and fruit. The Watermelon Crayon, for instance, pairs low-proof rum with watermelon cordial, rosehip, vermouth, calamansi, vanilla, and mint powder, topped with watermelon rind sour candies, per the bar’s press release. The key lime pie kakigori blends shaved ice with tonka bean-infused low-proof vodka, key lime cordial, lime leaf aperitif, salted vanilla orange bitters, coconut spirit, and Nilla Wafers.

The Firecracker drink from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
The Easy Tiger cocktail from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
The Call Your Mother cocktail from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi

Call Your Mother

Another fun element Mejicanos is bringing onto the menu is a new version of his popular “30-Minute Soufflé” but this time reborn as an espresso martini with nitro vanilla coffee foam that “rises” much like the popular dessert. There’s plenty to explore elsewhere on the cocktail menu, along with beer, wine, and six nonalcoholic options. Booze-free versions of a spritz, gin and tonic, and paloma are available, as well as some new concoctions like Lively, which incorporates Peruvian pepper aji amarillo, ginger, lime, agave, and Three Spirits Livener. “We knew that we wanted to be playful and tell a story with the drinks that we’re making — but at the same time, always focusing on making sure that our product is the best that we can get, that it’s as sustainable as we can make it,” Mejicanos told the San Francisco Examiner.

For food, Rosenblum prepared a menu of Asian-influenced dishes. Think Taiwanese pork belly buns; banh mi with lemongrass pork and pate; Cantonese duck “crispy tacos”; green papaya salad; and white poke starring kampachi, cucumber, mango, and watermelon radish. Brunch will build on the dinner menu with items like the scallion pancake breakfast wrap with Chinese pork sausage and chile crunch aioli or the Hangover Rice Congee with chicken and a cured egg yolk.

Food and drinks from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
Food and drinks from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi

The bar is set inside a compact space that once housed an eyeglass store, but the Lilah team translated the playfulness of the food and drink menus into fun and chic touches befitting Lilah’s namesake, Delilah, Mejicanos’s young daughter. The wallpaper features hand-drawn animals drinking at a bar, where a fox sips Champagne near martini-drinking flamingos and zebras, and wall sconces take on bird-like shapes. The bar itself is small, with just two seats, but tables and banquettes fill the rest of the space with storage inside the seats for guests, per the Examiner. “We always wanted to be just a very comfortable, inviting space so that you don’t feel like it’s just for a special occasion,” Mejicanos told the paper. “It could be a place where you can just come in on a Monday night and hang out and not feel like you have to be overdressed.”

Lilah (2336 Chestnut Street) is open 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday, and 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Brunch is available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Food and drinks from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
Three kakigori drink options from Lilah in San Francisco.
Three kakigori drink options from Lilah
Nicola Parisi
Food and drinks from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
Food and drinks from Lilah in San Francisco. Nicola Parisi
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