The Refuge

Laurel St, San Francisco Bay Area · Bar · $$

Matt Levin and Melanie Roth cooked in Paris at Taillevent and Le Pré Catelan, then opened a San Carlos pub in 2008 on two commitments: pastrami cured and hand-carved in house, and the deepest Belgian draught list in the Bay Area. The pastrami burger is where those two impulses collide, and the Wit cheesesteak is named after the beer it is built around. It reads like a sports bar and cooks like something else entirely.