Poleng Lounge
Neighborhood: Western Addition/NOPA
1751 Fulton St
(between Central Ave & Masonic Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 441-1751
In the Know: Do not let the outside fool you. This place has depth, quite literally. Housing two rooms, the Fireside Lounge (front room) and the Temple Room (back room), this multi-functional Balinese inspired space shares its time between restaurant, lounge, and nitelife hot spot. During the day, two large flanking windows light up the lounge exposing a large limestone tiled facade with water dripping down it, central fireplace, extremely large bar (seating for around 12ish), 3 over sized wood coffee tables with accompanying couches, topped off with a DJ booth stashed in the corner. I say stashed because a large, and I believe perpetually broken wheelchair lift is adjacent to it. To bad that extra couple thousand dollars wasn't spent on something else,
like I don't know...tables that don't wobble around or credit at a cleaning service for the rarely washed seat cushions. Once past the front bar a small hallway leads you to the back bar. In the 'Temple Room' (only called that because there is one stone statue off to the side of the room) there are only 4 permanent raised lounge. Large metal drums act as the dining table allowing for additional seating depending on the size of your party. During dinner hours (5:30-10pm) folding tables are arranged on the dance floor and can have up to 25 ppl around them. The back bar is much, much smaller in comparison to the front (for only about 8 ppl) but mark that one under positives elements of this space....more room for dancing. And you know, that I know I just want to dance!*WARNING* Due to the graphic nature of this post (i.e. I worked here for over a year ) viewer's discretion is advised.
Behind the Bar: As I am sure you know, this section is reserved for the good, the bad, and the fugly in regards to how functional the space is for its patrons. Just as important, if not more, is if the design works for the people that spent hours a day/night there. With this in mind, my negative issues with the space heavily out way the positive. Because of this I have chosen to only report on some of the major deformities that is Poleng as short and to the point as possible. And as much as I would like to discuss Poleng as a black hole of business I will bite my tongue and try to keep the uncomfortably poorly run restaurant bashing to a minimum. 1. The floor in the Temple Room is absolutely horrible. When large sections are coming up, leaving a grotesque looking cement, time to change it. 2. The wood lounge tables in the front room have large pot holes on the top. In the heat of battle there is not always time to make sure a drink doesn't get set on the huge cracks in the table. Of course they fall and of course it is hard to clean and of course colonies of flies start take refuge th
ere. However, if they do get in your food or drinks, which they will, think of it as a little extra protein. 3. The kitchen- ever gotten the question, 'Is it bigger than a bread box?" In this case, no...no it is not. 4. There is something like 60 investors into the space, all of which feel they have free reign to go/do whatever they like. It is not cool to take your entourage behind the scenes. That is how things get stolen. (Obviously not at all design related.) 5. The barely dripping water that runs down the limestone tile looks as though it was taken from the nearest swamp. I actually think that is what they had in mind when they came up with the whole idea. Dead reeds are placed in front of it and if they had fallen against the wall, which happened quite often, the swamp would run down it to your seat. 6. While a fireside dining experience is just oh so romantic, to turn that oh so romantic fire on-and-off one would have to life up the booth next to the fireplace. This means if you are svitzing there is just nothing to be done until you are done with your meal. And scene!Who's Who: There is something here for all. The HH crowd consists of mostly young, cheap USF students and older, even more cheap USF Law students :) Dinner is a great time for young lovers, old friends, first time dates, second and final dates, kids birfday parties, adult birfday parties, or the occasional marriage proposal (I got to be part of that one, and believe I had something to do with her saying yes). Nitelife crowd varies. I would say 80% of the folks are between the ages of 22-40 and 80% of that 80% are Asian. You do the math.
Too Much Information- Take Me Back!
