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Bill Russell-Shapiro, Proprietor Jamie Lauren, Executive Chef Eric Vreede, Development and Operations Manager/Wine Director Jeff Hollinger , General Manager Bill Russell-Shapiro, Proprietor After Bill Russell-Shapiro, now 56, graduated from Yale in 1969, he entered the urban planning school at MIT envisioning a future promoting economic development and creating jobs. He never imagined that he would achieve his goal in the midst of San Francisco's dynamic food scene. Continuing his career of nearly 20 years as an innovative restaurateur and food marketer, Russell-Shapiro, then 51, opened Absinthe, a South-of-France brasserie located in the City's burgeoning Civic Center in 1998. His entry into the food business came several years after first moving to the Bay Area as a public-affairs fellow with the Coro Foundation. Later he worked directly in politics and then urban planning. In the late 1970s, a meeting with one of the City's first African-American firefighters who happened to have a popular family recipe for barbecue sauce changed Russell-Shapiro's life. He saw an opportunity to put his job-creation theories into practice and formed a partnership to launch four Firehouse Bar-B-Que restaurants throughout the Bay Area. Russell-Shapiro created Mad Will's Food Company in 1979 to operate the restaurants and to market Firehouse Bar-B-Que Sauce, which he eventually sold to a national company that continues to sell it to grocery stores across the country. Today Mad Will's produces about 100 bottled food products, including other BBQ sauces, at a food plant in Auburn, specializing in private label bottled foods. With a decade of food industry experience, in the late 1980s Russell-Shapiro began making plans to open a restaurant that would offer foods from his favorite parts of the world — Southern France and Northern Italy. In December 1990, he opened Rosmarino, a tucked-away Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco's Presidio Heights. Respected San Francisco restaurant critic Patricia Unterman called the food "sublime." SF Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer referred to it as a "cult favorite," and the restaurant developed a devoted following. After seven years in the small, passageway location, Russell-Shapiro decided it was time to move to a larger, more central space. In December 1997 he took his talented team of industry stars from Rosmarino, headed by executive chef Ross Browne and wine expert/veteran front-of-house manager, Eric Vreede, to the heart of the City's performing arts district to open Absinthe Brassiere & Bar on Hayes Street. Absinthe, designed to evoke the French Belle Époque, fits well with San Francisco's Beaux Arts Civic Center, and is spacious enough to offer a lively café setting, a full bar, and dining rooms suited for pre-opera dining and late-night lingering. His love of the South-of-France and its connection with the romance and mystery of the turn of the century have inspired him to create a restaurant based on that enchanting time, blending a menu of French and Italian classics with California creativity. Shortly after opening Absinthe, Russell-Shapiro expanded the restaurant operation by introducing an upscale French take-out café, Arlequin, and a specialty wine shop, Arlequin Wine Merchant. The café offers a creative menu of homemade entrees, sandwiches, soups and desserts. As a specialty wine shop housing a worldwide selection, Arlequin sells wines of limited production and availability not typically found at other wine retailers. Prices range from economical to pricey. In 2003, an adjoining space became available in the building where the three businesses are located. Russell-Shapiro jumped at the opportunity to expand Absinthe to include a separate dining room for private events. Located between Absinthe and Arlequin, Absinthe Private Dining is designed to function as a completely private dining room with its own full bar, bathroom and separate entrance. Events Email Sign Up Reservations Back to Top |
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