Piechota Architecture

Located on the ground floor of a historic four-story warehouse in San Francisco’s design-forward SOMA neighborhood, Bellota’s interior blends the eclectic, sleek-meets-earthy Bay Area flair with a decidedly sun-warmed Mediterranean atmosphere. The dining space unfurls around a central open kitchen that appears as a pair of solid-brass volumes: the lower one a cooking surface, the upper a floating range hood. Chairs upholstered in a rich, chalk-blue leather sidle up to a bar-height counter on one side of the cooking area, and booths of the same material stretch along the peripheral walls of the space. The high-texture of these surfaces — a mustard-yellow tufted leather wall, a subway-tile expanse next to a display of Jamón Ibérico — draws the eye to the edges of the space.

But there’s plenty happening in the middle of things, too. A U-shaped bar, finished in decorated terra-cotta tiles, wraps around two columns painted in the same filigree pattern that marks the space’s ventilation and lighting screens. Dark gray-brown concrete underfoot leads to a relaxed seating area in one end of the restaurant, and to a more secluded dining area on the other, just behind a long curtain of plush champagne velvet.