VOLTA

Volta Brasserie – Volta incorporates influences from France, as well as Chef Staffan’s native country of Sweden, both in the cuisine and the design, and is located in a corner space on Mission Street at the Westfield San Francisco Centre within the city’s Yerba Buena Cultural district.  The composition of the materials is a mix of reinterpreted brasserie elements such as tile floors, patterned glass, wall mirrors, and brass accents. These materials are played against warmer materials of gray French oak, plush fabrics, and blackened steel. The bar is integral-colored custom cast concrete that has its own angled geometry as a counterpoint to the rectilinear lines everywhere else. Hexagonal Swedish tile floors run wall to wall as common ground, while large hanging pendant lights with delicate geometric forms fill the space.

The design of Volta is meant to evoke a modern European brasserie experience with crafted materials and sophisticated lines within a dramatic 2-story space. The restaurant is contained within walls of glass that face the street, and a grand wood-plank ribbon wall, an architectural gesture which starts above the main space, wrapping two high walls, and then encircling the mezzanine dining room connecting it to the floor below. The large bar occupies one of the glass walls and extends up into the space with ‘floating,’ illuminated shelves that provide intrigue to the street. The kitchen is partially open to the dining room to create interest and a connection to the food.

The well-known, and often harsh, San Francisco food critic, Michael Bauer, wrote glowingly, “Instead of a mall restaurant, I peg Volta as the grandest restaurant to open since Mourad a year ago. In our affluent economy, it might seem logical that restaurants would reflect that wealth, but it’s had the inverse reaction — most new places today are smaller and more modest. That’s not the case with Volta … Volta is a great package with a fully realized interior and a menu that offers something a little different for San Francisco’s already-rich resume of great restaurants.”