My heart thumped as I ascended the gleaming steps of the palatial Huntington Hotel and made my way into the dark foyer of its restaurant, the Big Four. Covered in sweat, I had walked instead of Ubered up to Nob Hill from my downtown office, in the 80-degree heat, to save a shekel and hopefully work up an appetite for the restaurant’s signature pot pie. 

This 104-year-old hotel, located across the street from Pacific-Union, one of San Francisco’s oldest and most elusive private men’s clubs, had reopened its doors after a six-year hiatus. I was there to find meaning in its return.

To be honest, the hotel restaurant that bills itself as “the Officially Unofficial Club House of Nob Hill” — it’s named after four railroad tycoons whose mansions once graced the hill — had never really caught my attention. It opened in 1976, was known for moneyed guests, and closed when the pandemic hit in 2020. Since then, the property has switched hands and undergone a lengthy restoration. But the restaurant’s 50-year-old interior and the spirit of the American classics menu has been restored to its bygone days. 

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The Huntington Hotel is located atop Nob Hill at the intersection of California and Taylor streets.

The Big Four, located on California Street at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. 

In anticipation of this story, I did what I’ve done for the past 20-plus years: called the restaurant in advance for permission to bring a photographer. 

That’s when things got weird. I was told that because of the high-profile nature of the hotel’s guests, we would not now nor ever be permitted to shoot inside the restaurant during service, with actual humans eating food. Hotel general manager Matthew de Quillien shared that this was standard practice at the members-only London clubs where he once worked. Privacy is important, I thought, but wasn’t the Big Four open to the public, unlike its elite neighbor?

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Don't let Google decide who you trust.

Days later, when we acquiesced to capturing food close-ups on a soulless table akin to a Resy ad, we........

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