Barrio serves up Latin flair at San Francisco's iconic Ghirardelli Square

SAN FRANCISCO -- Neighborhood Latin restaurant Barrio is serving up their "labor of love" to locals and tourists alike in San Francisco's iconic Ghirardelli Square overlooking the Bay.

The restaurant focuses on Mexican cuisine, but also plays with Peruvian and Argentinian influences.

The original Barrio was a quaint place in the North Beach neighborhood focusing on tacos and beer -- hence the name "neighborhood" in Spanish.

During the pandemic and amid continuous closures, Ghirardelli was in search of a Mexican concept to bring in locals.

"They caught wind of Barrio in North Beach, and they actually came into that location. We did a tasting for them, and they loved us," Barrio's Owner and Operator Billy Riordan said. "We came down here and toured the space. Months later we were in negotiations, and it kind of just all came together."

Barrio's Ghirardelli Square location opened in July 2021.

A new addition to this Barrio location is its agave bar offering specialty margaritas, craft cocktails and local beer.

"We are a margarita house, if you will. That's kind of our flagship, and we lead with that," Barrios Beverage Director Michael Carlisi said. "I always joke that we're like a pool bar, you know, a swim up pool bar without a pool those kinds of elements easy, delicious."

Riordan said the owners and management team are all local veterans in the industry.

"The list of places we've worked at in the City are endless," Riordan said.

Riordan and his team pride themselves on their commitment to excellence with their practices and quality of the ingredients.

"We don't cut corners. I don't even think we have a can opener in this building. There's no microwaves, things like that," he said. "So, we all just take our food and drink seriously and service, and we want locals come down here and have a good time."

Barrio makes their drinks and juices fresh multiple times a day, presses their blue corn tortillas by hand, and takes advantage of local fresh produce.

"There's so much to work with here in the Bay Area, so it's kind of a shame if you if you're not kind of projecting that freshness onto people," Barrios Executive Chef and Owner Tim Milojevich said. "We have fresh salads that go on top of tacos. We get local halibut for our ceviche There's an abundance. And it's right at our fingertips."

Milojevich crafted the restaurant's menu with his travels through Mexico and wisdom from San Francisco's Latino chefs in mind.

"Almost every day if I could, I'd go to this little cart selling cochinita pibil, a Yucatan slow-roasted pork; that started by six in the morning, sold out by noon. And I just fell in love with cochinita," Milojevich said. "When I came back to the city, I couldn't find anything close, so that one I worked on for a while and got it to where I think it's one of the one of the best cochinitas in San Francisco."

Riordan hopes the hundreds of thousands of people walking into the square each week find something they love at Barrio.

"We like to show them what we do, and that we're a local place and that we're bringing good food and drink down here," he said. "We've been well received by the tourists and the locals. So, we just want to keep it going."

To learn more, visit Barrios website here.