Late-night rush

If you’re hot for insider dish, head to the place where restaurant workers wind down after the checks have been paid and the chairs put up.

Scott Hocker

When you’re a worker whose shift ends around midnight, you have only two hours to decompress before the city shuts down. And when you’re after food, drink, and a scene, there’s no time to dillydally. Welcome to the postwork world of the restaurant business. Wired after a night spent catering to our food-obsessed locals’ every whim, the front-of-the-house people (servers, hosts, sommeliers, and maîtres d’) exit the city’s top restaurants with fistfuls of cash burning a hole in their pockets. So they head to SoMa’s slick Oola and grab a cozy booth or a seat at the hoppin’ bar.

A watering hole and refueling station for the service industry since it opened in September 2004, Oola draws them in with equal parts grub and booze. Chef Ola Fendert has a huge industry fan base for his modern take on restaurant classics like burgers and Caesar salad. Watermelon cosmopolitans are shaken, champagne and pinot start flowing, and you can bet when the clock strikes 2, the party isn’t ending—it’s just moving to someone’s living room.

Oola
12:42 a.m.

THE SCENE
A candlelit lounge near the entrance, booths, plenty of bar seating, and a secluded second floor.

THE CROWD
Employees from Quince, Gary Danko, Ame, and Michael Mina. Name a high-end restaurant and it’s probably represented.

EAVESDROPPING
“Danielle Steel’s getting into me. I’m trying to get into her.”

THE LOOK
Various states of after-work attire, from skirts and heels to T-shirts and jeans.

THE SAUCE
Depends on how everyone’s night went. There’s always a $195 bottle of ’96 Dom Perignon if someone made a killing.

THE ENABLER
The bar seats swivel up and down. Perfect for the third-cocktail slouch.

Oola: 860 Folsom St., S.F., 415-995-2061

Elsewhere

With a superb burger and a kitchen that’s open until 1 a.m., Nopa is a prime spot for chefs from places like Ame and A16 to refuel postshift. 560 Divisadero St., S.F., 415-864-8643.

The Hut—aka the Slut—is chock-full of Rockridge industry folk. They’re a hedonistic bunch, but that doesn’t mean anyone should take the nickname too seriously. 5515 College Ave., Oakland, 510-653-2565.

The Black Watch is about the closest thing Los Gatos has to a dive bar, and the crew from the acclaimed, distinctly nondivey restaurant Manresa winds down here. 141 ½ N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos, 408-354-2200.

FEATURE

Gone

Our recent story about teen suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge has generated a sometimes heated debate. In the last four years, 16 young people have climbed over the rail and jumped. These kids weren’t crazy. They were in the throes of painful—and impulsive—adolescence. Then, suddenly, they were gone.

Suicide hotlines and resources

If you or someone you know might be contemplating suicide, contact the following resources.

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