Five Things to Know About Palm City Sequel Bar Jabroni

1. What exactly is a jabroni?

Chances are you’ve heard Dwayne Johnson a.k.a. The Rock use the word in the wrestling ring way back when. But what exactly is a “jabroni”?

Monica Wong provides a bit more context: “’Jabroni’ is one of those words that’s been thrown around our household for years, mostly by Dennis and eventually adopted by myself.”

“When we started thinking about this project, we sort of jokingly called it Bar Jabroni — and by the time we got closer to opening, it just felt like it made sense.” Despite the light-hearted nature of the name, the crew is doing some very serious stuff on the food and wine front.

2. Not your typical wine bar food.

Don’t expect the typical wine bar fare of meat and cheese plates and ramekins filled with olives here. Chef Robert Hernandez was most recently CDC at the farm-to-table Californian restaurant Octavia. As such, expect the menu at Bar Jabroni to change often. “My cooking is very seasonal and revolves around what is available at the farmers’ market, or from local purveyors,” says Hernandez.

With that said, there are some items that never leave the menu: plump West Coast oysters that come intricately decorated with seasonal components, like pickled green strawberries right now.

The steak tartare is also a star that changes seasonally. Earlier in the spring, a neat disc of raw chopped beef surrounded in a pool of beef jus was topped a layer of bright green English peas, which were topped with a few slices of pickled onion and was served with crispy potato chips. Currently, there’s a black garlic bagna cauda in lieu of jus.

“A guest should be able to walk in, order only one dish, if they want, maybe something not necessarily considered the ‘main event’ and be just as blown away by it as a dish that’s been considered more popular,” says Hernandez.

3. The wine list is the real deal.

Many wine bars these days lean toward featuring a sea of sameness when it comes to picking wines and winemakers they choose to feature. Bar Jabroni is a little bit different:

“We’re a little bit old-school compared to a lot of the wine venues opening lately,” says Dennis Cantwell, who once upon a time was the wine director at Nopa. Cantwell also brought Max Alexander, whom he also worked with at Nopa, to help run the wine program.

They have standards and requirements, of course. There should organic farming methods used, made with minimal intervention in the cellar. “But we aren’t dogmatic when it comes to the decisions winemakers make in the production of their wines. A lot of the wines we’re into drink a bit more ‘polished’ than the sea of by-the-glass orange and chilled reds filling the glasses at a lot of new wine bars. We like to celebrate the winemakers who have a lifetime — or generations, in many cases — of experience in crafting pure, precise, wines with as little manipulation as possible.”

What this all means is that you’ll find a large menu of both Old World and New World classics by the glass and bottle, as well as some more esoteric finds, like “Flat Champagne” — rarer, still wines from the Champagne region. “One of the few perks of global warming is that the historically frigid region of Champagne is now typically warm enough to ripen grapes sufficiently enough to make non-carbonated wine from them,” says Cantwell.

The other wonderful thing about Bar Jabroni’s wine list is that the markup is relatively low. Everything by the glass is under $20, and you can find good white Burgundy in the $60s by the bottle. “We not only do want to have one of the best wine programs in the country, we want it to be priced so that industry professionals like line cooks and servers can still afford to drink here,” says Cantwell.

4.  The space is beautiful, too.

Bar Jabroni was designed by Hayley Johnson from Rākis Design. Vibe-wise, the crew were going for a mash of Old World wine bars and 90s nostalgia. Whether it’s the bright, in-your-face chartreuse yellow exterior, the tiled tables, or the pink painting of a wine bottle banana, it’s all fun and playful.

The various black-and-white photos that scatter the back wall? These are a mix of both classic S.F. and Philly institutions—a nod to Wong and Cantwell’s respective hometowns.

There are 12 seats at the bar that are reserved for walk-ins, and 28 seats scattered amongst the other tables throughout the dining room that are bookable by Resy.

5. The bathroom really ties the place together.

You’d be remiss to miss the bathroom if you’re visiting Bar Jabroni; this is one of our favorites in the City. Even if you don’t have to go, consider faking it to go take a look.

“The bathroom started off as a small, simple clean-up project that evolved into an homage to one of Dennis’s favorite movies [spoiler alert: “The Big Lebowski”], mixed with sitting in someone’s granny’s parlour,” says Wong.

Omar Mamoon is a San Francisco-based writer & cookie dough professional. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.