Hazel Southern Bar & Restaurant - San Francisco, CA

"Cash me outside" when I don't have to be at work to run an event. It was my first day of me letting go and I didn't give it a second thought as soon as I was outside, in the sun, heading over to meet my #Instafriend, Julia, at a new bar, Hazel. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a familiar face that I have known for over 10 years, Yabari. He was working the door and has been my favorite security crew since. He gave me a big hug, a kiss on top of my head and like the gentleman that he is, he opened the door.

In the dim room, I was greeted by a good-looking male, introduced myself like he should have been expecting me and apparently he was. Julia must've mentioned she was waiting for me and that I told her to meet me there.

To the left were pool tables, a floor to ceiling head shot of a woman with an afro plus tables and seating. To my right, there were booths with communal tables jutting out and televisions everywhere. Sixteen to be exact. I found my #Instafriend at the bar. She had already made friends with a liquor rep that was two seats down from her and they were trying each other's cocktails.

I sat in my bar stool with a backing which is nice. Placed my bag on the hook underneath the bar. The under bar was wood and there were boomboxes and speakers carved out it. Loved that detail. Music from L.L. Cool J, Mariah Carey and Jodeci were playin' and it had us singing and swaying in our seat.

Julia ordered a sazarac. I was on this first week of the 8-week #Stillinit Fitness Challenge and haven't had a drop of liquor in five days. That's pretty impressive. Come to find out that Julia was the first customer on their first day opening to the public. So we were the first ladies. In celebration of how cool that is, how cool our new local bar, seeing her, making changes and receiving some exciting news earlier that day, I was going to allow myself my one drink that day. I had no plans of being overly social over the weekend so yeah, I deserved it.


I looked over the menu and they have a lot of whiskies. Oh, how I miss you. I did go with the Watermelon Smash. Hey, it had fruit and whiskey. I'm ok with that. We started with two salads, the kale caesar salad and the cucumber salad with onions and tomatoes and a sour cream like dressing. The lady next to us had plates and plate coming out. She was dining by herself and she had a notebook in front of her with a pen. I asked her if she was a food critic. She said she lived nearby and has been waiting for this place to open. She had the chicken and waffles and Julia and I agreed we were having that. The waffle was a sweet potato waffle. Awesome!






My drink was great. So great that Julia ordered one from Brian, our friendly Bartender. I went with a water next. See! Only one drink for me. That's control. However, when the chicken and waffles came out, I planned on peeling the fried goodness off and just eating the chicken. The piece of chicken I picked up was too flat it wouldn't be anything if I peeled it off. And the waffles already had butter and the bourbon maple syrup already on it. Brian, part devil, brought us an extra side of both. I confess. I dipped. And like Freak Nasty would say, "when I dip, you dip, we dip."


Julia and I were having a good time like we always do. We decided this was one of our new favorite spots and that she was going to suggest that she have date #2 there. Get it, Girl.

Well done, son of Hazel, whom the restaurant is named after.  Sounds like a perfect Mother's Day gift.

I can't name any names but I hear they will also be doing brunch soon.

We will be back.



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This is #24 of 30 daily blog posts to hit 10,000 hits in one month. I did the same challenge in April 2016. Thank you for visiting and please check back tomorrow and share anything you like!

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