Art meets food in a curated, off-menu experience at Fort Mason restaurants this spring
Give the password "Hang Art" inside the art-filled dining room at Green's to partake of specially curated off-menu items. (Courtesy of Green's)

Art meets food in a curated, off-menu experience at Fort Mason restaurants this spring

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Hang Art has never been your traditional art gallery. Since opening in Union Square in 1998, gestures like posting artwork prices and allowing potential buyers to rent pieces before purchasing them have helped the gallery to carve out a unique niche and launch the careers of dozens of local emerging artists.

So when Hang's owner Piero Spadaro opened a second location at Fort Mason last August, he was keen on fostering the spirit of creativity and accessibility not just in his new gallery, but in his new neighborhood, too. The space at Fort Mason was better suited for pandemic times than the second floor spot Hang Art occupies downtown. It had plenty of light and space and a bay breeze that shamelessly frolicked through the open door.



It had something else, too: remarkable neighbors. The OG farm-to-table restaurant Greens and the cocktail lounge cum museum-library The Interval at Long Now were just next door.

By banding together, Spadaro imagined the three establishments curating something uniquely theirs. "I wanted to find a way to foster cross pollination and community solidarity," he explains. "The food and beverage industry is a vital heartbeat of the vitality of San Francisco."

Together, they could redefine an art opening for the COVID era as a curated experience in which visitors satisfied both their eyes and their bellies. An experience where an afternoon admiring the work on display at Hang Art's gallery would be complemented by secret menus of drinks and bites that acted as a culinary extension of the show. That collaboration is now open to the public at Fort Mason, along with a brand new outdoor mural, by Oakland artist Pablo Manga, around which the whole thing pivots.

To get a taste of the art, the food and the drink, there are only two things to remember: the gallery's opening hours and the practical, not-so-secret password "Hang Art." The latter will work on the staff at the restaurant and bar/cafe any time they are open, unlocking treats like Interval's Namibian martini and Greens' strawberry tatsoi salad. But to see more than Manga's mural, there's only a narrow window of time each week to visit, from noon to 5pm Friday through Sunday (or other days by appointment).

The food and cocktail offerings that pair with the work on display at Hang Art will change regularly but a few items, including The Interval's Around the World in 7oz (sherry, rum, turmeric and lemon), will have a permanent spot on the special menus.

"Both Greens and The Interval are artists in their fields," says Spadaro. "They conjure the season in local produce, potions, and mood." // Hang Art,

2 Marina Blvd, Building A (Marina), hangart.com. Greens is open for delivery, takeout and outdoor dining from 11:30am to 7:30pm Tuesday through Friday and 10:30am to 7:30pm Saturday and Sunday, greensrestaurant.com. The Interval at Long Now is open for takeout 4pm to 8pm Wednesday through Friday and 1pm to 8pm Saturday and Sunday, theinterval.org.
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