Personally engraved Laguiole knives indicated seating assignments at the storied restaurant’s opening party
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW
Photography by ANDO CAUFIELD for THE HUNTINGTON HOTEL
When designer Ken Fulk invited his tribe to a F+F dinner at the Big Four Restaurant on Thursday, March 12, in the storied Huntington Hotel — newly reopened and redesigned by Fulk — he guaranteed devoted fans “yes, there will be Chicken Pot Pie.”
The culinary comfort dish has been a mainstay of this Nob Hill landmark, which was founded in 1922 as a graceful red brick–clad Italian Renaissance Revival–style apartment building. Located kitty-corner from the Grace Cathedral, this 72-seat restaurant is accented with banker’s green banquettes and warm wood-paneled walls adorned with historic early California memorabilia collected by the former owners, Newton Cope and his wife, the heiress Dolly Fritz. Now that this beloved boîte (long favored by locals and the international jet set) is back, all of San Francisco is abuzz — and racing for rezzies.
As a pianist tickled the ivories (a Big Four tradition), guests (including former and current mayors Willie Brown and Daniel Lurie; SF First Lady Becca Prowda; Vanessa Getty; Xochi and Michael Birch; Denise Hale and Anna Scott Carter; SF Opera Board President Jack Calhoun; gallerist Jessica Silverman and her spouse, Sarah Thornton; Fulk’s spouse, Kurt Wootton; Sonya Molodetskaya; Suzanne and Carson Levit) identified their seats by a personally engraved Laguiole knife keepsake. Executive chef David Intonato and his crack crew of staff (including decades-long Big Four server Syed Ali) served up a delectable family-style feast, featuring classic Caesar salad, prime tomahawk steak, Mt. Lassen trout, Kampachi crudo, and that scrumptious pot pie.
Back in 2020, as the pandemic descended, the treasured hotel, restaurant, and spa shuttered for six years until San Francisco native and real estate magnate Greg Flynn (founder-CEO of Flynn Properties, in partnership with Highgate Hotels) rescued this beauty, formerly frequented by likes of Princess Margaret, Truman Capote, and the Rolling Stones.
“Redoing this hotel has been a passion project for us: I’m a lifelong student of history; I love architecture and design.”
GREG FLYNN
“Redoing this hotel has been a passion project for us: I’m a lifelong student of history; I love architecture and design. And Ken has done a fabulous job,” Flynn said. “But I’m also a believer in San Francisco and I’ve made a career of betting for its recovery. The Huntington is probably the ultimate emblem of that recovery: Think of it as the phoenix [the city’s flag is emblazoned with the mythic bird] now risen again.”
While Fulk, in his role as the hotel’s tip-to-toe creative director, applied gentle spit polish to the Big Four, he had a free hand in reimagining the hotel’s 143 rooms and exquisite spa, which is framed by a skyline-facing infinity pool.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world, and I love San Francisco with all my heart.”
KEN FULK
Fulk also designed Arabella’s, a jewel box of a new bar off the hotel’s lobby. It features a mural-painted homage to the fin de siècle era of Nob Hill, defined by the opulent, city-block-wide mansion created by Arabella Huntington (once noted as the richest woman in the world, whose refined art collection formed the basis of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino) and her husband, industrialist Collis P. Huntington. With his fellow tycoons Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, who also built lavish Nob Hill manses (each destroyed in the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906), they developed the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world, and I love San Francisco with all my heart. When I moved here 30 years ago, I got to create a beautiful life,” Fulk said. “And to be part of this legendary hotel on the hill, our mantra at The Huntington was simply, ‘Don’t screw it up.’”
Feature image: Ken Fulk, Kurt Wootton and Suzanne Levit celebrate the reopening of the Big Four.
March 16, 2026
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