Copra

Copra is a coastal South Indian restaurant that opened in 2023 at 1700 Fillmore Street, on the edge of the Fillmore and Lower Pacific Heights, under Michelin-starred chef Srijith "Sri" Gopinathan. The cooking draws on Kerala and Tamil Nadu — coconut, curry leaf, tamarind, black pepper and seafood — and the dining room is a tropical, design-forward space that reads closer to a bar than a formal restaurant. It arrived in a crowded year on the Fillmore corridor and was singled out by The San Francisco Standard as "one of 2023's sexiest new arrivals on the scene." Service runs dinner nightly with weekend lunch, and the bar is a destination in its own right rather than a holding pen for the dining room.

Copra's non-alcoholic list is built rather than bought. Instead of stocking a few dealcoholized bottles and calling it a programme, the bar works from the same Southeast Asian-leaning pantry as the kitchen and the full cocktail menu — coconut yogurt, makrut lime, star anise, lemongrass, black garlic and orange blossom — using non-alcoholic spirits as a base rather than as the whole idea. Named zero-proof pours include the Orange Ruby (lemongrass, Wilderton Lustre, Vibrante non-alcoholic vermouth, orange blossom, tonic and makrut lime), the Salty City (coconut yogurt, cucumber, salt, black garlic and lemon) and the Tiger's Eye (cinnamon, star anise, lemon, Wilderton Lustre and a bittersweet aperitivo). The three cover distinct territory: one bright and floral, one savoury and saline, one bitter and warm-spiced, which is why they hold up across a full meal of assertive food rather than all reading as sweet. Writing in The San Francisco Standard on 31 December 2023, Astrid Kane placed Copra on the city's short list of serious alcohol-free destinations, reporting that "Copra also has a significant NA cocktail program, with three standouts designed to appeal to the widest range of palates." Because the zero-proof list mirrors the cocktail list course for course, a non-drinker can eat a full dinner here without ever being handed a soda.