Memento S&R LLC has a pending Type 47 on-sale general license for its small-plates restaurant at 1305 Castro St., a step up from the low-ABV program that has defined the three-year-old room.

Memento SF, the small-plates restaurant at 1305 Castro St. in Noe Valley, has a pending application for a Type 47 on-sale general license — the permit that would let it pour full spirits for the first time. The application, filed by operating entity Memento S&R LLC and listed as pending in the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's new-applications report, carries a premises address of 1305 Castro St., 94114, and a mailing address of 1375 Dolores St. Its expiration date is listed as March 31, 2027.

This is not a new room chasing its first license. Memento S&R LLC was organized with the California Secretary of State in October 2022, and the restaurant opened to the public the following summer, marking a one-year anniversary in July 2024 with the addition of a parklet and a brunch service. It is run by Rafael Da Silva and Suhair Nimri, the two managers named on the state filing.

The room took over a Castro Street storefront that had been dark since September 2021, when Bistro SF Grill — a gastropub-style spot run by Senijad Felic and Hasim Zecic — closed after years in the space. Memento reset it as an eclectic New American kitchen: salmon tartare, a seafood paella, beet-and-burrata rigatoni, truffle fries. Menu prices aren't published online; reservations run through OpenTable, and the kitchen serves Tuesday through Saturday evenings, closed Sundays and Mondays.

The tell here is the bar. Memento has built its drinks list around low-ABV cocktails — the workaround of a beer-and-wine house that can't serve liquor. A Type 47 would remove that ceiling, putting a full bar behind a three-year-old dining room that has, so far, made its case on food. In a Noe Valley stretch of Castro Street that trades on regulars rather than foot traffic, a liquor license is less about a scene than about the margin on a second round.