The Michelin-starred, fire-driven 30-seat restaurant in San Francisco’s Outer Mission highlights chef Seth Stowaway’s Texas-influenced, seasonal cooking with an intimate tasting menu experience centered around live-fire techniques and preservation.

The Heart of Osito

With its reclaimed Douglas fir walls and live-fire kitchen, the intimate Osito made an immediate impact on San Francisco’s dining scene when it opened in 2021, bringing new energy to a quiet corner of the Outer Mission and positioning chef Seth Stowaway as a rising talent to watch.

Osito’s menu is built around live-fire cooking, preservation, and California seasonality, with both à la carte and tasting menu options influenced by Stowaway’s Texas roots.

With just 30 seats and an open kitchen where Stowaway is ever-present, Osito offers an intimate and immersive dining experience. Awarded its first Michelin star in 2022, the restaurant is known for unexpected twists—such as a Cubano-inspired wood-fired profiterole layered with thinly sliced, cured pork loin. Tableside presentations and claypot dishes further highlight Osito’s warm, down-to-earth approach to fine dining.

Beverage director Grace Ackerman complements the menu with a carefully curated wine list, highlighting high-elevation vineyards and female producers. Designed by Studio Terpeluk, Osito’s interior embraces earthy tones of wood, stone, brass, and metal, creating a warm, cocoon-like setting with the hearth as its glowing centerpiece.

Next door, The Bar at Osito extends the restaurant’s warm hospitality with a craft cocktail program and an à la carte menu, offering a more casual yet equally inviting experience.

The Chef

"Osito” means “little bear” in Spanish—a nickname Stowaway earned early in his career. More than just a name, Osito is a deeply personal project. Stowaway has been open about his past struggles with substance abuse and homelessness, seeing the restaurant as both a passion project and a testament to resilience. In its early stages, Osito was partially funded through Kickstarter, where Stowaway raised more than half of his goal.

"I found a sense of community and purpose through cooking, which has profoundly shaped my identity as a chef,” Stowaway says. His culinary path led him through some of San Francisco’s most dynamic restaurants, beginning at Bar Agricole, where he first worked alongside Brandon Jew (now of Mr. Jiu’s and Moongate Lounge). Stowaway later joined Mr. Jiu’s as a sous chef before rising to executive chef roles at Bar Agricole, Trou Normand, and Obispo.

The vision was to create a place for strangers to become friends, for people to love and appreciate one another,” Stowaway says. This philosophy extends beyond the restaurant, with Stowaway fostering deep relationships with growers, artisans, and purveyors. Most recently, he launched The Same Sun, an incubator and accelerator designed to empower small businesses within the local food community.

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