After 10 Years, a Beloved Bernal Heights Chef Will Open a Second Restaurant

One of the city’s most time-tested fine dining chefs is about to open his second restaurant. Precita Social debuts, fittingly, on the corner of Precita Park this August. Chef Greg Lutes, owner and operator at Bernal Heights’s 3rd Cousin, will helm the new restaurant. The hope here is to open a more casual, yet still refined, dining experience to the neighborhood he’s called home for a decade. The restaurant’s in the final heat of a Kickstarter as the last touches get put on the place.

Significantly, this restaurant takes over the former Marlena space, briefly Foliage from chef Mo Bejar. Lutes says he’s aware of the controversy that surrounded the breakup of landlord and restaurant owner Stephan Roulland and chefs David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher. He says it was a complicated scenario, and he’s headed into this venture clear-eyed. “3rd Cousin is 10 years old now,” Lutes says. “I’d thought about doing a second restaurant for many years.

Unlike Marlena, the restaurant here is not tasting menu-driven. The food options will be much more playful while retaining that fine dining backbone. Uni hand rolls dished as tacos, big burgers he served at 3rd Cousin throughout the worst of the pandemic, and the dish of the year, disco fries, will all make appearances. Precita Social will play host to a huge raw bar, too, one black marble counter starring oysters and clams. Larger mains run more traditional: Think steaks, seafood, and powerful vegetables. For dessert, guests can anticipate a Dubai chocolate-inspired soft-serve sundae complete with pistachio, seasonal fruit, and kataifi.

Oceano Ordóñez, the beverage director from 3rd Cousin, will also handle drinks at Precita Social. He’s curated an Old World-centered wine list along with beers from local breweries, including neighbor Barebottle Brewing Company; mocktails and shrubs are on deck, too. Herbs and greens come from the restaurant’s personal rooftop garden, powered in part by solar panels.

The ambiance remains neighborhood-y, with Sky Creative Lab taking on the redesign of the Marlena space. There’ll be an additional outdoor parklet added to the mix. Beyond a refinished floor and design elements, Lutes says it’s been a bit turnkey. Foliage closed in August 2024. Lutes reached out to Roulland in April 2025. He had eyed a Presidio location, but this proximity is a million times easier.

Looking ahead, Lutes says that he hopes Precita Social fills the neighborhood’s many dining needs. While 3rd Cousin is upscale, a special occasions spot, he sees this new restaurant as a chance to stretch his wings a bit. People have requested that pandemic burger plenty of times, for instance, but it doesn’t gel with the approach at 3rd Cousin. “This is a blank palette for me to do things I can’t do at 3rd Cousin,” Lutes says. “People know me in Bernal Heights. I see this as my ode to comfort food.”

Precita Social (300 Precita Avenue) will open in August 2025 with dinner service Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations will go live on Resy on Friday, July 18.