Marguerite Regan and Christian Suzuki and
Wildhawk | San Francisco
november 2022
As a kid, Marguerite Regan and her sister often played “bartender” in their family’s antique bar in the basement (she watched a lot of Cheers). Originally from Michigan, Regan has worked in the industry since she was fifteen, starting off in coffee shops and delis until officially bartending at nineteen. While visiting her sister in San Francisco, Regan fell in love with the city and decided to stay. She worked at Rye, East Bay Spice Company, and Drexl until finding her way to Wildhawk in 2016, where she would join forces with longtime friend and fellow bartender Christian Suzuki.
Suzuki is no stranger to the restaurant industry. His grandparents owned a small restaurant empire in Tokyo, where Suzuki was taught about food, hospitality, and service. Over time, he fell in love with the industry and moved from California to Japan after graduating high school. He worked with his grandparents full time, learning all of the ins and outs of running a restaurant. Returning stateside, Suzuki joined 15 Romolo in San Francisco, staying on for five years. He bounced around a number of bars until he settled at Wildhawk in 2017.
To Suzuki and Regan, Wildhawk is all about community–a neighborhood bar at its core, and one they strive to keep accessible to its patrons. Steeped in history, Wildhawk was formerly known as the beloved lesbian bar, The Lexington Club, and its former customers still stop by to share stories about their old haunt. Suzuki and Regan develop the menu together, and martinis are their speciality. The duo keeps Wildhawks’ relationship with the community strong by regularly hosting industry events and fundraisers supporting the LGBTQ+ and AAPI communities and Californian wildfire relief to name a few.
2022 StarChefs San Francisco-Oakland Rising Stars Award Winner
