‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ fans still flock to this Bay Area restaurant

Deb Girard, a location manager for “Mrs. Doubtfire,” explains that her co-location manager, the late Bruce Devan, was from the East Bay and helped choose Bridges Restaurant & Bar.

“There was nothing in the city that was going to probably be large enough for what we needed to do,” she says of San Francisco. With a big corner lot and backlit signage, Bridges offered more space and visual interest for exterior shots. The interior layout was just as important — open, but with different sections for dining. “The restaurant worked really well because [characters] couldn’t really run into each other.” 

In the film, which takes place amid the divorce of parents Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) and Daniel Hillard (Williams), Daniel creates the alternate identity of English nanny “Mrs. Doubtfire,” whom Miranda unwittingly hires for child care. Daniel has a business dinner at Bridges on the same night that Mrs. Doubtfire is to attend Miranda’s birthday dinner there. The dad brings his two personas and outfits to the restaurant, changing costumes throughout the evening until his act falls apart.

Some of Bridges’ staff stayed on as extras and cooked food for the scene. Bandleader and musician Dick Bright says Robin Williams also paid it forward by trying to “help fellow comedians and actors to get the quote-unquote small roles in the film.” Locals were required to audition. However, Bright explains, “If you were equal to the LA guy, you got the gig. But you had to earn it.” He is the waiter who assists Mrs. Doubtfire with her chair — but she’s so drunk that she ends up falling to the floor when trying to sit down.

On his first day playing a waiter at Bridges, Bright noticed a director’s assistant with a pencil planning out each of the restaurant’s tables. She was carefully noting who sat where, and what they looked like. Bright told SFGATE that bored extras would “start dropping like flies,” so their replacements needed to bear some resemblance to the originals.

Bridges is recognizable from its “Doubtfire” days, although executive chef Kevin Gin says the menu has changed considerably. He arrived in 1993, shortly after the movie had been filmed. “Back then, we were California- and Asian-inspired. The original owner created the name Bridges because he wanted to bridge the East with the West, and he wanted to show the best of both cultures,” Gin tells SFGATE. The “hot jambalaya” Mrs. Doubtfire spices up with a dose of cayenne pepper for Stu (Pierce Brosnan) was not on the real menu. 

A patron won’t find Doubtfire’s order of poached salmon, either, but the lunch menu does offer a pan-roasted Atlantic salmon salad. The fish is cooked to a crisp perfection, balancing sweetness with a satisfying blend of romaine hearts, baby arugula, radicchio, wonton strips, scallions, carrots and cucumbers — topped with a palm sugar-mint vinaigrette.

Gin says one signature dish that has remained for many years is the prawn stir-fry with Thai red curry sauce. There’s plenty of variety for daytime dining, from chilled edamame and lettuce wraps to truffle frites for starters; then perhaps a salad, French dip au jus or lemongrass pork tenderloin banh mi. The Bridges Burger and steak are available all day, and the dinner crowd may enjoy pan-roasted harissa chicken or red wine-braised beef short rib pappardelle.

According to Gin, three decades ago, Bridges operated on more of an upscale cuisine, reservation-only model, but sales were on a downturn. Then “Mrs. Doubtfire” hit theaters, and a week later he noticed a change.

“We saw sales go from, say, $11,000 a week to basically $22,000 the very next week,” Gin says. “And then $44,000, $50-something thousand, and so on. It just kept going.”

The exterior, with its wood-shingle siding, French doors and stylish curved “Bridges” sign, still looks similar to the film. The same clear glass panels etched with a reed design hang inside the restaurant, though more red notes fill the space, including accent walls. Some visitors still hope to be seated at the circular table where Williams, Field and Brosnan sat with Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub and Matthew Lawrence. Gin remembers a large group entering the restaurant dressed like they were in the movie.

“We’ve had people celebrating an occasion and have somebody dress up like Mrs. Doubtfire and actually come in and do a little skit or sing or something,” he said.

In the hall near the restrooms, patrons can find framed accolades and one very special memento. “Your Bridges was a joy to cross. May it last forever. All my love,” Robin Williams wrote on a movie poster, signed, “Mrs. D.”