Spork - Hottest New Restaurant Opens April 17
By Gregg Schoenberg
If you are visiting San Francisco be sure to check out what is certain to be the best new restaurant in the city this year - the mighty Spork. Spork is located at 1058 Valencia Street between 21st & 22nd and serves up seriously tasty food. Check out the Sporkstory below and visit them online at http://sporksf.com/ Then get yourself over there for a meal or two.
How did two guys who spent a combined twenty years working in the kitchens of some of the nation’s finest restaurants end up behind the stove in a Kentucky Fried Chicken?
When Bruce Binn and Neil Jorgensen decided to open a restaurant of their own those in the know expected a big splash. Executive Chef Binn, since graduating from the California Culinary Academy in 1992, had spent fourteen years working at some of San Francisco’s most beloved restaurants (Slow Club, Delfina, Citizen Cake, Bix, Postrio) along with a stint in New York alongside super chefs Mario Batali and David Bouley. Not to be outdone, Jorgensen, who runs the front of the house, managed to work himself onto the line at two of the Bay Area’s Michelin Starred establishments (Manresa and Range) in addition to cooking at Bar Tartine and returning to UC Santa Cruz to complete his Bachelors Degree in Business.
While their pedigree may conjure up images of a glitzy destination restaurant, the two have taken a decidedly different tack for their first foray together. Rather than a gilded downtown mecca of fine dining, Binn and Jorgensen set their sights on a dilapidated former KFC in their backyard Mission District and all of the inherent challenges and possibilities therein.
“Short order fine dining”, is the term Binn uses to describe the concept behind Spork and the duo decided to name their establishment after the iconic workmanlike utensil beloved by thirty somethings who recall it fondly from public school lunches of yore. In a serendipitous turn Binn and Jorgensen happened upon the vacated KFC, the institution that introduced the spork to millions of Americans, and knew that they had found their home.
While greasy fried chicken, trans fat, and freeze dried mashed potatoes will be distant memories of its former incarnation, the remodeled space takes its architectural cue from the namesake utensil - think simple, clean, functional and distinctly American. The design team, which includes the two owners, has managed to incorporate some of the property’s quirks to its advantage, stripping down a massive hood and turning it into a lighting fixture and opening up the oversized walk-in refrigerator and transforming part of it into a storage area.
The spork concept is embodied in the refined comfort food as well. Binn and Jorgensen both appreciate the melding of two unique objects that the spork represents and their food features many familiar dishes redesigned - don’t be taken aback if breakfast items show up on the dinner menu.
The interplay of the space and the menu give the restaurant the feel of a modern coffee shop, a comfortable homey place with a counter and cozy booths, albeit a coffee shop that gives a nod to classic technique and refined preparation as well as top quality local, seasonal, and sustainable ingredients.
“I really wanted to take what I had learned in my years of fine dining work and provide patrons with all of the best elements of that experience in an accessible and unpretentious environment,” says Binn.
“The satisfaction I derive as a chef is quite simple, I never grow tired of watching people enjoy a really tasty plate of food.”
The chance to help reverse what most view as the inexorable takeover of family establishments by Corporate America was like ice cream on the the pie for Binn and Jorgensen. “We’re excited for the opportunity to take what had been the only corporate chain restaurant on Valencia Street and turn it into a place where the neighborhood folks (our friends and families included) can relax and enjoy a great, affordable meal,” says Jorgensen.
“If we’re successful here, we’d love the opportunity to go into other neighborhoods and develop similar concepts that have more to offer the local populace and that are a better fit for their surroundings.”
Fast Food Nation be warned, there is a spork out there with your name on it.
