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Eater
2 days ago
- Business
- Eater
This NYC-Based Wine Shop From Michelin-Starred Vets Puts Roots Down in the Bay Area
A wine shop with Michelin-starred cred behind it is set to open in Menlo Park in late July: Somm Cellars is a wine retailer based in New York City that opened in 2020, and now, founders and sommeliers Jason Jacobeit and Daniel Jung are bringing their popular shop to the Bay Area. But it's not just a copy-paste version of the original; the duo expands their concept further and will fuse their wine shop with a daytime food menu and specialty market, along with an adjoining restaurant dubbed Cafe Vivant. It's an expression of the hospitality the duo always wanted to bring to their original shop, but haven't been able to due to limitations of the liquor license laws in New York. 'We still say to each other on a weekly basis, we're sommeliers that are playing at retail,' Jacobeit says. 'That's at least partially tongue-in-cheek, but we're restaurant people, and so the hybrid license opportunity [in California] was a no-brainer for us because it allowed us to put our first restaurant location on the map, to have this retail business... [that] synergizes closely with the restaurant.' Jacobeit was formerly the wine director of Michelin-starred (but now closed) Bâtard, noted for his knowledge of Burgundy wines and the extensive selection he built at the restaurant over his 10 years there. Jung was the head sommelier at Tribeca Grill (also closed) for six years, earning attention for the restaurant's Rhone collection and Burgundy program. For the California restaurant and accompanying daytime menu in the retail section, they've recruited chef Jared Wentworth, previously of Chicago's Longman & Eagle and Dusek's Board & Beer, both of which held a Michelin star for a number of years, and the Dining Room at Moody Tongue, which also earned a Michelin star during Wentworth's time there. Under Wentworth, Cafe Vivant will highlight heritage-breed chickens on its menu. The team works with farmer Rob James in Pescadero to raise the birds that will be served at the restaurant, and sold at the Somm Cellars market. Jacobeit and Jung partnered with James and purchased a piece of the farm, per the San Francisco Chronicle . But on the bottle shop side, Wentworth will produce a daytime menu composed of bites and dishes that are meant to be wine-friendly, which is great for those hanging in for a glass or bottle, or produced quickly for those looking for a quick bite on their lunch hour. The duo teased a 'pretty baller' fried chicken sandwich using those aforementioned chickens, deviled eggs from those same birds, as well as rabbit pate, pork rillettes, chicken liver mousse, and a Dungeness crab roll. Although wine will be an obvious, hefty focus on the beverage side, there will also be a selection of bottled cocktails and beers on hand, as well as a pour-over coffee and high-end tea program, the team shares. While Jacobeit and Jung say they have a contingency of West Coast fans and followers of their New York shop, those wandering in will find a wine selection that echoes their wine backgrounds. They promise a wide, 'enviable' selection of Burgundy wines, including chardonnays and pinot noirs, but they'll also branch into its California counterparts and local examples of those wines. One other distinction will be the inclusion of older vintages. 'A lot of wine shops in the area have a great selection across regions, but no depth in vintages,' says Paul Jones, the general manager for the Menlo Park establishment. 'Because of our access to local sellers, we're going to be able to offer top domains from older vintages, and that's going to be a regular feature in both the retail and the restaurant, too.' Along with the plentiful wine offerings and the daytime food menu, a retail shop will highlight products from the farm as well as home goods like specialty and vintage glassware and flatware. For grocery offerings, they're moving away from olives and Marcona almonds, and toward farm products like fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, along with poultry, lamb, and pork — 'a high-end farmers market sort of setup,' Jacobeit says. 'It allows us to really reach the community at a much deeper level, than just a restaurant,' Jacobeit says. 'That's not to say that we wouldn't have opened the bottle shop without the market, but certainly, for both Daniel and me, the market has totally transformed our sense of what is possible and the extent to which we can really become an important part not just of the restaurant scene, but the high-end grocery scene in Silicon Valley.' That's not to mention the wine event programming. Now that they have both the restaurant and retail space available to them, the ideal scenario is to have wine offerings that feel inclusive at various prices. As an example, they may invite a winemaker to do free tastings of a 2022 vintage with small bites where visitors can learn about the wine. Afterward, the night might expand into a four-course seated dinner in the restaurant, where perhaps an older bottle or some magnums from the winery will be shared with the meal. 'There's this very inclusive, very educational, easy to access component of that event, and then it transitions to something much more aspirational, more high-end,' Jacobeit says. The team will accent the space with tables and a comfortable couch, all fitting with their vision of a high-end hospitality environment rather than a 'normative' retail environment, they say. 'We didn't want the retail-meets-hospitality to be an abstract part of the concept,' Jacobeit says. 'We want even passersby who are peeking through the window to really see that there's a cozy living room, a community space feel to the design.' Somm Cellars (720 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park) debuts late July. Sign up for our newsletter.
San Francisco Chronicle
14-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Forget San Francisco. Restaurants see ‘huge opportunity' in this quiet suburb
There's a running joke in Menlo Park, a quiet Bay Area suburb just north of Stanford University: It's full of rug stores. There are indeed six carpet stores in this diminutive downtown, nearly outnumbering restaurants. But that's starting to change: At least nine new restaurants have recently opened or will open soon in Menlo Park. It's a level of activity never seen before for this small, affluent city better known for its Silicon Valley history and excellent public schools than its food scene. Within the last year, a wave of newcomers has included chic Cal-Indian restaurant Eylan; Texas seafood chain Clark's Oyster Bar; tea and cake shop Temp & Time; Middle Eastern bakery LeVant Dessert; cocktail spot Bar Loretta; and Little Sky Kitchen, a sister restaurant to nearby Little Sky Bakery. They'll soon be joined by Yeobo, Darling, a Korean-Taiwanese restaurant from an acclaimed chef couple; Cafe Vivant, a chicken-focused spot from two New York City sommeliers; an outpost of San Francisco's Causwells; and Bubbelah, a Jewish-inspired deli from the owners of Che Fico. The new food businesses come from both local and out-of-town operators who see opportunity in a city perpetually described as sleepy. 'To replace the empty carpet shops with more food options would be super exciting,' said Little Sky owner Tian Mayimin, who has lived in Menlo Park since 2016. 'There's a huge opportunity in the wealthy suburbs, because you're serving a population that really surprisingly has a much lower quality of life in terms of eating than their counterparts in an urban area.' For Clark's, a scene-y seafood spot founded in Austin, Texas, Menlo Park wasn't immediately on the radar for expansion. But as the chain spread to locations in Aspen, Houston and Montecito, customers, friends and investors started talking about the Bay Area city as an 'underserved market' with wealthy customers, co-owner and chef Larry McGuire said. (The median household income in Menlo Park is $206,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.) 'Once we visited, we saw what people were talking about,' McGuire said. 'It's a very affluent market that didn't seem like there were much offerings.' They didn't even consider San Francisco, and instead spent the last three years transforming what was once a longtime, beloved diner into a stylish seafood restaurant. It's been busy since opening last month, with raw oysters, buttery lobster rolls and piles of crispy shoestring fries. 'The general sentiment is: 'We're so glad you're here. We need more,'' McGuire said. Similarly, the owners of Cafe Vivant focused on Menlo Park rather than San Francisco, or even New York, where they already operate a wine business, citing the prospect of lower competition. Their restaurant will focus on heritage chickens raised exclusively for Cafe Vivant at a Pescadero farm, and include a next-door wine shop. Local operators are also homing in on the city. When Meichih and Michael Kim started looking for spaces for a new restaurant, they zeroed in on Menlo Park. Their previous, now-closed restaurant, Maum, won a Michelin star in Palo Alto, a city with double Menlo Park's population of 32,000. But the Kims liked the 'small town vibe' and ample parking of Menlo Park, and saw that it lacked modern Asian food. Yeobo, Darling, which replaced a decade-old Mediterranean restaurant, will serve creative Korean-Taiwanese food that honors their backgrounds. 'A lot of these older spaces are going through a generational shift in the sense of maybe they're retiring or moving on, and a lot of new talent is coming into the neighborhood,' Michael Kim said. Likewise, Clark's took over the former 75-year-old Ann's Coffee Shop space, and Cafe Vivant, a longtime sandwich cafe. 'It's revitalizing the area a little bit,' Kim said. For many existing business owners, the newcomers represent welcome, exciting momentum. When Jesse Cool opened her now-famed restaurant Flea St. Cafe in 1976, 'honestly, even people in Palo Alto barely knew where Menlo Park was,' she said. She said she's never seen this many openings at once in the city. Rather than fear the competition, she said: 'They say you should always hope the best restaurant moves next door to you.' But like any city in the Bay Area, operating a restaurant in Menlo Park is fraught with challenges. Labor is costly and hard to find; given the Peninsula's high home prices, most employees can't afford to live nearby. Clark's brought staff from other locations for the opening, and they've stayed longer than anticipated due to hiring challenges, McGuire said. Rent and construction are expensive. To help entice tenants, Presidio Bay Ventures, the San Francisco real estate firm behind new development Springline, paid to build out all of its restaurant spaces, and charges tenants percentage-based rent, taking a portion of their gross revenue instead of a fixed amount every month. But owners are typically left to shoulder construction and operating costs on their own, said Mayimin, the Little Sky owner. 'For most people who are maybe not backed by a corporate umbrella who are trying to get going, A, can you really afford to live in the area; and B, can you really afford the million dollar buildout?' Permitting bureaucracy can also be frustratingly onerous and slow. McGuire, who has opened Clark's locations throughout the country, said Menlo Park's process was particularly complicated. For example, the city required the business to hire a biologist to conduct a bat roosting survey to ensure the building wouldn't disturb the animal's local habitat. The city is also currently at odds with local businesses over a controversial plan to build affordable housing on three downtown parking lots. A group of downtown business owners sued the city last month in an effort to block the development, arguing the project will harm them by limiting parking and increasing traffic congestion. Mayor Drew Combs said he hopes small businesses see the city more as a partner. The City Council is considering loosening downtown zoning rules to allow more types of businesses to open there. Current zoning only permits retail businesses on downtown's main strip, Santa Cruz Avenue, which excludes something like a yoga studio, for example. He credited Springline and a large mixed-use development from Stanford on El Camino Real with spurring new business in Menlo Park. 'It is very important for us to lean into these investments that we see being made in the city in the private sector,' Combs said. Still, not all of the new ventures have been successful. Canteen, a wine bar at Springline from the owner of Menlo Park's popular restaurant Camper, closed in December, and Che Fico's high-end Italian market closed last month, but owners will soon replace it with the casual Jewish restaurant. To replace Canteen, Springline successfully lured another popular San Francisco restaurant: Causwells, which is in final talks to take over the Canteen Menlo Park often gets second billing to neighboring Palo Alto, whose downtown draws more foot traffic. Because of this, Ayesha Thapar looked to downtown Palo Alto for her first restaurant, Ettan, which opened in early 2020. 'I would not have dared to open Ettan on Santa Cruz Avenue,' she said of Menlo Park's main downtown street. But now she's taken a chance on the city. Thapar designed her group's new Menlo Park restaurant, Eylan, with this in mind: a stunning, vibrant space that, despite its location in a somewhat soulless development, feels like a portal into another universe — or perhaps, a livelier city. 'It's still a sleepy town that I'm trying my hardest to wake up,' she said.
