|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Two new Peninsula food halls are holding their grand openings on Sept. 30. The Hangar serves a mishmash of cuisines in a massive aviation-focused, modern industrial building in South San Francisco, while Kurated Kitchens offers a variety of Asian concepts – including some from former Peninsula eateries – in a Sunnyvale cafe decked out in pastel colors and floral murals. They join a growing number of food halls in the Bay Area, including State Street Market, CloudKitchens and Local Kitchens.
The Hangar, South San Francisco
Drawing inspiration from aviation and offering six restaurant concepts, The Hangar is the latest collaboration between Redwood City-based Bon Appetit Management Company and real estate investment trust Healthpeak. The South San Francisco food hall is Bon Appetit and Healthpeak’s third dining destination that pays homage to the region’s history of innovation, joining South San Francisco restaurant Foundry & Lux, which is inspired by the city’s history of cattle and steel, and Brisbane restaurant Chandlery at the Shore (inspired by San Francisco Bay’s maritime stockists).
“The whole goal (of The Hangar) was to pay homage to South San Francisco,” said Carrie Pearl, a district manager at Bon Appetit Management Company who oversees The Hangar. “It’s kind of our love letter to the city.”
Directly in front of the entry is a grand staircase featuring large wooden sittable stairs outfitted with wall sockets and pillows, suitable for working or socializing. Turn your head to the left and you’ll see the first dining concept: Peak Provisions, a coffee bar offering toasts and breakfast plus grab-and-go snacks, sandwiches and salads.
Peak Provisions’ coffee and espresso beverages are made with Progeny Coffee, a Berkeley-based sustainable coffee company with the mission to lift farmers out of poverty. Created by Maria Palacio, a fifth-generation Colombian coffee farmer, Progeny Coffee cuts out the middlemen to generate extra revenue for farmers. Progeny is one of the vendors in Bon Appetit’s Farm to Fork program, which requires chefs to purchase at least 20% of their ingredients from small farms and ranches located within a 150-mile radius of their kitchens.
“(Palacio) has infused the different rural parts of Columbia with infrastructure, with jobs, with all kinds of different support,” Pearl said. “I know there’s a lot of amazing coffee vendors in the Bay Area, but for me, Progeny is by far the best company that I’ve ever worked with as it pertains to coffee.”
In addition to coffee, Peak Provisions offers tea from San Francisco-based Five Mountains Tea, Boichik Bagels and pastries from San Francisco-based Panorama Baking Company. Also find a variety of breakfast and lunch offerings ($5-$16), including everything avocado toast, the a.m. grain bowl, mango sticky oats, the mortadella combo sandwich and a juicy pluot salad.
“Peak Provisions is meant to be like a bodega-style coffee bar, where it’s convenience meets local fair trade and really high-level products,” Pearl said.
Behind the grand staircase and past the conference room is the Market Hall, a cafeteria featuring sandwiches and salads concept The Board; The Layover, which serves bibimbap and Korean noodles; Mexican eatery La Ventana; and The Stack, a spot for American diner classics. The choice of cuisines offered in the Market Hall was based on Pearl’s personal favorites.
“These are all the things that I love eating,” she said. “I’m half Korean, half Jewish, and I knew that I wanted to do a similar concept to a Jewish delicatessen. And so it’s The Board that has a salad and deli concept. And with the Korean concept, same thing. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of Korean cuisine represented in this area of South San Francisco.”
The Board offers the same sandwiches ($12-$17) as Peak Provisions, as well as the option to build your own and partners with Krembo Bakery in San Mateo. Find salads ($11-$14) like grapefruit avocado and goddess power bowl, as well as a build-your-own option.
At The Layover, build your own bibimbap ($14-$17) with options like beef bulgogi, marinated sashimi and gochu tofu. Noodle dishes like japchae, budae jjigae and jjajangmyeon are also on the menu ($10-$16). Pearl said if she had to choose her favorite dish at The Layover, it would likely be the jjajangmyeon, a black bean sauce noodle dish.
“It’s a unique dish because only Korean Chinese restaurants will have it,” she said. “It’s something that you’ll find in a Korean-owned Chinese restaurant, or a Chinese-owned Korean restaurant, which is why I think it’s special, and they’ve executed it so amazingly. Our culinary director is Chinese, and he is well versed in many different cuisines.”
Mexican concept La Ventana makes its tortillas with masa from South San Francisco’s La Tapatia and sources its telera bread from Las Hijas Del Gallo, a panaderia in South San Francisco. Diners have the option to build their own torta, burrito or bowl ($14-$15) or choose from a variety of a la carte items ($6-$17), like beef birria tacos, chilaquiles and blue corn empanadas. Pearl’s favorite on the La Ventana menu is the torta cubana, made with refried beans, avocado, carnitas, ham, American cheese, fried egg, tomato and pickled jalapenos.
“I’m married to a Mexican, and my kids are all well immersed in the culture, and so I do a lot of Mexican cooking at home,” Pearl said. “I felt that doing a Mexican concept of all of the favorites would be a home run.”
The final Market Hall concept is The Stack, which serves “all of the foods that you probably shouldn’t eat but always want to eat,” Pearl said. The all-day menu ($10-$16) includes steak and eggs, French toast, and fried chicken with Belgian waffles, and the lunch menu ($10-$16) includes burgers, Cobb salad and three bean chili cheese fries.
While The Hangar officially opens Sept. 30, Peak Provisions, The Board, The Layover and La Ventana are already open to the public. The Stack will open Sept. 27 and full-service bar and French Californian restaurant Camber, located on the second floor of The Hangar next to the gym, will open next month.
“I used to be a chef for Bon Appetit for many years…When I was cooking French food, I always felt that it was stuffy, it’s heavy, like tons of butter, just very traditional and classic,” Pearl said. “We wanted to bring French classics, but do it in a lighter way with California ingredients.”
Designed by Flad Architects, the building also features custom art installations by local artists Windy Chein, Franceska Gamez and Shaun Burner.
“We’re trying to engage with the local performing arts center, with local musicians and with local artists,” Pearl said. “My dream is that we’re able to provide this space where we can have a beautiful art expo, and a space for a local musician to get some exposure and play some live music.”
The Hangar, 460 Forbes Blvd., South San Francisco; Instagram: @thehangarssf. Open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Camber opening in October.
Kurated Kitchens, Sunnyvale
The three Poon brothers can’t seem to escape the Bay Area restaurant scene.
“Growing up, me and my brothers all said, ‘We’re never gonna go into the restaurant business,’ because we’d spend all our weekends growing up working,” said Brandon Poon, the eldest brother and a Sunnyvale resident. “And then now that we’re adults, we all ended up back in the restaurant industry.”
The Poon brothers soft opened Kurated Kitchens on Sept. 6 and will hold its grand opening on Sept. 30 at the former spot of Japanese restaurant Gombei Bento. The Sunnyvale food hall is somewhat of a test kitchen that offers five original concepts. Some of them are brand new, while others are revamped versions of their former restaurants.
“I really wanted to create a space where I can be creative, think outside the box, and test it out before I put it in a brick-and-mortar store,” Brandon Poon said. “As concepts get more popular, they get the brick-and-mortar store. And for the concepts that may not be as popular, we may just swap it out for a new concept that we wanted to try out.”
The kitchen is custom built with three distinct areas, allowing Kurated Kitchens to make everything in house.
“I have a full-on Asian wok kitchen side, I have an American side with grills, flat tops, Combis (commercial ovens), and we have a full-on prep kitchen,” Brandon Poon said. “This way, I can actually run five individual restaurant concepts in one space and have complete control (of the production and quality of food).”
Walk inside the cheerfully decorated food hall and order breakfast, lunch or dinner from one of two self-serve kiosks before picking up the order near the barista station. Dine in at any available table and grab water, plastic utensils and napkins from a self-service counter below a colorful floral mural painted by New York artist Steffi Lynn Tsai.
“Kurated (Kitchens) is basically 20 plus years of our family’s Bay Area restaurant experience all under one house,” said co-owner Craighton Poon.
The Poon family is behind Express 7, a Chinese restaurant in Mountain View open from 1999 to 2015, and the Mr. Chau’s restaurant chain, which formerly had multiple locations across the Bay Area and now has one remaining location in San Jose.
Of the three brothers, Brandon was the only sibling to pursue a culinary degree, graduating from The Art Institute of California in Sunnyvale before cooking at Madera in Menlo Park, The Cheesecake Factory in Santa Clara and Oracle Park in San Francisco. In 2014, he opened his first restaurant Buffalo in Mountain View with the help of his younger brother Craighton Poon, who was a senior at San Jose State University studying mechanical engineering. Buffalo, which specialized in Kobe burgers, beer and bao buns, permanently closed two years later.
Buffalo is making a comeback under Kurated Kitchens as Revival State Burgers and its menu will be the same in essence as its predecessor, Brandon Poon said. The new concept focuses on smash burgers instead of Kobe burgers, has a more streamlined menu and doesn’t offer craft beers.
“It’s still similar recipes, but we’re just going to bring it up to date just because my first burger restaurant was a passion project straight out of culinary school,” he said.
Find four types of burgers ($6.95-$12.95), including The 220, which is made with a double smash patty, smoked bacon, grilled onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, fried egg, cheddar cheese and sriracha aioli on a brioche bun, as well as regular and garlic fries ($3.75-$4.50).
The 220 burger with smoked bacon, grilled onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, cheddar cheese, fried egg and sriracha aioli ($12.95) from Revival State Burgers (a reincarnation of former downtown Mountain View bar and restaurant Buffalo) at Kurated Kitchens in Sunnyvale. Courtesy Kurated Kitchens. 
The OG burger with lettuce, tomato, onions, cheddar cheese and garlic aioli ($8.95) from Revival State Burgers (a reincarnation of former downtown Mountain View bar and restaurant Buffalo) at Kurated Kitchens in Sunnyvale. Courtesy Kurated Kitchens.
In 2015, the Poon family closed Express 7 and replaced it with Srasa Kitchen, a build-your-own bowl concept with flavors from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. A year later, the Poon family replaced Buffalo with the second location of Srasa, which lasted for just one year before closing. The original Srasa location closed in 2020, citing pandemic difficulties. Srasa is getting another chance as one of the five concepts at Kurated Kitchens.
“Srasa is all the same recipes,” Brandon Poon said. “What’s great is that we’ve actually had a lot of old Srasa customers somehow find out that we’re here…It’s really nice to see some old faces.”
Choose a base of jasmine rice, brown rice, cold noodles or spring mix, add a protein like grilled chicken or tofu (roasted pork belly or poached shrimp are an additional cost), bulk it up with vegetables and other toppings and finish the bowl with a selection of curry sauces, soy ginger sauce or housemade fish sauce.
The Poon family is also behind Thai-inspired chicken shop Roost & Roast in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village. Opened in 2021, the restaurant still operates today with an expanded menu featuring chicken prepared in multiple Asian styles. Roost & Roast now has a second location at Kurated Kitchens. Find rice and salad bowls ($16.95) with gai yang barbecue chicken, grilled lemongrass chicken, Thai popcorn chicken and hat yai fried chicken. Vegetarian options include rice and salad bowls with roasted cauliflower and fried tofu (both $16.95).
Two new concepts are debuting at Kurated Kitchens: Hangry Sons, serving Asian American comfort food, and The 808 Drip, featuring Hawaiian-inspired coffee and boba.
Hangry Sons is inspired by Brandon’s 4- and 5-year-old sons, who are featured in the brand’s logo.
“I wanted to cook food that they would eat, like stuff that represents their generation, and also the food that me and my bros grew up eating,” Brandon Poon said.
While the menu is still under development, it will be inspired by Express 7.
“I like to think of it as an homage to our parents’ restaurant,” Craighton Poon said. “That’s what we grew up eating and working at, and now it’s our chance to bring it back and pay respect to it.”
The 808 Drip is a concept spearheaded by Craighton Poon, whose interest in coffee began in high school when his dad brought home an espresso machine.
“Me and my brothers and my friend would try to make espresso as high school kids,” Craighton Poon said. “We were not good at it (at the time)…I still have that machine at my house. I refurbished it and everything. So that’s where I started practicing again.”
The 808 Drip offers specialty Asian-inspired beverages made with San Francisco-based Four Barrel Coffee beans, including lattes with flavors like black sesame, coconut ube and dirty matcha ($6.50-$7.50). Non-coffee drinks include a variety of matcha beverages and boba teas ($6-$6.75).
Coconut ube latte made with Four Barrel’s Friendo Blendo espresso, milk, housemade ube syrup and coconut cream ($7) from The 808 Drip at Kurated Kitchens in Sunnyvale. Courtesy Kurated Kitchens. 
Strawberry matcha latte ($6.50) from The 808 Drip at Kurated Kitchens in Sunnyvale. Courtesy Kurated Kitchens.
In addition to having the opportunity to test out multiple concepts, the Poon brothers are excited to have the ability to meet and interact with customers face-to-face.
“We don’t have the opportunity at Roost and Roast (in Palo Alto), that’s takeout only, to talk to customers and have the space to get to know people,” Brandon Poon said. “(We) wanted to create a nice space for this community where they can come in, grab coffee, grab a small bite to eat, in a more casual, inviting setting that you don’t have to make plans for.”
Kurated Kitchens isn’t the only new project the Poon brothers are working on – they’re planning to unveil a whole new concept in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village.
Kurated Kitchens, 155 E Maude Ave., Sunnyvale; 408-430-3450, Instagram: @kuratedkitchens, @the808drip, @roostandroast, @revivalstateburgers, @hangrysons. Open Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Dig into food news. Follow the Peninsula Foodist on Instagram and subscribe to the newsletter to get insights on the latest openings and closings, learn what the Foodist is excited about eating, read exclusive interviews and keep up on the trends affecting local restaurants.
